I have just about had it with Chase Bank. I have had massive fraud issues ONLY with Chase and no other bank. I have taken truly extreme steps to lock everything down at Chase and closed all my checking accounts with Chase. Now I am only out to extract as many points as I can from Chase and limit all my banking relationships beyond that.
Part of my frustration is due to the awful 5/24 new card bonus rule that is expanding to more and more cards each day it seems.
We all should know Chase has a new Freedom Unlimited card out that I really wanted to hold and try out if for no other reason than to have had it. To that end I knew my chance of getting it was almost zero since I apply for at least 3-5 new cards every 91+ days year after year after year (and the same for my wife offset by one month). But my Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card card has just billed it’s annual fee and I just don’t use this card much anymore as I target my spending on many other choices. Time to see what I could get done.
The first step, as it should be with any card that has a fee, is a retention bonus call (see post E13). Since I do not really use my CSP card much I did not expect much and that was spot on. No chance to offer a rebate on my fee or bonus points from rep one. What about a downgrade to a Chase Freedom (standard card) then? The rep was utterly unhelpful and worthless and said there are no such options on my screen. Ugg. May I speak to a supervisor then? Was told by worthless rep one that person would have same choices on their screen that this one had on their screen. Time to move on.
Rep two who I talked to I outlined I would have to cancel my card unless some other option was open to me. Due to my security restrictions on my accounts I had to talk to a number of different reps who could do nothing but verify I am who I say I am. On to yet another front line rep to help me close my account should I wish to do that.
I again explained all my issues and mentioned I really wanted to downgrade to Chase Freedom Unlimited®. The rep was bubbly and nice and said SURE we can do that but I have to read a bunch of information about the changes to your new card vs the CSP. After about 10 minutes of T&C I was again asked if I was sure I wanted to change to the CFU card with no fee. Yes please, job done.
So what to take from this. Clearly it is possible to downgrade your CSP as a workaround to get other Chase cards. Can I one day UG to a CSP again should I want to as a 5/24 workaround? I am not sure but I would think with enough HUCB this could work – just don’t expect a new card bonus when you do (I asked for points for the downgrade and the rep flatly said no way). Then again, YMMV, you never know and I will push for points if I do try to UG again one day. – René
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I’ve never had a bad experience with Chase. Their customer service blows Amex’s out of the water.
While UR points can’t be sent to DL, they are useful for Hyatt stays, and can now be sent to AF/KL FB. 5X points for restaurants is hard to beat.
What did you do with the remaining UR points in your account?
@Justin B – I had many choices. They could move over 1:1 to new card or, what I did, moved to my INK card.
Don’t you have to have the CSP in order for your Freedom and Ink points to be UR (instead of just straight cash-back)? Or does Ink unlock UR?
@DiscoPapa – Ink gives me many choices Freedom does not.
@Rene – ok thanks for the info.
I had nothing but bad experiences with Chase credit cards. I have had more than excellent service from Amex. When I lost my card in Poland they delivered one to my hotel the next day and I didn’t have to talk to but one rep.
@Betty – Agreed. I have just about always had outstanding service from AMEX reps.
I’m all about points I do it the same way you do. I take 3 vacations a year and never pay for flights. But the service is amazing and the bankers in the branch are super helpful.
@Sammy – Agree my local Chase folks are good but MUCH less impressed with the national folks.
I had a bad experience with Chase last year (Oct 2015) with my money taken out of my checking account (small sum) but their customer service or fraud department was of no help. I never recovered the money. I also check my checking accounts several times a day so I called them right away after the incident. I have completely stopped using Chase because of this and will never use them again.
chase cards hacked never notified till i saw my bill…told u did not tell us u wanted to be notified!!!!!!!!!!!!!!nuts then i had a $6.00 bill do took $6.00 to chase local branch -that i use all of the time told can’t take caash without pictures ID etc etc very nuts who want to money launder $6.00??
Addie, ths is the first time I’ve ever heard of fraud not eventually being reversed and the customer not ultimately getting their money back. Do you mind tell us a little more about what happened? I’m crious…
I have an auto-pay set up with Chase and two payments were taken on two different dates on the same billing cycle with two different amounts. I called Chase and my Banking Institution and was told to wait a few days and see if it will eventually be credited into my account (bank or Chase). It never did and I called Chase back and they told me they are unable to trace the whereabouts of the money. After numerous follow-up with both Chase and my bank, I decided not to pursue it further because I have realized Chase doesn’t care about me (customer). I am not sure if a banking institution can reverse the payment. I just thought of this today.
I actually was in a similar boat in that I was not interested in using my Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card card and instead wanted to downgrade my account to the new Chase Freedom Unlimited®. I called Chase the first time and explained my interest and was only given the option to downgrade my account to a Chase Sapphire card (which was even more useless to me). I actually took the offer as I didn’t want to worry about the annual fee later this year.
After reading this article I called them up again a few days after my first call and was able to make the switch from Chase Sapphire to Chse Freedom Unlimited. The operator explained that in my previous call the operator may not have been able to make the change as my Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card account was open for less than a year.
Hope this helps anyone running into a similar issue.