I have been miserably entangled with Chase Credit Cards for a few years now, but until about a year ago I was in good standing with them. I had started with a Providian Visa and a Chase MasterCard. But things changed. The SEIU site sums it up:
"In 2005, WaMu acquired Providian Financial Corporation, which continued to operate as the company's credit card division until the bank collapsed and was acquired by JPMorgan Chase..."
During those years I had accrued a balance of around $7,000 on one and $3,000 on the other. I realized I was paying over $300 per month to two different credit cards, both of which were now Chase. I had very little income, and difficulty finding work...
Johnny Lick's Foggiest Memories no 2
Foggy memory no. 1.1 is here: (http://kirinkapin.com/FerretTails/?p=32&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1)
I have been miserably entangled with Chase Credit Cards for a few years now, but until about a year ago I was in good standing with them. I had started with a Providian Visa and a Chase MasterCard. But things changed. The SEIU site sums it up:
"In 2005, WaMu acquired Providian Financial Corporation, which continued to operate as the company's credit card division until the bank collapsed and was acquired by JPMorgan Chase..."
During those years I had accrued a balance of around $7,000 on one and $3,000 on the other. I realized I was paying over $300 per month to two different credit cards, both of which were now Chase. I had very little income, and difficulty finding work. I adopted a strategy of rolling balances back and forth with convenience checks and other lines of credit. This went on until 2008, when the economy started showing damage from the sub-prime mortgage crisis (in which Chase was a key player).
Chase took advantage of many minor clauses they had buried over time in their contracts. They wrote me two separate letters that said my balance-to-something ratio was too high. They were cutting the limits to about $100 over what I owed on each card. I had been snared, like a lazy fox. Over time, Chase had acquired me as a customer and also acquired my Providian debt so I could not borrow from one to pay the other. By lowering my limit I could not borrow any more money for any reason. With my cards maxed out, I had few choices: pay up or face Credit Hell. Paying up meant making payments to Chase that were literally all my income. And by just making those payments, I would never, ever pay down the debt. Chase wanted to wring me like a rag for the rest of my days, and my debt would grow and grow.
"Well, what's Credit Hell like," I began to wonder...
JL
So, here's more tidbits from the SEIU:
"JPMorgan Chase had a hand in the worst of the subprime lending excesses, providing financing to the nation's two largest subprime lenders, Countrywide and Ameriquest... JPMorgan Chase also owned a major subprime lender, Chase Home Finance, and has acquired two banks with large subprime operations: Washington Mutual... and Bear Stearns... Together, these five firms issued over $295.3 billion in subprime loans from 2005-2007."
"Providian targeted subprime credit card customers and has paid more in settlements for unfair and deceptive practices and fraud than any other credit card company in history."