Over the past two weeks, I have heard some truly disheartening stories from Chase credit card customers whose monthly payments were increased from 2% for 5% (see Chase Raises Minimum Payments for horror stories). Today, however, two posters have left notice that it is possible to arrange a reasonable repayment plan.
According to these posters, people who have been hit with payment increases should request to speak with the aptly titled HARDSHIP DEPARTMENT. Both posters wrote that they were able to negotiate a lower monthly payment without having to pay a significantly higher interest rate. Here is a very helpful posting from Susanne, who successfully got her monthly payment reduced:
“I also received the notice from Chase that my minimum payment was being raised to 5%. I was offered a 4.99% rate for the life of the balance transfer and at the time I got the offer I transferred every account I had plus a car loan that was at 9.5% – so my balance is large. My minimum payment is going from $500 to $1250. I called and told them there was no way I could make that payment. They transferred me to a hardship department or something like that. I was on hold for 45 minutes waiting to talk to someone. They asked a bunch of questions about my income, other loans, etc. and then came back and said they would close my account and transfer my balance to a 60 month fixed payment loan at 6% interest. The payment will be just under $500 so I will at least be able to make it. They said it would show the account was closed at the customer’s request. I have yet to get any paperwork from them so I am holding my breath that the deal is real. I’m sure this will hurt my credit score but I have no other choice. I’ve been a nervous wreck since this all started. Has anyone else had a similar experience?”
Clearly, Chase is not making it easy for consumers to obtain these deals, as many people would hang up after being on hold for so long. However, the fact that they are willing to make deals is the first positive news we have heard about this situation. Just be sure to call when you have anytime minutes and time. We hope to hear more from people who have had success dealing with the hardship department, although it truly is a shame that the hardships are being created by Chase and are not the fault of honest customers just trying to get by.
Lastly, in case a credit card company ever offers you a similar deal that allows you to transfer balances from a real fixed rate loan, such as a car loan, be sure to turn it down. Chase offered Susanne a way to save money on her car loan, and then they asked her to make Mercedes sized payments on a Toyota sized loan.
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July 8th, 2009 at 4:34 pm
It’s difficult to reach a “Hardship Department” when the Chase customer representatives tell you there is NO such department. And there is nothing you can do about this increase in minimum payment. This info received from two different Chase customer representatives. Furthermore, even if this dishonest corporation did have such a department, why should we trust such a department inside Chase, when Chase is the very one screwing us over? Very unwise move.
July 9th, 2009 at 8:42 am
Terry,
Two different posters have written in about their “success” with the hardship department. In my experience, customer service reps are often unaware or unwilling to help out. I would try again, be sure to ask for a U.S. representative, and if they are no help, request a supervisor. This may get you to the right department.
July 9th, 2009 at 2:41 pm
I was able to negotiate from 3.99 to 2.0% and close the account as I could not afford the increase from 2% to 5%
The number I called was 866-351-0182 (this number was given to me by customer service) They answered right away and after asking me several questions about finances and putting me on hold for 5 minutes, gave me the lower rate 2% fixed for 5 years.
July 16th, 2009 at 10:46 am
I know about the hardship dept first hand . we do have options avail to reduce you interest rate less of what your paying if your at a 6% of less you probably will be set to 2% over 60mnths the hold time may be long due to an excess of calls coming through usually theres 50 to 100 call wait at times. If you want an exact reason for the increase ask the OCC and Pres.
July 16th, 2009 at 10:49 pm
Yes, I have (had) a FICO in the mid 700′s, never paid a bill late in my life and took advantage of a promotional rate of 3.99% several years ago.
When notified of an increase in my minimum payments of 140% (2% to 5%) I agreed to close the accounts, take a 6% interest rate and a 5 year pay off. The next day I changed my mind, sent a certified letter demanding copies of the original contract (I still have mine) and laid out my intention to file a legal action. I received a call from Chase, and accepted their offer of 2.00% fixed, pay off in 5 years, and closed the account. Funny,they were making almost 4% on their money, and I was happy. Now I am paying 2.00%, have closed ALL of my Chase credit cards and moved my business checking account from Chase to Wells Fargo. I’ll never do business with Chase again. So, they make less money AND lose a good customer. Good thing they are not running MY company!
July 17th, 2009 at 3:35 pm
I called the hardship department and they tried to give me the five year deal for 11%. I got so pissed I told them I would rather just default. I will call them back when I am calmer and see if I can get something close to Ron Waller’s deal described above.
The really bad thing is that since WAMU became Chase, the company now has three of my bank accounts and my mortgage. Oh, the humanity!
July 20th, 2009 at 9:23 am
Toni,
Definitely take a deep breath and try again. I’ve heard a lot of stories from people who have ended up getting their interest rates reduced to as little as 2%. Just keep trying.
August 4th, 2009 at 1:33 pm
I was able to call Chase and after answering some questions about circumstances and income, I was offered a reduction in my interest rate from 29.99% to 6%. I had to close my account and agree to a 5 year fixed term loan, But that’s OK with me, beats the 29.99%!
August 4th, 2009 at 6:44 pm
Does any one know
If someone uses the modification program and closes there account does it lower their credit score???
August 11th, 2009 at 5:28 pm
Well, I just got off the phone with Chase. An hour and a half, being told there was nothing they could do to help me, sarcastic b*tches telling me just to transfer my balance to another card (!!!) and then telling me that they couldn’t do anything to lower the payments or the interest rate unless I defaulted and was three months past due! I said “no wonder the banks are in trouble!! This is ridiculous! Your “Proactive Solutions” department is telling people to default before they offer any kind of solution?” After an hour and a half and 5 people, they finally agreed to close the account and reduce it to what it was, 13.24 percent instead of the 16+ they jacked it up to. Remind me to write a letter to the congressmen and thank them for giving the banks a whole year to screw us over before the new laws take effect. Chase Bank got a bailout, and we’re the ones who get screwed.
August 13th, 2009 at 6:31 am
I too took what was suppose to be low fixed APR for life of balance transfer and Chase increased minimum payment from 2% of balance to 5% more than doubling my monthly payment. I filed a complaint with the Comptroller of the Currency Administrator of National Banks after getting no where by calling Chase several times. After I filed my complaint though, Chase contacted me. They are now telling me that they will lower my credit card interest rate (which is already low below 6%) to 2% interest, but I have to close the account. When I asked if this would adversely affect my credit rating I was told no, that it would say closed at customers request. I was also told that I would have a minimum payment lower than what I was paying before the 5% increase and that this “agreement” would be for 5 years. They said something about a $10 fee for checks though and I didn’t understand what they were talking about. This offer seems to good to be true – that I will be screwed in my credit rating or something. Does anyone know?
August 20th, 2009 at 4:41 pm
I called Chase immediately after receiving the notice at the end of June. I was one month from retirement and two months from relocating overseas (what little of my pension is left after bills will go farther there). I had applied for retirement at the end of March and made some non-refundable transactions to get things in place (rather large ones). I had been focusing on paying my Bank of America account off and almost had it paid off, so this kind of hit me. In any case it was to late to change my mind about retirement, as my position was slated to be eliminated after my final month (though my boss is hoping they can change minds at least in terms of months or a year down the road). When I called I spoke to someone who was NOT rude (I actually have not experienced that with any of their reps) who put me in touch with their hardship department. The woman I spoke to there seemed very nice and I was told she could not do anything till my annuity was determined and had begun.
So I had been on hold till I received official notice from my pension plan which was this past week. With a known annuity amount for this month and a starting retirement date of August 1 I called back. Spent a lot of time on hold, I’m guessing because a lot of people were in the same jam. The first person I talked to said that she couldn’t help me, she looked at one option but I suppose I was not eligible for that as a means of reducing it. Then I spoke to someone in the hardship department, someone not especially friendly but also definitely not rude. They worked out a plan with me to pay it off in 5 years at approximately the same payment as now. I am ok with that. I have avoided using credit cards for the past couple of years and my aim was to schedule payments the same each month till hopefully paid off. After credit cards (too many but three owned by Chase now), a personal loan, and providing support for my son to my ex-spouse (separated), since he does not want to relocate with me, it left me $100 or so dollars a month (my rent is paid as of this month for one year). Anyway, my pension simply could not handle that sort of increase in a payment, so I was pretty relieved.
I am still waiting for the fly in the ointment. I was told that $825 would be debited from my bank account in 10 days and then I will have to pay a little over $300 a month for five years starting Oct 1. I do wish I had all of this in writing, but I did get a confirmation number at least. And I still feel a twinge that something will not go right. But hoping. If it doesn’t, well I will stopp paying my Chase cards take that to retain an attorney to act on my behalf and start putting my Chase payments for all cards in a bank account to cover what I will owe them less lawyers fees). I can’t see anything else to do if they do not carry out their end of the bargain this week, but I am hopeful though it is hard to trust Chase and I would never open any type of account with them after this).
I would note again that nobody was rude to me, and I suspect that when we call it is in our interest to try to be affable with them. They are just employees in a bad international economy whether they are here in the US or an overseas location, and they are trying to take care of their lives and families. Just like me and you. It can’t be pleasant for them when dealing with lots of complaints from upset people. I was up front though and told them I would have no choice but to default and likely file for bankruptcy if they did not do something. And that is just truth.
August 22nd, 2009 at 8:18 pm
Keep in mind that when you cancel a credit card it lowers your credit score… that may or may not be important to you at a particular time. For instance if you are planning to get a car loan… Get it first.
August 25th, 2009 at 3:07 pm
I just wanted to provide an update. I received a written notice from Chase reiterating the payments we agreed on. It feels nice to have something in writing. With the minimum payment increase from 2% to 5% I really felt a great fear that I would receive notices such as some people reported after thinking they had an agreement. I am still waiting till Thursday to see what happens when the first payment is deducted. Also my online account page doesn’t reflect any of this it just shows a payment due on the 9th of next month.
My fingers are still crossed.
August 26th, 2009 at 7:47 am
It sounds promising. Getting something in writing at least gives some leverage if they try to back out. Hope it all works out, Grace.
August 27th, 2009 at 7:49 pm
I hope it works out too because I can’t pay them 5%. Today is the day the first payment (which will be 5%) is supposed to come out, still is not reflected online, but will check tomorrow and Monday as well as checking my bank account. If it has not happened Monday I will call them.
What is sad that Chase is doing this at this time, and they likely will force a number of people into default, when the economy cannot really bear having consumers squeezed even more. Hopefully the class action lawsuits that have been filed will have a positive outcome. Thinking about Chase makes my head hurt… But I do hope they follow through and having a written statement listing the payments agreed on should be something.
August 27th, 2009 at 8:19 pm
I just checked my Chase account online again, and the payment has been deducted. I suppose that along with the letter that means they will stand by their end. That said, I planned to be out of debt in five years anyway. But if I ever did have to borrow money again, or if I were to open a checking or savings account or any other sort of bank account, I would not patronize them. Consumers need some assurance that they can plan and work their budgets around things. I cannot see this as a good thing. My former boss is in the same position, she had used the low-interest option to cover massive medical bills and she is in this same boat. I stayed away from variable rate mortgages when I bought my house and I paid a 25-year mortgage off in 9 years. If I had realized that these fixed-rate balance transfers were not so fixed after all, I would never have fallen for them.
Here’s too the payments I agreed to and to paying them off as soon as possible. If I come into extra cash it will go to getting rid of this obligation to Chase.
August 31st, 2009 at 9:36 am
Good for you Grace. The best way to fight back against the banks is to pay them as little interest as possible. Hope your debt free day comes soon!
September 2nd, 2009 at 7:34 pm
You can add me to the list. Chase offered me a promotion of 5.9% balance trasnfer. Which I was very happy to do. Then they jacked up the minimum and also lowered my credit limit to within hundred dollars of my ctedit limit after the transfer. Then the following month the interest from the monthly paid raised my monthly payment to the 5% minumum. Which made my total credit amount to exceed the limit, (Which they cut to within the 100.00 credit limit). This cahnce my credit limit to be breached and thus canceling the promotion 5.9% interest rate. They have increase my credit limit to 29.99% as this direct result. CHASE completely and utterly performed very bad business transactions. I will never do business with them again. They have lost me and anyone I can speak to as a customer. I’m currently working on the hardship agreement. Will know soon. CHASE = BAD BUSINESS
September 3rd, 2009 at 6:54 am
I too experienced the 2% to 5% increase. I didn’t speak to the hardship department, but was told if I agree to 7.99% instead of 5.99%, it would go down to the 2% minimum. Apparently ther is no need to get anything in writing from Chase because they can change agreements at will. I agreed to their terms for a promotional offer and they changed the terms. Can we also change the terms and not pay anything???
September 3rd, 2009 at 9:22 am
Wish that was the case Cathie, but at least they offered you a fair deal. Well, not exactly fair, since they forced you to take a rate increase, but 7.99% is a very reasonable rate these days.
September 3rd, 2009 at 9:24 am
OK, this is a serious issue. I’m sure you tried calling, but I suggest you call and call and call again. Always request a supervisor, threaten to contact your State’s as well as their State’s Attorney general and, if they do nothing, do contact Attorney General’s.
September 5th, 2009 at 1:34 pm
My mother also received the lovely notice from Chase today that her monthly payment would increase to 5%, she owes a little over $11,000 on the bill and is already paying $236/mo, now chase wants $580/mo and this is absolutely impossible. My mother originally used this card as a balance transfer option to pay off medical bills for my terminally ill father, who just recently found out that his cancer is back and is undergoing cheomtherapy every week and travels two hours each week just for chemo and not to mention the rest of the doctor visits. This is impossible for people in this economic time to make these types of payments. Now is Chase gonna pick up the tab on all the medical. My mother did get in touch with the hardship dept. and has to call her back with all of her expenses so they can work out a “Deal”. We will see what they do?
September 10th, 2009 at 9:30 pm
Cathie,
Did you take the 7.99 percent offer? How did that work over the phone? Simple or what?
September 15th, 2009 at 10:09 pm
I’m a little concerned about those who think their interest rate got lowered to 2%. Does this sound like Chase? I too have a fixed low interest debt with chase and my min pay has been raised 150%. I did not accept the deal chase offered me (accept a higher interest rate 7.99% for 5 years to keep the 2% of the balance minimum monthly payment). I think chase is purposely confusing people. They are not offering 2% interest rates. They are agreeing to keep your minimum payment at 2% if you agree to a higher interest rate for 5 years. With a higher interest rate less will go to principle, what if you don’t pay it off in 5 years then what? They can also raise your monthly minimum payment anytime. You could find yourself with a 29% interest rate in 5 years and a 5% minimum monthly payment. You are giving up a low fixed interest rate for the life of the balance. It may be difficult but if you can it makes alot more sense to keep fixed low interest rate and make the higher payment. Your payment will go down considerably each month as will your balance. And best of all you force chase to keep your low interest loan on their books!
September 16th, 2009 at 10:41 am
Linda,
This is an interesting idea, though I haven’t yet heard back from people who posted, which I imagine I would have if Chase was not honoring the deal. I think a key element of the deals was the ability of the borrowers to repay. If they did financial reviews and saw that these customers were very likely to default, then they may have reduced the rates. It struck me as odd too, but I’m sure someone would have come back to complain if Chase didn’t hold up their end of the bargain.
September 16th, 2009 at 11:09 am
A few years ago I put $45k on a 3.99% “fixed for life loan”. It was for the down payment on my home. I have been diligent about paying more than the minimum so I only owe about $25k now. My minimum payment is due to increase to 5% this month and is due in a few days. I called Chase when I first received notice and said that I would like to “Opt Out” and they said that you cannot “Opt Out” of these changes. I could barely afford to pay the 5% minimum, but I would rather not since Chase is totally in the wrong for changing these terms. I do have two other reward credit cards with Chase that I use and enjoy. I really don’t want to get my excellent credit ruined but I was wondering if I should call them and tell them that I cannot pay the 5% minimum. What do you think they will do?
Thank you.
September 16th, 2009 at 10:24 pm
There are several options for the almost 1 million customers that Chase has screwed. First, contact Chase just so you can hear the “that’s too bad” speech. Then file a complaint here
http://www.helpwithmybank.gov/complaints/index.html
It will get Chase attention! Also file a complaint with your states Attorney General and Federal Attorney General. Chase is doing this to get rid of customers that carry a low interest balance or a large balance. They can get away with it as long as people are sheep.
This is what you get with a government controlled by corporate money. Like FDR said, a government by organized money is just as dangerous as a government by organized mob.
September 18th, 2009 at 7:59 am
Scott,
If you contact Chase, ask for a supervisor, and ask to speak with the hardship department, you may be able to work out a deal. Many visitors here have had success in getting their payments lowered-in eschange for a 2% or so rate increase-while others have succeeded in getting a lower APR. Much of it depends on your financial situation, but if you can prove you can’t make the payments, Chase seems to be willing to bargain. Hope this helps.
September 18th, 2009 at 7:06 pm
if you go back to the top of this page you will see my original post. Chase offered me a 5 year fixed rate loan at 6% but I had to close my account. I agreed to these terms over the phone because there was no way I could make a payment over $1,100 a month and then held my breath waiting to see if it was for real. I got paperwork in the mail that said my payment would be $459/month which in 60 payments would take care of my balance. I set up an automatic deduct from my checking account so I would never miss a payment and I am able to look at my account online. My first payment came out as scheduled but oddly enough, it was only for $408. About the same time I got something in the mail from Chase regarding my account and the automatic payment amount. I could hardly believe it but the reason for the lower amount was that my interest rate had been LOWERED from 6% to 2%. The $408 monthly payment X 60 months will bring my balance to zero so it appears there is no catch. My online account reflects the same – 2% for 60 months @ $408. I don’t know why after I agreed to 6% they lowered it to 2%, but I’m not complaining! So.. there is hope!
September 21st, 2009 at 9:01 am
Susanne,
Thanks for coming back to post about this. Some visitors had been questioning whether Chase was truly lowering rates on customers who had issues meeting new payments. Clearly they are and this should bring hope for the many people struggling to make reasonable deals.
And, since no one has said anything positive about Chase for a long time, I think it may be time to say that they may be unfair about payment increases, but they are reasonable when dealing with customers who can’t afford their onerous repayment terms. Sometimes.
November 24th, 2009 at 6:10 pm
Reasonable? You’ve got to be kidding. Chase offered to lower my minimum payment back down to 2% and worked out a payment plan to pay back over 5 years, but at 15% interest! So instead of no being able to afford it now, I can pay less but for twice as long as I originally would have!
November 25th, 2009 at 11:42 am
Steve,
That is one of the worst outcomes I’ve been informed of. Perhaps reasonable was not the best word.
March 5th, 2010 at 3:34 pm
Yay!
I just called the number (866-351-0182) posted by someone above after having been told by chase credit card services I had to write a letter to negotiate any terms if I was experiencing hardship. It got me right through to what everyone has been saying is the elusive “Proactive Solutions Department” with barely any hold time!!! Thank you to whoever posted that!!!! I was going to go on a DMP with a Credit Service company that offered 10% interest rate on both my 28.4 and 12% interest rate Chase accounts, but it was going to cost me 500 some odd dollars in fees over the three years. The CHase guy got me a 6% rate on the 12% card and a 15.9% rate on the 28.24% card (which has the lowest balance anyways, so I’ll work to pay that off first.) And lowered both my monthly minimum payments. Provided I make more than the minimum payment, I think I’ll be coming out ahead in the end! FINALLY! Some relief. Give the number a try and see what you can negotiate. If not, it was Cambridge Credit Counseling that offered me a 10% interest rate on both cards, which was comparable if I didn’t think I could pay down the balance of this smaller card pretty soon. GOod luck everyone, this stinks but there is light at the end of the tunnel…
March 5th, 2010 at 3:43 pm
Kate,
Congratulations! I’m really excited to hear that someone is making progress. I’ve heard from so many people who have been unable to get anywhere with their credit card companies, and I hope more people have the luck you had.