Under pressure from New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo and a class action law suit, J.P. Morgan Chase will drop a $10 a month fee it imposed on 184,000 credit card customers earlier this year.
It will also refund the $4.4 million in fees it’s already charged customers since January.
This was one of the most egregious examples of a bank mistreating its credit card customers that we’ve seen and prompted an angry backlash against Chase.
The fee was levied on cardholders who’d carried a significant balance for more than two years at low promotional rates.
Most of those customers had responded to ads that promised to charge no more than 4.99% for the “life” of the loan on balances transferred from other credit cards.
Customers who called to complain about the new fees were told they wouldn’t have to pay if they accepted a higher 7.99% interest rate.
Chase was reneging, plain and simple, and trying to force those customers to pay a higher rate.
It also raised the minimum payment for those customers from 2% of the outstanding balance each month (plus interest, of course) to 5% of the balance.
That change remains in place.
The fact that Chase had to be forced into honoring its commitment to these customers shows how the big banks still don’t get it.
So let me try and explain to JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon and all of his buddies why consumers are so angry at the banking industry in the simplest possible terms:
You’re being saved from your own greed with billions of dollars from the nation’s taxpayers, so stop abusing those taxpayers who also happen to be your customers.
It doesn’t make us want to help you.
(9 votes, average: 4.78 out of 5)
Loading ...
Add New Comment