Tim says a Chase marketer called him up and offered him $150 upfront in exchange for a commitment to knock $1,800 off his credit card balance within the next seven months. Intrigued, Tim asked the company to send documentation for the offer, but the guy on the phone refused. He says the number on his caller ID checks out as a Chase number and doesn’t know what to make of the strange promotion.

He writes:

I’m not sure who to write but I received a strange marketing call from Chase Bank credit cards today. The marketer was offering a chance for 150.00 for me as a good customer who paid their bill on time each month. I just had to commit to paying 1800.00 off my account by January 31, 2011 (I know I shouldn’t carry a balance, but I’m working on it). This would have been a stretch but possibly by moving Chase to the front of my debt snowball.

I asked ‘what’s the catch?’ the marketer assured me there was no catch and the letter they would send me after I committed to the offer on the phone would explain it all. I replied, ‘Please send me the letter with detailing the offer and I will make my decision about committing to the offer.’

The marketer stated that he couldn’t do that and ‘so this means you’re declining the offer?’ I quickly said ‘Yes, if you are not able to send the details of the offer so I can examine it then I am declining.’ He double-checked ‘Are you sure you want to decline this offer we are making to our best…..” I again stated that if he couldn’t send the details prior to my commitment than I was indeed declining their offer. He hung up, what are they up to? the call came from the infamous 210-586-1025 number that when Googled is denounced as a Chase marketing number, if I[d checked the caller id before answering, I probably wouldn’t have answered, but now I’m intrigued and a little worried.

Has anyone else been propositioned in this manner?

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