Chase Credit Cards
Chase recently updated their card user agreements to address new or upcoming government regulations being imposed upon the banking/credit card industry. The change will effectively double your payment, if you’re a balance carrier, or come close to doubling.
Chase in particular claims that the agreement change is only there to help the consumer to pay off their balances quicker. Well, I can understand this, but if the consumer is already a customer carrying a balance, what does Chase think the impact of doubling a customer’s payment will be on the consumer in an already weakened economy? Chase is steadfast about their decision, claiming that they aren’t raising interest rates (they did that over the last couple years already), and that, again, it is to help the consumer pay off the debt more quickly.
Why wouldn’t Chase simply impose these new agreements on new customers or customers without a balance? It seems to me that they are going to be in for a rude awakening when people are unable to afford their near double payments. Granted, Chase will make up some of the shortfall in late fees and other obscure fees, but is this really a mark of good business practices?
I ask a lot of questions here to help the reader reflect on what is really important and what is really happening. Chase is not helping the existing customers with a balance at all! In fact, they are hurting them by potentially making the payments unaffordable. It would seem to me that if Chase wants a good customer base that pays on time, they should approach this from an entirely different angle. Yet, I’m sure Chase hyper-analyzed the impact on their bottom line and determined it was worth the risk. Because, in the end, the banking and credit card industries are going to win against the consumer. Though they may not win against other lenders as they are taken over, absorbed, and quashed.