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.