First of all let me state I am not an economic or financial expert in any way, shape, or form. With that said, I do my best to be fiscally responsible and pay my bills on time each month, often paying more than is due.
This leads me to my rant regarding the recent takeover of Washington Mutual (WaMu) by Chase. Due to this takeover, Chase raised the APR of my credit account from 14.99% to 25.99% (28.99% effective) which I have never been late on, always paid more than the minimum, and often paid twice per month. Now, if I am a customer in good standing, I can only imagine the changes for those who have not been fortunate enough to maintain their accounts. By the way, did I mention this APR increase was done without any ample notification?
The first I became aware of the APR increase was when I received my most recent billing statement along with a separate letter stating the various changes due to the takeover. Not only am I extremely disappointed with the lack of notification before the increase, but one has to wonder how this type of increase makes financial sense? It seems to me that raising the APR is counter-intuitive when so many people are now in dire financial straits due to the current economy and of course their own spending habits. Will raising the APR on credit accounts result in more accounts defaulting and hence the bank continuing to fail?
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I am glad to see someone post on this issue. I am very tempted to default and walk away. I can get rid of my phone so they can’t call… and letters I can ignore… and they can have my first born! I think we need to post as much as we can and get a ground swell going so perhaps the government will step in and stop them from setting so many up for failure. It’s hard enough to keep up right now. We don’t need the credit card lenders to behave like the preditory mortgage lenders!
I was quite surprised by the rate change, also. Not only do I pay more than the minimum on my credit card, I pay the entire balance on the card (sometimes getting frustrated that I need to wait another three days to make a payment; I obsess). It seems that Chase should have offered WaMu customers some sort of option for their credit switch; the Flexible Rewards card offers very little to me, and I actually ended up opening an Amazon.com Visa account (also with Chase, much to my chagrin) to use in place of it.
I have no idea how the credit networks work with their respective banks and sponsoring companies, and I have no interest in learning at the moment; however, it seems that Chase could have offered me a choice of card options.
I was also unhappy when my Amazon card disappeared from my online account the other day; according to the final (of four) customer reps I talked to, the account had been removed from the online profile after it was “suspended to verify that I was in possession of my card because it was new.” I received no notification that the card was suspended, and I had used the card the previous day– when it had already vanished from my online account.
Because I buy so many things from Amazon, the new card makes sense in terms of rewards (and has a much lower interest rate than the ridiculous ex-WaMu card), but Chase certainly hasn’t won any points with me.