Recently, Chase changed the terms and conditions to many of their online credit card offers, particularly with regard to balance transfer fees. Previously, Chase was one of the few remaining credit card issuers that still capped balance transfer fees at a set maximum. For example, 3% per transaction with a maximum fee of $75 or $99 dollars.
However, as has been the case with Bank of America, Citi, and Capital One, Chase has lifted the maximum dollar amount on balance transfer fees to infinity. For example, if you transfer a $5000 balance to the popular Chase Platinum Visa® Card, the cost will be $150. Prior to this recent change, it would have been $99.
As we’ve written recently, the credit crunch and resulting turmoil on Wall Street is having a very negative impact on the quality of credit card offers available, even to people with superb credit. Unfortunately, things are likely to get worse. Consequently, we continue to encourage anyone who is considering a balance transfer to do it now while decent, low fee 0% offers are still available.
April 28 2009 Update: After a visitor posted on this site recently, I took a look at this posting from October of 2008 and really got a sense of how much the balance transfer landscape has changed, particularly in regards to fees. Today, every major issuer is charging full 3% balance transfer fees on 0% deals and Bank of American has announced plans to raise balance transfer fees to 4% on June 1st.
While everyone enjoys being correct about a prediction, on this matter, I truly wish I was wrong. Unfortunately, most of the dire predictions I began blogging about late last year are coming to fruition. And, while my prediction that 0% balance transfers may soon disappear has yet to become completely true, these offers continue to be for shorter durations, regardless of the company. So, lets all hope I’m wrong about 0% rates disappearing.
April 27th, 2009 at 8:03 pm
About Chase,had a death in the family this month at the beginning of the month.Was out of town a week & when I got back,I realized that i forgot to mail a Chase payment out.I paid quickly by phone,but was about 13 days late.I paid what they asked,April’s bill & Mays bill,plus the $39.00 late charge,plus interest.Bottom line seamed high at the time,but i paid to try & stay in good standings.When I got my next bill,they had raised my limit from 8.9% to 29.9 %.I called & tried to get them to bend a little,but they wouldn’t.I would transfer to other cards,but can’t at this time.What should I do to get the rates down.Thanks,Cliff.
April 27th, 2009 at 8:17 pm
HBC question.I moved a couple of years ago & had my mail forwarded to my new address.About 6 months later I had redline calling me saying that I owed money on a credit card.I didn’t believe him at first,thought it was someone after my info.After a while,I thought it was possible that he was telling the truth.i got the info from him & called HBC.Sure enough,I had an outstanding balance.it wasn’t very much,only about $300.00,but the damage was done to my credit.After i spoke to HBC,I found that the PO had mailed the bill back to HBC & didn’t forward my mail.HBC didn’t bother to send me another statement,instead they gave it to collections(redline)If they had mailed another statement,most likely would have gotten to my new address.Instead,it screwed my credit.I missed that payment,because I had paid some off at that time & didn’t catch that one missing.Anything I should do there.I did pay it off,but is still on my credit.Cliff.
April 28th, 2009 at 3:09 pm
Cliff,
I’m sorry to hear about your loss. My best wishes to you and your family. I’m going toss out a few possible solutions – hopefully one will work.
1.) Even though you had the issue with HBC, you may have good enough credit to get a new card that will charge you less than 29% interest. If you haven’t tried the balance transfer approach, you should at least try.
2.) Call Chase and ask for a US representative and then a supervisor. Explain your problem and if possible, see if they will close your account and give you your old rate. If you’ve tried and gotten nowhere, give it a few more tries. Be as nice as possible and if you can provide evidence that you were out of town, they may take that.
3.) Get a copy of all three of your credit reports (you can get free credit reports here) and start harrassing the credit report companies. Since you paid the balance in full, you should be able to get this removed or at least closed out. This may help your credit score enough to help you qualify for a balance transfer.
Unfortunately, this is a really tough situation and I am really sorry to hear you have been put into such a bind for making a simple mistake. Hopefully, you’ll be able to resolve this matter with Chase or by getting a new credit card. If not, you may be able to fix your credit enough to qualify for a new card in a few months.
Please let me know if you have any success. I’m rooting for you.