An open letter to Jamie Diamond, President of Chase Bank

Jamie Dimon, President; Executive Office; 9900 Katy Fwy.; Houston, TX 77055

Dear Mr. Dimon, -- Is that pronounced demon or diamond?

We do all of our banking at Chase and have for years. The location of your bank is close to our grocery store and it's well, convenient. The employees all smile and help us out when they can. I've been told they have access to some figure that tells them just how much they can help us, based on how much money we have contributed to the bottom line of your bank. I guess this contribution determines how much they smile or whoosh me out the door.

I think usary is despicable, don't you? I guess charging huge fees for banking services isn't like credit card interest rates, but in the end, both hurt the consumer and create funds for executive compensation.

I understand that at a March speech to the US Chamber in Washington D.C. you said, "companies need to start doing the right thing before a crisis." Is this a promise to your customers that you will do the right thing by us? Because the middle class is beginning to crumble, attempting to bear the weight of all these economic policies. And your bank, Chase Bank, is not working on our behalf either.

It's always about the corporate bottom line, not about those of us at the bottom, attempting to maintain like Atlas.

I have weak upper body strength.

Sincerely,

Barbara Nobody

This Hub began with a personal complaint, of course. Isn't this how all research begins? As a result of personal experience generating curiosity? I discovered, through much fault of my own, that Chase and other banks process the largest debit to come through a bank account FIRST. In my case, this meant I bounced four tiny debit charges under $10, which cost me $177. It ate up my household budget for two weeks generated by my husband's unemployment check.

Why would a bank pay the largest check first, I wondered? Especially considering the debit charges came through days before the check presented? There has to be a logical reason. Because from my perspective, it appears that paying the largest check last would have cleared the first four debits, resulting in my paying a $35 fee instead of a $140 fee.

Yes, I know I shouldn't have attempted to spend money I didn't have. This is a given. But there are times when such mistakes happen. What I am concerned with is the heavy penalty paid when such mistakes are made. Because I am not the only one who is living on an exceptionally tight budget these days. Recovery for the average and below average American will be never, if we cannot climb out of this deep hole together.

So, googling on it, I came upon a new concern. Read this letter from a former employee of Chase...

ant3982 said, in January 20th, 2009 at 2:31 pm at chase-sucks.com:

I had a customer come in that had $1,400... yes $1,400 in overdraft fees. Where as most banks have a cap on how much they can charge you... not Chase. Chase encourages us to encourage everyone to use their debit card until it's worn out. Yet, when you have no money left in your account, they still let you use it... The reason being, it's $35 each time you use money that's not in your account!!

I had a customer come in on the brink of tears. This wasn't the first time Chase charged him overdraft fees. Only this time it was $1,400. He wanted to close his account, and write a letter to the New York State Banking Commission (which is what I recommend everyone on this site does to their state banking commissions). Being the good employee I had always been told I was, and how "valuable" I was to my branch, I figured I'd do what they taught us in training and say "What can I do to help you, and prevent you from closing the account" The customer said he would keep the account open if I waived some of the fees associated with the account. His whole paycheck for 2 weeks was gone when they charged the fees, and he couldn't afford to pay his rent for the month. At that point, I refunded $200 worth of fees, while the bank YTD had charged him over $2,000.

Chase actually has it in the systems; a calculation showing how profitable the bank is over each particular customer and household. (I recommend any customers go into a branch and demand to see how much they've made off of you) We were definitely profitable with this one, so I had a "justified" reason to waive the fees.

Either way, my branch manager came over to me and asked me to explain the situation, and without hesitation decided to give me until 2PM to pack my desk up, and either resign or be terminated.

As a Chase customer, I can verify $35 per overdraft. If a person was unfortunate enough to write eleven checks in one day and have only the largest check clear the bank, it would be possible to bounce ten small checks for $350 in total fees, plus owe the bank $100 to cover what was purchased. A consumer who is already struggling or who has creditors delaying payment due to problems of their own winds up in a financial hole that could take weeks to straighten out. Maybe in the case of the very poor, months or worse.

Isn't this excessive in an economy where we are bailing out the big players? We give the executives who fired struggling employees compensation packages in the millions. This is certainly not ethical nor even logical.

What do you think?