Yet another reason to dislike CC companies

nadams

So... way back when, I got a Providian credit card. Providian was then purchased by Washington Mutual. This was all fine and dandy, since I didn't lose any functionality in my online account management, so I still had my free monthly FICO credit score (a nice tool to watch from month to month how things you do effects your score).

Now, along comes Chase, and they decide to purchase WaMu, and therefore, my old Providian account.

NOW, they're removing functionality overall, and also taking away the free FICO scores! This was the ONLY reason I was still keeping this account open... as they had previously jacked my interest rate from 11% to 22% for no apparent reason and refused to relent on it at all. Their answer to that one was "If you don't like it, pay your balance and close the account".

Chase's answer to my FICO question? And I quote - "We're evaluating ways to provide your FICO score through Chase Online because we know it's important to you. As of March 1, however, your free FICO score won't be displayed. Please consider accessing your credit score details for a fee through Chase Credit Builder."

What do you mean you're evaluating ways... ? Just do it the same was as WaMu and Providian did before! I take this to mean "We're not as nice as those guys, so we're not giving it to you for free... now, give us $15 and we'll let you see what it is at this exact moment"

Blargh... Guess I'll be cutting that card up

CaligulaPolk

nadams wrote: »

So... way back when, I got a Providian credit card. Providian was then purchased by Washington Mutual. This was all fine and dandy, since I didn't lose any functionality in my online account management, so I still had my free monthly FICO credit score (a nice tool to watch from month to month how things you do effects your score).

Now, along comes Chase, and they decide to purchase WaMu, and therefore, my old Providian account.

NOW, they're removing functionality overall, and also taking away the free FICO scores! This was the ONLY reason I was still keeping this account open... as they had previously jacked my interest rate from 11% to 22% for no apparent reason and refused to relent on it at all. Their answer to that one was "If you don't like it, pay your balance and close the account".

Chase's answer to my FICO question? And I quote - "We're evaluating ways to provide your FICO score through Chase Online because we know it's important to you. As of March 1, however, your free FICO score won't be displayed. Please consider accessing your credit score details for a fee through Chase Credit Builder."

What do you mean you're evaluating ways... ? Just do it the same was as WaMu and Providian did before! I take this to mean "We're not as nice as those guys, so we're not giving it to you for free... now, give us $15 and we'll let you see what it is at this exact moment"

Blargh... Guess I'll be cutting that card up

Yeah credit cards sucks and eat up your money! CASH is best system...

I would cut it up if i were you..

MSALLA

Ya. I got pissed one day, paid them all off and cut them up. Now it's cash or don't buy. It dose make it kind of tight when you want something expensive though.

cfrizz

Personally, I don't see a problem. If you treat your CC like it was cash & pay off the balance every month, it wouldn't matter what they charge for interest. If you know the money isn't in the bank, why put it on the CC?

And if you did it this way, you also wouldn't have to worry or even be bothered keeping track of your FICO scores.

They are in business to make money, but YOU have the control over how much money that you choose to give them.

Don't blame them if you willingly give them control rather than keeping it for yourself.

nadams

cfrizz - unfortunately, not always an option. On the whole, I'm doing pretty well for myself... but in owning a house comes unpleasant surprises. I try to keep most of my purchases on my Home Depot card... 6 months no interest on any purchase over $299. It's a great deal as long as you get it paid off in that 6 months... if not, you pay any interest accrued during that time.

I'm slowly, but surely, getting this Providian card paid off from needing a few things over Christmas. As soon as it's done, it's time for the shredder.

MSALLA

cfrizz wrote: »

Personally, I don't see a problem. If you treat your CC like it was cash & pay off the balance every month, it wouldn't matter what they charge for interest. If you know the money isn't in the bank, why put it on the CC?

And if you did it this way, you also wouldn't have to worry or even be bothered keeping track of your FICO scores.

They are in business to make money, but YOU have the control over how much money that you choose to give them.

Don't blame them if you willingly give them control rather than keeping it for yourself.

This is true but requires self control. I don't blame them for my short comings.

nadams

Oh, and as for the credit score... I like to watch it, because with my limited credit history, one little blip will send the score plummeting. I was late on a payment by one day, dropped the score 50 points that month. That was two months ago and I'm still not up to my original score.

All in all, I have a very good score for my age... and I want to make sure it stays that way. Plus, if you can check your score every month, you can tell very quickly if someone has done something such as steal your identity and apply for a loan

manman

I have to agree with cfrizz on this one, although CCs can be enough of a convenience to drag you into having to put up with a lot of ****. I don't like the way they do business at all (being able to jack your rates for reasons have have nothing to do with your payment of that card, or lowering your limit whenever they decide), but hey- you agree to all that crap when you sign the contract...

But to answer the question "if you know the money isn't in the bank, why put it on cc"- short term investments I've made good money using my CC as something like a short term business loan etc. For consumer purchases I would agree though.

SKsolutions

I've had their CC for about a year, and it's still at 11% as of this statement. If it went to 22%, I'd transfer it and close it. I've been very happy with it, but I won't continue on with a company that even has Morgan's name in it. I dinged it with half of the ring purchase in Aug, and there's only half of that left. . . .so I might as well get Zeroed by the change over in March. Pity-about the FICO. It was the most accurate consumer model that I've seen, and much closer to what the actual number is than the monthly fee service I maintain. Thanks for the heads up. Providian was like the CC mafia, and it looks like Morgan will be too.

obieone

Pay that thing off asap, then you can sit back and wait for the offers!
I used CC's to establish credit, then I bought a new truck, and showed a responsible history with a large purchase. Then I qualified for a mortgage, and payed off the CC and truck within a month of each other. The only debt I have is my mortgage.
Now the only frustrating thing is, saving up to build a 2 car garage. I want finance as LITTLE as possible.

snow

nadams wrote: »

cfrizz - unfortunately, not always an option. On the whole, I'm doing pretty well for myself... but in owning a house comes unpleasant surprises. I try to keep most of my purchases on my Home Depot card... 6 months no interest on any purchase over $299. It's a great deal as long as you get it paid off in that 6 months... if not, you pay any interest accrued during that time.

I'm slowly, but surely, getting this Providian card paid off from needing a few things over Christmas. As soon as it's done, it's time for the shredder.

Not telling you what to do here but if you own your house you can probally easily get either a home improvement loan or a line of credit for emergencys that will be one hell of a lot les than 22% interest. Perhaps borrow enough to pay the credit card off also? Just a thought:)



REGARDS SNOW

manman

some people do think it's a good idea to consolidate credit card debt with a heloc, but I personally would never want to one for anything other than investing in my home... better rate, but then you're putting your home on the line, and that's kind of scary.

nadams

Snow- I could do that... and also get enough to put in the new windows my place so desparately needs... but I've only been here 2 years, so I doubt they'd give it to me just yet. And, like manman said - do I really want to borrow more against my house?

vlam

At least they didn't close your Providian account. When Chase took over, they simply close my 2 account because I already had 8 other CL with Chase. The least they could do is to allow me reduce the limit on these two credit card.

polrbehr

Chase totally sucks, IMO.

I paid off my entire balance recently, and they sent me a bill for $1.37, interest accrued on $142.03 between the time I asked for a payoff amount and the day they received my check. So they spent $.42 to tell me this???
I suppose, in theory, I'll never get this paid off then?

nadams

Great... looks like I have plenty to look forward to until I get it paid off.

nadams

And it's never good when a bank has an entire website dedicated to their suckiness - www.chase-sucks.com

exalted512

I just got a an offer from discover that was 0% apr until 2010, do you ever get any of those offers? You could just transfer what you have to one of those until you have it paid off. I get at least one every 4-5 months with 0% interest for a year.

I have student loans, which are still deferred since I'm in school, and now my bike. We tried getting a house this summer and while we were about to go into contract, the gov't changed some rules around on the finance side of things and we were short. Even though the mortgage payment was only a couple hundred dollars between what my fiancee and I pay for rent. Pretty ridiculous.

I only use my credit card for emergencies, and I think I have only had a balance on it once from one month to the next before it was paid off.
-Cody

shack

exalted512 wrote:

I just got a an offer from discover that was 0% apr until 2010, do you ever get any of those offers? You could just transfer what you have to one of those until you have it paid off. I get at least one every 4-5 months with 0% interest for a year.

We get 4-5 credit card offers a week and I immediately put them in the shredder. 0% doesn't mean anything to me since I haven't carried a balance on a credit card in 20+ years. 0% or 21%...doesn't matter...I pay the same amount of interest each month. $-0-.

BTW I carry a credit card (AmEx) and run most of my purchases through it each month...I just always pay 100% of the balance.

PhantomOG

I like Chase. Their website is very well organized and useful -- not like the horrible interface Bank of America uses. Plus they still keep giving me 5% cash back on gas/groceries/drug store purchases which is impossible to find anymore today. Plus they are very generous with the credit lines.

I would be pissed about losing a free FICO score though. That's worth at least $10 a month versus most paid credit monitoring services.

Gaara

I assume all you guys who have cards that they shred check your reports? Wouldn't want a card which was shredded to end up with some bogus charge and you get nailed with not paying it. For those who don't know you can pull your credit report free once per year with the 3 bureaus, if you stagger you can have a fresh one once every 4 months.

shack wrote: »

We get 4-5 credit card offers a week and I immediately put them in the shredder. 0% doesn't mean anything to me since I haven't carried a balance on a credit card in 20+ years. 0% or 21%...doesn't matter...I pay the same amount of interest each month. $-0-.

I love those offers. I am making $100/month on one of those offers.

PhantomOG wrote: »

I like Chase. Their website is very well organized and useful -- not like the horrible interface Bank of America uses. Plus they still keep giving me 5% cash back on gas/groceries/drug store purchases which is impossible to find anymore today. Plus they are very generous with the credit lines.

Business card? Or maybe Chase cash plus rewards?

I love my MTvU, 5% back on movies/music/food/books. Works on all restaurants not just fast food. Best part is Amazon counts as books no matter what you buy, so 5% back on all Amazon purchases.

vlam

I couldn't agree more on the BoA website. They have one of the the worse account managment tool on there. Their online payment system sucks..

Chase and Citi does have a pretty good interface.

PhantomOG

Gaara wrote: »

Business card? Or maybe Chase cash plus rewards?

I love my MTvU, 5% back on movies/music/food/books. Works on all restaurants not just fast food. Best part is Amazon counts as books no matter what you buy, so 5% back on all Amazon purchases.

Yeah, its the old Rewards Plus card. I read where people were getting converted to the Freedom card with less cashback, but I still keep raking in the cashback dough every month -- I average almost $50 a month!

Wow... I knew about the MtvU card getting 5% back at restaurants, but I had no idea that it was 5% at Amazon. I do most of my online shopping at Amazon, I should look into whether I can get that card still.

suprafantx

Chase bank is suck. I will close my Chase bank accounts and will not banking with them any more.

Gaara

PhantomOG wrote: »

Yeah, its the old Rewards Plus card. I read where people were getting converted to the Freedom card with less cashback, but I still keep raking in the cashback dough every month -- I average almost $50 a month!

Wow... I knew about the MtvU card getting 5% back at restaurants, but I had no idea that it was 5% at Amazon. I do most of my online shopping at Amazon, I should look into whether I can get that card still.

Thanks, figured as much. I use one freedom for the 0% offers and the other for Gas only, 3.75% back isn't that bad but not the best.

Yeah MtvU was a good decision, switched over some old crappy 1% back card for it. When I found out Amazon was 5% I was stoked, I buy lots of stuff on there in bulk like shampoo, razors, etc. way cheaper then in the store. Plus 5% cash back makes the deals even better.

PhantomOG

Is the 5% cashback? Or gift cards?

I wonder how smart Citi is. I've already have a Citi account with 10+ years of good history. Normally that would be a good thing, however, applying for a *student* card....

Gaara

PhantomOG wrote: »

Is the 5% cashback? Or gift cards?

I wonder how smart Citi is. I've already have a Citi account with 10+ years of good history. Normally that would be a good thing, however, applying for a *student* card....

Yeah thats the downside you get points towards the ThankYou network you can cash it out but I believe you only get 80% of the value. You can get Giftcards at 100% but need to save up to $100 worth.

I got one with a 4 year old account, didn't ask for any info at all. Depends who you get on the phone. All though I was in college at the time, they didn't even ask what school I went to.

CaligulaPolk

suprafantx wrote: »

Chase bank is suck. I will close my Chase bank accounts and will not banking with them any more.

u in philadelphia area?

Chase banks in where??? I know philly havfe plent of chase banks..

vlam

Chase banks in where??? I know philly havfe plent of chase banks..

Huh? There are no Chase branch in Philadelphia.

suprafantx

CaligulaPolk wrote: »

u in philadelphia area?

Chase banks in where??? I know philly havfe plent of chase banks..

No, I am in Texas.

Squidmon

Chase is by far the least customer-friendly entity I've ever come across. In layman's terms, they SUCK!