How Chase Bank FOOLED Andrew Cuomo of New York over the 10 dollar fee withdrawal without Cuomo even realizing it.

This New York Times article dated March 30, 2009 makes it sound like Chase Bank retreated in their 10 dollar a month fee program aimed at those who had low interest rate balance transfers.

However, Chase Bank is having the last laugh after all, and in my opinion, at Andrew Cuomo's expense.

Not only has Chase bank raised the monthly minimum payment from 2% to 5% on the same customers that they rescinded the 10 dollar a month fee on, but even if these customers call the Pro-Active phone number and negotiate a five year, 2% interest rate plan, that customer may still lose MORE THAN TEN DOLLARS EVERY MONTH once they accept that plan.

The average household has approximately 9,000 to 10,000 dollars in credit card debt. However, when we factor in that a certain percentage of homeowners have NO credit card debt, that just means that anybody with credit card debt probably has at least 15,000 thousand dollars of debt, or more.

Lets say that 7,500 dollars of that credit card debt is with Chase bank 4.99% and 7,500 dollars of debt is with another Bank at 9.99 percent interest. Lets keep in mind that the other bank rate at 9.99 is still considered a decent rate, and is probably higher than that for many people.

The consumer would save the most money by applying the largest payment they could afford to the higher interest rate card, and then just pay the minimum on the Chase Bank card. Interestingly enough, MOST Chase Bank credit card customers were already paying more than the 2% minimum, however they knew they could fall back on the 2% monthly minimum if necessary.

So every month, the Chase bank card is saving the consumer approximately 30 dollars a month in lower interest rate charges. If however, a consumer accepts the five year plan to pay down their debt, the Chase payment STAYS THE SAME each and every month, and the result is, less and less money is available to pay down the higher interest rate card.

This Proactive deal is definitely more flexible than accepting the 2% to 5% monthly minimum payment hike, but it is possible that by making the same paydown payment amount on the Chase Card debt every month, the payment that is going to the higher interest rate card will inevitably lag behind. Over time, the charge in accruing interest on the higher interest rate card will be MORE than the ten dollar a month fee that Chase Bank repealed!

The conclusion is, Chase Bank has fooled everybody into thinking the ProActive deal is automatically a fair deal, yet the ProActive Deal creates more income for Chase than the 10 dollar monthly fee would have generated among those same customers when one factors in the higher interest rate credit card debt those same customers will be delayed in paying down. Wow!

The bottom line is this, ANY OFFER THAT CHASE BANK MAKES TO TRY AND GET PEOPLE OFF THEIR CURRENT DEAL SHOULD BE MADE AS AN INCENTIVE OFFER, NOT AS AN EITHER OR PROPOSITION. This is a level of consumer abuse I have never witnessed before, and Barack Obama just stands by and approves.

Here are examples of "incentives" that Chase Bank should be using to get people off their low interest rate offer.

Agree to pay 5% instead of 2% every month and receive a 100 dollar gift card EVERY SIX MONTHS for doing it!

Agree to the Pro-Active 5 year, 2% interest deal, and receive a 100 dollar gift card ONCE A YEAR.

Agree to pay 3% every month instead of 2%. receive a 50 dollar gift card every six months.

Agree to a pay 4% every month instead of 2%, receive a 75 dollar gift card every six month.

Do you see what is happening, by making crazy, insane demands of its own customers, Chase Bank is getting away with forcing their own customers to do something FOR FREE, that Chase Bank should instead be offering an incentive to get.

If Chase bank wants to entice me to change terms, I will listen, but I do not want to be FORCED into making a change, and then accepting the best of several rotten choices. In the meantime, Mr. Cuomo, I hope you don't think you accomplished anything significant by rescinding the 10 dollar a month Chase Bank fee, in many instances, that 10 dollar fee would actually have been cheaper than the alternatives.

HOW YOU CAN HELP! MAKE A DAILY-PROTEST.com sign and put it where others will see it. Daily-Protest.com signs can be placed in a storefront window, a bulletin board at work, or a countertop. Raise curiosity and awareness about how Chase Bank is harming a LOT of of their BEST customers by making a Daily-Protest.com sign.

Warren Buffet's Posturing helps explain why we the people are being left behind by the decision makers.

If Warren Buffet is this selfish, we have to fight even harder for Chase Bank to reverse course on their 2% to 5% raise in the monthly minimum payment. It's people like Warren Buffet who only care about their immediate business family that are hurting the entire economy.

Check out this powerful article about Warren Buffet.

Read what Warren Buffet wrote to his investors in a recent letter, and then get mad and don't give up.

“Conversely, highly-rated companies, such as Berkshire, are experiencing borrowing costs that … are at record levels. Moreover, funds are abundant for the government-guaranteed borrower but often scarce for others, no matter how creditworthy they may be.”

Wow!

HOW YOU CAN HELP! MAKE A DAILY-PROTEST.com sign and put it where others will see it. Daily-Protest.com signs can be placed in a storefront window, a bulletin board at work, or a countertop. Raise curiosity and awareness about how Chase Bank is harming a LOT of of their BEST customers by making a Daily-Protest.com sign.

DO CHASE BANK CUSTOMERS GET A TAX BREAK because CHASE BANK RAISED the MONTHLY MINIMUM PAYMENT from 2% to 5% on 2 million customers?

When a bank or credit card company forgives part of a debt, the IRS claims that the debt forgiveness portion is considered income, and they tax you on that amount.

Well, if I have an agreement in writing from Chase Bank, and they then CHANGE THE TERMS by RAISING THE MONTHLY MINIMUM PAYMENT by 150%, my pre-allocated monthly and yearly budgets have been reduced beyond my control.

Since Chase Bank's change in terms will now result in my having less spendable income, should I not be able to claim an additional tax deduction for my loss of spendable income?

If debt is forgiven, the government wants to tax you. If a debt is ACCLERATED in the paying of it back, should not the debtor get a tax break as well? Any clever CPA's out there who could figure out how to stick it back to both the government and Chase Bank so they might have a little bit more motivation in stopping the Chase Bank attack against middle america and customers who were NEVER LATE making their payments and WERE NOT given an OPT OUT option when Chase Bank suddenly changes terms?

Go one step farther. Doesn't Chase Bank have a BIGGER TAX OBLIGATION to the goverment by forcibly accelerating their payments back from their customers? Doesn't that perhaps put them in a higher tax bracket?

There are a lot of really awful tax rules that hurt people, and in this instance, it seems to me those same rules should be applied to Chase Bank. Chase Bank's tax obligations should increase while their customers tax obligation decreases. Isn't that how it works when we cash in our stock market gains. (ahem, pretend you had some). Isn't Chase Bank cashing in their credit card offerings for a faster return? Doesn't that trigger some kind of tax liability from the government?

Just wondering.

HOW YOU CAN HELP! MAKE A DAILY-PROTEST.com sign and put it where others will see it. Daily-Protest.com signs can be placed in a storefront window, a bulletin board at work, or a countertop. Raise curiosity and awareness about how Chase Bank is harming a LOT of of their BEST customers by making a Daily-Protest.com sign.

YouTube Video Against Jamie Dimon, Chase Bank and their Credit Card Interest Rate Bait and Switching.

HOW YOU CAN HELP! MAKE A DAILY-PROTEST.com sign and put it where others will see it. Daily-Protest.com signs can be placed in a storefront window, a bulletin board at work, or a countertop. Raise curiosity and awareness about how Chase Bank is harming a LOT of of their BEST customers by making a Daily-Protest.com sign.

CANADA GETS it RIGHT when it comes to PROTECTING MERCHANTS AGAINST EXCESSIVE CREDIT CARD TRANSACTION FEES. CANADA even has an OPT OUT OPTION!

Canadian lawmakers have decided to do what Congress in the United States pretended to do, which is actually protect their own businesses from out of control credit card merchant fees. Canadian Lawmakers are proposing a "Code of Conduct" for the Credit Card Industry and how they treat their small business merchants.

Companies such as Seven Eleven lead a fight in the United States against unfair credit card merchant/transaction fees. Transaction fees are the amount small businesses get charged every time you the consumer use your credit card.

In Canada, they are formulating a plan to help small businesses against excessive merchant/transaction fees. What is interesting about Canada's merchant/transaction fee bill of rights plan is that it actually includes, almost to the word, one provision that Daily-Protest.com has already been advocating for the past few months.

MERCHANTS SHOULD BE ABLE TO EXIT A CONTRACT WITHOUT PENALTY IF THE TERMS CHANGE...

Daily-Protest has been advocating that CONSUMERS SHOULD BE ABLE TO EXIT A CONTRACT WITHOUT PENALTY IF THE TERMS CHANGE!

Daily-Protest.com (a sister blog of Bloggers Against Chase Bank) recalls getting several Canadian hits in a short amount of time several weeks ago and wonders if perhaps, just perhaps, the highlighted provision came from reading Daily-Protest.com.

CHANGE IN TERMS.com has also been advocating the right to OPT OUT on the web since December of 2008, they too complained about Chase Bank's decision not to allow opt out to almost a million of their own customers.

Prior to that, On March 23, 2004, I personally wrote letters to EVERY ATTORNEY'S GENERAL in the United States and surrounding US territories complaining about terms changing with no OPT OUT clause by GM Card.

It would be proper for Daily-Protest.com or Change in Terms.com to be acknowledged and credited by the Canadians if they incorporated our ideas into the Canadian Merchant Fee/Transaction Credit Card Reform bill, however...

...The sad reality is the OPT OUT PROVISION IS a NO BRAINER that SHOULD ALSO HAVE BEEN INCLUDED in the CONSUMER CREDIT CARD BILL REFORM ACT that was recently signed into law in the United States!

HOW YOU CAN HELP! MAKE A DAILY-PROTEST.com sign and put it where others will see it. Daily-Protest.com signs can be placed in a storefront window, a bulletin board at work, or a countertop. Raise curiosity and awareness about how Chase Bank is harming a LOT of of their BEST customers by making a Daily-Protest.com sign.