(NOTE: If needed for republishing, click for a larger/higher quality image.)

I had visions of immediately firing off a press release with some discussion, but I find myself a bit distracted by a matter that has arisen: another rock slide.  As regular readers know, I commute (because my house has not sold) from Tennessee to North Carolina, and back, each week to meet my employment obligations as an entrepreneurship professor.

As I mentioned in my post on October 25 (a few weeks ago), my drive got harder after a rock slide closed I-40 near the TN/NC border; it is predicted that this passage through the mountains will be blocked for months.  I subsequently found a new, more difficult, southern route around (through Chattanooga and then winding roads, including traveling through two national parks).  Well, evidently, Mother Nature doesn’t want me to use the alternate route either (a portion of which can be seen in the video below — it’s gorgeous, but a hard way to get to work):

This link provides more context than the YouTube video above: workers were already on site removing one large rock, and a news crew was filming that event when even more came down.

P.S. Don’t worry Chase, I’ll be able to make it to work so that I can finish paying you off.  You see, the rock slide only blocked my second alternate route; it didn’t kill me (although you probably wish it had because as long as I’m breathing and you have not met my demands, I’m STILL COMING AFTER YOU!).

© Dr Robert Lahm for ChangeinTerms.com, 2009. | Permalink | 27 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: credit

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The numerous grammatical mistakes (and end of the message) made me wonder if it was from a low level customer service representative.  I have little doubt in my mind that many of these individuals are at the mercy of higher-ups at Chase, and as such must do the “dirty work” of enforcing edicts by senior executives (which is what really “jerks my chain” when I note that Gordon Smith was off lecturing on “leadership” while his employees were implementing one of the most abusive acts against customers in the history of the credit card industry).

I have researched the name of the submitter as was indicated, and I found several links that were suggestive of the individual’s role with Chase (discussed below).  I do not have the ability to determine the authenticity of the submission, but I do have the right to document what has occurred.  Thus, here is what was submitted:

[-------BEGIN SUBMISSION-------]

I am just writing to let your users know why we are treating you this way.

First understand that times are hard and people are having trouble payi,ng us back what they borrowed. This is a real problem.

As a bank we are expected to make a profet for our customers that invest.

Secondly, we really have already loaned more money to Americans than we feel comfortable about.

The economy in America is just not expected to rise any time soon. The employment rate is bottoming out and this affects our buisness. If people don’t have jobs they cannot pay us back.

So the bottom line is we want people to take their buisness elsewhere. Especially those of you that are not using your cards any more.

Please just transfer your accounts to another bank and leave me alone.

Kelly Hanick

[-------END SUBMISSION-------]

First, there does appear to be a “Kelly Hanick” with Chase.  On the ComplaintsBoard.com site under a post entitled “Credit Card Gouging” I found several comments referencing this individual, including some with an email address and telephone number, along with personal (i.e., home) and corporate postal mail addresses.

As an aside, the aforementioned home address was presented with the suggestion that complaints should be sent there, and while I understand the anger, I encourage site visitors to maintain the moral high ground by corresponding to Chase’s offices.  (This is also why I moderate the site.  This is a PG-13 site, for instance, because I will not let Chase have the upper hand by characterizing customers as a bunch of financially illiterate fools who do not have the vocabulary to do anything other than spew expletives; this would aid Chase in justifying the twisted logic that, they — customers — deserve the treatment that has been bestowed upon them.  I maintain this is especially appropriate given that smooth talking executives such as Jamie Dimon seem able to seduce Congressional representatives in Washington, with their “words of wisdom.”)

Kelly also has a profile at LinkedIn.com, a snippet of which is shown in the screenshot below:

Assuming for a moment the veracity of the comment itself, and that it indeed represents the views of the “Kelly Hanick” referenced above, I will provide a response (although I have saved the notification to moderate on the site, including the IP address):

1) Yes, times are challenging.  Unemployment is rising, entrepreneurs are struggling (one of the major reasons unemployment is rising), and Chase is SQUEEZING consumers and small businesses HARD at a time when they are at a tremendous disadvantage.  When payments are jacked-up so high that families and small businesses cannot pay, they default.  Individuals in this predicament were not planning to default; rather, they were PUSHED INTO DEFAULT, by Chase (and other banks).  Banks as a whole have acted in bad faith.  Yes, Kelly, “this is a real problem.”

2) I have never advocated that Chase or any businesses should not make a profit.  The problem is, Chase has attempted to do so by employing unethical tactics.  Where’s my “proof,” you might ask?  Telling me or customers at large that adding a so-called “service charge” that “is a finance charge” would not impact a promotional APR is a lie (I’m not dancing around with other possible word-choices such as “disingenuous,” “incorrect,” or “misleading” — anyone who knows the first thing about interest and amortization knows that adding a finance charge to an existing APR increases the overall rate).

3) Relative to item 2, above, Chase did rescind the finance charge (in a settlement with the New York Attorney General’s Office).  However, it appears to have done so under pressure while admitting no wrongdoing.  (And for me, personally, the damage and repercussions were already done — I’ve addressed that further below).

4) With regard to the “economy” and “unemployment rate bottoming out”: I have been advocating for small businesses as the major contributors to the economy that they are, for years.  On October 12, 2009, I just presented yet another paper based on scholarly research, and I am well aware that approximately half of very small businesses use credit cards as a source of capital (over ten million very small firms).  And, as can be seen in the SBA Office of Advocacy’s most recently published FAQs

Small firms:
• Represent 99.7 percent of all employer firms.
• Employ just over half of all private sector employees.
• Pay 44 percent of total U.S. private payroll.
• Have generated 64 percent of net new jobs over the past 15 years.
• Create more than half of the nonfarm private gross domestic
product (GDP).
• Hire 40 percent of high tech workers (such as scientists, engineers, and computer programmers).
• Are 52 percent home-based and 2 percent franchises.

Hence, while Chase is worried about being paid, its policies are DECIMATING (in yet another way, besides squeezing consumers to the point of defaulting), the very entrepreneurs who are our only hope for an economic recovery, not just “anytime soon,” but ever.

5) Chase has already made it abundantly clear that its wish is to have people take their business elsewhere.  We got that message.  Unfortunately, that’s not so easy to do, for some individuals.  This is especially true after having their credit scores ruined, lines of credit slashed, and in light of a credit card industry cartel which provides few options (in good times or bad).

6) If Chase is so worried about investors and profits, then it might want to keep in mind that engendering a sentiment of fear, disgust, and loathing among customers is not an effective long-term strategy.  Rather, it is a short-sighted, imbecilic tactic, which will become a “textbook case study” in how NOT to treat customers (by the time I’m finished, here).

7) The submission concludes with the remark, “and leave me alone.”  (Kelly) I’m afraid I’ve already made it clear what the conditions are for that to occur.  Banks want customers to read their contracts; meanwhile, READ MY TERMS, CHASE:

• If Chase Wants Peace, it Can Issue a Press Release.
• Apologize for defaming us (after the first round of change in terms notices), and continuing to disrespect account holders with a PR spin campaign which portrays us negatively before members of the media.
• Now, for me to personally “leave Chase alone,” I’ll simply suffice it to say that Chase has damaged me in several ways, including, but not limited to the following:
  • I was forced to suffer penalties and fees by prematurely withdrawing from a retirement account in anticipation of making higher payments;
  • I am among those that Chase defamed (making payments on time, and in many cases paying more than the minimum);
  • Chase did “steal Christmas” last year;
  • because I knew of no other option but to cooperate with members of the media in order to defend my family, my personal finances have now been the subject of coverage in Business Week, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and other outlets (and I do not appreciate being put in such a position by virtue of Chase’s actions and its wherewithal to take advantage of customers, who can do little else to mount a resistance);
  • Chase’s actions exacerbated an already horrible set of circumstances, causing undue stress and emotional hardship for a family that has already been suffering;
  • As we speak, I have just learned that a rock slide on I-40 near the TN/NC border will block off that interstate for months.  I already drive 305 miles each way to and from work every week, because our house has not sold after over two years on the market (the point being, we’ve got enough problems, and we’re not alone: Chase should work with consumers and small businesses, instead of “kicking us while we’re down”);
  • Chase still sends change in terms notices to my wife and household (that is a very, very, very, bad idea) — I already told you to “leave us alone,” in no uncertain terms.

Accordingly, I personally have no plans to leave Chase alone until the damages to small businesses, customers at large, me, and my wife and family have been undone and rectified (to the extent that this is even possible after all of the pain Chase has caused to its previously identified “most valued cardmembers“).

I’ll admit, it is interesting that a SVP of Customer Service* at Chase would possibly submit such a request — to be left alone.  However, I regret to inform you, Kelly, or any other site visitor that “Chase drew first blood.”  There is no way in hell that I’m going to simply go away “elsewhere.”

Chase shouldn’t pick fights at all, but since it chose to start one (by trying to coerce customers via unethical actions), you can all count on this, until MY TERMS and conditions are met:

I’M (STILL) COMING AFTER YOU

AND I’M NOT GOING TO LEAVE CHASE ALONE

* Noting your previous HR background, might I respectfully recommend a career change, Kelly.  “Customer Service” does not really seem to be a supported organizational role at Chase.  I think most interviewers would understand your “reason for leaving.”

© Dr Robert Lahm for ChangeinTerms.com, 2009. | Permalink | 9 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: advocacy, banks, change in terms, complaints, consumers, credit, customer service, economy, fees, interest, notices, penalties, small business

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First, I did some Internet searches, and some are for, while others are critical of this organization.  Personally, I am not in favor of everything that this organization’s leadership or members may believe in.  But, I don’t have the time to analyze or become embroiled in discourse about topics like immigration, who is, or should be the president, political parties, the left, right, or middle.

None of these things mentioned above are on my agenda, relative to the ChangeInTerms.com site.  Do I care about these issues?  Yes.  Do I have time to write posts and conduct research on all of these subjects (and their nuances) mentioned above?  No.

Relative to my employment, I also don’t feel inclined to speak out on all of these issues.  On the other hand, I have the right, the responsibility, and the passion for entrepreneurs to address matters that are affecting small businesses.  When credit is tight or unavailable, this impacts small businesses; when consumers are unemployed and spending is constrained, this impacts small businesses.

Not only do I feel passionate about entrepreneurs, I have been one, more than once.  This is why, along with a graduate education which I pursued in order to become academically qualified to teach, I am now an entrepreneurship professor.

Most small businesses, no matter how you slice it, are indeed very small: 0-1 employees.  They are often entrepreneurial bootstrappers.  Bootstrappers start businesses on kitchen tables and in basements and garages; about half of them by my estimates through formal academic research use personal credit cards as a source of capital.  This amounts to over 10 million businesses.

Oh, and that “0-1″ employees group, that number is around 21.7 million.  There are around 29.6 million businesses in the U.S.  So, you could say that over two thirds of all U.S. businesses are actually very small (perhaps a better choice of words would be “tiny”).  Yet, these are the everyday “Jills” and “Joes” who are vital to our economic recovery.

I want to help other people: students, current entrepreneurs, and would-be entrepreneurs.  It also happens that one of my official duties is to be “engaged” with the entrepreneurial community.  This includes conducting research (publishing), and trying to champion small businesses in every way that I can.

It’s my job.  I love it, but from a practical point of view in terms of expectations of my employer, I am supposed to teach, conduct research, serve, and be “engaged.”  If my discipline was political science, maybe I would be blogging on our system of government as a focus; but, my focus here is ending the abuses of credit card companies against small businesses and consumers.  Consumer spending does impact small businesses, employment, and the economy as a whole, as we have seen.

Relative to the Showdown or its organizers, this is the bottom line: I am against the undue influence that the banking and financial services industry tends to exercise over our Congress through its very powerful lobbyists.  Under the present system, we are where we are, today.  Small businesses are in jeopardy, the economy is a mess, people are hurting: “my people” (entrepreneurs) are hurting.

Banks are pushing people into defaults.  The ABA, American Banker’s Association, which obviously represents the interests of banks, is against the industry changing its ways, and I am for the industry changing its ways.  Banks are not working with consumers and small businesses to the extent that they could or should.

I am hurting, personally, because I am separated from my family by virtue of a “crashed” real estate market.  This occurred, essentially, because of a lending industry run amok and bankers’ irresponsibility and greed, with regulators asleep at the switch.  The “bail out” was misdirected, in my opinion.  We should have created loan programs (which would have broken even, instead of adding trillions to our national debt), targeting a recovery in the housing market and the restoration of consumer confidence, before things ever got so bad.

In my early years, I used to write lyrical poetry.  Lately, I’ve been playing a little tune in my head that goes something like this:

“I want to take my boy fishin’

But I find I’m just wishin’

He and I would bait the hooks

And cast our lines in babbling brooks

We’d really reel ‘em in”

We’d catch rainbow trout

Maybe bream, or

Perhaps a leafy branch or two

It wouldn’t matter, son

As long as I’m with you

Here in Western North Carolina, I find myself surrounded by some of the most beautiful terrain on the planet, including places where I could “take my boy fishing.”  But I can’t.  I’m lucky to do my job and get back home each week to take care of chores, pay bills, visit my family briefly, and return.

When I play that song in my head, it makes me want to cry.  If credit card issuers and the banks with which they are associated want to know why I’m going to keep coming, and coming, and coming, all they have to do is recognize that I am deeply motivated by that little tune.

I will continue to fight the greedy, unethical, and misguided policies that have been implemented by these institutions, because “I find I’m just wishing” that I could be with my family, and that we could live in peace.  (Chase just sent another change in terms on one of my wife’s accounts; that was a very bad idea, Chase: I told you to leave me, my wife, and my family the hell alone. READ MY TERMS.)

And, as I have outlined, I continue to fight because it’s also my job.

If you think things are just “hunky-dory” for small businesses and consumers, and the economy at large, well, I am happy for you.  You may be isolated from the pain that others are experiencing.

You can choose to support, or not, the “Showdown in Chicago” protest.  I support that protest, even if I do not agree with everything that others may have in mind in terms of a larger agenda (politics, health care, immigration, et cetera).

If you do support the protest, but are not in the Chicago area, the Americans for Fairness in Lending site has also provided a link for contacting elected officials in the post which states “AFFIL has endorsed the upcoming events in Chicago, and now we’re asking for you to support it too.”

© Dr Robert Lahm for ChangeinTerms.com, 2009. | Permalink | 9 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: "Bail Out", banks, change in terms, consumers, credit, credit cards, debt, economy, interest, small business

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“George Goehl has been a community organizer, strategist, and trainer for 15 years, crafting national campaigns on affordable housing, predatory lending, and immigrant justice issues. George was the founding president of the Coalition of Low-Income and Homeless Citizens and the lead organizer of a campaign to win the first Housing Trust Fund in Indiana. He was the architect of a national campaign at NTIC to pressure the Department of Housing and Urban Development to stem the tide of rising FHA foreclosures and abandoned buildings and helped launch NTIC’s early work on predatory lending. In 2004, George worked as a field organizer for the Center for Community Change, focusing on immigration reform. In 2007 he went back to his roots and became the third Executive Director at NTIC in 35 years.”

Obviously, Mr. Goehl has been fighting for economic justice for a long time.  Presently, the ChangeInTerms.com site has endorsed an organizing effort against what I consider to be the “root of all evil” relative to what we’ve been experiencing in the economy: an industry that wants everything you’ve got, and control over your childrens’ dreams and lives, too.

This industry doesn’t want to be watched over or regulated.  It doesn’t want the CFPA (Consumer Financial Protection Agency), because it’s been happy with the arrangement thus far (doing as it pleases, completely unfettered by a moral compass or even common sense, as evidenced by the fact that its gambling and smugness brought nearly everyone but its executives to the very brink of economic destruction).

It’s not interested in fairness, unless that is defined as “we get it all, and you get nothing.”  It does not want YOU to enjoy ANY rights, or have any PROTECTION.  It wants this CFPA idea watered down, or better yet, dead.  No state or local options means no safe havens for at least some consumers, but the same safe havens from which this industry has been free to operate for years, imposing usurious terms that are in effect legalized loan-sharking.

Yes, I’m talking about the ABA, the American Banker’s Association.

If you are a consumer, then you are as they say in prison, “the banks’ bitch” (I guess this is a PG-13 remark — I hear it on network TV), as far as the ABA is concerned: read this, about the efforts to block the CFPA on the “Save the American Dream” site (which is a campaign of National People’s Action, among others).

With the above as an introduction, I would also like to help the aforementioned “organizing effort” by suggesting that you express support for Mr. Goehl’s “Showdown in Chicago” campaign.  Quoting from an email his organization sent to me:

“Americans are more frustrated than ever at big banks and Wall Street. As a result, people are signing up to act in a united front against bank lobbyists at the American Banker’s Association (ABA) convention on Oct 25-27.  We are ready for them. When bank executives land in the Windy City, they’ll be met by thousands of Americans from Wichita to Syracuse demanding big banks break their excessive appetite for greed and end their efforts to fight reforms that would protect us from their future abuses.”

Showdown in Chicago image used by permission.

We are well on our way to becoming a nation of subservient slaves to banks, which control Congressional decision making through powerful lobbies, campaign donations, and by providing “perks” that ordinary people like most of us can only see from the ground (or below, in the mines where we may be toiling away for our masters): forget what citizen-consumers want.

Banks further control us through the FED, which claims it is better suited to regulate than a CFPA (yet the FED is not “Federal” and is “owned” by the very banks that it claims to be best qualified to regulate — “how convenient“!). 

Please click on the image above, and get involved, in any way that you can.

These bankers, through their association, need to know that — along the lines of picking a fight in a bar with one member of the Hells Angels — to attack one consumer, is to attack every consumer.  Banks have held the strategic advantage because they can “pick off” single individuals.  Only in the collective, banded together, can borrowers have a chance of leveling the playing field against these monolithic institutions and the representatives in government who allow them to exact such abuses against ordinary citizens as we have been witnessing.

It truly is time, for a “Showdown.”  Wear your colors proudly (red, white, and blue), and tell the American Banker’s Association that they’ve picked a fight on the wrong turf: “This is our country ABA, and you’re through owning me.”

NOTE: I found that writing the image caption, “Americans versus the American Banker’s Association” was both ironic, and sad.  The irony is that I am not against the industry.  We need a strong banking system.  I am merely against the abuses of those who have perverted the system without any code of honor whatsoever, except to themselves.

© Dr Robert Lahm for ChangeinTerms.com, 2009. | Permalink | 11 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: banks, consumers, credit, economy, interest

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In one sense, this story is already well known, at least by virtue of its observable impact.  We have seen it in neighborhoods across America: foreclosures, short-sales, and a devaluation of property values.  Speculators and house flippers were understandably giddy over profits that seemed at the time, easy and never-ending.  But this period of exuberance did end, badly.  Those of us who are concerned with credit card company abuses, are paying the price.  Taxpayers are paying the price.  Investors from around the world are paying the price.

In essence, the mortgage industry sold “instant gratification” to buyers.  Yes, buyers “signed the dotted line,” and certainly, many knew (or should have known, if they lied about matters such as their income and obligations on “stated income” loan applications — that’s why the slang, “liar’s loans,’ came into being), that they too, were taking a risk.

Everyone was gambling.  But in common, the core belief that drove this scenario was the notion that housing prices would continue to rise.  Refinancing, to take “cash out” of real estate investment gains (or otherwise leverage the cash from appreciation in property values), enabled people to buy even more.  They used that money for anything under the sun: vacations, home improvements, adult toys (and “toy haulers”).

We now know this was a fallacy.  Anyone who may be watching squirrels gathering nuts on the ground for the coming winter can use this as an analogy for what many people did not do.  There are many adages which capture this failing, but perhaps the one (which in history seems to repeat itself) that best captures the miscalculation is this one: “What goes up, must come down.”

The “House of Cards” production does a great job of explaining, how we who are fighting credit card company abuses got where we are today.  Banks bought bad investments.  They want to recoup their losses by dipping into other sources of cash.  First, it was the bail out money: your money, and that of your children and grandchildren.  Second, it is every dollar and quarter, dime, nickel and penny, from fees, interest rate increases, and payment increases that banks can impose on the backs of people who still take pride in trying to pay their bills and fulfilling their obligations.  (But for how long?  Most people who walk away and “leave their keys on the counter” have simply given up, knowing that they can never pay.)

Obviously, the lax regulation that allowed Wall Street to profit and party on what we now know are toxic assets (I’m not an accountant, but it seems to me that a so-called “toxic asset” is a bad debt!) enabled a complex scheme with many participants to arise.

Unfortunately, as banks squeeze those of us who are still standing, more and more “able bodied borrowers,” including small businesses which account for much of our economy, suffocate.  Layoffs and fear have led to the destruction of consumer confidence — so spending slows to a crawl.  Here we are.

I personally found that one of the most interesting interview questions that was posed to various participants in the CNBC piece had to do with “feeling guilty,” for having been a part of this debacle.  The body language told a different story than the words that were uttered, slowly and carefully, in several instances, consistently along the lines of “just part of the food chain.”  Well, I already know where I am in the food chain: near the bottom.  However, when these banks try to “eat” what’s left of the rest of us, I want to make sure that we at least leave a very bad taste in their mouth.

Just a Few More Notes

This present post is very difficult to write.  I am separated from my family by virtue of real estate.  I have a house that has not sold, even though it is well cared for and in a decent middle-class neighborhood.  I have debts that are primarily associated with a decision to go to graduate school, trying to help others by becoming academically qualified to teach.  Those who walk away from their own homes (or who are forced to leave by eviction); those who enabled this to happen (see the documentary for the entire “food chain”); and I, along with my wife and children, are entangled.

Credit card companies (i.e., the banks that run them), are dealing with issues such as losses and liquidity pressures.  Nevertheless, because the banks are equivalent to “Goliath,” and we could be likened to “David,” naturally, ChangeInTerms.com and its supporters are in a position such that if we don’t throw “sticks and stones” to defend ourselves in any way that we can, we will be destroyed.

Sadly, I could be sympathetic to the banks’ problems, if they weren’t so mean and uncaring about what happens to others.  The most typical response to consumers (some of whom are the entrepreneurs we desperately need to nourish for a recovery) when they call to “negotiate,” just as appears to be the case with distressed homeowners, is that banks don’t want to work things out.  Rather, they just want to take everything that they can get, forcibly, mercilessly, and immediately, no matter what the consequences may be for individuals — and when taken in the aggregate — for the economy and this nation’s citizenry as a whole.

This behavior on the part of banks is sure to lead us all down a path to further destruction, I predict, unless we “work things out.”  How do we do that (those of us who are on the receiving end of banks’ callous, greedy, untenable dispositions)?  That’s really quite simple.  Anyone who has survived a schoolyard bully knows that the only way to prevail, is to make him or her very afraid of you.  If you are a small person, then you may need to assemble an army and gang-up on that bully.

I actually have a post in draft mode on the subject of “somebody should do it.”  Here’s what it boils down to: all of us “little people” must band together (this is a tiny example, but I sometimes get frustrated: why have I written several times, trying to get someone to print-out a free protest T-shirt, and send me a picture for the site?  Scared; too busy; afraid to raise a “stink” in public — I can understand all of these, because they describe me, but I still fight).

The formula for returning to a period of economic stability is also fairly simple.  Banks are in the business of taking in deposits, and lending at a profit.  Profits are a function of “time and terms.”  If they wanted to do it, they could institute all kinds of creative workarounds, because that’s what ends up happening in settlements.  Why they don’t want to work with people until the situation becomes such that a settlement is for “pennies on the dollar” (with the losses being shifted to those who are still standing, financially), is hard to fathom.  I suppose it’s because enough people have not has yet boycotted media for running credit card companies’ ads; written to affinity partners; threatened the reelection prospects of representatives; or gone “viral,” like the Debtor’s Revolt video.

If you aren’t willing to combine forces and join the fight, then you can count on being fleeced, beaten, and terrorized by such a bully.  We have already seen that this bully’s greed is insatiable.  I guess you’ll get involved once you’ve “lost your backpack and lunch money,” one too many times.

© Dr Robert Lahm for ChangeinTerms.com, 2009. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: "Bail Out", banks, consumers, credit, credit cards, debt, economy, fees, interest, interest rate, regulation, small business

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Further, speaking as someone whose work as an entrepreneurship educator and researcher on the subject of credit card usage by small businesses has led me to be extremely concerned about how banks at large are undermining the economic recovery, I will say my personal reaction in light of Chase’s behavior is “that dog won’t hunt.”

Do you want to support small businesses Chase?

I’ve been telling you how for months and months.  Bottom line, issue the other press release that I have demanded, and take back the 5% minimum payment that you unilaterally imposed on a million customers (as a coercive technique to switch customers from a low rate “life of the balance” promotion to a higher rate, limited duration account).

Chase: you can’t smooth over what you did with a glitzy ad campaign.  I admit, the stories of entrepreneurial aspirations, smiling faces glowing in the sunlight of supposed achievement, and other imagery that you’ll be using will be extremely compelling.  These portrayals make us feel good.  They are the American story, and what makes us who we are.  But those are the dreams of the entrepreneur, whereas apparently, your executives are up all night scheming and in their cauldron, they have definitely stirred a potion that causes nightmares.

Just like TV tobacco ads (when they used to be legal), you’ll show attractive, happy people who “glow” with energy and exude sex appeal and success.  But credit card companies are just like a pushers, and all they want to do is get customers hooked.  Then, they’ll change the terms and sink their teeth in until victims express the agony and frustration, like that which is evidenced in hundreds of thousands of stories — told and untold.  These are the real, true stories as told on the Internet, at kitchen tables, and in the workplaces of struggling small businesses, not the advertising pitch; they serve to reveal the dark side of being a Chase customer.

I’ve already seen spots running on TV.  However, I think every time one of those spots runs, this clip from CNN (or one of many others just like it) should also be aired, as a warning about the aforementioned “dark side”:

Forget the ads, forget the glamor, forget the entrepreneurial dreams, welcome to the real Chase.  I also don’t appreciate the defamatory excuse (the portrayal that these are slow-paying account holders who deserved it, quoting from the statement that was reportedly issued to CNN):

“TENS OF MILLIONS OF CHASE…LOANS HAVE BEEN PAID BACK IN LESS THAN 24 MONTHS…THERE HAVE BEEN A SMALL PERCENTAGE OF CUSTOMERS THAT HAVE NOT MADE AS MUCH PROGRESS.  OUR DESIRE IS TO HAVE THESE BALANCES PAID BACK IN A REASONABLE PERIOD OF TIME.”

I know you’d like me to lose my cool and start spewing expletives.  Believe me, I am tempted.  Very tempted.  But instead, I have a response that “reasonable people” can understand:

The impacted account holders were paying on time and in payment amounts that you established, Chase.  In numerous cases that I have documented they were paying, “more than the minimum.”  Nevertheless, as I have discussed many times, this game of shifting blame and obfuscation is irresponsible, harmful, and just plain mean-spirited.  Shame on you, Chase, for trying to chastise and lay blame on the very people who you previously called your “Most Valued Cardmembers,” as though they had become irresponsible laggards by slow-paying you.  If there’s anyone whose expectations are unreasonable, Chase, it is you.

In the future, you need customers who are mind-readers.  Your “Valued Cardmembers” have been honoring their obligations and acting in good faith.  You have impaled any semblance of honor and exposed your true nature as an organization that acted in bad faith, and now wants to get away with it.  But you won’t.

You remind me of some alien changeling creep shows, the kind with creatures presenting themselves with a beautiful face on the outside (when you issue statements to the media, which is certainly beholden to revenues from the splashy and extensive marketing campaign that you’ve just unveiled), but behind that facade is an organism whose sole purpose is to consume its victims, in some horrible way.

By playing hardball with entrepreneurs — slashing credit lines, imposing new and higher fees, jacking up rates and payments, closing accounts, and using other tactics — while hiding behind claims like “managing risk,” the banking industry has demonstrated that it is the arch nemesis of small business, lately, and certainly NOT a “supporter.”

Here’s a new slogan for the way the credit card industry at large has treated consumers and small businesses:

“When times get tough, we take all your cash, run you over, and leave you in a ditch, to die.”

The new card is called the “Ink” card.  But at ChangeInTerms.com (which is more concerned with making sure that no one ever forgets the one million or so cardholders who have been abused and disrespected by Chase), we would point out that it would be foolish to forget what Chase did to its existing customers: as “Truly, this is the single most abusive credit card change in terms that I have ever seen” (CNN clip, Joe Ridout of Consumer Action).  Me too, Joe.  Any notion of “fairness” has certainly been tossed out the window by virtue of this loathsome behavior.

NEVER FORGET.

Don’t fall for all the new ads that the credit card industry will be producing to gloss over the despicable lows to which it has been willing to sink in abusing consumers and small businesses.

Who appointed me a defender of small businesses against the abuses of credit card companies?  You did, Chase.  The banking industry did.

I didn’t use the artwork from the Business Wire press room page to further support your news release, Chase.  I did not want to help spread your announcement, because I don’t believe your products, or your people, are sincerely interested in “supporting small businesses” (I’m still waiting for you to correct me, by issuing the other press release that I’ve been demanding as mentioned above and numerous other times in my correspondence and on this site).

My Western Carolina University graduate students (Master of Entrepreneurship Program) have just created a new Website (WCUEntrepreneurs.com), culminating from hundreds of hours of interviews with “real” entrepreneurs (not actors, or the “pretty, pretty people” who are typically used in ad campaigns).  If anyone is interested, you can read about the stories of guts, glory, defeat, and victory, on their site (which I am proud to mention, here).

Chase, you shouldn’t have messed around with your “Valued Cardmembers,” consumers or small businesses:  It’s my job to protect present and aspiring entrepreneurs.  I consider your behavior toward both to be inexcusable, and a danger to the entire economy.  I would therefore highly recommend to your prospects that they should NOT adopt your new card.

Haven’t you heard that old saying, Chase, “You can’t polish a turd”?

Good luck with your marketing campaign, Chase: If the customer experience is anything like what we’ve been witnessing in astonishment and disgust lately, the “Ink” card will stink.

© Dr Robert Lahm for ChangeinTerms.com, 2009. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: credit, small business

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“AB,” stands for Anonymous Banker, and AB’s site goes by that same name with the subhead, “An Insiders View Into the Banking Industry and Economic Crisis.”

In reading some of AB’s posts, written from the point of view of someone who has spent the bulk of his/her career working with small businesses, I find that he/she is just as disgusted and alarmed as I am about what is to come for our nation and our economy, if we don’t restore confidence.

And frankly, given that I am still stuck in a perfectly maintained home in a decent middle class neighborhood (that would have ordinarily sold in about 60 days, before the depression), I have a hard time mustering up much confidence these days that a life of misery for my family will not go on for many months to come; it’s already been two years.

As I have said several times before, in my opinion, this is because we bailed out big banks and their executives (with their perks, jets, and bonuses), instead of creating loan programs (that would have been break even) for distressed homeowners.  If we had simply addressed the problem that started this mess in the beginning — and it wasn’t even a big mystery to unravel like a health problem or an intermittent rattle coming from a car — real estate, I wouldn’t be here today, using the D-word.

This all started with bad news about real estate foreclosures.  Consumers were scared about what was happening in their neighborhoods, rightfully so.  Consumers lost confidence.  Then, we witnessed one of the biggest giveaways to corporate executives in history.  Outrage over AIG parties, trips and bonuses resulted in no substantive penalties or reforms.  Business “as usual” ruled the day.

The financial services industry greased the palms of Congress, and everybody (except the citizens at large who have to foot the bill), still had a really nice time.  Meanwhile, the cost of fuel for a day to run one of their jets or yachts is probably about the amount of money any of us serfs would need to “make our month,” or give us the wiggle room we need to negotiate the sale or purchase of a home.

After everyone lost confidence, consumers tightened their purse stings and stopped spending.  This led to trouble in the auto industry and another round of bailout disbursements.  The fact that one of our economy’s biggest industries (it’s not just the automakers, but all of the interdependent businesses: steel, glass, plastics, et cetera) was in trouble and would also need a bail out, further shook confidence in government’s ability to address fundamental issues and root causes.

Threats to the survival of  small businesses, accompanied by (i.e., resulting in even more) unemployment have followed.  AB states that he/she “[has] been a small business advocate for thirty years,” and further observed:

“Each day I encounter consumers and business owners that had been able to keep current on their revolving debt. But with each rate increase in the midst of declining revenues, brought about by this economic crisis CREATED BY THE BANKING INDUSTRY, more and more consumers and business owners are falling behind. The rate increases are a self-fulfilling prophesy. The banks say they need an increase in rates to help offset the increase in credit card losses. I say, the increase in rates is CAUSING a good portion of the credit card losses.”

A few months ago (July 22, 2009), someone attempted to post a comment, which I suppressed:

“Perhaps instead of buying a domain name, you should budget properly and pay your bills off in time.”

Not wanting to fire off in a knee-jerk reaction, here’s my answer:

I do pay my bills on time.  I always have.  This site is not about me, it’s about justice, fairness, efficiency of the banks for the benefit of a citizenry at large, small businesses and consumers in particular, and “the economy, stupid.”  If you want to “dis” me, while demonstrating a lack of understanding or caring about people or the issues that impact us all (and our children, their children, and so on): “budget properly” and get your own site.  Since ChangeInTerms.com is a pg-rated site, I can’t respond in more basic terms such as “‘expletive’ you, too!” (that you would more likely have the intellectual capacity to grasp).  But in “southern-speak,” I can say: “Bless Your Heart.”

A glimmer isn’t a recovery and there will be no recovery, without confidence.  There is not going to be any confidence as long as we are trapped, squeezed, and coming soon to a household and small business budget near you: taxed to death (and beyond the grave).  Small businesses and the economy — all of us — must have a properly functioning banking system, and we don’t.

Banks are making very bad decisions, causing defaults (this is especially tragic when account holders were making their payments, on time) when if they would instead work with people, they could get their money back (not to mention maintaining a loyal customer base instead of destroying their own brands).  They could prevent a frightening downward spiral and “self-fulfilling prophesy” from coming true.

The purpose of the banking system is to provide an exchange system for our currency and our economy.  It is failing in its fulfillment of that purpose.  AB knows it, I know it, and anyone with enough brains to buy a domain name and try to fight back before it’s too late knows it.  Bless Your Heart, too, if you don’t join the fight!

© Dr Robert Lahm for ChangeinTerms.com, 2009. | Permalink | 11 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: "Bail Out", banks, consumers, credit, debt, economy, penalties, small business

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I set out this morning trying to research “Mafia loan-sharking rates,” but my inquiry was frustrated a bit when I entered that term in search engines.  Many of the hits that were returned pertained to credit card companies and their rates, which clearly, people associate with Mafia rates.  But I wanted to know specifically about the Mafia rates.  Since I am not a criminal, I really wasn’t certain.

Among my findings, I came across a Google books preview of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to the Mafia.  In a section entitled, “Bringing in the Loan Sharks,” I found the following information:

“Mafia guys love loan sharking….Loan sharks make tremendous amounts of money….Most loan sharks charge customers anywhere from two to five points a week in interest on the unpaid balance of the loan.  For example, if a customer borrowed $1,000 on a Friday at five points a week, the following Friday a would pay a $50 ‘vig’ to keep the cash another week or pay it off with a $1050 payment….Small loans, say $100, are usually six payment affairs in which a customer makes weekly payments of $20 to satisfy a $100 loan.  Some loan sharks take $4 at the front end….His average rates are about 150 percent a year.”  (p. 138).

With regard to the “$4 at the front end” in passage above, that’s an interesting coincidence as it relates to balance transfer fees.  Most of the promotional balance transfer offers I see are typically three percent, no maximum; however, Bank of America’s are now four percent of the amount borrowed.  You will note that $4 on a $100 loan is four percent, so it appears that Bank of America’s up-front fee is possibly modeled after that of some loan sharks.

I also found another site, which provided a transcript of testimony from Michael DiLeonardo in the case, United States of America v. John A. Gotti, Jr., defendant (scroll down to the section, “Earning Money With the Mob”):

“Q. Why were you stronger with the Gambino family behind you?

A. I had a whole enterprise behind me, a whole army. It’s like having a license.

Q. What kind of money did you start to earn on the street?

A. I got $10,000 from Paulie Zac to go out and start shylocking, which I did.

Q. What do you mean by shylocking?

A. Well, I was able to go out and lend money out at an interest rate, a weekly interest rate.

Q. What kind of interest rate?

A. I charged up to 5 percent, from 3 to 5 percent at that time.

Q. And that’s 5 percent a week?

A. 5 percent weekly, yes.

Q. If someone pays that weekly percentage, does it do anything to affect the principal?

A. No, never.”

The aforementioned site also has a fabulous bibliography (developed over a long period of time by Thomas P. Hunt, who is evidently an excellent researcher and subject matter expert on Mafia activities).

As I discussed when I was in Washington, a question exists, at what point do we consider interest rates to be too high?

Even though I have to acknowledge that banks are not actually charging as much as the Mafia (with the exception of some up-front balance transfer fees, like those of B of A), thirty percent or more is certainly prohibitive to the average consumer: students, middle class Americans, people in your neighborhood (would you like your home’s value to drop even more, because a neighbor is in financial distress for any reason, not just a mortgage?).

Thirty percent is also high enough to destroy all hope of repayment on the part of most borrowers, so they default and pass on their debt to those of us who are still paying (I know, some holier than thou individuals exist, and will be simpletons in their “solution”: just “pay cash”).  If we want an economic recovery, these rates must come down so that entrepreneurs can get back to work, too (and part of their work is creating jobs).

Meanwhile, thirty percent is certainly a slap in the face of taxpayers, who have bailed out the banks (especially given a FED funds rate of one quarter of a percent; “The federal funds rate is the interest rate at which depository institutions lend balances at the Federal Reserve to other depository institutions overnight”).

Now, with Chase, it “offered” some customers an “alternative“: If customers couldn’t stomach the increase in payments, then they could alleviate the pain of higher payments simply by switching to a rate that was (typically) double the previously promised promotional rate.  For example, a customer (aren’t they considered victims by the Mafia?) could agree to go from 3.99 percent to 7.99 percent (and the 7.99 percent was for a limited duration).

Of course, exactly what rate constitutes “loan-sharking” is a subject that deserves more discussion.  However, it’s not strictly about the interest rate.  Rather, we’re back to the notion of good faith versus bad faith, and intent.  Is it a loan, or is it a purposely set trap, designed to ensure a victim’s exploitation until death?  To my last point, I think that the Mafia and credit card companies use tactics that are exactly alike: “We’re gonna hurt you or your loved ones, and we’re gonna enjoy it.”

In keeping with the above, I’ve come up with a new slogan when you communicate with banks’ Congressional representatives:

CAP INTEREST RATES, NOT OUR KNEES

© Dr Robert Lahm for ChangeinTerms.com, 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: banks, credit, debt, fees, interest, interest rate, Testimony

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Let’s see, if a “similar lot” was $70k “not more than 9 months ago,” but now worth $24,900 (assuming enough similarity to be considered a comparable in a real estate appraisal), then the loss was $45,100 ($5011 per month).

Thank goodness, in these days of economic turmoil (with credit card companies doing all that they can to bully consumers and strangle small businesses), there are “RECESSION PROOF!” safe havens where those who have the financial wherewithal can invest!

Oh well, not to worry, with the “real estate professionals” working the market here in Murfreesboro, TN, it will probably be a while before our present home sells and we can move on to NC, anyway.  Yep, yesterday, one of those “professionals” called from our driveway to show a (local) “looker,” who wanted to see our home.  Forget the one hour notice request on the MLS, “we’re here to see your house!”

It’s days like those that make me want to give up.  But I don’t.  I make the drive.  305 miles, each way, every week, to work (plus the “in-town” mileage, when I am in NC).

I have a deadline to meet this weekend.  I’m working on a conference paper (on credit cards and small businesses).  You see, if I did “give up” on selling our home (by walking out like so many others have done), then I would not have much of an argument any more, when I try to speak out on behalf of struggling entrepreneurs (who are being squeezed — mercilessly — by credit card companies).

I have paid my bills and met my obligations, no matter what.  (As I drive during the treacherous trips through the mountains on I-40 eastbound in eastern Tennessee and western North Carolina, I at least know that if something happens to me, I’ll go with a clean conscience; I’m guessing that an apt description of “hell” is being a credit card account holder for eternity, so I definitely want to avoid going there.)

The FED (which is — unbeknown by most citizens — “owned” by the national banks and not “Federal”) and all of the bailouts have done nothing but enrich executives, who have enjoyed the parties, trips, perks, bonuses, and salaries of corporate big-wigs while they have had the same time, engaged in a reckless campaign against ordinary citizens (worldwide).  Meanwhile, homeowners, small businesses, and middle class consumers at large are slowly having the life sucked out of their wallets.

Just imagine: What if we invested $750 billion in bail out funds on the 21.7* million very small businesses in the United States?

The numbers are so staggering, they’ll make you dizzy (especially if you wear eyeglasses):

$1,000,000,000 (one billion dollars) x 750 = $750,000,000,000

$750,000,000,000 / 21,700,000 (very small businesses) = $34,562.21 (each)

I’d certainly bet that if the first round of bail out funds had been invested in small rather than big businesses, we would have stimulated the economy.  But no, we bailed out big banks and car companies, where a handful of executives (each typically earning in excess of a million dollars in salary, so you do the math) became even richer in bad times, on the backs of all of us.  I know that these executives are about the only ones who can afford scooping up deals on lakefront property right now.  Further, as I have previously written, we could have averted the worst of the mortgage and foreclosure crisis as well.

By the way, regarding one of biggest problems, unemployment (which as you recall, came next in our downward spiral — while we bailed out “big” businesses and executives), and much of the pain that has come from that, could have been avoided if we had invested in small businesses.  Also according to the SBA Office of Advocacy, small businesses: “Employ just over half of all private sector employees”; “pay 44 percent of total U.S. private payroll”; and, “have generated 64 percent of net new jobs over the past 15 years.”

Want to know why we’re suffocating, despite ever-so-slight signs of recovery?  A relatively small number of big businesses and their executives have prospered, and the rest of us, along with our children, and grandchildren, will pay, and pay, and pay.

* Those so small that they have no employees; number taken from SBA Office of Advocacy 2009 FAQs — out of 29.6 million total U.S. businesses.  Yes, the vast majority of all businesses are small businesses.  The vast majority of start-ups “bootstrap,” and many of these use personal and business credit cards as a source of capital.

© Dr Robert Lahm for ChangeinTerms.com, 2009. | Permalink | 5 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: "Bail Out", advocacy, banks, business credit, consumers, credit, credit cards, economy, small business

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You might recognize Louis and Margaret as the delightful creative duo who also brought us the “Chaise Diet” and “Revolution.“  Folks, it’s really important that you help these films “go viral.”  My own (re)view is that the Chaise Diet film certainly “captured the flavor” of how Chase’s onerous 5% minimum payment demand might be relative to its impact on one’s household finances.

Revolution did a fabulous job of suggesting what we need to do (i.e., revolt) as we face one of the coldest, most calculating and callous decisions that has been made by any bank in modern times (implementing the decision also included outright deception, such as by trying to fool customers by claiming that adding a so-called “service charge” that was indeed “a finance charge” would not impact APRs).

Meanwhile, Mission, is the best film yet relative to outlining the facts that are most relevant as underlying issues for Chase credit card customers (and those of other banks).  Since day one, in my own response letter to Gordon Smith (CEO of Chase Card Services), I was among the first (if not the first), to point out to Chase that its lack of an opt out is inconsistent with the testimony its executives delivered before Congress about the means by which Chase treated customers “fairly.”

Other issues, such as defamation and Chase’s influence over Congress and the mass media, and Jamie Dimon’s position on the Federal Reserve Board (not mentioned by name, JP Morgan Chase’s CEO, Dimon, is called the “highly placed agent”), are also brought to the attention of viewers.

I’m guessing that not everyone will “get it,” relative to some of these nuances which are present for those who have educated themselves about just how many and how long the tentacles are, that Chase has wrapped around its victims.  Nevertheless, any Chase (or other) credit card account holder can easily relate to what it feels like to be surrounded, squeezed, trapped, and destroyed by an organization that treats its very best customers (who have paid on time and as agreed), like “the enemy.”

How do you make this film “go viral”?  Play it, share it, send it to journalists, post it on other blogs (if you have one of your own), post links in comments you may make on other sites, and talk it up!

© Dr Robert Lahm for ChangeinTerms.com, 2009. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: banks, credit, Testimony

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