‘I Hate Everything’ is my chronicling of things that just suck …

I Hate Everything – Volume 1: Chase & PrivacyMatters

No one likes banks. It’s just a fact. It’s hard to feel warm and fuzzy with their fundamental model of business … making unthinkable profits off you by simply holding / lending money. (Well, aside from their 86% drop in profits last quarter – whoops!) . So far, I have had a decent experience with my current bank, Chase. They have been reasonable with the service offering … have lots of branches here in Downtown Chicago … and even proactively alerted me to possible fraud on my credit card a few weeks ago …

I received a call around the third week of July explaining that there were suspected fraudulent charges on my Chase credit card – one that I rarely use.

I had just returned from a long trip to Europe, and had used the card a few times over there, (though I wasn’t quite sure how it would have been compromised as since the card was still in my possession). Anyway, I thanked them for the alert and asked if they can tell me what was charged. They mentioned something quickly about a company called “PrivacyMatters”, to which I said I had never heard of, and they said the charges would be removed and I would receive a new card within 14 days. Great! That was painless!

During these 14 days of my card and account being in transit, the card was removed from my online Chase account, so I had no way to dive deeper into the charges. No worries I figured – it will get sorted out shortly.

Around the 5th of August, I received a call from a Chase rep letting me know I had missed my credit card payment on the 1st of August. I explained that my account was currently inactive due to fraud and I could not access it online to pay the balance. She said I should have called Chase before the 1st to pay over the phone. I was a little annoyed to be told this, but conceeded I didn’t understand I needed to do that and would be happen to pay over the phone right then. She then said because of the confusion, they would remove the late fee. Great! That was painless!

I finally receive my card in the mail (well after the allotted 14 days), activate it over the phone and wait for it to reactive in my online account. When it finally does, I expect to find my recent activity just as I left it, with the fraudulent charges (that Chase identified themselves) removed or refunded. Well, I don’t exactly find that … the first thing I see is this:

7/30 – AP9*PRIVACYMATTERS12-V(Other) – $29.95
7/30 – AP9*PRIVACYMATTERS12-V(Other) – $1.00

A few things to note here. First, Chase Fraud had called me almost a week before these charges – my account should have been quite closed at this point. Second, this is clearly the same company they had called me about, yet the charges were still there, against my account. Upon looking a little more closely at my statement (which admittedly I haven’t done in months as this is a credit card I only use for emergencies), I see there is a trend here:

6/30 – AP9*PRIVACYMATTERS12-V(Other) – $29.95
6/30 – AP9*PRIVACYMATTERS12-V(Other) – $1.00
5/31 – AP9*PRIVACYMATTERS12-V(Other) – $29.95
5/31 – AP9*PRIVACYMATTERS12-V(Other) – $1.00

That is interesting. My first step was to do some research on said company. Ironically, they offer “Free Credit Report, Free Credit Score, Identity Theft” services. They are also a very,very, very, very, very, very, very well known fraud/scam operation, run by parent company Vertrue. From the BBB:

Based on BBB files, this company has an unsatisfactory record with the Bureau due to a pattern of complaints concerning unauthorized charges to consumer’s credit cards. Complaints reported to the Bureau primarily involve claims of unauthorized charges by the Company’s affiliates. In such cases, customers reported no recollection of having agreed to the programs that were billed to their credit card, debit card or bank account. In some of the cases, consumers reported being charged for two or three years.

Equipped with my new understanding of what happened to my account, I call Chase Fraud Protection to get the charges removed. After being bounced to FOUR representatives (and annoyingly needing to give my name, credit card number and prove my identity FOUR times), I talk to someone who is aware of the PrivacyMatters scam and tells me she is going to connect me to someone who can help me get the charges overturned. Great! The phone rings a few times, and I am greeted by a rep with a heavy accent who simply says “Hello?”. I thought this odd for Chase. Here is how the rest of the conversation went:

Me: “Hello? I am looking to get fraudulent charges overturned on my credit card”

Rep: “Do you have your 9 digit account number?”

Me: “9 digit? The only account number I am aware of is my 16 digit credit card number …? But I have already given that to four people at Chase during this call …”

Rep: “How about your phone number?”

Me: “.. ok .. 312-XXX-XXX”

Rep: “Sorry, that is not providing any results. How about your email address?”

Me: “Email address? Ok … john (at) johnroa.net”

Rep: “Sorry, that is not providing any results”

Me: “Wait – did I get transferred to the wrong place? Is this still Chase Fraud Services?”

Rep: “No .. this is PrivacyMatters”

I am blown away. After Chase has already acknowledged these charges as fraudulent, they actually forward me to the merchant to dispute the charges. The rest of the phone call was as to be expected … “if you have a complaint, here is our P.O. Box address” … “no sir, there is no manager you can talk to, I am the manager” … “my name? Chloe .. ID #14952″ … “no, we do not use our last names here” … “the best I can do is refund one of the charges” (yeah, if I give her my new credit card number) … “yes sir they were authorized. No I cannot provide proof the authorization you gave. You will have to request that in writing to our P.O. Box”.

I hang up and call Chase back. It took a few minutes to get to a supervisor, and after explaining all of the pieces of this horribly annoying puzzle and my elevated level of anger because of being transferred to the scam company unknowingly, they finally agreed to put the request in to have the charges overturned and I should get a letter confirming this within 14 days. Great. Not exactly painless, but at least it should end on a positive note, or so I thought.

At the very end of this phone call, and at the point I finally think this is behind me, I am clicking around my credit card account online and something jumps out at me:

Purchase APR: 18.99%

What the hell? It was half of that before all this mess happened. I have the fraud rep bounce me back to a customer service rep (where yes, I have to give me card number and confirm my identity for the 5th or 6th time in the last hour), and am told there was an increase in my APR for missing my payment. Yes, that payment – the one that was missed because my account was inactive. The FIRST one I have ever missed.  The one they already acknowledged their error on and were refunding the late fee.

I’ve lost it at this point and demand it goes back to where it was or I will cancel the card. She says she will “put the request in to corporate and you will receive a letter soon”.

At this point, I really don’t know whether the charges will be refunded, if my APR will go back to the cozy number it used to be at or if I will be a customer of Chase a week from now – (including my three business accounts). All I do know is that it makes me sick that there are operations like this in this day in age.