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Gotcha Capitalism

By
Patti
@ October 10, 2008 10:29 AM
Permalink | Comments (6)
A few months ago, I read a book by Andrew Sullivan called "Gotcha Capitalism," and it was all about how companies rip us off with hidden fees. I highly recommend it.

I'm not an economist, but I wouldn't be surprised if companies try to ratchet up the "gotchas" as the economy worsens. They have to make money somewhere.

Last week, Chase Mortgage tried to nick me for $30. Forget prior warning, they didn't even explain it to me until I called to ask what the $30 fee was all about.

Here's what happened: I'm refinancing and the new lender needed a payoff statement from Chase Mortgage. No problem, Chase said it could fax the statement.

Then they charged me $30 to send a fax! I called to complain, and Chase removed the fee.

This morning, I checked my statement online and the $30 fee was back on! I called again and they, again, claim they have removed it.

Oh, I almost forgot the best part. Chase never faxed the statement! I had to call and ask to have one mailed to me. I had to fax the payoff to the new lender!

Moral of the story: Keep a sharp eye on all your accounts...not just for hidden fees, but for decreases in HELOC or credit card limits, or increases in interest rates.



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What others are saying

  • Way to fight Back on Chase
    Do you want to fight back? Chase is the worst ever. If you have a complaint let the Controller of the Currency office know. File a complaint on-line against chase. The phone number is: 800-613-6743. File a complaint on-line to let CHASE know that we mean business and they cannot treat us this way.
  • Chase Mortgage
    I would like to add my comments regarding Chase Mortgage. I called to have a Payoff statement mailed to me - cost 45 dollars. Never received it. Requested a total of 4 payoff statements. Never received any of them - $45. each time I made a request. SO I took a 37,000 dollar certified check into the Chase bank branch and gave it to the Bank Manager. It is now sitting in a suspense account and not posted to my account because I did not pay off the full mortgage. They are still charging me interest on the 37,000 dollars while they are holding my money. I called to get a payoff amount and they will not tell me what the payoff is and they will not send me a payoff amount. They are cheating me out of money every day and they do not want to correct the problem. I asked to be transferred to a supervisor and lo and behold there is no supervisors that work at Chase and no one over the customer service departments have telephones because there are no phone numbers they can give me or transfer me to. I am hoping to get the phone numbers of the corporate office but to this date the corporate also does not have telephones. GET AWAY FROM CHASE IF YOU CAN.
  • escape the fee by yelling at them
    Seriously, it's like two wrongs making a right, but I just got very loud with the woman on the phone and she waived the fee. The crux of my rant was that they should not be putting fees on my account without asking me for authorization. Still, I'm writing to my elected officials supporting the CFPA after dealing with this nonsense.
  • late fee for paying early
    I have a Chase credit card that I got through Circuit City, where I puchased a computer with a deferred interest period till 2011. I pay my bill on- line, and went to their website to make my payment on 7/10/09. I checked the current activities, because there should be nothing but my previous payment. But there was instead a $35 late fee on there. I called customer service and the woman there told me that I paid a day to early, because my closing statement date is the 13th of the month and I made the last payment on the 12th of the previous month. Now, I always make at least twice the minimum payment and some month I pay twice to get the balance down faster.On top of the late fee, and probably a bad mark on my credit record they added a finance charge for the $35. Maybe it's just me, but a late fee for paying early sounds rather like a way for them to make up for not getting any finance charges from me.
  • How did you get them to waive the fee?
    Hi, Would you mind sharing what you said to get them to waive the $30 fax fee? I am in the same situation
  • banks rip offs
    I paid off a loan early, the contract says there is no early pay off fee. They charged me $50 for what they call a process fee.They are offering a $50.00 food card for opening a new checking account, well they lost my checking account a CD accounts for the money they charged me for early payoff
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