Delinquent WaMu/Providian account improperly transferred to Chase...

[Keebler]

I got a collection call from Chase tonight and spent quite a while on the phone with the Customer Service Representative. I grilled her about the new account and the specifics. Unlike the previous call I made to them, she was able to give me more details and the mystery is solved. It turns out that this has been transferred from ANOTHER credit card with a $13,000 balance -- doh!

I got a bit of a scare today in the mail. It makes sense what happened now, but I think it's not proper and I need advice. Here's what happened...

I got a credit card statement from Chase in the mail today. It didn't occur to me right away that something was wrong because I've had a Chase account in the distant past. Not until I opened it to look at the balance did I notice two transfers on September 5th -- one was a Promo Balance Transfer for more than $13,000 and the other a Purchase Balance Transfer for a bit more than $100. There was also a late fee assesed on October 4th even though the Beginning Balance was shown as zero.

You should know that we last used any of our Credit Cards on June 18th and we haven't paid any of them or made any transactions since then.

I called the toll-free number and talked to a representative. From the few clues the confused Customer Service Agent got from his supervisor, it appears that my WaMu/Providian account got transferred to Chase.

Here's the problem...

- Shouldn't I be informed officially by WaMu/Providian?

- Doesn't this effectively re-age my account?

- How are the two accounts supposed to be reported on my Credit Report?

- How can this new account already be past-due? Don't they need to disclose the terms and conditions of the new account? The Minimum Payment Due is huge -- how can they invent a beginning payment on a new account like this?


And the big one is last...

The Wamu/Providian account was in my Wife's name -- I wasn't even an authorized user and it has never been reported on my Credit Report. The new Chase account arrived in MY name!


What should I do?

[lrprn]

Sure sounds like there could be some shady stuff going on here, keebler. I'd suggest talking with a consumer rights attorney about this - you can find one in your area at http://members.naca.net/findanattorney.php

Keep us posted about what you find out, ok?

[dscurlock]

I got a bit of a scare today in the mail. It makes sense what happened now, but I think it's not proper and I need advice. Here's what happened...

I got a credit card statement from Chase in the mail today. It didn't occur to me right away that something was wrong because I've had a Chase account in the distant past. Not until I opened it to look at the balance did I notice two transfers on September 5th -- one was a Promo Balance Transfer for more than $13,000 and the other a Purchase Balance Transfer for a bit more than $100. There was also a late fee assesed on October 4th even though the Beginning Balance was shown as zero.

You should know that we last used any of our Credit Cards on June 18th and we haven't paid any of them or made any transactions since then.

I called the toll-free number and talked to a representative. From the few clues the confused Customer Service Agent got from his supervisor, it appears that my WaMu/Providian account got transferred to Chase.

Here's the problem...

- Shouldn't I be informed officially by WaMu/Providian?

- Doesn't this effectively re-age my account?

- How are the two accounts supposed to be reported on my Credit Report?

- How can this new account already be past-due? Don't they need to disclose the terms and conditions of the new account? The Minimum Payment Due is huge -- how can they invent a beginning payment on a new account like this?


And the big one is last...

The Wamu/Providian account was in my Wife's name -- I wasn't even an authorized user and it has never been reported on my Credit Report. The new Chase account arrived in MY name!


What should I do?

so now you have two creditors on your report...

one from wamu/providan and
one from chase?

I know with home loans, you normally will get notified,
my home loan has been sold at least twice within
the last 2 years.

one was a Promo Balance Transfer for more than $13,000

You or someone in your family had to have started this...
sounds like someone opened up a new account by using
the promo transfer, i think this would be illegal for a bank
to do this on their own...If you or someone did not do this, then call WaMu and tell them you did not concent to this transfer, then call chase, and demand written proof on how this promo transfered occurred.

for someone to steal your info is one thing, but for someone to steal your cc debt and transfer it to another card would not make sense, and unlikely.

unless you have fraud alert that would prevent someone from opening up a new account, then
wamu would not need to notify you because of a transfer, for all they know, they think
you did the transfer...

and re-aging makes since, when the transfer went to chase, that opened up a new
account with current date and balance.

im not sure what bal you had on wamu, but lets say it was $13k and all of it was
transfered to chase, then on your credit report would say WaMu $0 balance, and
chase would show $13,000

as for your other questions, you will need to address them to Chase, as they
seem to be holding your balance for right now.

[Keebler]

so now you have two creditors on your report...

one from wamu/providan and
one from chase?

Yes, I expect that will be true. Today WaMu appears only on my Wife's Credit Report and it's too soon to be reported on mine.

I know with home loans, you normally will get notified,
my home loan has been sold at least twice within
the last 2 years.

Yes, I agree and this has been true for me too.

one was a Promo Balance Transfer for more than $13,000

You or someone in your family had to have started this...
sounds like someone opened up a new account by using
the promo transfer, i think this would be illegal for a bank
to do this on their own...If you or someone did not do this, then call WaMu and tell them you did not concent to this transfer, then call chase, and demand written proof on how this promo transfered occurred.

for someone to steal your info is one thing, but for someone to steal your cc debt and transfer it to another card would not make sense, and unlikely.

unless you have fraud alert that would prevent someone from opening up a new account, then
wamu would not need to notify you because of a transfer, for all they know, they think
you did the transfer...

and re-aging makes since, when the transfer went to chase, that opened up a new
account with current date and balance.

im not sure what bal you had on wamu, but lets say it was $13k and all of it was
transfered to chase, then on your credit report would say WaMu $0 balance, and
chase would show $13,000

as for your other questions, you will need to address them to Chase, as they
seem to be holding your balance for right now.

There is ZERO chance this was authorized or initiated by anyone here.

I do know that delinquent accounts are sold and transferred so it's not so unreasonable in that sense. The amounts are correct for this to be true.

It's too soon to get a $0 balance statement from WaMu and they've previously closed the account as I recall. In fact, I was alerted to a change by Equifax that the account was reported closed on 10/2/2007. I should be able to dispute the item on my wife's report so it shows a zero balance. I'll wait to see if a Chase account appears on the reports in the weeks to come.

I'll need to wait and see if WaMu makes any more collection calls!

The real trouble I see is due to the re-aging, the change in who owes the money and maybe the ambiguous terms on the new account.

I've sent an e-mail off to a local attorney based on lrprn's recommendation.

[dscurlock]

Yes, I expect that will be true. Today WaMu appears only on my Wife's Credit Report and it's too soon to be reported on mine.



Yes, I agree and this has been true for me too.



There is ZERO chance this was authorized or initiated by anyone here.

I do know that delinquent accounts are sold and transferred so it's not so unreasonable in that sense. The amounts are correct for this to be true.

It's too soon to get a $0 balance statement from WaMu and they've previously closed the account as I recall. In fact, I was alerted to a change by Equifax that the account was reported closed on 10/2/2007. I should be able to dispute the item on my wife's report so it shows a zero balance. I'll wait to see if a Chase account appears on the reports in the weeks to come.

I'll need to wait and see if WaMu makes any more collection calls!

The real trouble I see is due to the re-aging, the change in who owes the money and maybe the ambiguous terms on the new account.

I've sent an e-mail off to a local attorney based on lrprn's recommendation.

anyone else heard of a delinquent account being transferred on promo offer? I havent, in order to get a promo offer, someone has to sign the slip and send it back in to chase...in fact i never heard of chase buying delinquent accounts, thats why i was surprised, if it transfered or sold, then it would have been sold to a collector not chase.

no, the real trouble is not your re-aging, what's done is done, wamu and chase are now a part of your credit report.

Your real trouble is finding out who signed the promo offer
in order to start the transfer, if it was not you, then it was
fraud, are you sure someone did not signup for something 30 days ago, and maybe forgot about it? Ive done that a couple times....maybe they did not know it was a transfer to chase...

first thing you need to do is find out who signed
for the promo transfer...then go from there...
after you know for sure it wasnt you, then start
your disputes, but you should know for sure until
you start accusing companies of this or that...

Ive accused people many times of this or that, then remembered
that it was me that done the deed after all...

and im just saying in my opinion that someone signed that
promo offer to transfer from wamu to chase.

i have to ask what is the big deal about a 4 month reaged
account? if the account was 6 years old, then I would be
highly concerned, but not 3-4 months.

[magyar123]

Not trying to get between you and your wife - but just ask her if she transferred her WAMU balance online on to your zero balance Chase card.

[Keebler]

anyone else heard of a delinquent account being transferred on promo offer? I havent, in order to get a promo offer, someone has to sign the slip and send it back in to chase...in fact i never heard of chase buying delinquent accounts, thats why i was surprised, if it transfered or sold, then it would have been sold to a collector not chase.

The WaMu balance was with them as a Balance Transfer and, until I was late and they jacked up the interest rate to 32%, it was shown as a promotional rate. In this regard the description on the Chase account kind of makes sense.

The Chase account also shows 12.49% APR for the time being. Kind of strange for a collection account to be at 12.49% APR and also kind of strange for a new account to already be charging a late fee with a Minimum Payment Due of more than $1,000. Another clue is that when I called in my call was routed to the Collections Department.

No, the real trouble is not your re-aging, what's done is done, wamu and chase are now a part of your credit report.

I agree that the re-aging is a petty thing because 90 days is nothing compared to the 7 years it will be reported.

Your real trouble is finding out who signed the promo offer in order to start the transfer, if it was not you, then it was fraud, are you sure someone did not signup for something 30 days ago, and maybe forgot about it? Ive done that a couple times....maybe they did not know it was a transfer to chase...

first thing you need to do is find out who signed for the promo transfer...then go from there... after you know for sure it wasnt you, then start your disputes, but you should know for sure until you start accusing companies of this or that...

Ive accused people many times of this or that, then remembered
that it was me that done the deed after all... and im just saying in my opinion that someone signed that promo offer to transfer from wamu to chase.

There's ZERO chance that I intentionally initiated a Balance Transfer weeks before I file for Bankruptcy because that would be strategically stupid and potentionnally harmful to my case.

Even if I said something verbally that sounded like I agreed to a balance transfer, it would not have resulted in a new account with Chase that's past-due on day-one including a late payment fee on the very first statement I received.

If the account is in my name, then my signature is they only thing that matters and they have none from me.

I'll know more when I see how the Chase account is reported to the Credit Bureaus.

All of the clues so far point away from fraud in the conventional sense. I think the only real issue is how it ended up being in my name instead of my Wife's name.

I have to ask what is the big deal about a 4 month reaged account? if the account was 6 years old, then I would be highly concerned, but not 3-4 months.

You're right.

[Keebler]

Not trying to get between you and your wife - but just ask her if she transferred her WAMU balance online on to your zero balance Chase card.

Hah -- that's funny!

We've discussed it and there's no chance that's what happened -- it wouldn't make sense to even consider it.

[SinkingFast]

Generally when Creditors sell/transfer accts, customers are notified.

When Providian sold our CC acct to BoA, BoA and Providian both notified us, in advance, of the change.

Same with MBNA. When MBNA sold/transferred our CC acct to BoA, both companies notified us the change was coming.

Definitely point this situation out to your attny. He/She may have a certain way they wanna address this particular situation. Just because one company sold/transferred the acct to another does not mean you incurred new charges on the acct. Even tho that's the way they seem to be reporting it in your situation.

[Bandit]

The Minimum Payment Due is huge -- how can they invent a beginning payment on a new account like this?

Not a new account but recently I charged some pretty hefty medical bills, 6000 to Wamu & 6000 to USBank at the same time around the same time.

USBank min payment of $61.
Wamu min payment of $221. I made the payments & after two payments to WaMu, they dropped the min pay to $82.00.

I think some banks just make stuff up as they go along.

[Keebler]

I was wrong, the account was transferred from a different card that had a nearly identical balance and was in my name.

Other than the complete lack of notification prior to sending the first statement, the problem isn't as scandalous as I thought.

[Penny Less]

Not a new account but recently I charged some pretty hefty medical bills, 6000 to Wamu & 6000 to USBank at the same time around the same time.

USBank min payment of $61.
Wamu min payment of $221. I made the payments & after two payments to WaMu, they dropped the min pay to $82.00.

I think some banks just make stuff up as they go along.

WaMu is terrible about this. Really really really terrible. And there are no negotiations with them. They want people to default, it must be in their business plan somewhere.

[Bandit]

WaMu is terrible about this. Really really really terrible. And there are no negotiations with them. They want people to default, it must be in their business plan somewhere.

You had that too?
They just did it again to me. It went up to 250.00 min. payment from 80.00. They make no sense & just make it up as they go along.

You might be right about them doing it to get us to default. Once that happens then there is no way to ever get back on track. Oh- I have so much to look forward to this year. *sigh*