Foo - Getting out of debt

I've been working my way out of debt for a while now and as I've gotten my cards paid off I've left them open to keep my FICO score up for when I buy a house.

But I'm about to set a closing date so I'm getting to be sending my letters to the CC companies telling them to close my accounts. Thing is, I'm not going to be professional at all about this... I'm just going to tell them what I think...

First up, Chase bank...

This may be pretty vulgar to some people, but this is what I will most likely be sending certified mail or email (I haven't decided which) within a couple weeks. I'm open to suggestions too...

--


Dear Chase Bank:

As of today I am requesting that my accounts ending in XXXX and XXXX be closed. I want you to do this immediately and report it to the credit bureau(s) that this account is to be closed upon consumer request.

The reason for this closing is simple, you are greedy *****holes and I no longer want anything to do with any more of your bulls###. Quite frankly, I can summarize my feelings toward my relationship with you in to words: F### you.

You have not made it easy. Every time I am have contacted you I hear about how important my business is to your company. Well, at this point I feel I should have a barcode and serial number engraved on my forehead. I am merely a number to you and that is all. You care about me about as much as an Atlantic City hooker, only wanting the money and not caring that you gave me crabs.

I will also warn you at this point that this communication may be monitored for quality and training purposes, it also may be sent to various media sources, and mostly likely any reply given may find its way to a public forum I see fit, because I feel the public has a right to know how shady you are. Since you’re running on our money, it’s the least you can do, right?

You’ve raised my APR for no reason, lowered my credit limit to less than my current balance, and had payments get “lost in the mail” even though I made them online through your website. One of the accounts has a credit balance of 95 cents. Send me my check, please.

And if you didn’t try to squeeze every penny out of me directly, you found a way to manipulate my government into bailing you out because you can’t handle your own finances. After receiving this help, you thanked America by sending even more jobs to India.

I realize that you, the person reading this, are probably from India. Let me say I have no personal beef with you and I am requesting you send me some good curry recipes. I really like spicy food.

You are the worst bank I have ever had to deal with, bar none, and you got even worse when merging with Bank One. Thank you for making my life a living hell for no reason whatsoever.

You see, I have never been late on a payment despite all the financial crunches I have been in in my life. I take some pride in this. I realize that because of this you consider me to be a “deadbeat.” Well, if I’m the deadbeat, and I’m actually paying my bills, what are you? If it wasn’t for Uncle Sam you would’ve collapsed, and deservedly so.

Let’s start with my account ending in XXX, which is the first one opened with Chase bank. I liked this card because of the rebates and the 5% back on gas. I established a pattern of paying my bill in full on time every month and because of this you felt obligated to raise my APR to 28%-ish. I guess you figured that if I were to mess up you could kick me while I’m down. I’m not down, I’m not out, and you’ve lost another customer.

You further pissed me off when you, without advanced warning, lowered my credit limit from $4000 to $1600 when my current account balance was $1500 with pending transactions. I caught this right away and you reversed the charge, as you should have. I will not thank you for reversing a charge that should never have been applied in the first place. And if you claim you gave me advance warning, I received the notice in the mail A WEEK AFTER going “over” my “limit.”

Now there is the account ending in XXXX. You have never ceased to amaze me on this account. In fact, the only way to describe Chase bank when it applies to the account is that you are like an infected hemorrhoid right at the base of my ******* when I’m stuck with travelers diarrhea.

First of all, I do not know if the annoyances and bull**** I have endured on this concept have been with Chase Bank directly or with Bank One, however I consider that to be one in the same as when purchasing Bank One you opened up yourself to their mistakes.

This account has been at a balance transfer rate for a long time. I have made consistent payments above the minimum while I’ve gotten back on my feet financially. When I first made the balance transfer I was charged a transfer fee. You felt obligated to charge this fee as a purchase and applied the purchase APR to the fee but the balance transfer rate to the balance transfer. How greedy are you, honestly? This came out to about 15 cents a month in your favor on such a small amount. This annoyed the hell out of me but I can see since you can’t handle your own finances I guess every little bit helps.

As a side note, I have found that Quicken really helps track expenses, tell your CEO he might want to try it sometime so he can balance his checkbook.

Another time you tried to get me with this same account (and tried to raise my APR subsequently) is when you claimed you hadn’t receive my payments for two months in a row. I had used your website to directly pay the account but your customer service rep told me that the payment “probably got lost in the mail.” How the hell could this happen? Do you think I’m a moron? As it turns out a simple AUDIT could have taken care of this as your data entry personnel added an extra 0 to my account number, but you have not admitted to any fault.

And finally this year as I’m buying a house and taking care of other things you felt the need to violate the terms of my card member agreement by raising my Life of Loan Balance transfer of 5.99% to 15.99% APR. I guess you were hoping I wasn’t paying attention. Now I’ve gotten you to lower the amount but you are yet to refund the charges from when my APR was unjustifiably raised.

I’m through with you and I hope you fail.

Sincerely,




P.S. Tell your CEO he needs a new toupee.

If it makes you feel better, go for it. Don't expect it to change anything.

/\ Agreed.

I'd write it, read it a few times and go for a long bike ride to vent, then frame the letter and look at it anytime you are tempted to buy things with plastic..

Then write a new letter to your state and Federal electeds with the same (albeit cleaned up) sentiments. That will probably go a longer way towards affecting any change.

And congrats for erasing your credit card debt. I've been digging my way out since 1989:cry:

I'd get some new credit cards first... if you close your cards, as you know, it will impact your credit score. Your insurance rates - both homeowners and auto - are impacted by that number, not just mortgage rates. All your new utilities will run credit check on you (unless just transferring from one place to the other in your town).

One new card you may want to get is the Home Depot card... as a new home owner, you will spend a lot of time and money there! Or Lowe's... whichever.

And even some jobs run a credit check before making an offer.

It's actually a bit sickening at who and for what purpose that score is used, especially as flawed as it is. I mean... closing accounts and reducing your available credit makes you MORE of a risk? Fair Issac is part of the problem here... the more credit you have the more credit worthy you are. The less you have, the less you should get. Someone's gonna sue them one of these days over this formula and I hope they win!

I will write to elected officials in time...

I do have some CC accounts that will remain open and I use them and pay them in full every month. I will still have credit. I'm just getting rid of the greedy incompetent bailout *******s such as Chase.

i share your rage, believe me.

nobody's going to read past the first line.

You charged up some credit cards and blame the bank?

nobody's going to read past the first line.

True. It's best to call customer service and ask for a manager, then ask for his manager. Get as high on the chain as you can and then throw a verbal assault on him/her. It's much more satisfying than a letter. Trust me, you'll feel great. :D

I realize that you, the person reading this, are probably from India. Let me say I have no personal beef with you and I am requesting you send me some good curry recipes. I really like spicy food.

Irony and ignorance. That's a tough combo to break, but you managed to do it in one sentence.


I established a pattern of paying my bill in full on time every month and because of this you felt obligated to raise my APR to 28%-ish.
If you always pay on time, then what does it matter?

True. It's best to call customer service and ask for a manager

Don't bother. Most CS reps at large companies have been re-titled as "Customer Service Managers" or "Customer Account Managers".

What you should do is engage in conversation, and at some point strike the tone that the current CS rep is not adequately answering your inquiry and asked to be transferred to someone with more knowledge, experience, or gross monthly income.

If you always pay on time, then what does it matter?

Ummm, principle and fairness?

What you should do is engage in conversation, and at some point strike the tone that the current CS rep is not adequately answering your inquiry and asked to be transferred to someone with more knowledge, experience, or gross monthly income.

Right, that's why I said "get as high up the chain as you can".

Ummm, principle and fairness?

It's a business, not a courthouse. If you're not happy with the way they run their ship, then take your business elsewhere but don't whine about it.

It's a business, not a courthouse. If you're not happy with the way they run their ship, then take your business elsewhere but don't whine about it.

OK, you win. :rolleyes:

OK, you win. :rolleyes:

it's only a TKO.

You charged up some credit cards and blame the bank?

No. I take responsibility for my fiances and that is not the issue here.

Account 1: My regular expense card for 6 six years -- paid in full on time every month. originally around 13% APR if I were to carry a balance but up to 28% APR. Doesn't affect me since it's paid in full but it's the inconsiderateness and greediness that bothers me most. And I wouldn't be surprised if CC companies start getting rid of the grace period.

Account 2: Offered me a balance transfer rate at one interest rate. I agreed to these terms for life of loan. I have never been late, never had a payment not clear, not defaulted in any way. They have, on numberous occasions, tried to raise my interest rate.

I have perfect credit from the standpoint that I have never been late, never defaulted under ANY agreement with ANY company.

Maybe you should reconsider your judgment of me.

Maybe you should reconsider your judgment of me.

Your OP has attracted trolls. Don't feed the trolls.

I hope you people realize this is satirical.

You could cause problems for yourself, it will mean nothing to the clerk who opens it. It isn't exactly a VP sitting there opening the mail you know. But, tick someone off enough and they just might submit a report to the credit bureau that you would find hard to remove, without asking for a favor from people you just pissed off.

Write the letter, burn it. Move on. No one put a gun to your head making you take the credit card.

I've been working my way out of debt for a while now and as I've gotten my cards paid off I've left them open to keep my FICO score up for when I buy a house.

But I'm about to set a closing date so I'm getting to be sending my letters to the CC companies telling them to close my accounts. Thing is, I'm not going to be professional at all about this... I'm just going to tell them what I think...

First up, Chase bank...

This may be pretty vulgar to some people, but this is what I will most likely be sending certified mail or email (I haven't decided which) within a couple weeks. I'm open to suggestions too...

--


Dear Chase Bank:

As of today I am requesting that my accounts ending in XXXX and XXXX be closed. I want you to do this immediately and report it to the credit bureau(s) that this account is to be closed upon consumer request.

The reason for this closing is simple, you are greedy *****holes and I no longer want anything to do with any more of your bulls###. Quite frankly, I can summarize my feelings toward my relationship with you in to words: F### you.

At around this sentence, your letter would have been trashed. Just saying.

And that post is way too long for it to be satire.

You could cause problems for yourself, it will mean nothing to the clerk who opens it. It isn't exactly a VP sitting there opening the mail you know. But, tick someone off enough and they just might submit a report to the credit bureau that you would find hard to remove, without asking for a favor from people you just pissed off.


And that would be illegal and could give me grounds for legal action. They cannot take adverse action against me for simply voicing my opinion and telling them why I am taking my business elsewhere, even if I am doing it in a non-gratuitous manner.

Maybe you should reconsider your judgment of me.You're incredibly handsome.

You're incredibly handsome.

Thanks!!! I've been working out!! :-)

Do it, but take out the curse words. As soon as you use them, YOU are the bad guy. Be creative with your insults. You small penised molester of produce.

Don't even bother, just put a simple one sentence "close this account" statement in there, thats all the person opening the letter is going to read anyway.
Also don't close too many at once, that will lower your score, slowly close them one at a time over months. You still want a decent credit score even though you already have the house since credit scores affect other things like insurance.
And of course your going to get a higher rate if you pay the bill off every month, your the kind of person credit card companies don't want, they make very little profit from you. If you carry a small balance then they like you and give you better deals.
I pay mine off every so often, then decide somehting I want thats say $500 and go put it on the card and pay like $100 each month to pay it off. I loose a little in interest buy it buys me a very nice credit score so things like my auto insurance goes down every year instead of up so I save in the long run.

And that would be illegal and could give me grounds for legal action. They cannot take adverse action against me for simply voicing my opinion and telling them why I am taking my business elsewhere, even if I am doing it in a non-gratuitous manner.

Good luck proving maliciousness from a "filing" error. Then when you ask for them to fix it, they have to have it go to various committees, etc.

Might make you feel good, but really, it is better to just go elsewhere. Besides, why ruin the day of a peon?

That letter has been circulating on the internet for years. It's amusing, thanks for sharing.