Credit Card Abuse, Chase Bank, Violations of Law and Ethics

CREDIT CARD ABUSE AND VIOLATIONS OF LAW AND ETHICS

Chase guilty of unethical credit card practices, harming USA.

Chase Bank has taken at least 25 billion dollars of taxpayer "BAIL OUT" money. Yet Chase and other big banks have set up and been deeply involved in establishing systems that unfairly gouge American families.

Recent studies by federal regulators confirm that the credit card industry and banks that own or helped establish credit card issuers “violate laws and engage in abusive credit practices”.

Even President Obama has called the major bank CEO’s to discuss the abuses. So far, the credit card industry continues its sleazy credit card policies. Policies that make a “loan shark” of the pawn shops of history look like saints by comparison.

Consider the case of Sarah Whitley, a 34 year old, single working mother of two children.

Sarah worked for years to develop good credit history, and with steady persistance over the years achieved what she considered the American dream. She was able to buy a home in an area with a good school system so that her children could get a good education, in an area that did not have drugs or sex offenders. She bought a car adequate to to take her kids to school activities.

One day, in 2009, she got a letter from Chase Bank’s credit card division. It said that since she was a “Preferred Customer” they had approved a $5,000 loan to her. All she had to do was take the money and put it in the bank. The $5,000 would of course be at a special low interest rate, for several months.

She was thrilled, because her budget had tightened. Sarah was a realtor, and with the slow down in the economy, her income had declined. This $5,000 would allow her to take care of obligations that were worrying her. She went to WaMu (now owned by Chase Bank), asked to speak to an officer and said: “Is this for real? Should I do this?” The officer said: “Sure, take it, put it in your account and spend it today!”.

So she did. She used the money to pay bills that very day.

Three weeks later, Chase Bank sent her a letter and said: “We have revoked the $5,000 loan. You are in default.” And demanded that she return the money to pay back the loan.

She got a call from the bank, saying that $5,000 had been charged back to her account and that she was now overdrawn $5,000. “But I have already spent the money, you told me to!” she explained. Chase Bank charged the $5,000 back to the WaMu account, then WaMu said that if she did not bring them $5,000 cash immediately, they would close her account. She then got a message that she would be “Banned from ever opening an account with any Chase Bank in the world.” She had no money, and then she began to get notices. All of her credit cards began to send “Cancellations”, or increase interest rates from 9% to 27%. Suddenly, her car note was called, and she was hounded for repossession, day and night.

In a matter of less than a month, Sarah’s perfect credit reputation, which she had worked for years to build, was destroyed. Then her home lender called, and said because of credit concerns, they were considering foreclosing her house. Her credit card companies, even though she was paying, by now had "instantly and without prior notice" raised her interest rates to 27% and higher, some simply blocked or cancelled her accounts.

“I went to the bank, I called all of my credit card companies, I called everyone, I told them I was trying, I showed them a letter from my employer, it said I was a good person, but that the real estate market was slow, that my income decline was not my fault, I told them I would do whatever it takes, and they all just wrote me off” she said, in tears.

The net result is. Chase Bank, due to unethical and deceptive marketing, AND corrupt credit card and credit policy, encouraged a mother of two, to borrow $5,000, then changed the terms of the loan, put her into an impossible position forcing further financial problems. 

This scenario has been repeated thousands of times, with Chase, Citi and Bank of America often the prime "evil-doers" in a systematic, step by step

"M O" that harms people. In some cases it leads to bankruptcy. In some cases it creates family and business failure. In some cases the stresses create physical health issues, and often marriages and family units are brokern.  All of this describes something foriegn to the American ethic, the American dream.  This approach to finance must be regulated, punished and done away with.