How can I fight a credit card company? (1 Viewer)

[Don Black]

To not make this post 10 pages long, I'll just say that a long-running dispute I've had with Chase has gotten to the point where I would like to take my complaint to the next level (lawsuit/arbitration, etc.).

This is a dispute purely over a couple hundred dollars in improper finance charges. I have documented 10 people at Chase that have repeatedly screwed up my account and no one at the company seems to have an ounce of competence.

This being said, I know I can't just sue them in my local small claims court. I've heard that there are various national consumer groups out there that can help.

Does anyone have any suggestions? Thanks everyone.

 

[Ryan Wright]

Man, I wish I could help you.

We had an account with Chase for ONE MONTH. There was a problem with a balance transfer check... They issued it, but took several weeks to actually mail it, then charged us for it from day 1 even though we didn't have access to the money, and finally didn't send us a bill the first month.

So we get a bill the next month and there is a $35 some odd dollar late charge for the previous month as well as two month's worth of interest on money we only received two weeks earlier. They refused to credit the late charge, refused to credit the interest, in general were complete assholes about it. So we paid off the account immediately and closed it. Never again.

Hope things work out for you.

 

[Don Black]

Holy crap. I just checked my account online and they just refunded me all of the finance charges they billed. Man, this forum really does get results.

 

[Jeff Peake]

Don:

I made a couple of phone calls

Jeff

 

[Don Black]

To excellent results even!

 

[Fredster]

We live just outside Trenton NJ which was anthrax central around the holidays in 2001. Much of our incoming and outgoing mail was significantly delayed during a 2-3 month period. Many bills, of course, didn't get paid on time. Not our fault really.

Citibank was the one and only unforgiving creditor. They late charged us, then when we paid (online I think since who knew when the mail would go) and canceled payment for those "lost" checks, they assessed penalties for the bank returns when those checks finally did arrive. No amount of calls, letters, complaints ever did any good. We just closed the account. Unfortunately we had done a lot of holiday shopping with their card so we ended up paying more than we would at another time of the year. We never carry a balance, we always pay in full.

All of the others, other credit cards, local utilities, mortgage, etc were more than understanding, waving late fees and such. Citibank just didn't care. I really hate the bastards.

 

[Don Black]

That's really lame. Criminal even. I believe it's illegal for a company to gouge their customers during a major crisis (e.g., no spikes in gas prices).

Unfortuantely, if it's less than $100 or so, I would just pay it off and close the account. It's not worth your time. Over $100 is a different story... That's why I fought my dispute to the bitter end (MANY hours wasted on the phone/writing letters).

 

[JohnRice]

Don, I have experience with Chase and I am absolutely floored they credited you. I have never known of a more incompetent, greedy and ruthless company.

My suggestion. Get rid of the Chase card and never do business with them again.

 

[Don Black]

Believe me John, my account with them is closed. I was equally floored. However, I think the fact that I had the names, dates, specific times, and employee ID numbers of the ten people that I spoke to, helped sway their decision. I've now resorted to taping my phone calls anytime I deal with a serious issue involving a credit card company. Wire tap laws aren't applicable since their terms of service always include telephone monitoring. Why not use it in our favor?

 

[JohnRice]

Here's my experience with Chase. I'd had a Chase card for probably 15 years. I always made my payments on time, and until recently, after a job change, paid the entire balance every month. During most of that time I'd had a corporate job that involved a lot of traveling, expense account, etc. I had put well over $250,000 on that stinking card. One day I got this cryptic letter saying something about all holders in my card program being reverted to the standard interest rate unless we responded within 30 days saying we didn't want to be. I responded and basically forgot about it. A couple months later my interest rate went from 9.99% to 25%, Needless to say, I threw a fit. Six months after I sent it, I got a response saying they had received my letter and would be reviewing my request. Three months after that I got a response saying they could not stop the rate change because the time limit had expired.

I will never do business with Chase again.