Remember when our economy failed? Like overnight, banks just disappeared? Well, one of those banks that disappeared, though not overnight, was Washington Mutual. Now, we’ve had our ups and downs with WaMu but for the most part, they were a really standup-kinda company and I really had no complaints.
Until Chase Bank purchased them. Ever since things have been hell.
My payments scheduled through Bank of America, which I was told would have no trouble continuing to work as usual, stopped working. No statements were being sent to my house so I didn’t even know something was wrong. A few weeks before I found out anything was wrong, I called Chase because my cards weren’t working. They had been flagged as being stolen, all three, even though I’d only been using one for international travel accommodations. I got that sorted out, asked if anything else was screwy and they said nope.
Came back to Missouri with phone calls from a collections agency! My accounts were all late by a month. One month and I’m in collections? WTF?!
I paid the accounts, explained what had happened, or what I presumed had happened. They took it off my record, setup auto-pay from my checking account, all was good.
Until the next week when I got an email letter/phone call that I was still over due. The last payments didn’t go through on two of the cards because she had transposed two numbers incorrectly from my Bank of America account… but only on two of the three cards.
They charged me $39×4… Basically $160 for their mistake. That was refunded, they apologized, fixed it, done.
Two weeks later, letter in the mail. I’m overdue, no payments for two months.
WTF?!
I call, they say, oops, yeah that account number was written in wrong, waive the fees, apologize, setup auto-pay, get confirmation the account codes are working.
Today. Get a letter, payments rejected. “Your bank states the account does not exist”.
Yes it does.
Call Chase. They see no problem, states online that I paid the amounts required and they are not sure why I’m getting charged for return payments fees of $39 and $15 on each account. Refund those charges and again state that this will never hit my credit report. Apologies, etc etc.
Oops. Not so fast, payment of $210 is still pending, floating around. Their solution? Wait a month.
Why? So I can get ANOTHER $39 fee on that card?
Solution? As soon as these three cards are paid off, they are going into the paper shredder. Goodbye Chase Bank. You have sucked enough life out of me, and I’ve only had you as my card since February or March. Congratulations on the fastest piss-Justin-off time ever.
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SUMMARY: Since WAMU has become Chase users should expect increasing frustration. WAMU customers should never use the “change address” feature when logged into their online accounts. If you are a WAMU customer and you need to change your address and order a new ATM card within 30 days YOU MUST CHANGE YOUR ADDRESS INSIDE A BRANCH to avoid excesss fustration. If you attempt to change your address online and then get a new ATM card you will have to put all banking on hold for more than a month or open up a new account. Sounds insane? It happened to me.
I am very frustrated with WAMU’s attempt to serve customers. DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES ATTEMPT TO CHANGE THE ADDRESS ON YOUR ACCOUNT ONLINE. I hope someone heeds my advice before its too late. Here is what happened to me.
1. I went to a WAMU ATM and for the first time in my life I actually forgot to remove my ATM card. The card was sucked back into the machine. I called customer service that night and they said “no problem the branch will call you when they recover the card tomorrow.” So I decided not to worry about it.
2. I had a very busy day the next day and I didn’t call the branch and they didn’t call me. I called them within 48 hours after this incident and they informed me that within 24 hours they had to shred my card… ok not good but I thought well… I’ll just order a new card. They direct me to call customer service to order a card.
3. I Call WAMU customer service and inform them that I need to change my address on file and I need to have a new card sent to me. The agent informs me that it will take 30 days to receive my card. I ask why. He says its because I need it sent to a different address than the one on file. I can’t receive a card within 30 days of him changing my address. I asked if the result would be different if I changed it myself online and he said that that is what I should do.
I change my address online.
4. I call customer service back and ask for a card. They inform me that because I changed my address online I can no longer order a new card unless I physically go inside a branch and order one. The agent apologizes but states that if I just go inside the branch I can resolve this issue.
5. I go inside the branch and they state that because I changed my address online and not in their branch I have to wait 30 days before they can even process my request to have a new card sent out. Ok this is mind blowing I am physically standing in the branch and they are telling me they can’t even enter in the request that would eventually allow my card to be delivered to me. I must physically enter the branch 30 days from today and then make the request in person that a new card be sent out which would take an additional 7 to 10 business days.
The best they could do for me is open up a brand new account. I asked if I could transfer money from my old account to my new account online and the answer was no.
CONCLUSION: WAMU CUSTOMERS DO NOT CHANGE YOUR ADDRESS ONLINE
@joshuad31
Wow, you’ve really had QUITE the time with WaMu/Chase.
Sadly, there aren’t any Chase banks where I live, these are just credit cards. I can’t even walk into a branch to fix this, I wish I could. Maybe when I go back to Texas later this month though.
Thanks for sharing your story.
I hate Chase too. I’ve had nothing but problems with them. Through all of the adversities in my life they have not been suppportive. You read everywhere whenever you have financial issues the first people you should contact are your creditors. I did that and Chase was not helpful at all. I want this bank to fail. I’m so upset with them for the past couple of years it has been nothing but hell.
I moved my money out of Chase to a WAMU account several years ago. I wanted to get away from this despicable organization. I didn’t want anything to do with Chase. I was content with WAMU. When I learned Chase was taking over I wanted to scream. They have made my life miserable.
I second the motion. I hate Chase too. When they took over WAMU, I thought oh no i’m going to have big problems again! Again, because I closed a credit card with them 5 years ago after years of hassles. Now my personal, business accounts and credit card are chase! Actually I closed my personal account yesterday. Well, the problems have begun. This time my business account. Wamu would post my charge card sales 2-4 days after I processed them…Chase 14 days!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It’s hell all over again.
If you expect to always pay your monthly bill in full, your best choice may be a credit card that has no annual fee and offers a longer grace period.
Since the switch from WAMU to Chase I have had nothing but problems.
Issue 1 – Pending credits
WAMU: Transfers(savings to checking/vice versa) or deposits instantly posted to my checking or savings account.
Chase: All credits pend for up to 24 hours. This is a clear strategy intended to try & overdraft the customer.
Issue 2 – Pending Transactions
WAMU: Just about all my debit card transactions would post instantly with a relative fiew posting within a 24-48 hour time frame.
Chase: Dozens of pending transactions. Last time I checked I had 15 – 20 debit card transactions pending for 1-5 days. I can only go back to the overdrafting strategy and assume the bank is holding as many payments as possible then posting them at the least opportune time for the customer.
Issue 3 – Online banking confusing
WAMU online site always gave me a clear picture of my accounts, how much $ was available and what transactions had posted or were pending.
Chase online is just a long list of pending credits and debits and an available balance that doesn’t show the true available balance on the account.
Being with WAMU for quite a long time I am not used to not knowing when a credit will post or when a debit will post. With WAMU I knew credits or debits would happen instantly or within a reasonable time frame.
My brother has also noticed some negative changes at the local now Chase branch. Last week he went in to deposit funds into his checking account. It took him approx. 30 mins to an hour to make a simple deposit. Again, not used to the changes. With WAMU, simple bank transactions at the branch took a matter of minutes to complete.
Not too happy and will be switching to new bank in the coming week or two.
But Chase is really GayP Morgan…that counts for something, right?
So the drama continues. Now another $272.00 worth of overdraft fees. What’s so annoying is that they just won’t post my credits. Currently have $300 – $400 worth of credits pending now over 24 hours. Never had this issues with WAMU. So I’ve acquired approximately $400 – $425 worth of overdraft fees within 3 days. Now if I didn’t have the money I would understand and would accept responsibility but this extremely annoying. Why in this day & age are they have such a hard time posting credits in less then a 24 hour time frame.
Anyways, thats my new rant. Had to vent a little. Has anyone else had issues with credits (specifically transfers from one account to another) pending for 24 hours or longer?
Holding transactions as you described is despicable enough, but I learned today that Chase more than doubled the APR on my credit card without making a reasonable attempt to notify me that I had the right to close the account to avoid the increase. They mailed a letter to my home address even though I have opted out of mailings and requested all statements be sent through email. The rate hike was not mentioned in any of my statements or inserts that are sent to my email address. Not even in the "Important News" section on my statement. If doubling my APR isn't "important news" I don't know what is!!! When I finally spoke to an account manager and asked about their deceptive business practices, she agreed to allow me to close my account and reverse the APR rate even though I was outside the window of opportunity. How incredibly generous of the b*tch that is employed by the DEVIL (a.k.a Chase Bank)!!!
Brian,
I had a very similar experience with Chase last week. They claimed they held my deposit because it was made through an old Wamu ATM machine and the checks had to be "imaged" before they could be considered valid and therefore post to my account. They were planning to hold the checks for "up to 6 business days" for that imaging. Even though the check I deposited had cleared my husband's bank, Chase did not post the credit and then charged me an NSF fee when I bought a tank of gas. If the check has already been sent through the originating bank and validated I find it very hard to believe that Chase hadn't had time to get it "imaged" yet. They are nothing but CROOKS and I am closing all accounts with them and will never do business with them again. I can't believe that with all the banks that failed this one prevailed! What a shame!!!