Sarah Mirando  |  July 30, 2012

Category: Legal News

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Chase

UPDATE: A federal judge has preliminarily approved the Chase Check Loan Class Action Settlement.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. has agreed to pay credit card customers $100 million as part of a class action lawsuit settlement resolving allegations it improperly increased their minimum payments as a means to generate higher fees.

The Chase credit card settlement will resolve a class action lawsuit filed three years ago over Chase’s decision in late 2008 and 2009 to boost minimum monthly payments for thousands of cardholders from 2 percent to 5 percent of account balances. Cardholders alleged in the class action lawsuit that JPMorgan induced them to transfer credit card balances from other lenders to Chase card accounts, where the bank promised to consolidate their debt into loans with “fixed” interest rates until the balance were paid off.

According to the class action lawsuit, however, JPMorgan increased minimum payments to force them to either accept higher rates in order to keep the lower payment, to make more late payments and trigger more fees or a 29.99% penalty interest rate, or to close underperforming accounts. This manipulation resulted in millions of dollars in additional fee income from thousands of new cardholders, the class action lawsuit said.

This isn’t the first time JPMorgan Chase has been accused of overcharging customers. The bank reached a $110 million class action lawsuit settlement this year over allegations it manipulated debit and ATM transactions in order to maximize the number of overdraft fees it could collect.

Lawyers for the cardholders said in court papers that the $100 million class action settlement is 45% of the $220 million in up-front transaction fees that their clients paid for the promotional loans. They called the class action lawsuit settlement an “excellent result” for cardholders, who would recover “a substantial portion of the transaction fees they paid.”

The Chase credit card class action settlement still requires final approval by U.S. District Judge Maxine Chesney at an August 3, 2012 hearing.

The case is In re: Chase Bank USA NA “Check Loan” Contract Litigation, Case No. 9-md-2032, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California.

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20 thoughts onChase Reaches $100M Class Action Settlement Over Credit Card Fees

  1. Charles Mitchell says:

    I am a military retired marine corps vet.and has experience this and more can someone please contact me in regards to this with Chase Bank

  2. Vicki says:

    LOL GOOD. Hurricane Rita hit before my payment was due. In evacuation mode, called to make payment….their system was shut down due to hurricane, no electricity. Paid as soon as THEY got power. Next will interest went from 9% to 29% for one late payment…..after 13 years of paying balance EVERY month. Never made another payment….and yes they keep selling the debt even though >8 years old. By law, illegal too

  3. Larry says:

    They increased my interest and then closed my account at the same time, found out when out for dinner on sunday because card was denied. Went to bank on monday was told they could not do anything, got home and in mail was the letter informing me this was happening…..payments tripled for me….b/s $25.00 is a lot less then the first payment interest I had to pay

  4. RANDY says:

    Increased my payment 2.5 times…pissed me off so I quite paying.They sold my debt. Havent heard from them for over a year. It takes a lot of balls trying to screw someone who owes you money.And for all our troubles we got 25 dollars.Only in America people…

  5. Anonymous says:

    Better read the fine print. If you accept that $25 and they sue you, you can’t even use the fact that they caused the default themselves by increasing the payment as an affirmative defense. This sounds to me like they have been laying low, but once this is settled they will aggressively come after the people they caused to default.

  6. Anonymous says:

    I was one of the victims of this situation. I was unaware of the lawsuit until I got a letter in the mail (last known address to Chase). So, if you are part of it, they have attempted to contact you. Make sure you check the mail at the last address that they had for you, or have a current mail forwarding. The letter packet says you can find more information at http://www.chaseminpaymentlawsuit.com or Settle Administrator 800-460-4936. This notice says the court date is November 16, and this letter was dated August 9.

  7. Anonymous says:

    I had the same thing happen to me where I could no longer afford to make the minimum payments, which screwed my credit score.. and they sent it to collections, costing me way more than what was owed.

  8. Anonymous says:

    Here is the website with further details.

    http://www.chaseminpaymentlawsuit.com./

  9. Anonymous says:

    Yes, they’ve settled for $100,000,000. 25%, yes $25,000,000 goes to the lawyers. $25 each plus a possible few extra dollars goes to the people that were screwed by Chase in the first place. Okay, I ask you, who screwed the class worse, Chase or the lawyers?

    Increaseing payments by 2 1/2 times no doubt cause tremendouse additonal hardship for every member of the class. $25 is like adding salt to an open wound!

  10. Anonymous says:

    When can we sign up for this lawsuit? I have 3 cards they raised the interest on.

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