Complaint Review: Circuit City - Chase

The issue is not whether the person reporting the problem with Circuit City pays his/her bills on time. Based on what the original report said, the bills are being paid on time. The issue here is, for people who pay Circuit City credit card bills on line, Chase changed their policy AFTER the statements had been sent out in January, so no notice was given on the statement of a change in policy. It was only when you logged on to pay the bill that, if it was within 5 days of the due date, you were informed that you would automatically be charged $14.95 for rush payment. There was no option to not choose rush payment.

Chase has, for a couple of years, charged $14.95 to make a payment by phone. It's exorbitant compared to what other companies charge, but since most companies prefer on-line payments rather than phoned or mailed payments, it's understandable that they charge a fee. With on-line payments, the company quickly gets their money, no fear of bounced checks, and little employee time to process. However, Chase is within its rights, I suppose, to charge for making payments on-line. HOWEVER, the complaint is not that they are charging, but that they gave no notice of this change. So people who paid on-line in January were not told about this change coming on 1/26/06. In January, if you logged on to pay your bill on-line the day it was due, there was no fee to do so as long as it was made by a certain time of day. In February, someone doing exactly that same thing that they did in January was suddenly hit with a $14.95 fee.

I spoke to Chase about this since it also happened to me, and I was told by a representative named Jenn that they "can change the card anytime we want to without telling consumers". I spoke to Stephanie, Jenn's supervisor, after that and was told the same thing and that I had no option at that point other than to pay the $14.95 rush fee. If it were my fault that I was late, which I was not, I would understand a late fee. I also have had payment delayed in the mail, etc. The problem here is that the payment was not delayed, I could have made the payment on the due date the previous month with no rush fee, and I was not told in advance that, if I did not pay early, I would be charged a rush fee. On-line payments are transmitted pretty much instantaneously - how much more of a rush can there be?

As an illustration to this, the one option that did not incur a rush fee was to pay the account in full. Now, this was one of Circuit City's special "no interest until 2008" deals, but obviously it is to Chase's benefit to get people to pay in full since they aren't going to get any interest until 2008 and then only if the customer doesn't pay the charge in full. I paid off the entire amount due on the tv I had purchased on the due date for my minimum payment. I did so on-line at about 10 pm that night. Guess what - no rush fee if you paid in full, and even though it was 10 pm EST, the same time as Chase's DE processing center, the payment was recorded on my account, which now shows a 0 balance.

If your response to this is to tell me, as some of you did the original reported, that I am stupid or don't pay my bills, I have tried to be polite in this response at the same time that I have tried to point out what a rip-off Chase Bank is. I would have never purchased the tv under the special promotion and possibly not from Circuit City at all had I realized that it was being done through Chase Bank. They have a terrible reputation for ripping off consumers and not caring about customer service. I have closed accounts with First USA and Bank1 because they were purchased by Chase, and I will not deal with them. I'm sure they don't care since I pay off credit card bills in full each month, so they aren't making money on me (except if they can stick me with their $14.95 charges), but I refuse to deal with them.

Certainly people, especially those not entirely comfortable with on-line transactions, might choose to mail in payments (why a cashier's check instead of a personal check, by the way?), but what if Chase decided that, if they did not receive your check in the mail at least 5 days prior to the due date, you would be charged this $14.95 rush fee? If you mailed your check from Texas or Hawaii 10 days prior to the due date, would you guarantee that it would be received in Wilmington, DE, 5 days before it was due? I have relatives in both those states, I live 1 hr. north of Wilmington, DE, in the hub city that Wilmington mail passes through, and I would not trust that I would receive mail from one of my Dallas or Honolulu relatives within 5 days. I can also tell you I have mailed payments at the main Wilmington post office in the past and have noticed that it still takes several days before the payment is posted, so once again, I would not trust that a 10-day margin would get the payment there 5 days before it was due. If I knew I would be charged $14.95, then I could mail it 15 days before, but if I didn't know ahead of time, I'd have no reason to change my usual routine. That is the complaint here. I said I was being polite, so I won't say anything more about the general nastiness in the respondents' comments, but simply say that Chase is not a good company to deal with and I would suggest that consumers beware of them. Since Circuit City is now using Chase for their interest free promotions, that means that I will not be shopping at Circuit City any longer. By the way, I have an MBA, so I do understand some of the motivations behind business decisions, and I still say that Chase is not a company that most consumers want to deal with.

"Who rips open their statement the day they get it in the mail"? People who pay their bills on time. That's who. The day a bill comes, I open it up to inspect it, then write a due date of about 10 days BEFORE it's due and the amount due on the front of the envelope. Then I mail it on that date. 37 cents is a whole lot cheaper then $14.95.

There IS a grace period of 20 to 25 days. You know appoximately when the bill's due each month, give or take a day or two. If you can't remember it, that's your problem. I pay by mail. In 12 years, it took ONE payment, 11 days to get to the company. Following month they added on a late fee. I called 'em up and asked 'em; 1) How many times have I been late. They said never. 2) What was the date on the cashier's check? They said 10 days prior to the due date. They gladly refunded the late fee. You talked about paying online. My wife pays most of the common bills online. She has it set up on the computer to pay certain bills on the same date each month.

Other bills she enters into the computer, when they arrive(she opens them up when they arrive too) and enters them into the computer so the computer reminds her to pay them on a certain date. Many, almost all companies are going to that $14.95 crap. It's $174.96 cheaper per year to pay by mail. Judging by your post and $5 minimum payment, I can understand cash management isn't your forte.

And pay them prior to even getting your statement. If they ahve an online bill payment system, why aren't you logging on around the same time each month to check on your account?

Who opens their mail and pays the same day? thousands of americans do.

I know that "XX" companies bill is due around XX day of the month (give a day or two because of varying days in a month) but its usually around the same day each month. I know that in order to make payment, I check online a week before to submit a payment; or schedule and automatic deduction for the next day.

Statements can get lost in the mail; or be dalayed. NO excuse for you to not be on top of your account and make payments when they are due.

What excuse are you going to give now?