The Chase Bank Small Business Three Card Monte Rip Off

Months ago Chase Bank sent me a promotion offering me $100 to open a new small business account. Who does not want $100, right? This turned out to be a massive mistake and ended up costing me $157.21 for a few cups of coffee. Little did I know, but Chase Bank had started playing Three Card Monte with that $100.

Off to get my $100, I went into the Chase branch in Manhattan to meet with a Small Business specialist. After telling them that my small business was not yet up and running and that I was not going to be making transactions for awhile, the Chase Bank specialist told me to just make five transactions a month, any transactions, even just buy five cups of coffee with the business bank card. The five transactions would mean that no fees would be assessed and there will be no monthly costs at all.

On Friday morning, April 29, 2011, I went to the Chase ATM and got a balance for my business account. There was $7.86 in the account and kept the receipt. Over the next three hours, I went to McDonalds and bought two cups of coffee, a double cheese burger and a McChicken (total cost $6.21). On April 4th I had bought a cup of coffee at the same McDonalds franchise. After fulfilling what the Chase specialist had told me to do, I figured the coast was clear for April. Lo and behold…

On May 2nd, Chase sent me a statement with those four transactions on April 29th marked ‘insufficient’ and that my account was now assessed $136.00 in fees and that my account was now negative $142.21! I have kept the receipt for the ATM on Friday the 29th and it is displayed below;

On Friday, May 27th I returned to my friendly Chase branch to find out what is going on. After waiting about an hour, I got to sit down with yet another small business specialist. When he pulled up my account, he saw that the first entry was a fee for $7.86. This seemed strange to me as this was the exact same amount that had first been in my account on April 29th. The entries after that $7.86 fee were the four ‘insufficient’ transactions and a $34 fee for each totally to $136.00. I immediately asked “What happened to my $7.86?”

After calling multiple other Chase people, the specialist told me that Chase does not let customer’s accounts go negative and that the first fee used up my $7.86. To this day, I have no idea what that fee was for. I showed the specialist my ATM receipt and told him that all four of those transactions occurred within hours after that receipt was in my pocket. I then asked him to find out on what date the merchant had entered to transaction. He responded that he did not know. I explained to him that the specialist that opened my account told me to just buy coffee to make transactions. This specialist replied that they tell people that.

So there I was, screwed for over $150 after using my money, in my account, to buy two cups of coffee and two sandwiches. I calmly explained that it was not my fault if the merchant entered the transaction late, and that I had definitely made four discrete different transactions at different times. I made five transactions in the same statement month and the last four were on a business day (that Friday) before 3 p.m.

At that point the specialist offered me to waive one fee at $34, and that was all he could do. GREAT! With that $34 help from this technologically astute institution, now the cost for my coffee and sandwiches would now only cost me over $100! At this point it started to feel like Three Card Monte at the Chase branch. There it is… NOT!

At that point, I opened my wallet, took out my Chase card and tore it in half in front of the specialist and wanted to close my account. I told him “I do not wish to do business with this bank.” I took out my iPhone and took a picture of the ripped card on his desk as displayed;

At this point the specialist told me that I could not close the account as now, after buying the most expensive coffee ever, they would not let me close my account. The specialist then told me to keep my ripped up card and call Chase on the phone to clear it up. He also told me that if I did not pay up, that Chase would destroy my credit and that I would not be allowed to get a bank account with anyone for years. I took my ‘two’ cards and left.

On Tuesday, May 31st, I called Chase bank to get these charges dropped. After finally getting transferred to a Small Business specialist, the first thing they told was that I made my transactions too late. I responded that I am sure it was done on that Friday and that it was not my fault that the merchant (McDonalds) had posted the transaction too late. Then the specialist told me it had to be done on a business day and not the last day of the month, to which I responded that Friday was a business day. Then I was told they would waive only $34. At that point, I asked to speak with their manager.

After getting the manager on the phone and explaining all this once again, he said only $34 would be waived. I asked for his manager. He then put me on hold and called his boss. I was never put on the phone with his ‘manager’ and he told me that the senior manager would waive two $34 feels. Not good enough I replied. I guess the only thing to do was be put through to the CEO as he might be the one able to take care of this but no one would transfer me up higher. At this point it was about the principle of the matter. I am not going to pay $100 plus for coffee! The manager would not put me through with anyone else and he told me ‘take it or leave it.’

No matter what card I looked under, my $100 was not there. I had uncovered a 2 ($34) and a 3 ($68), but not the Queen that now had my money! They were nice enough to offer to also give me back my $7.86. Great guys!

After the credit crisis and the hundreds of billions of dollars that the taxpayers nicely gave to the banks, you would think they would not be trying to screw us with fees and their bad systems. Supposedly, various politicians have been making noise about taking care of these ridiculous fees with new regulations and legal actions that would make these predatory banks at least give us a fair shake. My experience has shown these promises to be hollow.

This letter will be sent to New York Governor Cuomo, whom supposedly went after bank fraud before becoming elected, the CEO of JP Morgan Chase, The New York State Banking Department, The New York State Attorney General, The New York Times, The New York Post and pretty much every person I can think of.

Wouldn’t it be nice to do business with an entity that is honest and does not have a raft of fish hooks that always seem to find a way to take your money? My experience is that Chase is not to be trusted.

In the future, I will update any responses on this blog from politicians, Chase and/or anyone that actually pays attention and tries to help the little man that is getting screwed.

June 1, 2011

 

snail mail sent to:

James  Dimon, CEO JP Morgan Chase, 270 Park Ave., New York, NY 10017-2070

The Honorable Andrew M. Cuomo, Governor of New York State, NYS State Capitol Building, Albany, NY 12224

Eric T. Schneiderman, New York State Attorney General, Office of the Attorney General
The Capitol, Albany, NY 12224-0341

New York State Banking Department, 5th Floor, One State Street, New York, NY 10004-1417

New York Times, The Op-Ed Page, 620 Eighth Avenue, New York, NY 10018

New York Post, 1211 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10036-8790