If your bankster is putting the screws to you, don't assume there's nothing you can do

So you've found Superman's Fortress of Solitude, and think you're hot stuff, eh? Piece of cake! Now try finding the people at your credit-card issuer who can help you work out a reasonable payment arrangement! Not so cocky now, eh?

by Ken

THE LONG AND THE SHORT OF IT,
WITH EMPHASIS ON THE "SHORT"

If you've got a problem with your credit-card payments, you've probably heard that you should talk to your credit-card issuer to see if some relief can be worked out, and you've very likely tried that, and even had yourself bounced up to the magical "supervisor" level, only to be told, "Sorry, you're screwed." It's even possible to get this as an official reply, as the media people who've interviewed my friend Peter did when they contacted JP Morgan Chase for comment on his story. Sorry, nothing more we can do, except maybe by jacking his interest rate up from 4 to 19 percent.

However, if you're a Chase cardholder -- and very likely the same thing applies to holders of other credit cards, but we're talking specifically about Chase for the moment -- you may encounter a "supervisor" who will tell you, if you're persistent and/or lucky enough, or perhaps if you hit the correct level of sunspot activity (revealing, or not revealing, this information is apparently totally at the discretion of the "supervisor"), that there is another option.

Chase has a unit apparently more closely guarded than Superman's Fortress of Solitude, called Chase Proactive Solutions, which is known to be reachable, or at any rate has been known to be reachable (it could be this is one of those deals where they change the numbers every week, and you've gotta know a guy who knows a guy to get the new one) at the following numbers:

1-800-404-6220
1-877-890-2941

And remember, you didn't hear this from us. We don't know nuttin'. In all likelikhood, you don't remember where you got da numbers. Probly it was from, uh, Louie. Yeah, that's it, Louie toldja.

When we last heard from my friend Peter, he and his wife Gail were fighting for their lives trying to push back againt their credit-card company, JP Morgan Chase, which had suddenly and unilaterally decided to raise the monthly minimum payment on their three Chase credit cards by some two and a half times.

There was a lot of debt, but they were handling it, if just barely. And the debt hadn't come from binge-spending. It had come as part of the price of getting their son Justin through college. IN fact, the debt had been accumulated in what strikes me as actually rather prudent fashion, given the urgency of the need (you get only one shot at your kid's education -- do you skimp on it?) and the care with which the money had been parked at the exceedingly modest interest rates (Gail is pretty finnicky about such matters) that the banksters were begging us, their good customers, to take advantage of.

Hey, remember, it was their idea to offer those rates for the life of the loan! And now with all the defaults they're experiencing on credit-card debt, and with new regulations on how they can hassle customers scheduled to take effect, well, sometime in the future (how nice it was for them that they were given this handy grace period to get the dirty work out of the way!), they've had the bright idea of putting the screws even to customers who show no signs of defaulting.

Peter and Gail never missed a payment, and were paying in fact somewhat above the minimum. Until Chase announced that it was going to more than double the minimum payments, presumably with a view to either getting its money back quicker or driving them into default, where there would be other ways for the bank to make money, like renegotiating the loans at five times the interest rate.

Peter has been trying to make it clear that while of course he's fighting for himself and his family, he's also fighting for some principles here -- starting with the principle that they can't just do that, can they? From a legal standpoint, it's not clear whether they can or they can't; there are arguments both ways. From a practical standpoint, I guess they can do whatever they can get away with doing.

As I mentioned in my first piece on the subject, I have a personal stake here. Peter and Gail are two of my oldest friends. The day Justin was born, while Gail was doing the heavy lifting, I was with Peter. I've watched Justin grow up. In my admittedly biased opinion he's a remarkable kid. At the moment he's interested in brain research, and I expect him to do valuable work.

Tara Lynn Wagner, a reporter for our local cable news channel NY1, has done an update to her previous report. (The video clip is there along with a transcript, but the clip isn't embeddable.) Picking up the story more or less where I've left off:

Searching the Internet for answers, Meyer found whole blogs filled with posts from thousands of other Chase cardholders with similar circumstances. He read about and contacted the company's hardship division, which offered to lower his minimum payment but raise his interest rate from 4 percent to 19 percent.

Eventually, he came across two phone numbers that he says put him in touch with Chase Proactive Solutions. Within 20 minutes, the operator lowered his minimum payments and his interest rate and lifted a massive weight off his shoulders.

A spokesperson for Chase Card Services confirmed the existence of Chase Proactive Solutions, describing it as a specific unit designed to help customers who are experiencing financial hardship and "require a deeper discussion to identify the most appropriate solution."

In an email to NY1, the spokesperson again stated "We advise our customers who may need this consideration to contact Chase using the phone number on the back of their card to ensure their call receives the proper response."

However, Meyer maintains he was never told about this unit in any of his previous phone calls.

"Trust me, they don't give you anything. It's like trying to find the correct door in order to get in," he says.

Chase refused to verify the phone numbers Meyer used are the direct lines to this specific unit, but when NY1 called and asked if Chase Proactive Solutions had been reached, the operators confirmed it.

The numbers are 1-800-404-6220 and 1-877-890-2941.

They may not offer the same solution for everyone, but Meyer feels everyone should at least be able to find the same door.

And remember, if anyone asks where you got the numbers, Louie toldja.


UPDATE: AND WHAT ABOUT THE

INSURANCE COMPANY CROOKS?

A friend asked this question this morning-- "If someone dies because an insurance company knowingly breaks a contract in bad faith for their treatment, why isn't this considered manslaughter?" We've talked about health insurance rescission policies before and we saw how even a lock-step corporate shill for the Insurance CEOs like Texas Republican Joe Barton was repulsed by these savages. So why no special CEO fire squads? Or at least prison terms? -- Howie

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