Dealing with Chase? Prepare to enter “The Twilight Zone”

Just when you think it can’t get any more crazy….it does!

In January, Chase, with no opt-out allowed, raised my (along with 400,000 other customers) payment from 2% ($416/month) to 5% ($1,025/month)….and has demanded payments at the same high 5% level ever since. This month the payment was $842….still more than twice as much as the payment required in December.

Last Friday, I received my Chase statement on another account (4.99% promotional rate “fixed for the life of the loan”” with an outstanding balance of $6,029.28) with $0 minimum payment due. Along with a note that says:

“You have the flexibility to skip a payment. You must pay past due and overlimit balances immediately. However, the remaining minimum payment for this month has been reduced to $0. Finance charges will continue to accrue. To reduce your balance, feel free to make a payment.”

Of course, I have no past due or overlimit balances but what this very telling statement means is that Chase is inviting customers who do have past due and overlimit balances….to skip the regular minimum monthly payment!

So – Chase, a company which absolutely could not survive with a mere $25 BILLION in taxpayer bail-out funds; a company that had no choice but to put the screws to 400,000 of their very best customers to fill their cashless coffers; is now a company so flush with cash that they are allowing customers (at least one good customer [me 😉 ] and apparently some bad customers with past due and over limit amounts) to SKIP making their minimum monthly payments on accounts for which the payment requirement remains at 2%.

Then, presumably because Chase hopes I am feeling so good about not having to make a monthly payment this month, they offer this suggestion, “Save $100* r/t. Book a round-trip flight on British Airways worldwide…between March 23-Aug 31, 2009. Offer ends June 30, 2009.” *Terms and conditions apply.

Chase includes no mention of what the terms and conditions might be (though if they can entice me to charge my airfare on British Airways to this account, and pay for other travel expenses with it, the sky is the limit for interest on the new charges). But that’s OK. History with this company tells us that even when Chase provides specific enumeration of all their “terms and conditions”, the terms and conditions are subject to change – for any reason or for no reason. All part of the Chase adventure into The Twilight Zone!