You know it isn’t a statement because it isn’t thick with ads and miscellaneous sheets of paper. You suspect it’s notifying you of change that is most likely unfavorable (to you). In the last year, I have received many of these from Chase Bank, beginning with the jacked up interest rate and continuing to the decrease in limit to the “Congratulations! We’re now closing your account loser!”

Well, even though Chase Bank and I have made up, I was still afraid that somehow the mail had brought me bad news. Like maybe another credit card was going to rape me. Or maybe Chase Bank changed their mind about the hardship plan I had set up with them.

Fortunately, the letter began with “We have good news for you!” So I have to thank Chase Bank for reversing the heart attack that the envelope had initially inspired. In their words:

…Your recent payments have qualified your credit card account for our Reage Program and it’s no longer past due. As long as you pay the minimum due each month on your current balance, you will enjoy these benefits:

• no late fees;
• updated credit record to reflect your account is in good standing; and
• no collection calls…

First of all, whoever wrote that form letter was pretty much a genius. The way that it is worded kind of made me wonder if I had actually won something.

So What is the Reage Program?

Since I was pretty sure I hadn’t won anything, (they love me and we made up, but we didn’t actually get married) I decided to go forth and figure out what exactly the good news is about Chase Bank’s Reage Program.

First of all there is a difference between a reaged program like the one with Chase Bank, and the other, which is when people refer to collection agencies “reaging” an account to change the initial delinquency date so the statute of limitations on collection doesn’t run out. If a collection agency does this, it is a violation of the Fair Credit Reporting Act and should be handled completely differently (for starters, congratulations wouldn’t be nearly as appropriate a greeting).

The Reage Program with Chase Bank (or any other credit card company) however, simply means that they will remove the negative history and give you a clean entry on the credit report. In most instances, the account will be removed from the “adverse account” list and noted as “closed by consumer” which of course is better than “closed by credit grantor”. Unfortunately, it will not wipe off any previous late payments, but who can expect that? If your payment was late it was late.

So, it may actually seem like a minor change to an account that I’ve been tussling with for the last year, but it’s good to know it’s being resolved, and in not such a negative manner.

I will check my credit reports next month and let you know exactly how everything turned out.

On another note, regarding the dental bill I was bracing myself for, I did find out that my daughter’s medical insurance includes dental which will cover a lot of the expenses. I use the term “a lot” even though I have no clue, but going from anticipating full payment from my pocket, to whatever the insurance pays, to me is a lot. I couldn’t be more grateful.

“Around here, however, we don’t look backwards for very long. We keep moving forward, opening up new doors and doing new things… and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.”
–Walt Disney

Have a great weekend, everyone!

I know things haven’t been right with us, especially after I wrote the blog post claiming I was being raped by credit card. Our relationship has resembled a crappy high school relationship in a lot of ways. You don’t like listening so I doubt you’ll get it. Well, after a long, more stressful than a boyfriend relationship, Chase Bank, you and I are friends again…kind of.

So here’s how I think it happened and granted this is through the eyes of a disgruntled cardholder. I knew we were done when I began rejecting your phone calls. It’s not like I enjoy hitting the “reject” button everytime one of your representatives calls me. I did it for your own safety, because I honestly felt like talking to one more person would result in a headline similar to “Girl Chokes Someone at Chase Bank”. I mean, when I was with Washington Mutual before you, I was the most loyal cardholder on earth. It seems that when everything changed to Chase Bank all hell broke loose. Why would you raise my interest rate to 28%? If you were resentful of my previous relationship with Washington Mutual you should’ve said something.

Then, to make matters worse, you canceled my card. Fine. I didn’t want to tell you, but because of my journey to becoming financially intelligent, I stopped using it and was planning on leaving you one day anyway. Everyone, and I mean everyone suggested that I call and work something out, (ie beg you to come back), and I did. After all, you’ve always been cool with Mom and Dad. So, I called to ask that you drop the interest rate. I called to see if there was anything I could do to fix what had happened.

Nothing.

In the meantime, you raised my monthly payments to around $170.00 which I could not pay. What kind of unfriendly crap is that? So after you kick me you want to punch me too? I don’t know if you know, but Chase Bank, I’m a girl. You’re not supposed to punch and kick girls. For years I had these cards and paid them on time. I did nothing wrong in this relationship to deserve anything you did to me.
Yet, I still hoped for the best and decided to try one…more…time.

Since I couldn’t make my payments, I continued to pay what I could every month. This was causing all kinds of additional fees which meant the total I was past due all of a sudden was around $700. After praying and rehearsing my get back together speech, I called you, dear Chase again.

“Is there any way I can get this taken care of with suitable payments?” I begged in my nicest voice. And you know me, I’m not always nice to your representatives.

“No, now you have to pay the past due amount of $700 in a month or we can’t work with you,” said the Wicked Witch of Chase Bank.

“What? I can’t pay $700. That’s insane? Are you stupid? (Okay, I didn’t ask if she was stupid. Honest, and if she said I did she’s lying.)

“Nope. As long as that past due amount is there we can’t help you,” she growled. What’s that all about?

With my heart broken in two, I told the Wicked Witch of Chase Bank “Thank you, I’ll see what I can do” and hung up the phone knowing I was lying out of my clenched teeth. I didn’t mean to lie, but geez what do you expect? To be fair, you did tell me once that I needed that wrinkle cream and I didn’t, so we’re even. Not to mention you were dishonest in multiple other ways.

I still continued to pay what I could pay. After all, you’d kicked me, punched me and spit in my face. What else could you do? Cancel my card? Hahaha…you already did, remember? And I suspect you didn’t want to turn my account over to collections because…don’t you lose money if you do that?

Anyway, fast forward two months. When I received the call from the Chase Bank representative I was a bit shocked, first of all because I thought I blocked your stinking numbers, all 4 of those strange numbers I never recognized. I must’ve been tired because my finger wasn’t so quick on the “reject” button but alas, I’m glad I took the call. Your rep asked me what the problem was. I was like “Duh, ask Mr. Big. I just called two months ago about this,” but I still repeated everything I anyway…just because you know I like hearing myself talk. Well, surprise, Chase Bank, the representative must’ve liked my new $6 haircut .

“You might qualify for an exception,” said the Good Witch of Chase Bank.

“Sure,” I replied, waiting for her to request a million bazillion dollars or something else ridiculous.

To make a long story short, I did qualify for the exception. My payments were lowered to an amount even lower than when we first began dating and my interest was lowered to 6%- a ridiculously low rate for a person in my situation and way lower than any rate I’ve had since I had the cards. Either you’re drunk or your rep doesn’t like you either.

Some will say I should’ve just let the account go to collections and let the statute of limitations run out and whatever other ways there are to not pay a bill. I’m not sneaky like you though. My intention has always been to pay the bill, I was just begging for someone to help me out with a suitable arrangement. I am nervous that this deal will somehow hurt me in the long run and I’ll regret getting so damn happy about it–and I mean practically dancing on my desk happy. Still, for now I choose to be satisfied. My bill with Chase Bank can now be paid with payments I can afford. That’s all I ever wanted. I’m still not elated about being forced into this friendship with you for as long as the cows come home (or whatever that saying is about the cows that means practically the rest of my life.) It’s nice to at least have the option now to make double payments so I can ditch your ass sooner.

My dad joked that afterwards you’ll probably offer me another card. I want to say you can kiss my you know what. I forgive but I don’t forget.

You will regret treating me badly.

You will miss me. I could’ve been the best credit cardholder you ever had. Okay, that’s probably stretching it.

Thanks for the memories and thanks for making up with me.

Sincerely (and I mean that),

Miss Bankrupt

I started reading through the complaints here but stopped at the second page as it was all sounding exactly the same. I knew the credit line decrease, interest rate increase and sudden cancellation of the Chase credit cards was happening to a lot of people, but had no idea how many.

My first observation, of course, was that everyone is stating that they always followed the terms and had high credit scores. Is this possible? Yes, I suppose it could happen. Likely? Probably not. Very few people will admit that the changes were deserved.

As someone that did follow the rules and have been really trying to repair their credit, it’s still not much of a comfort to know that it’s happening to everyone, even people in better situations than mine. I don’t know their circumstances, all I know is that my credit was in the toilet, I worked hard to fix it and now it’s back in the toilet. (Not entirely the fault of Chase Bank, I’ll admit.)

Many people are yelling for lawsuits and ways for cardholders to somehow enforce some kind of vengeance on Chase Bank, but unfortunately, credit card companies and banks can basically do what they want. It’s in the terms. No one reads that stuff. And if they do, they don’t think it’ll happen to them.

In all fairness to Chase (do they deserve fairness from me?), the people that adore their Chase cards and are perfectly satisfied aren’t commenting on these websites or forming “We Love Chase Bank” coalitions and I’m sure there are many who are deliriously happy with their cards.

My only suggestion is to watch your statements, make sure you read everything that comes in the mail and be on the lookout. As an extra note, Chase Bank owns store cards like Best Buy and Home Depot, so watch those as well. Most people in better situations than myself are able to cancel and transfer when the terms start getting wonky.

Lawsuit? Doubtful. I also don’t want to whine about something I shouldn’t have allowed to happen. Sometimes the lesson learned is worth way more than money. (Although I’d gladly accept it.)

Here are their reasons for canceling the cards (2 credit cards/2 letters):

Total available credit on bankcards is too low. (Really? They were fine before Chase dropped my credit limit.)

One or more accounts have high balances compared to credit limits. (They dropped the limits on both cards.)

Too many active bankcard accounts. (I concur. I do.)

My favorite part of the letter, “You may make at least the minimum monthly payment until the balance is paid in full or you may elect to pay the entire balance.” Gee, that’s nice. The third choice could’ve been “You may also be stung by a million wasps every day for the rest of your life,” and I would’ve picked it.

Okay. Maybe not.

I’m assuming interest will still accrue per the “currents terms and conditions,” and I’m also assuming that it doesn’t help your credit to have two credit cards cancelled.

I need to go research. If the number one reason for people randomly yanking out huge handfuls of hair is not because of Chase Bank…I’ll eat my hat.

This is the initial post regarding the credit cards which defends my use of the word “rape”. I also want to mention that it seems I’m taking the issue with Chase Bank lightly, but if I wrote what I really wanted to say, it would just be a bunch of cuss words.