(I apologize if someone else has diaried this. I noticed this about a week ago, but I haven't seen a mention, so hear goes...)
Since the new Bankruptcy law went into effect in October, some of us (especially those of us that have significant credit card debt) have been waiting for the other shoe to drop. Since it is now much more difficult to erase credit card debt by declaring bankruptcy, it seems like it is only a matter of time before lenders take advantage of that fact by changing the terms of the loans in ways that might make consumers default on their agreements so that the bank can then start charging late fees and higher intrest rates.
Chase is the first bank that I have noticed to have actually implemented this strategy.
I have a significant amount of credit card debt. Fortunately, I have it locked in at relatively low fixed interest rates. I assume there are many other people out there just like me.
While I was paying my middle of the month bills a few days ago, I noticed that a few of the credit card bills that are normally due shortly after the first of the month (and hence after my paycheck) were now due before the end of the month/paycheck.
All of these credit cards were BankOne/Chase cards.
Long story short, it appears that Chase has lowered the grace period on most of its cards by five days. The Amazon branded card appears to be one exception.
I did not receive any forewarning of this change. I don't remember them sending out a new fine print booklet. But a change as significant as this should warrant a letter of some sort- especially for those of us who live from paycheck to paycheck.
Fortunately, this particular incident isn't going to effect me much. I was planning for something like this and had already lowered my spending to compensate. There probably are other people who are not so fortunate.
Have other people noticed this happening? Does anyone have any stories they'd like to share? Has anyone gotten any information from Chase on this? Are other banks doing this already?