My previous post on this: http://www.johnnychin.com/blog/2009/12/chase-credit-cards-royally-suck/

Today, this old song played on the radio in the car and it reminded me of what Christmas should be about. It should be about the love of Jesus Christ and remembering his birth. In celebration of his birth we should be help those around us just has He taught us. Unfortunately, with the current state of the economy, many of us feel that we cannot offer much in terms of finances or gifts. Others have said that we can offer our time. However for many, like myself, are stressed and overworked with our jobs, so “time” is not something we have much to offer to others.

So this holiday season, I am hoping I can gain some Christmas spirit and be able to bring a some love and joy to those around me. May God bless you this Christmas holiday with warmth and love.

Enjoy the video:

Merry Christmas … Happy Holidays !!!

WTF! This is ridiculous! $16 in fees for a $49 charge for one-day late! That is almost loan-sharking at 979.59% per MONTH (which equals to 11755.10% per year). Gee wouldn’t it be nice to make those kinds of returns! If any citizen did this, they would be locked up!

I then proceeded to call Chase and see if they can reverse the charges. The first customer service rep said “Late is late. And you are late by one day, so there is nothing that I can do. Unless it is a Chase fault, we cannot do anything.” She then proceed to try and sell me a credit protection service. I hung up and called back. The 2nd customer service rep was even worse. He basically said, “there is nothing I can do and if you don’t like our policy, you can close the account.”

Holy crap! I guess they don’t like customers who pay off their credit card bills each month, despite the fact they make 2-3% off the merchants where I use their cards.

Another surprise. When I called back a 3rd time, the customer service rep told me that Chase sent out a notice with their statements a few months ago stating that there is a 5-day change in their grace period. She claims that Chase increased the grace period to 20-days. Upon more careful examination, I found that Chase reduced it to 20-days; but that is not all and this is what I found:
My statement closing dates were always the 27th or 28th of the month and my charges were due on the same day (historically for years).
Now, my statements still close on the same 27th or 28th. However, the due dates are now 5-6 days earlier! To make things worse, I’ve noticed that my statements are not arriving before the 1st of the month like they used to. Instead, they are now arriving around the 4th or 5th of the month. So this means they are holding (or printing late) the statements before they mail them out. This basically cuts the time we have to look over the statements before paying them, down to less than 10 days from 20 days (taking into account 2-5 days Chase holds the money before posting it to the credit card account). In my recent case, the funds cleared out of my bank on the 20th, yet Chase posted it on my statement on the 23rd.

This royally sucks! Chase is basically playing with our money for those few days all interest free and yet, they want to rape their long-time customers because they are not making enough from us simply paying on-time (fundamentally no risk to Chase for making 1-3% per charge from the merchants, after the upto 1% cash back they give the card holder). Chase now wants their good paying customers to pay them 200-300% per year like those higher risk customers who defaults or file bankruptcy.

Totally ridiculous. I guess this is the way JP Morgan Chase makes up the money their investment banking side is losing to rival Goldman Sacks. Something has to look decent on the balance sheets for their shareholders.

Well as of today, I am going to move all of my monthly recurring charges to non-Chase cards (and I have a few Chase cards). The Amazon.com, Buy.com and Toys-R-Us cards now going into the drawer and staying there (except for the one charge per year to keep the card active). I am not closing the accounts as that would end up hurting my credit score with a lower debt to credit ratio (as per Suze Orman).

I hope you don’t experience this yourself.

Letter dated: May 26, 2009 (click on image to see larger view)

From the Advanta Bank Corp. website, it appears they are closing all of their credit card accounts; pretty much getting out of the credit card business.

Maybe this is a preemptive measure against the new Obama credit card regulations. I guess the new regulations may not be effective enough. If credit card companies just start to close down existing credit accounts, it effectively gives them the right to make new rules at anytime and force cardholders to adhere to them. For example, if they want to raise the interest rates next month from 9.9% to 29.9%, all they have to do is send out a letter like the one I received from Advanta, giving customers a 3-5 days notice that their accounts would be canceled; then offer a new card application at the higher interest rate and new terms. Guess that is the new loophole in the credit card law.

I guess I am going to expect all of my credit cards (MasterCard and Visa, anyway) is going to make drastic changes to force cardholders off their rewards and cash back programs. Not to mention they are going to raise everyone’s interest rates.
 

And if the credit card companies start charging annual fees again, how is MasterCard or Visa any different from American Express? Of course, American Express has much better card member customer service. Maybe that is the difference that MasterCard and Visa are banking on … charging annual fees like AMEX, yet save that fee and continue with average customer service.

Hmmm … makes you think … maybe the Obama administration should regulate the credit card industry with fairness for good credit paying customers as well, not just rules to protect the delinquent payers. Then again, it might part of a bigger scheme from the Obama administration to redistribute money to those who are not working and waiting for the government to pay for their life (welfare, food stamps, government paid health care, utilities, rent, etc.).
 

Mr. Paulson and Mr. Bernanke

According to a New York Times article, the US Treasury pushed Bank of America into closing the merger deal with Merrill Lynch.

What is becoming of America? It seems that this new Presidency and his cabinet is muscling corporations like the mob muscled small businesses for security protection from the mob itself. I just cannot believe the tactics that was placed onto Bank of America by the top people (Mr. Bernanke and Mr. Paulson) running the US Treasury.

I think that both, Mr. Bernanke and Mr. Paulson, should resign or be charged with racketeering. It sure sounded like it by what they made Bank of America do; not to mention all the money that shareholders and taxpayers lost as a result.

I guess banks taking the US government’s TARP fund is now being power extorted by the government. Mr. Lewis should have spoken up sooner.

I am sure more information is going to come out from this … and maybe someone would get indicted.

Suze Orman is giving away, for FREE, access to her Will & Trust kit (online edition).

According to her website (link):

PLEASE NOTE: This program is an Online Version. You will receive your activation information within your e-mail confirmation. You WILL NOT receive an item in the mail.

The activation code allows you to upgrade to the all new on-line version of
the Ultimate Protection Portfolio / Will & Trust Kit for FREE.

If you wish to activate your kit at a later date, all you have to do is visit this web site page: https://www.suzeormanwillandtrust.com/account/activate_kit

I was able to find a review of the Suze Orman Will & Trust Kit can be found online:
http://www.bargaineering.com/articles/suze-ormans-will-trust-kit-review.html
 

Just the thought of Google’s search technology and current relevant content (stuff people are Twitter’ng about) could mean a mega-advertising revenue stream for Google. I think if Google buys Twitter, we can possible see Google serving up ads in our Twitter feeds. It would be on of the most immediate direct-to-consumer model for marketing relevant ads. I predict that if this happens, the Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) would jump on the news.