Obnoxious Chase VISA solicitation
 

Last week I became a happy recipient of a new Chase Marriott Signature VISA card with the 15N and free night cert posted to my MR account before the card even arrived. ^

Lo and behold I receive a call today from some guy with broken English from an 800 number telling me that Chase will send me a business visa card. I cut him off, told him that I was delighted to be a new Chase customer but under no circumstances should Chase send me another card that I didn't request and that his time would be better spent with the next name on his list.

I don't mind getting the weekly mail solicitations from Chase, Citi, etc. which I happily return in the postage paid envelopes, but telephone calls which interrupt the day are beyond obnoxious. :td:

I've been a Chase customer since 1981 when they were a happy being a NY based bank. Since then, they have taken over everything in sight. The final two mergers, JP Morgan and Bank One, have turned them into an obnoxious, FU type of behemoth with more tricks, twists, hidden fees, surprises and gotcha's than MR.

Their web site and customer service is horrendous, and now the have a near monopoly on the co-branded credit cards including my favorites, Marriott and Southwest.

Recent tricks they have pulled on me (and charged multiple fees because of it) include:

1 - Preventing Microsoft Money from automatically downloading credit card transactions without notice under the guise of "security" although it’s been OK since 1994. Instead they really want to drive traffic to their web site in order to sell more "products and services". Hard to pay your bill on time when your few transactions don’t download and you think there is no activity that month.

2 – Offering large cash advances at a teaser rate of 5% (plus 3% transaction fees) but discovering that annual fees and other transactions now incur an 18% finance charge calculated daily. When I tried to pay off the 18% balance, I was told that “I needed to be educated” that payments are applied to the lowest interest balances first and the only way to stop the usurious rate was to pay off the entire balance.

3 - Making you jump through hoops in order to pay your credit card at the web site. I had 5 other cards sent up for "auto payment" from my checking account already. Got a new card and had to go through an entire payment process again. When it didn't work right, they turned a $39 annual fee charge into $116 overnight. It took months of threats to close every single account I have with them to get it reversed.

MR would be well served to change their credit card affiliation. Obnoxious marketing is just the beginning.

My experiences with Chase have been almost 100% negative. The fact that I dropped them hasn't slowed their agressive flood of offers in my mailbox by one iota.

I'm going to enter the debate on the other side, saying that Chase has been a very good company for me to deal with. Great bonus offers to sign-up, generous credit lines, good 0% offers, and an all around easy company to deal with.
I do admit that I used to receive multiple offers from them in the mail. Since I've taken out a large sum at 0%, these have ceased.

Chase may have attempted to solicit me many times via telephone, but I don't know because I don't answer calls from numbers I don't recognize. Caller ID has to be up there with the wheel and air conditioning amongst the greatest inventions ever...

I have been pleased with my other contacts and dealings with Chase thus far as a Marriott Rewards cardholder...

Chase offers (like the MR Visa) often are very good.
But Chase customer service is absolutely horrible.

It's hard for me to hate Chase these days. Over the past few years they've given me more United miles than I can count, quite a few Marriott points and some free nights, a Southwest RR ticket, and a $250 cash signup bonus for their Freedom Card. In exchange, from me, they've gotten about $300 in total annual fees to date, and will continue to receive $65/yr from me, as I'll keep the Marriott card beyond its anniversary. But I look at that as buying a Cat 5 night for $65, so I'll take it...

As for their customer service, I've never called them. I don't know. And they've never called me that I know of. Like indyscott, I don't answer the phone when it's not someone I know I want to talk to.

It's mildly annoying to get offers from them in my snailmail for which I am not eligible (e.g., additional United cards, or bonuses for adding my wife to cards that I've already added her to). But that's my only real beef with Chase. Yes, I realize they are a bank, and all banks employ deceptive practices to trick people out of their money. But Chase is no better/worse than any of the other ones...