Robert Green, of Green Welling LLP, contacted me several days ago to let me know that his firm was in the midst of filing another class action lawsuit against Chase. After speaking with him on the phone, I agreed to do all that I could to assist relative to posting information on this site, as soon as it became available to me.
This suit has now indeed been filed in Oregon, with co-counsel, Stoll Stoll Berne Lokting & Shlachter PC. I also have a copy of the actual lawsuit:
Quoting from the complaint, the following excerpts specify the nature of the case (and with a “jury trial demanded,” once again, Chase spokespeople would be unable to “spin” this their own way as they have with contorted, truncated, misleading sound bites released to the media):
This class action seeks to remedy a carefully-calculated effort by Defendant Chase Bank USA, N.A. (“Chase”) to force customers to pay higher interest rates.
Chase reneged by placing a $10 per month finance charge on these accounts, and raising the minimum payment due each month. Chase then uses its unilateral implementation of these onerous terms to coerce cardholders to agree to a higher rate of interest or to pay the loan balances in full.
The “Important Notice Regarding Changes to Your Account Terms “falsely states that, “Your APRs will not be impacted by these changes.”
Chase unilaterally, unfairly and illegally changed the terms of the loans, increasing their effective interest rates. Chase increased the interest rates and minimum monthly payments on these accounts in an attempt to unfairly accelerate repayment of outstanding balances and to increase immediate revenues.
Chase customers have been damaged by, inter alia, having to pay interest accrued at higher rates than Chase promised would govern for the life of the loan or by being presented with false information about their options.
[Chase is] breaching its loan agreements with customers and violating common and statutory law prohibiting false advertising and unfair and fraudulent business practices.
[Chase is] in violation of the Truth in Lending Act, 15 U.S, C. § 1601 et. seq. (“TILA”).
We at ChangeInTerms.com couldn’t agree more with these plaintiffs and their attorneys: Chase and fraud, Chase and falsely, Chase and carefully-calculated, Chase and onerous terms, and Chase and coerce – these descriptions all seem consistent with the way impacted account holders (upon whom Chase “aimed” its change in terms notice) are probably feeling about now.
For more information, contact:
Green Welling LLP
595 Market Street, Suite 2750
San Francisco, California 94105
Telephone: 415-477-6700
Fax: 415-477-6710
http://www.classcounsel.com/
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on Feb 25th, 2009 at 10:08 am
When these loans (contracts) were initially negotiated… in exchange for the terms of the loan… we paid a 3% fee… which they called a “transaction fee”.
I’m not a lawyer but… wasn’t that 3% fee a “consideration”? That’s what we gave Chase “up front” in exchange for the terms of 3.99% for the life of the loan and a minimum payment of 2% of the outstanding balance.
Now if Chase forces you out of the deal… where you pay off the balance in full and close the account… it seems that you didn’t get what you paid for. Legally speaking… aren’t you entitled to a refund of the “consideration” you prepaid?
Several people have posted that… having transferred their balance to a different bank and… when filing a complaint with the OCC… they demanded reimbursement of the (new) transaction fee they incurred. Chase paid it without an argument… maybe because they were getting off cheap?
But this is not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about recovering the 3% of the original amount that we paid up-front… as “consideration”.
I do not see any mention of this in any of the class action complaints filed thus far. But then… I’m not a lawyer.
Chase failed to complete it’s part of the contract. Are we entitled to a full refund of the 3% we paid as “consideration”?
Anyone know the answer?
on Feb 25th, 2009 at 3:09 pm
Another law firm interested in filing a suit against Chase for their onerous change in terms…
Emily Madoff (212) 451-9622
WOLF POPPER LLP
http://www.wolfpopper.com/attorney.cfm/ID/7
She is particularly looking for someone living in NY/CT/VT so they can file in the 2nd circuit U.S. district court.
on Feb 26th, 2009 at 5:25 pm
I am the plaintiff in the lawsuit above, which was filed in the state of Oregon.
In response to the comment by Vito Caputo: my case, I had transferred a balance in August 2008, and paid the 3% balance transfer fee then. After receiving the notice of the “change in terms” from Chase, I first called Chase, but there was no give from the customer service rep, to speak of. I then filed a complaint with the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of Currency, and probably as a result of this complaint, my balance transfer fee was refunded, but Chase insisted it was going to either impose the onerous new terms, or an alternate set of terms that were equally absurd. It was around this time that I contacted Green-Welling to ask about a class action suit, and this has resulted in the suit described in this article.
on Feb 26th, 2009 at 8:03 pm
Charles, thanks so much for visiting and providing this information, as well as for standing up on behalf of all of us. Could you go into a bit more detail as to your communications with the OCC on the balance transfer fee?
I was able to get a balance transfer offer from my credit union, and thus was just able to close my account this week. I am wondering if contacting the OCC would get Chase to refund my fee also. I also accepted one of their offers in Aug 2008, so arguably I didn’t get my money’s worth out of that fee.
Also, was it Chase’s claim that since they had refunded the fee, they no longer were required to provide the low rate?
Thanks
on Feb 27th, 2009 at 12:02 am
In response to Lyn: I filed a complaint with the OCC using a PDF form available on their website – links to their site are in the right column of this ChangeinTerms webpage. The OCC does not have enforcement powers, but apparently they may somehow have minimal powers to persuade. After my complaint I got a letter back from Chase in which they said they would return my balance transfer fee, but said they would not lift the service fee and 5% rate of min. payment. They said nothing about return of the transfer fee justifying their continuing intention to impose of the new terms.
Just before I had received the Chase letter, I had received a letter from the OCC in which they said that they had contacted Chase, and if I was not satisfied with Chase’s response, I should contact them again. The content of this OCC letter was exactly the same as the one that Dr. Lahm received from the OCC dated 12-30-2008, a copy of which is in the column at right. I contacted the OCC again, saying that I was not satisfied with Chase’s response. The OCC has not yet responded to my last letter, so I would assume that my complaint is still being processed.
It may be that it is because processing of my OCC complaint is not yet completed that Chase has not yet applied the change in terms to my monthly billings for January and February, though they had said in their original notice that they would do this in January. My min. payment is still 2% of my carried balance, and no service fee has been charged.
I would encourage filing a complaint with the OCC. Even if it does not expedite return of your transfer fee, it may help to bring Chase’s actions to the attention of our new reform-minded administration, if the OCC receives a great many complaints.
I would also encourage Chase cardholders to get in touch with class action lawyers, even if they live in states in which suits have already been filed. My lawyer, Robert Green, would like to find an additional Oregon plaintiff who has already been billed for the new terms. He has mentioned that he may develop an additional class action in another state.
Applying compensation for the class action law suits that have been filed may be extremely difficult, as different cardholders have done different things in order to cope with the change in terms, but I would hope there will be provisions in the settlement that will compensate cardholders who transferred their Chase balances to other accounts.
on Feb 27th, 2009 at 10:03 am
Charles, thanks for the explanation. To clarify, it seems from what you wrote that you contacted OCC to complain about the “Change in Terms” and Chase responded by refunding the balance transfer fee, though you had not specifically demanded that. If so, I find that an interesting sort of tacit “admission” that they are no longer providing the service for which that fee was a “consideration, ” as Vito said.
on Mar 9th, 2009 at 12:15 pm
[...] on the information that we have already been tracking, the Oregon case was already known to us as (#9), Charles Clausen v. Chase. In checking with the Green Welling LLP regarding Chase, it provided a [...]
on Mar 17th, 2009 at 3:07 pm
I just looked at my statement online. I too was being charged the $10 a month “service charge” and also had my minimum balance due go up. But today looking at my statement I have a $20 “service charge refund” credit on there! Have you heard anything about this? Are they going to do away with the $10 charge??
The one thing that I have learned from all of this is that I need to be done with credit cards FOR GOOD. So by increasing my minimum payment due each month, I figure it will just get me that much closer to our goal. So while it hurts to pay that additional amount, it is nice to see the balance go down quicker.
I’m curious to hear why they refunded the service charge! I hope that means they are getting rid of it. but I googled and haven ‘t found anything about it.
on Mar 17th, 2009 at 4:05 pm
Hi Jan,
People are sending in different reports to me by virtue of privately contacting me as well as comments on the site. There is no rhyme or reason to discern who Chase is targeting, and who it may “let off the hook.” Chase is apparently still charging some account holders, but not others. That being said, I plan to do everything in my power to make Chase back down as a result of media pressure.
The wonderful thing about Chase backing down (for any reason — publicity, threat of meaningful regulation, lawsuits — or “all of the above,” which is my personal favorite!), is that we will succeeded in sending a message to the credit card industry:
There’s a line in the sand that we’re not going to let credit card companies cross.
Meanwhile, in my last letter to Chase via the OCC I demanded that Chase issue a press release, taking this change in terms back!
This is not a game of touch football — it’s a hard core “taking it to the streets,” fight.
Take care.
on Mar 25th, 2009 at 2:47 pm
Dr. Lahm, I did receive a letter from Chase in the mail today . . . indicating that they “discovered that you were incorrectly sent a Change in Terms notice . . . (blah blah blah). We have credited your account for the $10 monthly account service charge and your minimum payment due will revert to its previous calculation of 2% of the New Balance instead of 5%”.
on Mar 27th, 2009 at 5:27 pm
Yesterday (March 26) I also received the notice from Chase Cardmember Service that they had “discovered that you were incorrectly sent a Change in Terms notice…(blah blah blah).”
What a late discovery – after my OCC complaint in January they continued to insist that they were holding by the change in terms, and then I became the named plaintiff in the class action suit discussed on this webpage, which was filed in February.
The “discovery” letter appears to be a mass mailing, but we don’t know as yet who all they may have sent such letters to.
Charles Clausen
on Aug 24th, 2009 at 4:38 pm
I need help. I hope it’s ok to post here. I want to file a class action lawsuit against chase bank in reference to there Online and over all banking. I feel like a total idiot each time calling chase why I am being charged NSF and Over draft fees. I have alerts on my account why do I receive an alert only after I am hit with a fee? A representative told me more or less that it’s a system they offer for us to use but it is not backed by the bank in the sense they can not be held accountable for not sending notices. I post payments and charges to my account I may see online as pending or not at all, then these charges are debited to my account and yet any deposits are held pending and at times goes through the same day but after I receive a fee.
They do not, as the law requires, process ALL activity in chronological order
each business day, they deduct all applicable fees first, withdrawals and debits second, and finally deposits and other additions (fee refunds and reimbursements) third. This is done to cause overdrafts and associated fees that can be generated against accounts and the unsuspecting NEVER catch on. I have caught them several times and reported them to the Federal Authorities, only to receive refunds (not always 100%, mind you) and a promise to not do it again.
They are not electronically reporting correct and current balance activity which causes one to think that the balance is higher than it truly is (charging, but not reporting non-Chase ATM fees, foreign purchases, etc) What can I do about this who can I write to who do I talk to, its bad enough to be a full time student and full time worker and living off my paycheck week to week. One representative sets me up for a protection savings account, never the less it was never set up and the next representative told me she was sorry he made the mistake but could do nothing about it. What’s going on? What can I do I constantly check my accounts before I make any payment and yet I’m still wrong?
on Dec 9th, 2009 at 10:31 am
I would like to file, or join a class action law suit against Chase.
Two weeks ago without warning Chase took away the overdraft on my checking account. I had made several small charges that resulted in -$256 in overdraft charges for roughly $21 in purchases spread out over 6 transactions. 4 were $2.24 Coffee purchases. They claim they couldn’t remove them because they had already done a one time courtesy 11 months before. A week later i was overdrawn by -7 cents, then another coffee purchase of $2.24 that the vendor didn’t post for two days because it was a weekend and they hit me with another -$64 in charges. So for essentially a total of $-23.07 of being overdrawn Chase charged me -$320 in overdraft charges. That is almost my entire unemployment check for the week. I have been a client of Chase for 14 year and used to have $125k a year paying job. I have roughly paid 10k in interest on my overdraft that they took away from me during this period. For them to treat me this way in unconscionable, and to be charged $320 for $23 is criminal. This has to stop please let me know what i can do to file a lawsuit.
on Dec 22nd, 2009 at 6:05 am
These ridiculous overdraft fees are killing me. I need to find out about filing suit or being part of a class action suit. I use my phone and it shows a declining balance mirroring my transactions yet I get hit with nsf fees. Are there others out there like me.