Watch your credit cards

[Bonibelle]

Funny you should bring this up Nitro. I have two credit cards standing...haha..none through Chase though. One is through my credit union and the other is a Capital One. Capital one has notified me that in February 2010 my rate will go from 4.5% to 15.5%. They sent that information in the mail and also gave me a call.

Anyway, recently I got a letter from some bank that I have never even heard of offering to pay off my credit cards with a loan. They had the exact amount of what I owed on my cards down to the dollar. I got very angry because I never authorized ANYONE to sort through my credit ...I filed a complaint with the FTC...and for a government agency, they were pretty good to deal with. This bank violated laws and I am now going to file a complaint with the Pennsylvania Attorney General. Turns out a friend of mine also got the same letter with the same offer and the amount was exactly what she owed..so they did access our credit reports.
I may even send this info to the local TV channel and let them do an investigation. This is Bull and no one has a right to dig into your credit with the purpose to lend you money without your permission!!   

..I will however say it again, if you can get into a credit union, that is your best bet. They are owned by the members and have friendly business practices..and NO credit unions were bailed out by the government.

[Bonibelle]

And we wonder how the banks went down the tubes...and took us with them....This from AOL news:

Bank Mistakenly Sells Couple's Home
Despite being up to date on their mortgage payments, a Phoenix couple mistakenly had their home placed in foreclosure and sold.

Jeff and Yanthy Zerner were approved for a mortgage modification with Chase just days before they received a notice giving them five days to vacate the property, a KPHO-TV, Phoenix story said. When Jeff Zerner contacted the number on the notice, he was told the house had been in foreclosure, and it had been bought.

Chase admitted the error and apologized to the couple, the story said. They are also meeting with the couple to work out a solution.

[Dr. Spa™ Ret.]

Something isn't right with that story. From everything I know about mortgage modifications, you have to be 6 months delinquent on payments before the lending companies will even begin talking to to you about possibilities (I know someone that was 14 months delinquent when their modification went through). Hence, if they were but approved, they would have still been months behind on payments.

[Bonibelle]

Do a search with the couple's names..you will see multiple renditions of the story. Yeah something is seriously wrong, but it looks like the problem was with Chase Bank..

[Vinny]

I have a friend with a Citibank card and they raised his rate to 30% and he too had never paid late. I think it's a way to get consumers to bail out the banks AGAIN! They are all scrambling to get it in before the Federal deadline. Yeah, the government screwed us again ... they passed a law then they gave the banks months to comply and now have turned their back. Funny thing is you would think they wouldn't want to alienate customers since eventually things will go back to normal.

I think the best thing to do is to buy Mastercard and or Visa stock, use their CC and pay it off totally every month. You will see their stock soar and maybe even get a dividend from them while the banks get nothing or very little.

I now have a Schwab Bank Visa that gives me 2% cash back automatically. I have recurring payments on it (heck I have to pay bills) and I get a 2% discount on them - not much but it goes into my pocket.

I also paid off the car loan, I had the loan down to $160 a month but was paying $360 a month toward it; Chase upped my payment to $370 a month and I never missed a payment. I said they can go scratch - I will pay myself the amount I was paying Chase and they won't earn another penny from it!

[Bonibelle]

Vinny,  We are lucky because we can tell them to go scratch..but think of the many people who depend on these stinkin cards or who have used them to the max and will NEVER be able to pay them off because the interest rates are so high.  I just want rid of all of them..and I would l just love for some novel idea to to evolve to help people out from under these things..that would put them all out of business..grrrr

[Vinny]

I agree 100% with you. The 10% that are able to pay it off and be free is a small number vs the 90% that will continue to pay the 30% or higher payments.

The novel idea is to stop using the credit card, don't even carry it. Use cash whenever possible and when the economy recovers and it will, get a 2nd job and pay off the debt! Even at $100 week that's $5200 a year if 1 person does it and $10400 if 2 people (husband and wife) do it. You can get the debt down quickly (a few years) if you put this on top of the minimum payment already being paid.

Having to work 2 jobs sucks (heck I don't even want to work 1 - LOL  ) but these people did it to themselves!

I have a saying that I tell my sons - 'In life you have to pay, either by money or time or by hard work. Nothing in life comes for free.' I truely believe this. Luckily my 19 YO sees what I have said and is working toward a college education, my 14 YO is still too young to realize this, hopefully he will see this as well.

And after all this preaching, I do feel very fortunate that I was able to pay off the car and live the lifestyle I do! Which isn't much!!!!

[rcnitro]

I completely agree with you guys. I am very lucky to not owe much on the card at all. In fact it will be paid off next month. We pretty much only use it on vacations anymore cause we dont like to carry much cash plus you have all of the fraud security. There was a time when we carried a massive balance on a couple of cards. We learned our lessons and have got them paid off or virtually paid off. I know there are alot of people out there that aren't as lucky. I plan to pay this off, cash in my reward points and tell them to stick this card where the sun doesnt shine. I may check out our credit union we bank with and see what kind of CC deals they have. We had a good, issue free, run with Chase for 8 years but unfortunately that will be coming to an end.