On a rampage again [a.k.a. Washington Mutual Sucks]
It would just be so much easier if people would just realize that I am always right. Then I wouldn’t have to whip out my bitch claws and send nasty emails to corporations who don’t know how to do their job.
On today’s shit list is Providian [now Washington Mutual]. Providian Sucks. Washington Mutual Sucks. [That last little bit was just for the google bots.]
Both Lee and I have a Providian [now Washington Mutual] credit card. We were going along nicely for quite some time. I always pay more than the minimum [even if sometimes it's only a few bucks more than the minimum] and I always pay on time.
Now Lee has gone over his limit once or twice so I expected a little bit of a jump in his interest rate, but not OVER 30%.
But me…I can’t think of a time I have ever paid late or gone over my limit or anything. And I look through my past statements online and I don’t see any late fees or anything. But somehow my interest rate jumped to OVER 27%. OVER 27%. Can you freaking believe that?
The average credit score is 723. Based on that I have a very good credit score. Not excellent, but very good. Nobody with a very good credit score should be paying OVER 27% in interest on a freaking credit card.
So I sent them a very gentle [ok, maybe sort of bitchy, but tame] email. I said,
I was reviewing my statement and I noticed I know have a ridiculously high interest rate of 26.74%. I pay more than the minimum every month. I can’t think of a time that I have paid my card late. Why would I have such a high interest rate? This needs to be reduced immediately. I have other cards with much lower interest rates. If we can’t get this card’s interest rate down then I will just transfer the money to a new card and cancel this one. Please let me know what can be done about this.
And then I waited. And waited. And waited.
Yesterday I got an email stating they got my email and I am very important to them. It then went on to say that they are researching my question and will get back to me soon.
So today I got a response. They said,
Thank you for your recent e-mail regarding your account.
Our records indicate your accounts interest rate (Annual Percentage Rate or APR) was increased in accordance with the terms of your Account Agreement (including any Change in Terms).
The Account Agreement provides that APR increases may occur if a cardholders account is not kept in good standing. For example if an account is past due, overlimit, or has incurred a non-sufficient funds fee, one or both of the following may happen:
1. An APR Increase on any account balances up to the disclosed maximum default APR.
2. An end of any introductory or promotional APR.
Unfortunately, we cannot reinstate your previous interest rate at this time. Please keep your account in good standing to help avoid APR increases. By doing so, your account may become eligible for future programs that may reduce your APR.
Notice Required by Federal Law
The federal Equal Credit Opportunity Act prohibits creditors from discriminating against credit applicants on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, marital status, or age (provided the applicant has the capacity to enter into a binding contract); because all or part of the applicants income is derived from any public assistance program; or because the applicant has in good faith exercised any right under the Consumer Credit Protection Act. The federal agency that administers Washington Mutual Banks compliance with the law is the Office of Thrift Supervision, P. O. Box 7165, San Francisco, CA 94120. All other inquiries should be directed Washington Mutual, P.O. Box 660509, Dallas, TX 75266-0509.If you have further questions or would like additional information, please e-mail us through our secure Contact Center or you may also call our Customer Service Department toll-free at 1-800-356-0011. Representatives are available to assist you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Sincerely,
Customer Service Representative
P.S. We hope you enjoy the convenience of online account access. Keep in mind, at our website you can check your balance, pay your bill, and more - - 24 hours a day!
Ummm….ok. Thanks for reiterating the terms of my card like I’m a freaking idiot. And the “your accounts interest rate (Annual Percentage Rate or APR)” like I’m too stupid to realize that it’s an annual percentage rate or an APR was a bit of an overkill. I’m not the asshole who can’t read. That would be Providian’s [now Washington Mutual's] moronic customer service team. I have to assume they cannot read since they did not answer my question.
So my response to them today was,
Thanks for the standard email. It’s nice to know that your customers are so important to you that it takes three days for you to send a generic form email.
And you never did answer my question. If you are having trouble reading, my question was “Why would I have such a high interest rate?” As I stated, I cannot think of any time that my card was paid late. And apparently neither can you since you couldn’t answer the question.
But never mind. I have transferred both my balance and my husband’s balance to another credit card. My credit score is to good to be paying 26.74% in interest on a credit card. If you would rather lose customers then answer questions or lower interest rates for customers with good credit standings, then so be it. As soon as those balance transers post I will cancel both of our cards.
Providian and Washington Mutual can both kiss my ass.
Oh, and don’t even get me started on United Healthcare. If I have to call them one more time to tell them we don’t have any other insurance and that they are the primary insurance, I will lose my cool. Up until now I have calmly explained to the nice customer service rep that they need to pay these claims because we do not have any other insurance. But if somebody can’t get this bit of information in to their system and I have to call one more time, the nice customer service lady is not going to like the big, bad maniac who is foaming at the mouth on the other end of the line [that would be me].
Geez, is it honestly too much to ask that companies get their shit together? Do I look like a woman who has time to do their job? NO!
You don’t have to wait to cancel the cards until your transfer happens. Call now, while you’re “hot under the collar” and cancel today. I’ve not had a dramatic APR increase like you, but I’m always shopping for low APR cards and moving my money when it’s financially benificial.
I’m also really good at sending nasty e-mails to idiot companies. You wouldn’t believe how much “free” stuff I’ve gotten by complaining! The customer is always right!
ok, I had the same thing happen with Citibank. we have 2 cards through them - one’s the ‘big’ one… anyway, I absolutely, completely forgot to pay it, and BAM- $600 min paymetn. I called, they were very nice & took care of it instantly. but if it ever happens again… I screwed. did you throw up?
Why dont you just close your account? Really. Save everyone the trouble from your stupid emails that the employees just laugh about. HEE HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE thats what they say when they read and hear that. BYE BYE MISS HIGH APR.
Oh sweetie. You must be a teenager. You haven’t fully grasped the concept of bad customer service yet and how this affects our economy. See every single day I have people come to this post and read about how Providian, now Washington Mutual, treats their loyal customers. EVERY SINGLE DAY. So I’m getting the word out there. If you search for Washington Mutual Sucks or Providian Sucks you will find several other customer who are not satisfied. That’s word of mouth at it’s best.
And don’t worry. I have canceled my card. It only takes a couple of days for transfers to go through. I completed my final transaction with Washington Mutual a week ago. But thanks for the concern.
Additionally, the customer service reps may not care when customers send emails…which is really sad that businesses can’t find employees that are looking out for the greater good of their company…but I can guarantee you that the CEO cares. When I run in to this type of situation with a company I like to give the CEO a little shout out. And I ALWAYS hear back from the CEO. And he/she ALWAYS makes it right.
But thanks for your opinion.
hey i would like too talk with the ceo of the aka providian credit card co. wow now i trually know how you people get poor peoples money. my elderly mother who is in grave health got a stupid credit card that was worth $300.00 and she is still paying for it 4and one half years later and the card cancelled back in 2002.why would a company not see a BIG RED FLAG. YOU IDIOTS JUST KEEP TAKING HER MONEY UP UNTIL NOW, BECAUSE OF HER HEALTH SHE IS NEVER GOING TO LIVE LONG ENOUGH TO PAY IT OFF. A $300.00 LIMIT YOU HAVE ALREADY GOTTEN OVER $4655 AND STILL YOU SAY SHE HAS AN ESTIMATED BALANCE OF $1,903.14 TO PAY MAY I SIMPLY ASK WHO THE HELL IS POCKETING ALL THIS MONEY BELIEVE ME I DON’T HAVE TO BE AN ATTORNEY TOO KNOW THERE ARE ALOT OF CROOKS IN THIS WORLD, KNOW WONDER YOU HAVE BEAUTIFUL HOMES AND NICE CARS AND SO FORTH.YOU WILL BE HEARING FROM MY ATTORNEY I THOUGHT IT WAS AGAINST THE HUMAN LAW TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF PEOPLE.
I stumpled across this website and noticed I am not the only one that is getting screwed by Providian. Providian sucks! My interest rate is 30%. I made timely payments and always make more than the minimum payments and I have even paid it off a few times. I also requested that they reduce my interest rate and I get the same form letter. I owe them $75.00 and I am paying them off and getting rid of it. I am not going to give them another cent. There are plenty of credit cards out there with much lower interest rates. DO NOT GET A PROVIDIAN CREDIT CARD!!
I was also a Providian cardholder. Ironically, I didn’t have any problems until Wash. Mutual took over the account. By deceptive means, they reduced my credit line to only the outstanding balance, of course, without notifying me. Their motive was obvious; I had a fix 7% interest rate; now that can re-instate my credit line and raise the interest rate to whatever!! I am making them nervous; I sent a certified letter detailing this unethical practice; I would love to get in contact with as many WAMU customers that are willing to join me in this pursuit!! They call me to try to persuade me against reporting them to as many regulatory agencies that I can find. Of course, they won’t put the credit line back!! I have good evidence, and I am sure they are screwing as many customers as they can get away with; I surprised them when they realized that I was pursuing this unethical practice. Providian had the largest judgment put on them in history; I just want to get them for the tricks that they are doing to so many people; and who knows, we could end up with a judgment and some money in our pocket!! Any interested parties, please reply to my e-mail address.
I have an automatic deposit every 1st of the month. Wamu makes sure that any debts are calculated first then my auto payment is calculated on the same day. So Wamu can charge me $27 for insufficient funds. My savings account is always being charged $15.00 for over-usage only when i make a withdrawal not a deposit.
I deposited some cash in the WAMU atm here in town and it is now missing (stolen) and the bank refuses to help locate or refund or investigate the matter. They just keep giving me the run around saying that my envelope was empty, which it wasn’t. The sad thing is that I’ve been banking with them for years and they’re treating me like I’m some kind of idiot or a liar. I filed a complaint with the BBB and tomorrow with the police department to see if I can make them pull their internal surveillance cameras. Anyways, that’s my sad story.
Run from Washington Mutual. I applied for a business line of credit at Washington Mutual and was denied. I was worried because just weeks before I had a 755 credit score. I found a discrepancy on my credit report and received a retraction letter to offer Washington Mutual. The manager, Ronny Thomas, told me that I was still turned down for the loan. The letter was on company letterhead and was a retraction that was sent to all 3 credit bureaus. I asked Ronny to do a reconsideration of the loan. Ronny told me that he did not even know what that was. Ronny had to get another Washington Mutual branch to do the reconsideration paperwork for him. He told me that I was still turned down for the loan. He said that the credit bureau had to fax him a letter, completely illegal. The other Washington Mutual branch told me that the letter was exactly what I needed. Ronny Thomas didn’t submit the reconsideration letter because he didn’t know how. He lied to me about it and sent me on a wild goose chase with no intention of doing anything. He acted in bad faith and cost me time and money.
My checks, debit card and identification were stolen. Guess what? Washington Mutual will not close my account or suspend the account until this mess is cleared up. It can not be cleared up until WaMu stops accepting transactions. Meanwhile, someone is using my idenity to write checks/make debit transactions and WaMu keeps assessing me with a NSF charge and pays the charges. Go figure!
Providian AKA Washington Mutual has been screwing me with a 34% intrest rate. I too, have a good credit score and have been a customer since 1999. They raised my cedit limit and gave me a wonderful 34% APR. I called and said drop it or I am dropping you. They said thats fine do what u will.
I thought that I was the only one who got screwed by Washington Mutual/Providian. They raised my APR to 29.74% and still cannot give me an explanation as to the reason. I have never been late with them or any credit card for over 5 years and my FICO score is a 749. I owed them about $1,000 dollars and I worked overtime for about 6 weeks to pay them off. Now I only keep the account open because I like to see my score each month and I don’t have an annual fee. I’m wondering if there is something illegal going on with WAMU? Too many people seem to be having this problem.
I only have good things to say about WaMu, I think some of these posts are exaggerated, but i guess i could have just gotten lucky.
I too have a Providian/WAMU credit card and I took advantage (or so I thought) of a balance transfer offer that promised 5.99% until it was paid. Now, I see on my May statement that the rate has jumped to 15.99%.
When I called and talked to the CS representative, that spoke shabby English, all he could tell me was my rate got raised due to by business with other banks. I’ve always paid more than the minimum and never been late or missed a payment.
I have had a Providian card for almost 10 years, with a good experience. IF you close your credit card account, it will hurt your FICO score! The secret: Pay off your card each month and build up your FICO score so that you can apply for and receive the best credit cards in the nation. Providian has not earned a dime from me in almost 12 months - Pay off your account in full each month!! WM offered me a credit card with an APR of 0% for a year and 10% thereafter, because I pay my accounts off each month.
Think about it….
When it was Providian I had no problems. It was when WAMU bought them out that the problems started. And paying the card off in full each month doesn’t solve the problem. I have NEVER paid my card late. I have a decent FICO score. And closing my account with WAMU has not hurt my score. True, your FICO score is based on how long your credit history is. However, I have cards with other companies that I’ve had longer so my average length of credit is still fairly long. Also, your credit used vs. your available balance is a factor in your FICO score. So you if you have $20,000 in available credit, but you’re only currently using $2000 of it then you’re FICO score will appreciate that. However, what I’ve discovered about WAMU is they don’t like you to pay off your credit cards every month. In fact they not only increased my interest rate, but after I paid off my $3000 balance in one month in preparation for closing my card, they decreased my available balance to $250. That decrease does not help my FICO score because they just reduced my available credit. WAMU is a shady company. As you can see by this year old post that still continues to get hits every single day, many people have had similar dealings with WAMU and agree. I hope your experience is different. But my guess is you will run in to WAMU’s ugly side if you continue to pay your account in full each month. Because they aren’t making any money off of you and they don’t like that. I have very good experiences with other companies. But WAMU is dead to me. I will no longer trust WAMU with any of my money.
The Wamu company is devious. Beware of their tricks!
Wamu also increased my int rate to 34%-I have always paid on time and my credit report is clean. When I called to inquire about the int rate hike they gave me a generic answer. This week will be my last payment to Wamu and I will never deal with them again. Charging 34% is robbery and no wonder people fall behind on their debts. Take my advice-Never open up an account with Wamu!!!
I’m having a horrible time with Washington Mutual as well. They hold my biggest bill (nearly ten thousand), and my interest rate is 31% !! I threatened them a year ago, saying lower it or close it.. what did they do? They closed it! I’ve tried making a few calls and talking to supervisors to lower the rate, none of them will do it. I’ve only been late once in I don’t know how many years… Its awful. Working 50 hour weeks doesn’t even seem to be helping.. I just can’t keep up how much they are screwing me. This is the absolute worst credit company I’ve ever dealt with. They don’t even TRY to make you happy.
Good to hear I’m not alone.
Well…OK, it’s not good to hear that I’m not the only one getting Skaaa-Rewd by WAMU.
When I asked why they couldn’t lower my 23.99% APR, they said they never honor requests from customer’s to lower rates in an effort to (get this) build long term customer relationships.
I wrote them back and said if that’s their idea of building long term relationships, they really suck at it and should try something different.
wamu credit card charged me a overlimit fee then on a 2000.00 balance tripled the finance charge to the sum of 58.00 per month!!! claimed the reason was i was over my limit by 10.00 said statements would cost 50.00 to send me. lies lies lies please dont deal with these crooks the bait and switch you.
No, none of these stories are an exaggeration, Providian/WaMu are a nightmare. I actually cannot believe that noone has stepped in and reviewed some of their practices, but I guess when they have their hand in your State Representatives wallet, thats what happens. If Don’t believe me??? Check to see how much they contributed to your local Congress men and women. Every bill that comes up trying to proctect the consumer from their criminal tactics (universal default, etc etc), is basically vetoed, so they can continue to get away with what if you and I did to another individual would land us in jail. -
~ and the little comment from Craig Benzoni about sums it up ~ Providian is the scum of the earth, I cannot even begin to tell you how good it feels to be free from them now!!!
WAM-U CHARGED ME 2 OVERDRAFT FEE’S BY FRAUDULENTLY POSTING ELECTRONIC TRANSFERS TO PAYPAL OUT OF SEQUENCE (2 DAY EARLIER DIFFERENCE ON PAYPAL ELECTRONIC TRANSFER OF THE SMALLER AMOUNT TIME STAMP DOCUMENTED) WHICH WOULD NOT HAVE OVERDRAFTED MY BALANCE. OK, I SCREWED UP ON THE 2ND TRANSFER AND SHOULD HAVE HAD TO PAY THE 32.00 FEE (WHICH AMOUNT IS CRIMINAL TO BEGIN WITH) BUT TO BE CHARGED $64 FOR A 132.00 OVER DRAFT. WAM-U POSTED BOTH TRANSACTIONS ON THE SAME DAY LARGEST ONE FIRST.
THE REAL CROOKS IN THIS COUNTRY WEAR WHITE SHIRTS AND TIES AND WORK AT BANKS. THATS WHY WE CALL THEM “BANKSTERS”.
BANK OF AMERICA LOST A CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT QUITE A FEW YEARS AGO FOR DOING THIS VERY SAME THING. I HAVE CONTACTED AN ATTORNEY TO START A CLASS ACTION LAW SUIT. IF YOU WANT TO HELP GET THIS SUIT GOING AND HAVE DOCUMENTABLE PROOF IF BEING VICTIMIZED BY WAM-U CONTACT THEM
Daren Stabinski, Esq.
Stabinski and Funt, P.A.
757 N.W. 27th Ave.
Third Floor
Miami, FL 33125
(305) 643-3100
(305) 643-1382 (fax)
dstabinski@stabinski-funt.com
http://www.stabinski-funt.com
At the end of August I opened a credit card with WaMu to take advantage of 0% balance transfer offer. Between time card was opened and 1st payment in October I made a few purchases, but stayed under limit. I went online 3 days prior to due date to make online payment. Unfortunately I transposed my checking acct. # so the payment was ‘returned’. I received an email 2 days after due date telling me of ‘returned’ payment and called IMMEDIATELY to make an over the phone payment. KENZIE took my call had great difficulty correctly repeating my account # until she finally got it right. Thought I was ‘good to go’.
The next week, I noticed my checking account hadn’t been debited the WaMu payment amount. The only thing I can figure is that ‘Kenzie’ apparently f****d up entering my checking account info!! I called IMMEDIATELY (upon noticing ’surplus’ in my checking account balance) and remade the payment. So now, the payment is posted 13 days after due date. And this is the first month of making a payment to them. Not a good way to start off. And oh yeah, the ‘late fee’ caused an ‘over credit limit fee’, but I was given a one time courtesy and the charges were credited.
No further charges made and sent November payment by check via Priority Mail with delivery confirmation just as a precaution. Payment cleared my bank account 5 days prior to November due date.
December 1st, I checked my WaMu account to see available credit. Had several hundred available. The next day I logged on again and it was showing $0 available credit!! Made the phone call to find out WTF? and was told the account had been CLOSED due to ‘returned payments’-which were actually my typo’d checking account # and dips–t Kenzie’s error!
Made December’s payment early and over minimum…
Have wasted hours worth of time, and endured a great amount of stress calling trying to get account re-opened (I’m trying to re-establish credit history and don’t want this to affect credit rating!). Most of whom I’ve dealt with up to this point have been total incompetants. Finally got a decent supervisor, Cheryl, who submitted ‘Exception to Credit Policy’ (the 1st 2 supervisors who were supposed to, failed to submit request and left me hanging 3+ weeks waiting for result). Found out Friday that the ‘Compliance Department’ denied request because of ‘returned payments’. ARRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!
Just received call from Cheryl to let me know someone from the ‘Executive Offices’ will be returning my call today…we’ll see.
After reading all of the above horror stories, I question WHY I’d even want to be a customer of this institution. It’s purely ‘the principle of the thing’ I suppose. I’ve never dealt with an financial institution so unwilling to consider a ‘one-time mistake’ just that.
It boggles my mind.
Tam
someone with clout or power out there pleeeese help me out ok? how do i go about starting a class action law suit against the company issueing credit cards .WAMU or Washington Mutual Bank. these people have went tooo long screwing people by claiming the payments are late, assesing late fees and tripeling interest rates they claim are DEFAULT RATES. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. Please join me in stoping these practices!! thank you!!
If you find that person I will GLADLY join in the lawsuit!!
I received an offer from Juniper.com that I THOUGHT about transferring the WaMu balance to just to get rid of them before they most likely jack up my interest rate. Luckily after spending the better part of today reading all of these similar stories on various websites, I did some ‘research’ & discovered that they are practicing the same deceptive tactics as WaMu. Promptly shredded the offer.
Btw, still waiting for someone from ‘Executive Office’ (must be credit card company code used to temporarily pacify the customer into thinking that someone is really going to call. I saw a post re: Juniper that someone was also waiting on a call from that company’s ‘Executive Office’).
About to start the letter writing campaign to CEO’s, etc., AS IF they’ll ‘fix’ the situation. Thankfully-assuming that it’ll do any good?-I documented 99& of calls, emails, etc. since this account was opened.
Kicking myself in the a$$ for opening this account!
Live and learn,
Tam
I have been a customer for over a year. I have made all of my payments on time and have even paid off my card a few times. I just received my latest bill and the lowered my credit limit. When i called, they told me that this was due to my other revolving balances being too high. I asked them how they found out this info and they said that they pulled my credit monthly to find this out. When I asked them who authorized my credit to be pulled, they couldn’t answer my question. Coming from a finance background, they better have a good solution to y problem. If i don’t hear back from them in the next day or two, i will be contacting an attorney to start a class action lawsuit. From looking on the internet, it looks like I will have a pretty strong case.
In a follow-up to my situation…the ‘Executive Office’ did call the day after I was told they would. The supervisor who called was very nice and she claimed that she did everything she could to have the account re-opened. I expressed my concern about them jacking up the interest rate on me and she assured me that it would remain at 0 percent until that promotion runs out in October, and then the rate would only go to the 12.99 percent. She also assured me that she would periodically check on the account to make sure rate didn’t spike and that if I saw that it did, to call her and she’d ‘reset’ it. While still livid at the whole principal of them closing account on me after 3 months, in the end it’s likely a good thing they did. The FASTER I can get away from WaMu THE BETTER!!
Washington Mutual SUCKS!!
Tam
They got me too! The bastards at WaMu have been sendeing me a bill in the mail and charging the interest to my credit card causing it to go over the limit. They also hit me with some outrageous APR as well. I just called and spoke with Angela at their “customer service dept”. She was no help just like the last person I spoke with. I cancelled the card right then and there which I should have done months ago. I will pay the bill off and try hard to forget about them. I will be wiser in the future. I have other credit cards. They do not double bill me the way WaMu did. WASHINGTON MUTUAL SUCKS THE WORST THING YOU CAN IMAGINE!!!
WAMU has been gouging us for almost a year. In all that time we have tried to reason with them. It is pointless, they just send you form letters in reply. We kept the account in perfect standing and they still raised the interest to 30%.
Absolutely the worst company we have ever dealt with.
Today I had the nasty surprise to see my WaMu APR jump from 18% to 27%
I sent a mail to customer support, I know it wont help but had to make it somehow official. I will await for a response but I am sure I will get the same generic crap answer.
I will close this account and finish paying my $5000 balance till done, I will never accept any offers in the future from Washington Mutual, WaMu seems to take pleasure stomping on the little guy.
Adios WaMu, you wont screw me no more nor my kids nor anyone I know, I am spreading the word, stay away from Washington Mutual they don’t care for you at all but do want your money bad and will take it without consideration, not a fair business practice so much it borders on robbery.
It was a hard learned lesson…
We have closed our accounts due to our interest rates going up with out our being properly notified. We have been with them for 5+ years and this is how they treat us. October 2007 I called because we barely went over the limit due to my wife having a mental disability. We immediately paid off the overdraft. I spoke with an account mgr they said ok pay 3 months straight and we will lower your rate back to the normal 8.9%. GUESS WHAT when we called tonight we were told that our rates were increased because WE DID NOT CLOSE OUR ACCOUNT IN MAY OF 2007. We were punished for keeping the acount open. DO NOT DO BUSINESS WITH WAMU. They punish you for keeping things open.
without any notice whatsoever washington mutual lowered my credit limit on my card. I paid in full every month and 2 wks ahead of due date. I was in tears as I had major bills i used my card for and know my family and I don’t know what to do. How can they just do this to someone without telling them and to a person who paid them on time every month. I was lowered so much that the jerks left me with only 13.00.I work hard and take heart medicene every month but I go to work every day and pay my bills. This money isn’t even enough for me to refill my prescription!!!
Wow, reading some of these posts, I’m glad I’m not alone. WaMu raised the rate on my card from the promo 0% to 14.99% to 23.99% within a period of six months. I wasn’t late and I paid off about two to three months ago. I sent a letter to WaMu headquarters address at c/o Ms. Michelle Brown, Asst. Vice President
4900 Johnson Dr.
Pleasanton, CA 94588-3308
This was an address off the Better Business Bureau website of Northern Coastal California. I’m hoping to get something done about it, but I faxed them a letter stating that I felt their action was punitive and unnecessary. There was NO explanation as to why the increases were made. Just an offer to pay off my account at the original terms. With a zero balance I don’t give a rat’s a*& whether or not I close this account or not and I told WaMu that. Also stated to them that I would continue to use the card and pay it off, in effect saying SCREW YOU as these companies don’t make jack if you don’t pay interest on a recurring balance month to month. I’ve sent complaint letters twice in my life once to Capital One who lowered my rate to 4.99% (will never close that sucker as long as I live) and Bank of America who took my rate from 23.99% down to 13.99% and froze it. Of course both of these occurred after many phone calls and threats of going to the Better Business Bureau. That would be my first advice on some of these. The BBB is usually pretty good about going after these companies. Look up WaMu’s record on the BBB and you’ll see that it’s not great, but they have resolved some issues. Hope this helps! Good luck all!
My rate just jacked to 25% after I made a payment online and the transactions did not submit for some strange reason. I got a notice saying my account was past due and called immediatly to find out why and paid by phone right away. They reversed the late fee but said they would not change the interest rate back. Those selfish SOB’s are going to jack rates on everyone they can and when the economy gets really bad people will default and they will get nothing. Luckily I transfered to a 4.5% fixed card and will cancil my account as soon as it posts. I am going to write them a nasty letter too…although I will just get the same generic form saying read your credit terms (too fucking bad).
My wife and I have had a string of LONG problems with Washington Mutual.
Among them are:
1) Rude or impolite customer service agents
2) Miscrediting of accounts, e.g. we send a payment to one account, it gets credited to another account
3) Inflexible on-line interfaces
4) Limited customer service hours
5) Arbitrary raising of rates on our ARM
My wife had to complain to the better business burea to get results from those guys.
We’ve blogged about it a ton of times, so much in fact that we joke that our blog should be called the ‘We hate Washington Mutual’ blog.
Yeah, WAMU has big problems. I don’t understand why their senior management doesn’t get it.
Best,
James
p.s. here is a link to the posting where my wife mentioned refering WAMU to the BBB.
http://www.dinksfinance.com/2008/03/fighting-wamu.html
Here is the posting where she talks about.
James’s last blog post..Rethinking Social Class
I, too, have recently been hit with WAMU’s jacked up APR. Mine went from 9.9 to 17.9 - no lates, no overs, no mins, never. Still, the jack up.
I closed the account to lock in the 9.9 (which they will probably jackup anyway). But that’s ok. In the long run, I will come out on top, and they won’t ever see another dime from me.
Now as to why this is occurring. Pretty much boils down to bad speculation (lending practices) in the housing market. They have lost their ass. And the easiest place they can “cover” some of their losses is the credit card market because they maintain the right to change the APR at any time for any reason.
What I have learned: Nuke every account except one or two. As long as you don’t plan to make any major purchases within the time frame it will take to pay them all off - your FICO won’t come into play. And in the end, you won’t have to put up with B.S. like WAMU - and you ain’t paying somebody you hard earned cash to float you a loan.
All of those financial gurus selling their “get rich” packages on the tube all have one theme in common - eliminate credit card debt. My advice is google financial snow ball and apply it. Believe me - IT WORKS! And it works quite well.
And now, those sad schmucks over at WAMU can make like a Hoover on the wing-wang.
washington mutual credit cards are not worth it. because of my error i was late making a paymt to them once. so my account suffered wht they call a default rate. so my 14% intrest rate shot up to a whopping 33% i have complained to all kinds of gov. consumer agencys and they tell me the same thing read the fine print on my agreement. can any one working in a legal dept for a law firm tell me how they can legally get by with this. now most of my monthly payment goes to the finance charge. i feel trapped. any help would be appreiciated.
I just got my statement from wamu today. My apr has sky rocketed to 30.24%. I had 9.99% in February. So I called and after making my displeasure quite clear, the Indian fellow on the other end told me the “best” that he could do was 19.99%. What happened to my 9.99%, I asked. He stated that I had been late in January, and that was the reason for the increase. I told him that I had been a cardholder of Providian since 2000, and that I had never been subjected to a ridiculous apr like wamu had put on me. Some mumbling and finally I said I would transfer the remaining balance to another card and close this account and then hung up. Thanks wamu for f***ing me over.
WAMU supended my $130K credit line secured by my property (that was opened within the last 6 mos) based on a decline in property values and bounced a $2500 check I had written for a contractor to boot since I’m in the middle of a rehab project before I received notice of the action. They said if I had written the check 6 days after their suspesion they might have considered returning the funds but not 8 days (or 2 days later) even if I didn’t receive the notice until 2 days later (although they cannot verify the actual date they sent the suspension notice to me) and even if they have no written guidelines relating to review of these issues based on immediate suspension of credit due to property value issues. They stated that the property value was reduced by almost $300K based on their computerized system for my entire zip code (even if that may be wrong, which it certainly is). They said that I could appeal the decline in equity only by first hiring their own appraisal company for an unstated amount and a long laundry list of things. I’ve had 2 mortgages with them, never missed a payment, etc. Yeah, WAMU sucks. I think their across the board reduction of credit lines across the country, leaving people in the lurch is not right. Also, they still hold a $130K security interest on my property, which shows as completely used up and will impact my credit report, besides the bounced check issue, plus the fact that I paid fees for this loan and would not be able to terminate it with THEM for 30 months from inception.
I have been a customer with WAMU for more than four years now. All of that is about to change. I have a Home Equity Line of Credit (HELOC) that has performed as agreed since inception four years ago. No late payments, no bad history, no dings on my credit history. Out of the blue, WAMU decreases my line of credit due to dropping values in the home market. As an ex-VP banker, I fully understand the need to protect themselves against potential loan losses. My beef is not with what they did, but rather how they did it and how they conducted themselves afterward.
Instead of getting an appraisal to determine the actual value of the collateral, WAMU used the least expensive (and least accurate) method for valuing residential property: the Automated Valuation Module (AVM). My line was cut to 75% of their AYM value. I have no problem with the 75% max limit, but their AVM value of $454k was way low and not even close to the real market, even with current declines in value. After contacting WAMU, I was told that I could appeal their action by ordering a Broker’s Pricing Opinion (BPO) from LSI - a company approved by WAMU. Well, the BPO came back at $505k value, which was still a little low, but in the ballpark. based on the BPO of $505k, I went back to WAMU for a partial increase. Although WAMU promised to get back with an answer in 3 weeks, I heard nothing for more than 6 weeks. I even enlisted the help of my local WAMU loan rep. He called them every day…and never got a response from his own people for more than 3 weeks.
In the end, my request for a partial increase was denied. My personal WAMU loan rep intervened and I went up the ladder as well. The reason for the decline, which was LTV, made no sense to either of us. I have finally given up. The problem with WAMU is that the local reps in the branches have no authority. They are great at customer service, but they can’t make a decision without first getting approval from some nameless committee over the phone. The real power at WAMU resides in the corporate offices. When things go bad, there is nobody that can give the client a satisfactory answer. It’s just a big machine chewing up and spitting out the small guy.
When I started my appeal process, the max LTV for WAMU was 75%. New customers walking in the door are offered a 70% max LTV on their HELOC. So what LTV did I have that was giving WAMU so much heartburn??? A 60% LTV, which combined both the first & the WAMU second mortgage.
Class action law suit? Count me in. If there was ever a circumstance of dealing in bad faith, the stories on the blog are it!
I can tell all kinds of stories about washington mutual as i have unfortunatly been screwed by them for the last 16 years. providian and mbna also have deceptive practices. i do believe that a class action law-suit would work. remember the benefit to each of us would be small in monetary value but it would punish these institutions. you can count me in for some stories and they are not all about they’re credit card practices. otherwise i would say just don,t do business with them. if any body could come up with an e-mail address for the ceo that would be more satisfying than a class action law-suit. since we can’t get any body in customer “service”
maybe we could get some help there.
I agree with many of you in this post. Providian used to be OK. When WAMU took over, things became worst.
My APR jumped from 17% to 33.54%
I called and requested at least to be lowered to the 20s, they repeated that
“they never honor requests from customer’s to lower rates in an effort to (get this) build long term customer relationships”.
After reading your experiences, I will pay off my balance and close the account.
When negotiation fails…
WAMU blows. I owe about $1700 right now, and my min. payment is $75/month. If I were actually stupid enough to pay only that, it would take me about six years just to pay it off. They charge me about 34% APR, and I pay well over the minimum every month, and always on time.
A word to the wise: avoid WAMU, and maybe give Capital One a chance if you’re looking to open a new card. I’ve had an account with them just as long as I have with WAMU and have had the same payment history too, but with them my APR is a mere 8.9%.
I find it hilarious that after WAMU closed my account (see my rants above) this week alone I have received 4, count ‘em 4 ‘pre-approved’ offers for their card-2 as just WaMu cards, 1 PetSmart card, and 1 ESPN card. My husband also received a WaMu card and a PetSmart card ‘pre-approved’ offer. 5 of the 6 offers arrived ON THE SAME DAY! Gee, I wonder if I can transfer the balance from the account they closed on me, in which the interest rate is due to jack up in September, to one of the offers with 0% interest on balance transfers?
Bastards!
WAMU must REALLY want me back…3 more ‘pre-approved offers’ in today’s mail bringing the total WAMU offers to 11 in 14 days.
FU WAMU!!!!
I, too, am unhappy with how I was treated by Washington Mutual. I had always appreciated the quality of Providian - and had been a long-time customer. They were a stable company and I enjoyed being able to view my credit rating information on site. I’m a responsible, ethical person. I do my best to live within my means and pay my bills on time. Because my name signed to an account can be trusted, I have been able to enjoy relatively low, fixed interest accounts. I’ve always been grateful for being able to buy things on credit and the banks I’ve worked with have benefited by accruing interest at a rate that would have most us “peons” dancing in the streets.
I had a credit line of over $16,000 with WaMu and owed them NO money. In fact, I actually had over a $500 CREDIT balance on my credit card with them when they closed my account due to my first and only NFS charge on the account.
In June, two on-line banking errors coincided and caused several of my checks to bounce. (My bank account is not with WaMu.) It was embarrassing, frustrating, and expensive, to say the least. These errors (which I could not foresee) wreaked havoc on my bank account. Error #1 - I had automatically been making $300 a month payment to WaMu through a web bill pay service. I thought I had cancelled last month’s payment when I went to the Web Bill site (since I no longer owed WaMu any money). Apparently, the unfamiliar look of some of the web bill pay software confused me. I mistook and pressed a “CANCEL” button that ended up canceling the PROCESS of stopping the payment, rather than actually preventing the payment to go through. That was $300 out of my account I hadn’t planned on. Error #2 - I had changed a monthly payment to a second credit card company, lowering it from $800/mth to $700. It was not to take effect until the next billing cycle. Unfortunately, BOTH payments were withdrawn in the same calendar month- taking $1500 out of my checking account. So basically I was $1100 short of what I thought I had in the bank. The second credit card company was nice enough to quickly return one of the checks after I called them to explain what happened. I received their check in less than 7 days after talking to them. Washington Mutual refused to reconsider reopening my account. They told me they’d send me a check to cover the credit I had (less THEIR NSF fee) and it should arrive in two to three weeks. Then I called them almost a month later (asking to speak to a Supervisor). I requested any options that could be done to re-open my account and inquired why I hadn’t received my refund check. The Supervisor told me they had no record that anyone in the company had put in a request for return of my funds. I got very angry and asked to speak to THEIR supervisor. (This was on August 1st.) I voiced my concerns to this “head honcho” - and he told me company policy was to close accounts if they received an NSF check - NO WAIVER accepted. He also said that although my phone call to them the month before had been posted, no post comment was made showing that the representative had been asked to return the credit balance. He told me he would initiate the request. I told him I didn’t want to have to wait ANOTHER three weeks to get my money refunded. He told me he would send it “Next Day Mail” - and being that it was Friday - I should have it by Monday or Tuesday at the latest. I thanked him and started looking for the check in my mailbox on Monday. Today is Saturday, August 9th - and I STILL have not received the refund of my credit balance on an account that was closed five weeks ago.
Perhaps this company is in such poor financial shape that it resorts to sucking the blood of its customers - even to the point of holding my measly $500 for an extra 60 days to accrue a little interest. I’m ready to not only write a letter of protest and explanation to the credit bureaus (to protect my credit) I think the Attorney General’s Office of my state should also be notified! Perhaps the legal minds “that be” can look into WaMu for possible breech of contract in their lending practices.
My suggestion to all of you —–Don’t owe ANY bank ANY money if you can help it. And if you do have to take a loan - get it with a company who will work with you in a fair manner. Double check all terms and conditions where they can be allowed to change interest rates, etc. As for me, I will not put my trust in this company any further - and refuse to have any future dealings with them — for ANY reason. They will receive no more blood from me!
Judys last blog post..I Fought Vonage and I Won
I just don’t get it! My payment was due tonight and I was determined to not allow WAMU to screw me more than they already have. So I went online knowing that my payment using “express payment” must be made by midnight 11aug to avoid a late fee. Can you beleive that they had already charged me a 39.00 late fee and 11August had not even ended? They charge a late fee before the due date is over! They are trying to count their chickens before they hatch. I was fortunate to steal the hen from them. I am not paying them a late fee. And, they told me when I called that they cannot remove it until several days from now. And, I cannot “enjoy” (if there is such a thing with WAMU) my complete credit line because the late fee is pending against my card. I guess they are trying to get an over the limit fee out of me too. Our relationship is no longer Mutual. They should be called WA-Lion for predatory lending.
WAMU is desroying my credit. They hiked my rates to 26% with the same bs response of my terms had changed when I questioned why. Now they closed my account and won’t give me an answer why. I pay my bill on time even though they are roylly screwing me every month. Has anyone found a class action suit for credit card issues with WAMU? I HATE WAMU!