Forewarning -- I'm venting --

I'm the type of gal who pays her bills when she gets them. We actually pay off our credit card balances every month. Awhile ago, I set up a credit card account with Babies R Us in order to get an additional % off our nursery furniture purchase. However, I rarely shop there much any more. At one point, I was receiving paper statements then switched to electronic statements. Suddenly 2 months ago I was not receiving any statements and because I shop there so rarely, I didn't go online to see if there were any open balances. Needless to say, last week I went to make a purchase at Babies R Us and was denied. At first I thought it was perhaps we are in the process of refinancing. Nope, because I had an outstanding and now overdue balance (and didn't pay it because I didn't receive any kind of statement to tell me I had a balance), I was denied. Well, you know there is nothing more embarrassing in a store than to have that announced! That evening I pulled up my account details and saw there was a $15 late fee applied. I contacted customer service to request that it be removed because I would pay the balance had a received a statement informing me of it. My request was refused, I asked to speak to a manager and it turns out I already was speaking to the manager. Chase said that I was set up to receive my statements via the mail and that the issue lies with the post office. I then said if you do not remove the charge, I'd like to close my account. They actually said no problem. My husband, who negotiates contracts for a living also made a call to them. He spoke to another manager for over 30 minutes and they still refused to drop the charge. You know it costs them more to talk about it for that amount of time than $15!! With our refinancing, they will also be losing our mortgage business. AND, as soon as the refi is finalized, I'll be closing my other personal credit card with them too.

Apparently, credit card companies don't need business in today's world and they'll soon no longer or EVER have mine!!

Thanks for letting me vent ... stay away from Chase Bank, they don't follow the first rule of business = Customer Service.

Sorry this happen to you!

Late fees and overdrawn fees are BIG money makers to credit card and loan companys.

I work at a loan company and last year we average over $1500 a month, just in late fees.

Normally, if a customer pays and is never late, I will waive a late charge one time.

the post office gets blamed for so many things....

ugh, sorry!

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married 9 years to a crazy Brit, mommy to a banana, she is 5 a pineapple who is 2 and a newborn sugarplum, mommy to 4 ~angel~ babies

They don't care about keeping good customers who pay on time - it's not profitable for them.

Sorry this has happened to you...

I'm confused though, you weren't receiving any statements...so you felt you didn't have any charges. I understand that part, but you said you went 'paperless'...so how is it the post office's fault?

I know for me, when I go 'paperless' for certain things, I check every month, even when I know I haven't made any purchases, just to be sure.

vickilynn -- that's exactly right, thanks for the chuckle!

Oregano -- you are way more organized than I (and I do try very hard). I thought I had gone paperless (have a few emails to prove it, but then they stopped), AND their system showed I was setup for paper statements .. so I guess this relationship was confused for a little while now.

One of the reasons I still like getting paper statements. It forces me to open the mail and look. I've never had anything get lost really, so I don't go around thinking something got lost at the post office. And at least this way, even if one did get lost, there would be another right behind it, and I wouldn't be too late with a payment. Once you go paperless, the pressure is on you to check online. With paper, the pressure is still on the vendor to send you a statement.

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I just wanna live while I'm alive...

I had a similar issue with a Macy's card about a year ago after I signed up for paperless. However, I did call Macy's and they did remove the charge since I agreed to pay the balance in full. They were very nice. Since that time, I've gone back to paperless. I feel really bad because it's not that environmentally friendly, but considering how late payments and fees can rape your credit rating, you don't really have a choice, you need the paper trail.

I also empathize with your Chase pain. I was disputing some charges through them about five years ago and they sent me to a collection agency out of Houston, who in turn called my work to complain about me not paying. I finally had to contact the Attorney General to get the abusive collector to go away. Even if you happen to get a good rep on the phone, remember that Chase doesn't really care about you. To them, it's simply about the bottom line. If you are hurt in the process, it's just another cost of doing business. I hope things go better for you. Know you're not alone... if that helps.

I'm sorry that you had such a bad experience with Chase's credit card, but for the record my sister is VP of Chase Manhattan's mortgage company, and it is a completely different branch. They actually have nothing to do with the credit card side of things, so if they will give you a great mortgage option I would still go with them. Getting bad customer service from one branch should not color an entire corporation.

Chase Visa is the worst. They will not even try to work with you. I've been working two years trying to straighten out my daughters account she had with Avon. I've closed the account four times which they tell me it's closed when I call about it. Then they add new charges to it along with late and finance charges to a closed account. She took out a loan to pay it off last month. They gave her the amount to pay. She paid the amount given and now they're calling again saying she has a balance and they've added late fees of $25.

Even better I had to hire a lawyer to contest an account with charges of $8400. I don't even have a Visa card. They ruined my credit score, will not send the lawyer the requested forms with my signature on them (because there's no such thing-- I never applied) and when I call them they say there's no such account. It's such a mess and I can't get it cleared up. It's going on three months and I've gotten no where at all.