txviking

I had to replace all my Chase cards due to fraud a few months ago. They disclaimed responsibility and pointed the finger at a merchant, but they would not disclose which merchant, so I am not sure I believe them. Even if true, not knowing which merchant is involved makes it impossible for me to know if I might also have used a non-Chase card with the same merchant.

Their anti-fraud systems do appear to be primarily targeted at legitimate customers. Unrelated to credit cards, I've just had $15,000 disappear into some sort of limbo for three days because Chase thought it was "suspicious" that I would transfer funds from their worthless (0.001% APR) savings account into a Discover savings account in my name that actually earns a tiny bit of interest.

garykung

OP - I think differently. So please excuse me for being blunt.

Issuers lose money and resources dealing with fraud, as well as potential class actions. So I don't believe that Chase did not learn a lesson from the last time. Given that it was your 5th time in 4 years and pretty much you charged everything to the cards, I believe that the root of the fraud comes from the merchants you are doing business with.

Although we all speculate, I believe you should start thinking outside the box.

s0ssos

But it is the responsibility of Chase to do what they can to prevent fraud. In the same way that if your ATM card gets compromised you are usually not liable, and it is probably the fault of that lousy ATM you shouldn't have used, but I'm pretty sure ATM companies try to do what they can to prevent it.

garykung

OP is never liable for the fraudulent charges and Chase replaces the accounts. So Chase has done what it is supposed to do.

OP simply tries to avoid another episode as it will be a PITA to switch again.

Actually, ATM cards work completely different than credit cards.

In short, the risk exposure of an ATM card is far greater than a credit card in term of fraud.

takeshi74

I've run into with with a couple of my Chase cards but nowhere near the number of incidents that you've had.

No -- it happens to other creditors as well though Chase does seem to have a lot of incidents. However, Chase does issue a lot of cards. I don't think anyone has done a proper analysis.

Had that happen to my Freedom.

Blaming merchants isn't thinking outside the box. People commonly suspect merchants. Your belief doesn't help the OP. The OP needs to identify the cause(s) and see if they can be addressed.

mxnick

Thanks for all the responses. Let me be a little more clear as what I am trying to understand:

1. I have three credit cards, a UA Chase card, an AAdantage Citi card and Hilton American Express. I have had Citi since 1996 and Amex since '99. I have had only one fraud instance with Citi, and it came from a restaurant waiter in NYC who cloned mine (and about 50 other peoples) in 2001. He went and made $6500 worth of charges in one day. They caught him - and NYPD was in touch with me to confirm that I ate at the resturant on a certain date while they pursued charges.

However, since 2012, or so, and with my Chase card, I have had no less than 5 instances of fraud, or possible fraud. They have all been the same format / type of theft, with the perpetrator placing small charges on the card, and in each case, they were rejected (most recently was a Doubletree in WV for $1.75 that was charged and then refunded) and have all been caught by chase. But it is a major pain to change everything I have connected to the card. I am wondering, does Chase have higher instances of fraud issues than others? It seems to me that is the case, and a cursory search around the net would indicate that is the case.

2. Chase has been helpful, but there is only so much they can do. UA is my goto airline (i have over a million miles with them), so I prefer to keep using chase, but this is getting really old.

3. I was just checking to see if anyone might have had similar experiences with Chase and other cards, and am looking for a common variable, as something seems off to me with Chase. It is possible since I use my Chase card about double the amount I use the others that increases my risk, but I dont think my card is getting cloned, I think that the fraudsters are getting the info on the black market where thousands of accounts are traded without targeting one person.


Anyway, thanks for the feedback!

patrick.barnes

They really don't like it when you move money out. I'm a CPC client and they froze my account until I explained to them why I moved a couple of K to my own account at another bank.

I think there are some regs we're not privy to.

pshuang

mxnick, it seems to me that your credit card can be compromised either at the issuing bank (e.g., Chase), inside the payment processing networks (e.g., Visa), or at the merchants. The likelihood of data compromise inside the payment processing networks depends on there being transactions with your data in flight. The likelihood of data compromise at the merchants depends on there being transactions with your data in flight, or perhaps your data stored by the merchant. Your description of your own credit card usage patterns is that you use your Chase card for (quote) "literally all of my expenses". It does not seem at all surprising, therefore, if it is this card that is frequently compromised and not the other credit cards you have sitting in your metaphorical sock drawer and with their data sitting relatively safely inside the issuing banks, but not passing through payment networks or merchants.

What I am missing in your indignation that is causing you to cast aspersions about Chase and considering cancelling your account?

rrgg

I've had fraud on Chase cards but NOT the UA card, for whatever reason.

viag8

When I first got my CSP and Freedom last year, I had fraud twice on the CSP and once on the Freedom before I even got the cards and activated them. They always argued be automatically generating numbers that coincided with my card numbers. Kind of difficult to have 3 coincidences in a just a couple of weeks. This has never happened with any other bank.

txviking

If you're Private Client and still get treated like this, there's no hope for ordinary customers like myself. I like my local branch and there's not a lot of banks with a brick and mortar presence where I live, but it may be time to bite the bullet and find a new bank. So far it's merely been inconvenient when Chase cuts me off from my own money for no reason, but I can't trust a bank that keeps doing this.

patrick.barnes

I have to say that out of the big 4 banks, Chase easily has the best customer service.

I've had dealings with BoA, Citi and Wells -- they're pretty terrible.

But yeah I'm not sure what the money moving things are about. In the case above it was like 3k so it was a huge ... (my Chase account is basically a place to park money whereas I use my CU account for day to day banking). But maybe they hadn't "learned" my patterns at that point.

TennisNoob

I have a lot of the Chase cards.

I've only had an few cases of fraud.
Twice on my Ink card (Ethiopia and Nigeria charges, I've never been to africa!)
Once on my PP card (Subscription service to Vistaprint, huge nightmare)
Once on my explorer card.

I wouldn't say it's based on one card specifically but I never got hit on the ClubCard nor sapphire card at all.

Yes Chase has the best customer service out of the big 4 banks but AMEX I think is still better than Chase when it comes to fraud.

txviking

That is a good point — there are not a lot of majors to choose from. Wells Fargo is on my permanent blacklist, and I have to admit that other than the constant fraud false positives, I've been happier with Chase than I ever was with BofA or Citi. Perhaps I just need to start doing my transactions in branch again, presumably those won't get flagged as fraud?

IntFF

For 2nd time in 3 years I had a fraud charge on MileagePlus Explorer (2 diff cards). Cards were hardly used. Fraud charge from country that cards were never used in. Last one $16 from telecomm service in France. Both times Chase system caught the fraud and rejected charges.

Does United MileagePlus have the MileagePlus Explorer card numbers. Can it be United system being hacked?