Do you know the one thing to never say to a customer service rep if you’re late on your bill? Do you know how Chase ranks you, and how you’re ranked determines whether they help you out in a bind? Do you know the best way to get what you want from customer service? After you read these 10 confessions from a Chase customer service rep, you will.
“HOW WE RANK CARDMEMBERS
There are 3 levels of cardmembers at Chase. They are segregated as BEST, VALUABLE, or NON-PROFIT.
10. BEST
cardmembers make up a small minority of the people at Chase. If I talk to 100 people in a day, maybe 5 are best cardmembers. If you’re a Best cardmember, pretty much anything you want to gets done. You want a late fee taken off? Done. Don’t feel like paying $200 in finance charges? No problem. How do you achieve Best cardmember status? You either have to move a lot of money through the bank, (we can tell if you have a mortgage, car loan, etc thru Chase), or have a high balance that you’re paying a good amount of interest on. If you generate enough fee revenue from finance charges, say $100 per month, and you want a late fee taken off, no problem, we’ll take $39 off this month to make you happy and make sure that $100 monthly keeps rolling in.
9. VALUABLE
cardmembers make up the majority of people we talk to. Valuable basically means you pay your bills on time, and are in general a good customer. You can get a fee waived also, but not nearly as often. I don’t mind waiving a late fee for you, but usually only every 6 months. Thats standard, but we can base our judgment on it all the way back to a year. And if I remove a late fee for you, dont think you’re getting anything waived in the foreseeable future.
8. NON-PROFIT
These are the cardmembers who know what they’re doing. They’re the group of people that pay their bill off, in full, every month, like clockwork. They don’t pay finance charges, and they’re never late. They don’t go over their credit line, they don’t have returned payments, and they earn rewards. Which all amounts to the bank isn’t making any money on your account. So if you get a late fee, you have absolutely zero chance of getting it waived. That late fee is revenue for the bank, and it uses it to offset the maintenance on your account. Maintenance includes your statements mailed to you, sending you replacement cards, dealing with customer service, and cashing out rewards point / miles / dollars. For this cardmember, if you threaten to close your account if we don’t do what you want, don’t be surprised to get an offer to close your account during that phone call. Why? What is the incentive to keep you? I know its pretty cold hearted, but thats exactly how it works. You do a great job on your account, but you can get punished. Hey, I don’t make the rules, I just enforce them.
HOW TO GET WHAT YOU WANT FROM CUSTOMER SERVICE
7. I WILL GO TO BAT FOR YOU IF YOU TREAT ME LIKE A HUMAN
First and foremost, remember we are people. If you’re the type of person who calls up and rants and rave with a “you better do this or else” attitude, honestly, it’s just going to turn a service rep off. Remember, we talk to a hundred people a day, 5 days a week. Its a thankless job, and in there somewhere, I’m cursed at, yelled, spoken down to, please God knows what else. Think about it like this….are you more likely to want to help someone treating you like a human being, or someone who is degrading you? It’s only natural.
I’ve waived significant amounts of money off of accounts if I feel its deserved, I’ve reduced APR’s, I’ve contacted credit bureau’s to get your record fixed, I’ve deferred your payment to next month, I’ve done a lot of things. But the one constant, I’ve only done this for people who have been pleasant with me on the phone, and in layman’s terms, haven’t been a douchebag.
6. STATE WHAT YOU WOULD LIKE DONE AT THE BEGINNING OF THE CALL
I understand its human nature to explain why you’re payment showed up late, how you’re a good customer, this has never happened before, etc, but if you just tell me you want a late fee waived, I’ll immediately look at the account and decide if you’re eligible. To us, it doesn’t matter if you forgot to mail the check, were on vacation, your boss didn’t pay you, bottom line, you want a late fee waived, I’m gonna judge you on our ratings system and check to make sure you haven’t had other fees waived recently.
5. YOU ARE NOT A UNIQUE SNOWFLAKE
I’ve taken thousands of calls, and I’ve encountered every possible situation. The earlier you tell me what you would like your end result to be, the earlier you can get your matter resolved. Screaming at me does you know good, and honestly, makes me want to help you less.
COMMON SCENARIOS I ENCOUNTER
4. DON’T SAY “MY PAYMENT WAS LATE BECAUSE I DIDN’T GET MY STATEMENT”
Please please, don’t tell me this. This is the worst excuse ever. While I dont doubt that some people somehow legitimately didn’t get their bill, for the most part, its a lie to cover up the fact you didnt make your payment on time. Hmm, for the past 5 years you’ve always gotten a statement to the correct address on file, but the one month you’re late it didn’t show up. Right. Somehow, whenever the car payment or the mortgage is due, people never forget that, even without a paper reminder.
3. WATCH YOUR CREDIT LIMIT
Going overlimit- Its your responsibility to watch out where your credit line is. If you really don’t ever wanna go over your credit line, but a block on it. We do let cards go over a little bit, just in case you’re in a situation where you really need it. Imagine these scenarios. Imagine you’re in a restaurant, and you go to pay the bill. Would you rather be declined and be embarrassed in front of your friends and family, or have it go through and pay the $39 fee. Or, imagine you’re stuck on the side of the road and need a tow truck. Do you want the charge to go through so you can get out of the cold, or do you want it declined and sit there shivering for hours? We’ll allow the card to go over, but usually not more than $100.
2. READ YOUR CONTRACT
Not being aware of fees, or APR’s- Everything on your card is agreed upon when you accept the card. The Cardmember Agreement basically states that the bank has the right to change your limit at any time, change your apr, or close your account, no reason needed. That agreement basically leaves the bank holding all the cards. The one constant I see is people never ever read the agreement, then are surprised by things later. Please, read it, or at least call customer service and ask any questions you need answered.
1. IF YOU DON’T NEED IT, DON’T BUY IT
The only other advice I have for people with credit cards….get ahold of your spending. I can’t tell you how many people I see every day who are absolutely drowning in debt. I get so many people making minimum payments, never getting ahead on their balance, or people just playing the balance transfer game to move their balance to a lower rate card, but they’ve moved that balance 10 times and it’s still not paid off. If you use credit cards wisely, you can make the bank work for you, but instead, we see banks with profits in the billions of dollars every year.”
(Photo: meghannmarco)
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I’m a non-profit. I pay off every card every month. This past month I replaced all my kitchen appliances for about $30K which I charged, as always, to Disc@^&*. At about the same time I received a mailing saying I’d been pre-approved” for a new card from a competitor with an insanely low fixed rate on balance transfers (zero per cent to be exact for 6 months).
I contacted Disc@^&* and asked them to match the rate for 6 months on my current balance. They said “no.” I pointed out that their website offered a similar program for new customers. They still said “no.” Thus, I think, proving I have no value to Disc@^&*.
The next day I transferred the entire balance to a new card with zero APR for 6 months.
@aegis1:
You see, Discover knows you very well. They’ve seen your behavior, and know that, if they give you the six months 0% interest, you’d pay it all off at 5 months 29 days, and they’d be out ~ 30k * 5% * 6 months = $750. The competitor will learn, to their dismay, what Discover already knows. Congratulations!
Actually, uh, I _did_ get a paper statement for my mortgage, and I get an email statement for my car payment (which I then pay online when I get the email). So, yeah, I would forget my car or house payment without being reminded, and I do forget my credit card statements without being reminded. It’s a failing, but there you go.
@ EYEBROWS MCGEE
Yes, in fact that has been my experience. When I went into my credit union to ask them to upgrade my credit card from secured to unsecured (I had too little income to get an unsecured card for most of my life), the girl looked at my account and then looked at me and with really huge eyes said “Will $10K be enough?” (This was from a $1K secured card, mind you…I had gone in only wanting to double the limit and make it unsecured!)
After spending about a minute picking my jaw up off the floor, I replied “no, I only want $5K — I can buy a good used car for that if I had to, and I don’t want anybody to be able to steal more than that!” It was her turn to look astonished. “Well, at least let me upgrade you to a gold card.” After confirming that it, too, was fee-free, I let her do that.
About a year later, when I went to buy a house, I had a similar experience when I went to pre-qualify for a loan. They qualified me for more than double the amount I felt comfortable with. When I used only half of what I was qualified for, I got a call asking if I wanted to finance more for remodeling or furniture!
@randotheking:
I’d like to add the #1 for customers, mirroring the #4 there.
#1) If I sent you my payment, and you say you never got it, you’d damn well better not give me the slightest bit of attitude about anything. I’ll send you proof, but I don’t want to detect any sarcasm or whining in your voice.
If you say you got my payment late, you’d damn well better have proof that you got my payment late, including a postmark of less than 5 business days prior to the due date, or my first call after hanging up will be the Attorney General, and my second call will be the Comptroller’s office.
I remember when they pulled that crap for years last time and finally got called on it, I’m certainly not going to be the one falling for it. Interesting how “I did not get my statement on time” or “at all” is just an “excuse” for us, but it is truth spoken from the mouth of a god when the bank/card company spews the same garbage about a payment.
@JustAGuy2:
You’re forgetting that the card company makes money on *every single transaction that you make with the card,* not just from the monthly interest. If you pay your balance in full every month, you’ve still caused the merchants to pay X% of your bill to the card company.
This is why bank “maintenance fees” are such trash. They send out BILLIONS of junk-mail pre-approved offers a month and pay for them, so I’m happy to tell them where they can shove their “it costs money to send you a statement” BS.
@JustAGuy2:
They’ve already made (nearly at minimum) $300 from that $30,000. I doubt anyone with a normal card would be paying off $30,000 in 6 months anyway, that’s leaning towards AmEx Black territory. Someone who can pay you $5,000/mo is someone you want to keep as a customer forever.
Non-profits do not really exist. Each time you use your card, the bank will get, depending on the situation, around 3% of the transaction. This is called an interchange fee. Non-profits, such as many of us, make the bank tons of money because we use our cards all the time, rather than cash.
The rewards we are “given” are a small percent of that. We make the banks less money, but are still profitable.
@mikedt: Yeah, that service fee is precisely why I try to use debit more often on my check card. I’ll pay for large purchases or purchases that might not live up to the guarantees on the VISA side (for charge back rights), but I generally avoid credit card systems in order to help merchants keep there prices down.
@Optimus:
You aren’t, seriously. Debit card transaction fees can be higher than credit transaction fees, depending on the processor.
There is nothing called a non-profit. You make a transaction on Amex, and the merchant pays around 4%. With Mastercard/Visa, the merchant only pays around 2%. Sure, as a customer, you are a “non-profit”, but as a cardmember and user, you are still profit. And if you guys wonder why some companies like Costco only take Amex, it’s ’cause they get a merchant rate break for only accepting their cards.
With regards to the credit limit block, yes I have one my account. All you have to do is ask for and they will put it there so you do not go over credit and get charged a overage fee.
When I talk about not getting the statement on time or something, and the bank says I’m lying, then what happens when the bank says they didn’t get the money when you have the returned checks saying they cashed it already?
And speaking of treating CSR like humans: That’s essential, but how about some CSRs treat us customers like humans too. We’re not cattle.
@RvLeshrac:
They don’t make any money if they write you a cash advance check (as in this balance). In addition, remember that the credit card companies borrow the money they then lend to you. They have to pay interest to THEIR creditors. Over 6 months, they’ll pay about $750 or so in interest on $30k.
Those “0% for X months” teaser offers only make economic sense (from the credit card company’s point of view) if the customer DOESN’T pay it all off before the 0% period ends.
@RvLeshrac:
Not even close on Amex Black, BTW. It’s at least $15k/month, usually more like $20k, to be a candidate for an invite.
I am also one who works for Chase as a supervisor. the confessions are in every bit true less a few details. so many of you think that treating the employees like absolute crap is the only way to get what you want and if not at least you get someone else to feel like crap for doing their job. Just because we tell you no, doesn’t mean that we enjoy doing it. a job is a job regardless of what you do. those preapproved offers you receive, that is purely an offer based off of a glance from your credit report. just because you apply for the offer stating “pre-approved” doesn’t mean you will get that offer or any part of it. and with balance transfers and convenience checks, the fee you pay to do that, does not come to us in any sense. the “creditors” mentioned that we pay, is the Federal Reserve, we have to pay them a fee to borrow the money from them to pay another credit card. it isn’t a profit for us. regarding going overlimit on your account, we can put a block to prevent you from going OVER your limit, this is outside charges only, not from us. and yea your cardmember agreement. in a nutshell does say that we can change ( and have the right) any part of the agreement (via amendments) at any given time, for any reason without prior notification. yes this includes your apr, credit line, and due date. Regarding your request. Say hi, give a BRIEF explanation of your call and get to your freaking point. just as it is a strain on your voice for saying it, it is just as bad if not worse for us to have to sit there already knowing what we are going to tell you while we wait for you to shut up. minus a few instances, almost every damn caller’s issue can be handled within 5 minutes or less. if we say no, you can waste your breath arguing all you want. no means NO. threaten us, bad mouth us, we are goin to say sorry and get you off our line as soon as we can at that point as nicely as possible. and your GRACE period is considered the time that we send out your statement until your due date. NOT a few days after the due date. Credit cards can be excellent things to have, but if you dont manage your account wisely, watch your credit line, pay it on time, and keep watch on all of your purchases then yes, we can apply a fee to your account, and we can change your APR. So all your bitching isn’t going to get you anywhere. so no need to keep going at it.
Oh and one more thing, we do outsource out of the US. but certain areas are specifically NOT in the US anymore. because it’s cost effective for Chase. we hate it just as much as you when we have to talk to our employees outside of the country. so stop complaining to us. these are the times and i strongly doubt a few of your complaints are going to change ANYTHING about it.
@JustAGuy2:
It was meant as a slight exaggeration, I seem to recall the minimum being much, much higher than your figures, as well.
Really, though, if someone can pay $5k+/mo without blinking, you want them as a customer because they don’t notice all your screw-people-over charges.
If you think about it, it’s actually a really great system for Chase. If you are non-profitable, all they need do is wait for you to default on your account. Let’s face it, things happen to even the most responsible cardmembers. Once there’s a late payment (or returned payment, or the account goes overlimit) the cardmember will call in requesting the fee be waived. When they discover that no one will waive the fee, they generally become irate and choose to close the account down of their own volition, thereby letting the bank lose a profit-loss customer. I know all of you have mentioned the $$ the bank makes from each transaction and from interest, etc. but they have to pay for all the account maintenance; 24/hr customer service, a mailing center to process payments and mail out statememts amomg a hundred other ways they support their cardmembers. On top of that, I’ve heard that they are taxed by the government for every open acccount. This is not, “oh boo-hoo, poor bank” by any means, but they ARE a business and with the sub-prime issues going on, it’s been duly noted that Chase has come out on top due to aggressive account management. This is part of that.
I just wonder why the CSR posted this, it seems unwise to do something like that about the company you’re employed with. Trade-secrets or something.
Riddle me this: why does Chase so consistently have its CC due dates on “non-business” days?
E.g. Bill due on a Saturday or Monday holiday (say, Columbus Day). Walk into local bank branch on Saturday where I have 6 figures on deposit, and pay my Chase CC bill.
Get a late fee, and then put me through hell to get it removed.
Online banking programs are smart enough not to let me schedule a payment for a Saturday or bank holiday, so why isn’t the program that spits out Chase CC statements?
You also have to understand too that it’s better to have secured credit then unsecured. Because if you are unsecured, you are a higher risk to loan money too. You could be a 750 and up CB score and still not get good rates on loans because you’re too high of a risk.
Chase offers different ways to pay your bill on time. It’s the banks responsibility tomail it out. If you don’t receive it with in 7-10 business days, call us back and they’ll send you a replacement. They offer wire transfer, over nite, Phone, Automatic payment, advisor and website payments. So really there’s never a reason to not pay your bil on time. With automatic paymnet, as long as all your bank info is correct you’re set. It’s no cost to you to have it done. Website is free as well. There’s no reason what so ever not to pay your bill on time. The bank understands that things happen. I agree with most of this, and agree if you treat us like people then as we will treat you with respect. If we can do sometype of reset hen the bank will be more then willing to help you reset that. If the option isn’t available, then we can’t do it. Pure and simple.
I’ve also heard that people pay their statements through their banks’s online website. Always remember there’s at least a 2-3 day processing time for the banks to send the money to pay your card. If you do it on our website, you can even force post a payment for 14.95. Who else offers you to do that? No one that I can tell. You can even schedule up to 6 months in adavce. My best advice is Autopatic payments. They are guaranteed, as long as your bank info is correct, and you keep your account underlimit, then you have nothing to worry about.
Security is always an isue with any credit card, Chase does offer the best fraud detection amongst any of the credit cards. I’d rather have a company be too anal retentive about security then not enough. So please take it in stride. We know members will be upset on a decline transaction because you forgot to call us to tell us you were making a large purchase, a convience check, or a balance transfer. We do it to protect you from fraud. It’s either that or you get a ton of fraud charges on your account then yell at us for not taking care of you. I’ve seen cards that haven’t ben used in 5 years all with zero balances. That’s a testament to the banks protection of your account.
This is what you have to do as a cardmember with any credit card. Know when your sttement closes, when your payment is due, pay your bill on time, and never go overlimit, and you should never have any issues with your account ever.
You have a responsibility when you have a credit card to pay that bank on time. Be more in control of your expenses…make a budget or something….be smart. All of this whining is ridiculous. Businesses do what they need to do to make money. That’s all it’s about.
I am also a supervisor and I 100% agree with GREENTITAN. State your business and get off the phone. One call that really makes me mad is when people call in wanting fees reversed in their checking acct because either a check was declined or a transfer did not go thru. The customer wrote a check and now has fees because they overdrew their acct. That is not our fault. That is so annoying when people call requesting that because as if it is all our fault. News flash: Don’t spend money you don’t have. You will not get those fees refunded to you in that situation, so please stop calling about that.
I didn’t read everyone here, it’s late. I just found this sight and I think it’s great.
Concerning Chase-Man: I don’t like them. I have a United card with a balance that I’m working down after a balance transfer that I swear was a fixed APR and when I requested docs back to inception they took 6 weeks (legal) and accued interest even though we were in contested territory.
I filed with BBB and they did credit accrued interest during the start of my complaint, but I did have to back everything up and they fought me tooth and nail on everything. And I decided it was better to pay off the debt with Chase and close them than to document everything three years back. Trust me I do not sign non-fixed balance transfer options!!!
And I’m a polite person.
Anyway, I currently have open accounts with Providian, AMEX, Citi, Discover as well.
No balances, no fees, no memberships, etc. Just companies that would love to trap me in debt and are willing to work with me if I ask.
Large point is: buyer beware. Money isn’t free.
If you sign, you’ve considered and entered contract.
They have many more bodies available to insure gain than your last minute diode of sweaters at the GAP.
and the sweaters fade so fast…
Eternal point is: everyone needs to save instead of spend. This includes all entities.
Seems didn’t get my statement is a reasonable excuse – in fact, most of the time I have ever been late on a credit card payment, that was indeed the problem. Complaints, official, written, and otherwise to the USPS do nothing – I get other people’s mail, and I sometimes don’t get mail I know has been sent to me. Unlike mortgage payment, which is the exact same amount each month, I need the statement to know what to pay the credit card company. Yes, in a perfect world, I would calendar or remember to follow up after not receiving a statement in the mail, but in the real world, that’s unlikely to happen and I have many credit card accounts, and count on the receipt of a statement to prmopt me to pay and what amount to pay. Discover’s email alerts is a nice feature – if your payment date passes without a payment, or even gets close, they send you an automatic email reminder.
I think all of your points are correct. I just received my bill and an electronic payment that was taken from my account on a Friday morning was not credited until Monday. The payment was due on Sunday, yes because of the delayed application of payment there is a late charge, and service charge.
I am one of their not profit customers that has paid the balance in full for over 4 years. Customer service does not care about having an account that generates the fees from the transactions only from their interest.
So be it their account will be paid in full and the card will be closed. I guess from their attitude that was the result they were seeking and achieved.
My experience with Chase is the first and Worst ever. I use to have a wamu card and when chase did the transistion – my ebills did not get transferred and hence was delayed by 1 day – i mean literally 1 day and was charged 39 late fee, when I talked with their CSR May, she said that Chase will not waive it and it is their policy – and as I explaining the situation, she proudly offered that she cannot do much but can help close if needed, I had to close the account – as mentioned in the article above – looks like Chase wants to discriminate the consumers and want to do business only with BEST consumers not the non-profit that got transferred from wamu…. hope this atleast changes their attitude…. look at this article
[online.wsj.com]