Chase Proactive Solutions
July 23rd, 2009 by Kenneth Long
Chase has aggressively expanded and trained a new set of supervisors and in-house collectors in their Proactive Solutions Department. This is a targeted approach to dealing with the approximately 1.2 million cardholders that faced a 5% minimum payment hike. But to speak with them, you have to say the magic word.
Hardship
Chase, like other credit card issuers does provide an in-house hardship program. Traditionally, this has been a 6 month temporary reprieve on distressed cardholders that gives them the chance to catch up when a life event has caused financial problems.
However, the Proactive Solutions Department takes a different role. While it is true that the department handles an increasing number of phone calls from cardholders that have faced an actual hardship such as job loss or reduced income, another cause is the source of a high number of calls.
When Chase increased the minimum payment requirement from 2% to 5%, many cardholders saw their minimum payments rise by 150%. Some of these cardholders did face hardships, which made the change even more difficult to handle. For these cardholders, this department may be able to help. You must tell the representative that you are “facing a hardship” and that you expect to be able to repay the debt if they will help you bring the payment back down.
If you are successful, you may be able to repay the debt over a period of 5 years at a slightly higher interest rate. While this may not be as good as your original terms, it may be better than the alternative, which is to fall behind and eventually default.
Here is a description for a Department Team Manager job posting found in CareerBuilder.com:
As a Customer Support Team Manager, you will oversee a unit of approximately 18-20 collectors in resolving customer debt and customer program eligibility over the phone in the Proactive Solutions Department.
Please note that “customer program eligibility” means making sure that you meet their guidelines for help and know how to ask for it. These guidelines are not public information, but we may speculate that it includes traditional hardship criteria. It may also possibly include limitations based on the types of balances that you hold with Chase, but this is not proven.
No Hardship
For cardholders that do not have a bona fide hardship, there is less help available. Technically, the pressure placed on you by the higher minimum payment requirement does not constitute a hardship, even though most sensible people would disagree.
If you do not have a hardship, then you would not be eligible for help with their plan. That leaves you with a couple of alternatives.
First, if you still have good credit, you might consider rolling much of the balance over into a loan product. This may be unsecured, or you may be able to utilize any remaining equity in your home (assuming you have escaped the housing bust).
If you do not have good credit and are facing problems with multiple credit card accounts, it might be time to recognize that you have a more serious and long-term financial problem. Do your research, find a nonprofit credit counseling organization and get help before your situation gets worse.
This entry was posted on Thursday, July 23rd, 2009 at 9:03 am and is filed under Credit Cards, Credit Cards: Chase. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
August 7th, 2009 at 12:42 am
Chase should just get stiffed for this behavior. They are extortionaists; nothing more.
December 9th, 2009 at 6:54 pm
Agreed. Everyone should just boycott and stop paying.
February 23rd, 2010 at 1:28 pm
This is not the way it works. There is no temporary 6 month reprieve for people with serious hardships. What they don’t “tell” the media,etc. is that to “quality” you have to have a good and steady income. Which means you are really not in a hardship situation. If you are truly in a hardship situation and your income is low or nothing they will NOT give you any kind of temporary reprieve. They will continue to demand the 5% payments plus the added fees, higher interest and new your minimum payment will now include the 5% original one plus all the ones you have missed because you couldn’t afford that payment.
It is the same with all the credit card companies, not just Chase. But in my case Chase is the one who started the problem. When they raised my payment to 5% the amount was more than my monthly income. They have now turned me over to collections and collections continues to demand that same 5% payment and nothing less. My lifetime of excellent credit has been completely destroyed and because of my physical condition right now I can’t do anything about it. If there is any risk to them that you might not be able to pay, they won’t put you on their hardship program. Remember that you weren’t in a hardship until they raised the payment so they know you can afford to make the payments you had before they raised it. This to me does not qualify as a “hardship” program. They aren’t trying to help anyone. It is just a new loan that you are applying for because the government tells them they have to offer a 5 year payment plan if people have trouble making the minimum payment. However, you can’t be in a “real” hardship. You have to be able to afford the payments and pose no risk to them.
May 25th, 2010 at 12:22 pm
Haven’t seen much on this online lately. My wife had two cards at 13.xx% and 14.xx% with balances of 14,000 and 9,000. Protective offered her a 5 yr, 0.0* payoff. If she defaults she goes back to orignal interest. They do want to close the accouts which is ok because the accounts have not been acctive by our choice for over 1 1/2 yrs. We wanted to close them anyway. They have not stated any other fee structure at this date.
September 27th, 2010 at 1:39 pm
This is crazy to blame Chase for things. They actually have 2 different departments for hardship…one that is for current customers, and one for past due. This is the department that helped me. The lady on the line was very nice and helped me with a payment program. I get so frustrated when I hear people complaining about chase…none of my other companies helped me, not even Discover, but Chase did. They are leading the industry in reform. I hate my credit card, but don’t blame them for it…after all, I was the idiot that spent the money, not them. Too many people are blaming the credit card companies when all along they should point a finger at themselves for spending the money in the first place. Yes, a lot of companies are doing things that are making it harder for us, but still…we need to take responsibility.
April 15th, 2011 at 11:48 pm
The declaration by Chase/Proactive/Vision of “accreditation” is in DIRECT CONFLICT with the standards established by The National Foundation of Credit Counseling- NFCC. If anyone believes Proactive/Chase/Vision are in compliance with National Best Practices Standards established by the NFCC and the Council on Accreditation, which were determined the only standards that follow 501c3 tax code as a public- charitable & educational- non profit, has been lied to and manipulated. Your problems run far deeper than your credit card debt. I co founded a real 501c3, licensed by New York State Banking Dept. & C.O.A Accredited. You have all been fooled once again.
April 16th, 2011 at 12:03 am
We are all slaves to debt. Chase amuses me. Survived the sub-prime tsunami with their retail branches and unwaivering & rigid collection policies. This foray into credit counseling is the biggest conflict of interest in the history. Except the public is so poorly educated, and will continue to believe that Chase is something more than a metaphor for pure greed. This thinking is the seed of the next sub-prime nuclear disaster that will devastate 1000 time worse than the last recession.
April 16th, 2011 at 10:28 am
This non-profit is not a public 501c3. And has Stakeholders within Chase Cank. BEWare- They have the same accreditating standards that Ameridebt had- the largest “non-profit Credit counseling Agency that had to file BANKRUPTCY- as well as defend against criminal charges for these types on internal conflicts. not has stakeholders
April 16th, 2011 at 10:34 am
My emails are being censored- the incorrect grammer, spelling and diction. I’m the ultimate insider with press contacts at the NY Times, Wall St Journal and many others. I predict this will be exposed for the blatant disregard of tax codes and practice standards inherit in this tradgedy.
April 18th, 2011 at 9:02 am
Dear Jim:
As always, we appreciate the comments of the concerned public. Apparently something has occurred to upset you, and I fail to see how this has anything to do with our nonprofit organization. Still, I wanted to keep your comments available for public viewing and wanted to take a moment to respond since some of your points were incorrect.
For the record, Vision Credit Education, Inc. is a nonprofit charity that was granted tax exempt status under Section 501(c)3 of the Internal Revenue Code (verify at IRS.gov). Your comment about tax exempt status is incorrect.
Additionally, our accreditation is under ISO 9001:2008. This is not the same accreditation that was held by Ameridebt. Furthermore, Ameridebt was a substantial commercial enterprise that did near zero education for public benefit. While Ameridebt was being stripped of its nonprofit status, Vision Credit Education was granted charity status under newer, more rigid evaluation guidelines that saw nearly every other credit counseling organization’s request for nonprofit status declined.
Vision Credit Education is first and foremost an educational organization. We hold on average 20-25 separate educational workshops every year. In 2011 alone, our volunteers have completed over 240 income tax returns at no charge under the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program.
Finally, your comments about the New York State Banking Department are irrelevant. Vision Credit Education is not licensed by the New York State Banking Department, nor do we claim to be. The state of New York requires a minimum $250,000 bond in order to receive licensing to provide credit counseling to New York residents. As an actual nonprofit charity, we do not have the resources to sink into a bond of that amount. Only a handful of large agencies have that amount of discretionary reserves. If you are a New York resident, then you will need to work with one of the agencies that is licensed in New York.
Jim, your emails to our organization have not been censored, nor do I see where they have ended up in any SPAM folder. I am not sure what you are trying to communicate, but welcome the opportunity to speak with you further. I encourage you to contact me directly so that I may better understand your ideas.
Sincerely,
Ken