Chase customer retention strategy: don’t let people close their accounts

From a reader:

Is anybody else encountering the AGGRESSIVE Chase account managers who will not let them close their bank account? Holy crap, today I will be going to a branch for the THIRD time in an attempt to close. I have never bounced a check or managed the account badly. Now I want to close before the fees hit. (I already opened a new FREE biz acct with US Bank)

Chase literally will not let me go. They want to get all personal, asking all kinds of questions which now, I’m just stubborn, I’m not answering. Yesterday I cleaned out all the money. I had to stand in the freaking line forever because you can’t get 116.57 from an ATM. Then I have to see an account manager who puts me through the wringer, “Are you suuurrrre you don’t have anything pending?” and then tells me they have a policy that I can’t close an account on a day when there’s been activity. Because I cleaned my money out, I couldn’t close the freaking thing.

Before, I was fine about Chase. Maybe one day I might’ve come back. But now? I resent them. I’ll never do business there again. Wish me luck today, hopefully three times a charm in offloading Chase.

Chase doesn’t like red ink

Wow, was my first reaction to this this story. Can Chase really be THIS screwed up and insensitive to their customers?  You would think that closing someones account and accusing them of fraud would at least require a review by a real person of the circumstances involved and perhaps even some contact with the customer.

My husband and I (Berkeley residents) were recently treated terribly by Chase Bank, as I briefly describe below. I think that this story is of interest to many of your readers because Chase is a new bank in California. We, along with thousands of other Californians, had our Washington Mutual accounts become Chase accounts after the buy-out. I’ve heard many stories of people being mistreated by Chase, whereas Washington Mutual was known for their customer service — my husband, a Seattle native, had his Washington Mutual account since he was a child.

My husband Ethan’s grandma wrote us each a check for $100 for Christmas. She is going blind and she could only find a red pen to write the checks. My husband went to deposit these checks at our local Chase branch ATM last Tuesday (12/28/10). Apparently the red ink did not show up well on the scan that the ATM took of the check, so Ethan had to manually enter the amount of the checks. We went out of town for New Years, returning on Sunday (1/2/11). On Monday, I went to pay our mortgage (held by a different bank) online and realized that neither of our paychecks were direct deposited in our account, so we didn’t have the funds to pay. I called Chase and was told that the direct deposits had been refused because our account was “restricted,” had been closed by Chase due to “fraud,” and there was absolutely nothing we could do about it. They said that they would send us the funds remaining in our account in 10 days. I then went to my local branch in downtown Oakland and spoke to the branch manager who was sympathetic, made some phone calls, but could do nothing about the situation since Chase had already decided to close the account. She confirmed that the “fraud” concerned the checks from Ethan’s grandma which they said were “blank’. Clearly no human every looked at the checks, as they were decidedly not blank. They made no effort to find out what had happened, instead just immediately closed our account.

The letter informing us that our account was closed arrived only today (Monday 1/3/11). Meanwhile, not knowing our account was closed, we sent a check for our car registration to the DMV last week and gave our day care a check today. Per Chase’s (unconscionable, I think) Account Agreement, they will not honor these checks, likely resulting in many fees, which they are not liable for according to this “agreement”. Not to mention, we have no bank account, do not have access to the funds from our paychecks, and cannot pay our mortgage or other bills. We might have fraud reported to credit agencies and our credit will likely suffer because we will inevitably be late on some payments since we have no funds or bank account. All because no one at Chase bothered to actually look at the checks from Ethan’s grandma, showing the ultimate disrespect to their customers and causing us completely unwarranted and unnecessary hardship.

Update:  This story was picked up by the San Francisco Chronicle (Chase misses checks’ red ink, closes bank account, 1/7/11).  And it looks like all the media attention has gotten the couple results, as Chase has reopened their checking account.  No word if they received an apology from Chase.

Post # 1000 Chase confiscates Ponzi scheme money

Signing off with our last post for 2010, which happens to be our 1000th post as well, is a really slimy JP Morgan Chase story that does a good job at illustrating how Chase looks out for itself first.

In the earlier part of this decade, a Ponzi schemer named Tom Petters was busy scamming people out of almost 4 billion dollars.  At the time, JPMorgan Chase’s own in-house hedge fund owned the Polaroid company and they cut a deal to sell it to Petters for almost $500 million.

JPMorgan Chase is now being sued by the trustee for the Ponzi scheme victims for $300 million and is accused of knowing the purchase was with money that was il-derived, but proceeding anyways so they could profit from it.

But the really bad part is that JPMorgan Chase is also accused of confiscating money that Petters had in the banks accounts just days AFTER HIS ARREST:

“This was JPMorgan trying to step ahead of the Ponzi scheme’s victims and creditors to the tune of $20 million bucks,”

In essence, Chase saw the writing on the wall and grabbed whatever it could to satisfy it’s own claims, regardless of whether they were entitled to it or any claims others might have had on it.

Chase’s philosophy must be that possession is 9/10 of the law.

Well now they are getting sued over it.  Good.

And happy new year!

Why you should be upset about losing free checking

Chase’s move to start charging former customers of Washington Mutual’s free checking accounts a monthly fee seems to be garnering quite a bit of media coverage, like this latest article.  All the media coverage and grumblings of Chase customers would lead one to believe this isn’t a very well-received change.

On the other hand, some argue that customers are just wining and shouldn’t expect all these freebies anyways.  It costs money to offer a service like checking accounts and customers should be prepared to pay for it.

So who’s right?

Yes, banks are a business and as such it is perfectly reasonable to charge for services, like checking accounts.   But the assumption that free checking isn’t a viable business model is simply incorrect.  It took me exactly thirty seconds to find a credit union near me that offers a totally free checking account:

At Menlo Survey Federal Credit Union, you pay no monthly service charge for your checking account and have no minimum balance requirement. Because Direct Deposit provides convenience for you and increases efficiency for the Credit Union, you first order of checks will be free if you sign up for Direct Deposit of your net pay.

Get it, the checking is free regardless of direct deposits or balance.  Signing up for direct deposit gets you an ADDITIONAL benefit of free checks.

Chase, on the other hand, has opted to create some truly obtuse rules for qualifying for free checking that almost  seem to be specifically crafted to piss people off; it’s almost as if they are specifically trying to demonstrate they simply don’t care about the customer.

But the real reason free checking is a very reasonable demand is that the banks, especially the big ones, really really need their customers.

You see, depositors are providing something a bank like Chase desperately needs, capital, and bank deposits are some of the best capital a bank like Chase can get, because it costs them very little almost nothing.  On the opposite end of the customer who has very little money in their checking account, is the customer that maintains a sizable balance and gets virtually nothing for it.  For instance, at current interest rates, maintaining a balance of $20,000 will earn you less than one dollar in interest per month.  Their rates are so embarrassingly low, it is almost impossible to find them anywhere on Chase’s website.

By charging you a fee when your balance is too low, Chase is basically telling you it wants to double dip; they get to use your money for almost nothing when you have a high balance, and zap you with a fee when you don’t.

Remember, there ARE options out there in the form of credit unions and small banks that offer free checking and good customer service.

Seriously people, time to stop grumbling and find a better bank.

Chase doesn’t want to help homeowner get current

Wow.  Here’s a homeowner who just wants a simple letter from Chase so they can move to get their mortgage current again.  Weeks of trying and the best excuse Chase can come up with is that they don’t have a single fax machine sitting around.  This might be one of the clearest examples yet of Chase intending to drive someone into foreclosure.

I have been trying for weeks just to get a 401k letter from these people. Every time I talk to collections, they tell me that they have mailed a new one, but then 10days goes by and nothing. Today I finally got tired of this. I talked to Customer Service to see if they could fax me a letter, but they are not able to access the 401k letters so they sent me to collections for help. HA!!

I spoke to “supposed” supervisor Angel in the collections department and he told me that they have no capability to fax in his entire office. When I asked for his manager he told me that he was the manager of the entire building. A building which apparently doesn’t have a fax machine. After repeated attempts to get some thing anything on paper he said the best he could do was mail me a letter. (Like the last three letters that I haven’t received I suspect.) Then he said he would transfer me to customer service and some how I got hung up on. (Who knew?)

This is crazy, are these people just trying to wait me out and foreclose. I am only 3 months behind, but if they would give me the letter I can get caught up and should be able to keep up from here. This is driving me crazy, these idiots seem to be able to get people to my house to drive by and take pictures but they can’t get me a stupid piece of paper that gets them paid.

What am I supposed to do?

Chase loan mod process still screwy, unchanged

Many times over the last year lawmakers and attorneys general, and even the White House have talked about how screwed up and unsuccessful the loan modification process has been, but that doesn’t seem to have changed Chase’s convoluted approach, if this story is any indication.

I have been experiencing all of the same frustrating experiences as many of your bloggers for the past 18 months. The long and the short of it is that, after over a year of providing multiple packets of requested documentation (at least 10 different times because either they never received what I sent, or because it took them so long to finally look at what I sent them that they needed updated docs, only to repeat the same delays and request for updated docs again), and while making agreed to reduced payments under a forbearance agreement, on July 16, 2010, I finally received a verbal approval over the telephone of a modification, approved on July 14, 2010.. ( I have the names of the 2 individuals I received this info from, and their phone numbers and extensions. Its my guess however that either they no longer work for chase and/or most likely their numbers and extensions have changed many times since then). I was told the exact terms of the modification and when the new payments would begin (Sept 1, 2010). I was told I would receive the packet in 7-10 days. After many calls requesting the modification package during the next 30 days, I still had not received it. Yet I was told in every instance of calling inquiring about the where abouts of the packet, that my file shows that iI had been approved on July 14, 2010 and the docs were coming.

As a homebuilder in Dallas, my business at this point has been relegated to remodeling and my income significantly reduced. I had foreclosures last year, and resulting deficiencies against me for a couple of houses I had built and couldnt sell for what I owed. I was forced into bankruptcy before ever receiving the modification package (which I never did actually receive) and chase then pulled the modification. I re-affirmed my mortgage with chase and have communicated to them that I am still ready, willing and able to commence payments in accordance to the terms of the modification that I was approved for. I have since been contacted by an attorney for chase (initially, 3 months ago, out of Houston), inquiring of my intentions. I have told her the story and that I still was willing to go with the mod terms. She said she would get with chase and just get this mod done.. Nothing has been accomplished since. Most of my calls and emails to her have gone unanswered and when I have been able to reach her, her response has always been that she has not heard back from chase. So, for over 3 months, an attorneys client has not responded to their lawyer regarding resolving a legal matter.

Chase contractor breaks into home and steals posessions

In Florida, contractors working for Chase Bank used a screwdriver to enter Debra Fischer’s house in Punta Gorda and helped themselves to a laptop, an iPod, a cordless drill, six bottles of wine and a frosty beer, left half-empty on the counter, according to assertions in a lawsuit filed in August. Ms. Fisher was facing foreclosure, but Chase had not yet obtained a court order, her lawyer says. 

Read more …

Is Chase the Grinch?

You just can’t make this stuff up!