Wamu Credit Cards - Truth Exposed!

**fffresh** · 07:31 PM

What will happen to my Wamu credit card may be a question you are asking yourself since Washington Mutual declared bankruptcy this fall. As you are well aware the company is now a part of Chase. However the company name and logo on these bank credit cards does not happen right away; that will occur in March. Meanwhile you are left with a card which is associated with a defunct company.

What does this mean? While for starters there is no company image to be tarnished since it is in a transitional state. Chase has decided to take full advantage of this while the your now Chase credit card still says Washington Mutual. A large number of cardholders have seen their standard interest rates go from 9.99% to 29.99% for virtually no reason. Since the card has not yet been associated with the new financial institution, Chase, they are taking full advantage of it and milking every last dime out of you because it now doesn't matter if they trash the WaMu name. The Sacramento Bee recently ran a piece about a cardholder who was never late and a credit utilization, yet experienced the tripling of their APR and as well as having a $10 monthly charge tacked on.

Now you may be asking what will happen to my Washington Mutual credit card after the transition in March? This is where it gets tricky. If you have both a Chase card and a Wamu credit card, you will want to make sure you have a zero balance on at least one of them. If you do they will combine the credit limits of both cards into one. If you do not have a Chase credit card you will have the option to convert your Wamu card over to one. As far as the high interest rates goes, I have not seen any formal announcement on how that will be handled and what APR you will be given if you choose to convert.

**Cucumber** · 11:20 PM

Are WaMu credit cards still good? I thought they had switched those over to Chase already.

Washington Mutual was famous for its subprime lending and credit cards for people with bad credit so this is really no surprise to me at all that some of those users got their rate hiked. I'm not saying they all deserved it because they don't like that guy you mentioned. But I am sure that some were subprime borrowers with credit cards near being maxed out and that's why their limits went down and interest rates went up. Remember their huge amount of subprime customers are what caused their bankruptcy!!!! You gotta assume that those Washington Mutual credit cards are given to people with bad credit more than they are given to those with good credit.

**DGenerateKane** · 12:49 PM

My APR hasn't changed. I got a letter stating my card was becoming a Chase Flexible Rewards card and my 11 cents of cash rebates will be converted into points. What I'm most annoyed about is I lose my ability to check my FICO score every month. They said they are "looking into" ways for customers to get their free FICO score but in the meantime they can get it for a fee. My card was originally issued by Providian, and when Wamu bought them out (or whatever happened) they never dropped it, so why is Chase? Also, according to their site you won't be issued a Chase card until your Wamu one expires since your # isn't changing.

Edit: Going over all my statements when Wamu first took over while still keeping the name (It was a Paypal CC through Providian so I still saw the Paypal logo on my statements) they increased my APR .25 percent almost every month from 17.74 until it was 19.74. Then I had no activity for 6 months so I wasn't getting statements, after that it was at 16.99 were it still stands today.

**fffresh** · 08:47 PM

They may have not hiked the rate on you in one swoop, but 0.25% every month sounds as if it's just a small enough amount they hoped you would not notice.

Now that you mention the free FICO scores I do vaguely recall them offering that perk. I believe I strongly considered applying for a Wamu credit card for that reason alone. Providian Bank was perhaps the most crooked credit card operation of all time, gaining notoriety for actions so detestable that attorney generals and regulators had to put the kibosh on it.

But back to your issue about Chase not continuing the free FICO benefit I would predict the sole reason is it saves them money. Unfortunately in this mess it's not the banks who suffer the most, it's the consumers that don't have the luxury of "bailouts."

**scorch** · 08:59 PM

I used to have a wamu secured card until Chase decided to close it because it was a secured card. I always made timely payments in full and kept my balances low. It actually seems that the trust worthy borrowers are getting punched more by the credit card companies.

I don't think their FICO score was an actual fico score. It could have been different with a similar scoring model and they were probably paying Fair Isaac just to use the name.

I still do most of my banking with wamu. I have a checking account and a money market account with them at the moment. The only account that has any value from that financial institution to me is a free checking account. I am in the process of switching institutions for savings. Both chase and wamu's saving accounts are at the bottom of the barrel.

**DGenerateKane** · 02:08 PM

fffresh, you said if at least one of the cards has a zero balance they will combine both limits in to one, are you saying they will eliminate one of the cards? I've got a Sony Card that is issued by Chase but I haven't heard anything like that.

**Mogul of Pineapples** · 07:51 PM

I don't know anything about what Fresh said but I can say with 90% confidence that the acquisition doesn't effect Chase credit cards for the most part. The merger/acquisition on is effecting the Washington Mutual credit cards as far as I know.

I have two Chase cards and have not had any rate hikes. I'm not defending Chase because I'm sure some of their practices are questionable but for the most part Chase is a really good company. I have a friend with a Chase card this is chronically late in paying his bill on time - maybe 3 to 5 times a year. It's not that he can't afford to pay it's that he is "forgetful" to put it in nice terms, ha. He always calls them up and they waive his late fees. I don't think most credit cards would waive late fees time after time so I do have quite a bit of respect for Chase for doing that.

**DGenerateKane** · 12:39 PM

Your friend should look into setting up automatic payments.

**1bootcamp** · 05:58 PM

I have not heard much about Washington Mutual credit cards lately but what I have heard a lot of rants about are the regular Chase cards.

**Chasebankruptcy** · 11:26 PM

Chase has changed my APR on the providian credit card from 6.99 to 10.24.

And they did not have a reason to do ot other then they bought providian. I also have a checking and another credit card with them.

I am stoping business with them. I have payed out my CC balances. I am going to close my chase checking account once(in a month) I take care of my montly trasaction and direct deposit.

I am not going to do business with the for atleast 5 years event under any circustances including paying higher finance charges else where for my future financing needs

Business is a mutual agreement and not bullied by a BIG financial institution.

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