Washington Mutual review: Anyone that considers opening accounts with them should beware! 103

I was shocked to discover that the aforementioned credit card company increased my interest rate in excess of 50%. More importantly this increase occurred without my knowledge. To date I've never been late on a payment. Additionally, I always pay a significantly more than the minimum payment.

Currently my credit score is higher than when the company issued me the card! When I inquired about the rate increase WAMU could not provide me with adequate justification. Their response was ' We sent out a letter in April'! It is my intent to pay off this card as soon as possible!

I have filed a complaint with my state representatives urging them to support HR 5546, The Credit Card Fair Fee Act. Please pass the word; acts of consumer abuse such, as this should not be tolerated. Without the consumer this company would cease to exist.

Additionally, I will do what ever I can to help stop these abusive practices. If an individual or family were experiencing financial difficulties these practices only compound the issue! This is criminal. If you have been victimized by this company please consider utilizing the following is the link to contact your representative:

UnfairCreditCardFees.com

I saw a couple of other similar complaints as I do so I thought it was worth complaining so people will not get caught off guard.

I received a 5% APY CD offer from Washington Mutual in September so I went ahead and signed up for it. I waited for micro deposits to show on my bank account for about three days but they never did so I had to email and call WaMu asking when they were going to make those deposits. Only did they then make the deposits and once I verified funding for the new account it took another three weeks for them to transfer my funds. Meanwhile I repeatedly called them and sent them emails to find out what was happening with the account, without any of their representatives giving me one single satisfying answer. It took about a month for the funds to be transferred and I actually did not realize that my rate had been lowered. I'm in law school and I was busy preparing for finals so when I received an email message that the funds had been transferred I naturally thought I would get the 5%.

I only found out that my rate is now 2.96% and I've been trying to get a hold of one of their product representatives via email, phone, what not but they all keep saying the same thing over and over and over that it cannot be changed because I failed to fund the account within 7 days.

I just think this kind of deceptive behaviors by financial institutes are what got us into this kind of mess that we are experiencing. I just wish that no one else falls for WaMu's deceptive offer. I don't think I will ever deal with the bank again once my account reaches its maturity.

I have been a customer of WAMU for years, always paid on time, no issues, recently I made a charge on my credit card within my limit, after the finance charges were assessed, i was over limit by $4 which they promptly charges a $39 over limit fee. Apparently I am a mathematician know, because their response was I should of accounted for the finance charges. Then I started looking into my account and realized, that they have been charging 30.3% apr for the last 6 months. Of course I thought the rate was FAR less. No wonder I didn't account for the interest correctly. Their response-by the script reading managers- I was sent a letter in April (which I did not receive) saying I could have closed my account within 30 days if I did not like it. The only answer for the hike-they reviewed my credit. My accounts have always been in good standing, never late etc, and the other cards I have are all under 10% and my FICOS are considered average plus to good. They wont help me, and I am closing all my accounts-business and personal with them.

In June my debit card was cloned when i used my card in a fake computer in kiosk fedex, some body make Unauthorized transactions bought flowers and charged to my account. I called to WAMU customer service and they resend to me to the claim and fraud department i was on the phone over 45 minutes for make the first report. They told me about beginning the investigation and they will put my money back on my account. In those days i was moved to new home and they send me the form to the old place, i never knew about these steps and forms must be signed. In August the money was took back from my account

Again and generate to me 4 overdrafts. I call intermediately, somebody (very rude) explain to me about the forms never signed and told me the next step was a re send the form to the right address. I am call intermediately, somebody (very rude) explain to me about the forms never signed and tell me the next step was a re send the form to the right address. Wamu make a mistake sending the letter again to my first address (when i open my account) i call again and some body tell me send a fax with my sign, i did last week but today i received a Collection letter from the bank for the money never i used.

get a lawyer on it !
completely illegal.

I once had a mortgage with WaMu a few years back before the housing market plummeted. I have since sold that home and I did not get my new mortgage (or checking/savings) with WaMu because they cheated me out of $700 on the mortgage for my previous home. I didn't forget what they pulled on me. On my first home, WaMu required I pay a penalty of $189 PMI, monthly in addition to my mortgage payment even though I had a very high credit score because I only put 20% down. I didn't think it was all that unreasonable because it was spelled at for me before the closing so this wasn't a surprise. It was clearly stated in the purchase docs that they would remove the PMI as soon as I had a little more equity in the home, based on the LTV ratio.

BUT ... when the price of my home and others in the area suddenly skyrocketed only one year later after the closing, they refused to remove the PMI. I had also made double mortgage payments during this year to pay down the loan and never once had a late payment. My income increased and my credit score was still very high. So, there was no excuse for this whatsoever. They didn't believe the price jumped that high and that I went from little equity to a lot of equity in such a short time. They also would not take the double mortgage payments into consideration. Major pubs, such as Newsweek, Times, etc ran articles about the housing shortage in CA and skyrocketing home prices. At the time, housing prices in Silicon Valley, CA jumped in a very short time. I provided lots of proof of this but they refused to listen to me. After 7 months of arguing, I refinanced instead of continuing to pay PMI on a home with lots of equity.

I refinanced at a lower % rate and no PMI with no problem. Although this happened many years ago, they lost a good customer because of unethical business practices. My current mortgage, as well as my checking and savings, are now with a more reputable bank. I will never do biz with them again.

Greedy people are also stupid.

Stay away from WAMU (now Chase).
BBB gave WAMU an 'F' rating, with many consumer complaints filed.

There are so many better banks and lending institutions out there.

Just so the above letter I received is clear. Someone wants me to send $3, 410.00 to a person from or out of this check I am to deposit in my bank-account and mine you, withdraw off of. Yeah right, and who thinks this is right to do and not be responsible for the withdrawal when the bank find out the check is fake. The letter has some names and addresses to pick from toward who you choose to send this withdrawal too. I have tried to up-load the letter so you could read all that it said but, I keep losing the web page. This letter was a job offer to be a Mystery Shopper and there are people who do this very thing as a job. But everyone knows or should know Western Union and Money Gram can't be tested because they are the only way to go if and when a person wants to send money from State to State or country to country, testing them is not going to do anything but have you pay for the service like it or not. Don't be GREEDY for money were you risk your neck for an anonymous person who just wants you to go in the hole so they can get rich and leave you to cry, "poor me. The true don't need to hurt you, you can do that all by yourself said secondson2002

Here is what I got in the mail today and new right away to visit this web site first before going to the bank with the "Mystery Shopper's check". I received a letter in the mail (USA mail service) and the letter went along these lines: Here is a check for $3980.00 and our company, Frank W. Kerr Company, (listed with the better Business Bureau) is a service provider for the mystery shopping industry. When actually Frank W. Kerr Company is one of the largest, independent wholesalers in the county (USA) distributing brand and generic pharmacies and specialty pharmacy providers to cooperatives, chain drug stores, chain drug warehouses, grocery and mass merchandisers, in short, Key Word "PHARMACEUTICALS".
( I just www.BING.com the name.)

So when this letter went on and said : As one of our possible research personnel selected for this program, you will be under cover and visit selected businesses in your area and pretend to be an average customer. While there, you will secretly evaluate things like customer service, store cleanliness and product quality. If you accept this offer, the current consumer services evaluation you are undertaking will attract a pay of $300.00 a week to you. " that sentence makes know sense at all, " and this paragraph is me quoting the letter word for word".

Anyway, the letter goes on and gives me a break-down of what to do after I deposit the check.
"Please find enclosed a check bearing the required funds to cover your first week's assignment. It must be expended as follows:"
1. Your first week pay...$300.00
2. your first assignment, to evaluate Western Union or Money Gram money transfer system...$3, 410.00
3. Estimate sender's fees, to be paid to Western union or Money Gram...$175.00
4. Your second assignment-shopping (you will choose the merchandize(not my spelling of the word merchandise) to buy, they are yours to keep)...$95.00
Total...$3, 980.00

The bottom line:
If I (you) deposit this check into my (your) bank and then withdraw $3, 410.00 of it and send it to the person(s) they (who ever wrote this letter) gave me in the letter to send this amount too, I'm responsible for covering that withdraw by every law in this county, and I'm not going to do that for anybody including my own family, no less, someone who just up and send me a letter anonymously. Sure, Frank W. Kerr company is a real company but, the list of names of people in that letter they sent was, WHO? And I'm suppose to go and send one of these people money, I think not.

I made a double payment when I was informed that chase was taking over wamu and the website would be down a few days (chase did not process it as I requested and said I missed mays payment) then I recd my bill with a $39 late fee and my apr raised to 29.9% from 9.5% they said they would not even discuss chasnging my terms UNTIL I brought the acct current with a mandatory payment of $224 (which i did) then was told the late fee would remain but my apr would adjust back to 10.2 the following bil...it DID NOT and they will not change it as promised also stating that i rec d a notice of enrollment thaty if i sign up by june 30...i will pay new rate of 23% and if good history for 12 mos. it will revert back to 10.2%...

IS this DEAL or NO DEAL and LEGAL

Why do you have 2940 things to through to make a payment on my credit card? This kind of crap has cost me probably hundreds of $$$
and I cant make any headway getting this paid off.

i had a business account & a personal account with wamu much to my surprize they jacked my interest rate to 26.26. i have never been late .i payed over min. & never went over limit. I called them .since I closed my accounts they said there was nothing they could or would do. they told me they did this because the company needed to do this for more money. i would think this would be illegal. how about any lawyers out there willing to let us know if they CAN do this

My father is very old school and loves to keep his money under the mattress but I told him it would be better to open up a checking account, that way he wouldn't need to buy money orders to pay his bills and he can get checks and his refunds directly deposited into the bank. He did that. He still doesn't really go into the bank so I usually do his banking and I do have access to his debit card information. In Feb of this year, my father was a victim of fraud. They were 4 ATM transactions withdrawing a total of $1000. He didn't by the way even have that money available so how the thief was able to get it out still confuses me. Anyhow, I placed a fraud claim and he received the provisional credit. After their "supposed" investigation they came to the conclusion that it wasn't fraud and they reversed the credit. They want me to have my father fill out a police report but the police report won't help because they say those funds are FDIC insured and we should deal with the bank.

I'm so frustrated and honestly don't know what to do.

Any suggestions?

We have also been Washington Mutual for over 5/7 years and we also have been trying to get the PMI deleted but they will not take it off. I worked in banking for over 15 years and I know this can be done if everything is in compliance.. (as we are also) but still they refuse to remove it.. Anyone else have any solutions..? or have you had your PMI removed by them?

Wa Mutual raised my credit card interest rate from 16.99% to 29.99% for no other reason than
I've been told 'they did sent me a notice about rate'll jump'
I have never been late, over the limit, and I often make more than the minimum payment.
I am also not late or over the limit on any other cards or accounts.
This is outrageous!If there is a class action lawsuit count us in. My email is "songisabel@hotmail.com."

yea i open the acct and was told 0% on all purchase bought some things then my first bill has fc charges called them and they said it was on balance transfer fax them the paper that said prucases they said it was a mis print not my fault so of course transfer the bal off that acct and use my capital one visa love them

I will not do business with Washington Mutual as 2 years ago I opened an account with them and they lost 2 of my deposits in the amount $1, 100.00 and I fought like hell to get them to investigate this and to find out where they put my money. It took them almost 2 months to find my money. They then sent me a credit card and then started charging me all these ridiculus fees each month, so I closed it out and paid it off in full. Then just the other day I get another credit card in the mail from them and I immediately cut it up. No way will I ever do business with them!

There are no scam victims, only idiots who think they can get something for nothing.

I am very impressed that you did all those steps to show intent and your timely consideration to WaMu as well. I am sorry to hear for your stress. Are they still selling your home? That is awful !~

Hang in there

Seattle Peggy

WaMu is even worse about holding checks now that Chase has taken over. I had a check deposited 1/15/09, it was paid by the bank upon which it was written 1/20/09. I did not get access to the funds until 1/27/09!

WaMu/Chase STINKS. DO NOT BANK THERE!

HSBC Finance Auto Loan — hsbc killed my credit!

Check this out.
It talks about how the American Arbitration Association ( AAA ) can be contacted and used to get these crooked lenders to cooperate.
I have a loan with these crooks. I have to work them myself. Right now I am taking down Beneficial. Got them on the ropes. To loose their AAA status.
becuase if your loan or contract calls for arbitration and you demand it by filing with AAA. Then the company must abide and the Courts can't hearthe cases filied by these crooks that disregard the laws they hide behind to limit you and manipulate.

I also had an ordeal. sent in a payment a week or more early. just to be told they had not been received and charged my account 40.00 for being late. and today received another letter in the mail stating that if i didn't send in another 187.00 before 1/22/09 i would be in default again. I believe i seen some where in a book written by Kevin Trudo or something like that. That banking places do this to you so they can make hundreds of thousands of extra dollars a year.

Dear Kimberly:

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We would like to speak with you directly to address your concerns but do not have your contact information. If you are unhappy with your subscription or have any questions regarding your membership to Reservation Rewards please contact Webloyalty.com Customer Service at [protected] or send an email message to consumeraffairs@webloyalty.com. We will be happy to help you.

Regards,
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Webloyalty Consumer Affairs
Reservation Rewards

You are agreed to Reservation Rewards while internet shopping and YOUR FAILURE TO PAY ATTENTION to the disclosures provided. You either completed a survey or took the $$ off offer. Both have full disclosure that you are signing up for a free trial and will be charged if you do not cancel it.

The Today show did a piece on this a few months ago, based on complaints sent to them. Every website they investigated had full disclosure that no one bothered to read.

The companies behind these worthless membership programs KNOW that most people MAKE A CHOICE not to read the info provided and take full advantage of it.

You're spot on about the threats, the fees, all of it..I've had the unfortunate luck of bieng in debt with this company, and even AFTER the merger/buyout, the shady practices continue! I'm now up to 30...That's right, 30% interest with them. The one time THEY "misplaced" my payment ended up in nearly two months of harassing phonecalls/threats even AFTER it was resolved..This is one company that should've been allowed to sink.

Many banks have policies such as this for checks. The idea behind it is that it works to your advantage because large items (rent/mortgage/insurance) which might cause serious disruption will be paid before the smaller, less important ones.

It sounds like you're talking about debit card charges, though, which are completely beyond the control of the bank (charges get posted as the merchants and interchange companies process them). I won't make any defense of the $33 NSF fees, though.

This company bombarded my mailbox with pre-approved credit cards just as soon as my chapter 7 bankruptcy was completed, after dozens of these were trashed I decided to actually take them up on their "generosity". I was approved for a meager $500 limit card to which I truly tried to use responsibly to help rebuild my credit. This was a HUGE mistake on my part. I kept the balance below the limit of $500 until a few hidden fees later I was well over my limit. Now every month I'm penalized for being over the limit, and my intrest is through the roof. If I am 1 day late on a payment these people would call my home at least 10 times a day. Finally after researching my legal rights I sent them a letter stating they could no longer contact me via phone, only mail. I reccomend this to anyone who is in my dire situation. I quit paying these ### after they became completely out of line with the harrassment. In the past year I have paid WaMu at least two thousand dollars to keep my balance around $670 never making any headway with these jerkwads. They now have turned my debt over to a collection agency and I keep telling these people to F off. They do not controll my finances, I do and no credit report is going to scare me and no threats of bad credit is ever going to dictate who I pay and when. If everyone did this credit reports would be meaningless, stand up to the financial bullies of the world, WaMu is no one to judge anyones finacial mistakes. I could not in a million years rack up the debt they owe...

WAMU is one of the worst! As a warning, the only one worse that I have found is the JUNIPER card offered at the APPLE stores, through BARCLAYS BANK. BARCLAY'S BANK OF DELAWARE/JUNIPER raised my interest from 0% to 29.99% because I DIDN'T USE IT within 30 days of my application, which was not mentioned by the Apple store employee. After immediate approval at the store, I found out my dad had died suddenly, so by the time I returned to CA, and used the JUNIPER card, it had been over 30 days (32 days) and now the interest was almost 30% and no one was even interested in trying to lower it. WAMU raised mine without any reason! I cancelled both and will never use either again!

I also received a letter along with my statement that they are raising my rate from 13.99 to 25.99. I have never missed a payment or been late. I have paid more than the minimum every month. This is outrageous. I called the day I received my statement and the rep said they would send a letter explaining the rate increase. I'm still awaiting the letter. I will not pay 25.99% I'll just close the account but they shouldn't make us pay for their mistakes

I was also shocked to see my rate change from 9% to 23% no late payments. When I called them to ask why they said they now use our entire credit history, not just your history with them. It was stated in the July 08 statement that this was a new change. This can't be legal. Sign me up for a class action lawsuit!

Does anyone agree $30 is way too much to charge on an over draft fee. And they mislead you by not charging your account right away when you buy something, tricking you into thinking you have a certain amount of money so you can spend and get slapped with an overdraft charge. i made a few purchases at different times with my debit card and i don't keep track of all the purchases all the time i make. the purchases did not show up on my account for 5 days. I called to check my account on day four and i still had a bit of money . Everything was OK until i bought subway sandwich and my account became over drawn and got lighting fast charged $30. when i called the 1800 number TO tell them why the auto system lied to me by misleading me to think i had more money then i did? they told me its my job to keep track of my money. my life is go-go-go i don't have time to do their job by sitting down with paper and pencil . and the dates of purchases are somehow wrong . I can understand if i pay with a check it takes time but with technology and fast computers and i.d come on! i think its purposely done on people who let their guard down. And i know the difference between account balance and available account balance when i call the 1800 number ! even if someone steals your card they still post it through i don't understand why the 5 day dam delay? its all a trick if you ask me! Washington mutual has made so much money from me this way.

We bought our house 3 years ago from Wa-Mu.Last year we went bankrupt on a another house.We re affirm with Wa_mu on our current property 4 times because of some odd reason no one there could find the paperwork.We thought all was ok until we pulled a credit report and found our current house was discharged in the bankruptcky.We also found out that they filed with the county a paper called aAffdavit of Lost Security Instrument in Jan of 2008.So they cannot produce any original paperwork on our home, Which means the mortage deed of trust cannot be found and cannot be duplicated.So we quit making payments 2 months ago, we do not ever hear from the 1st only the 2nd.We have talked to lawyer after lawyer and they say there is no way they can collect on the 1st being they have no proof of the mortage.I hate what they have put us though in the last couple of months when we were doing right up until we ound out that they did not reaffirm on our home which was up to date on payments and never late.I hope they ro in Hell!

I beg to disagree with you, Ms. Herbst, when you say that we Filipinos cannot speak English. It might be possible that you had an agent on the other line who still needs to improve the fluency and the accent of the English language, but Filipnos spent their school lives understanding and learning English.

Yes, outsourcing has now been a corporate standard. To be realistic, we are cheaper in terms of labor than our American counterparts. But the delivery of the service is very much like the same as you have in the mainland. Some of the biggest clients like Dell, Microsoft, Verizon, Sprint, American Express, Hewlett Packard, Siemens and IBM have been doing business with us for the last 10 years and you have to admit it, the reason why these companies are patronized is because they, together with US OUTSOURCERS, provide the quality service that you demand. You may be one dissatisfied customer, but we keep the rest of our happy customers HAPPY.

At any rate, I hope you take this as a constructive comment rather than a personal rant on racism. You may had one issue with one Filipino, but please, do not take the whole country down simply because your demands were not fulfilled the way you like it.

We have ways to improve our English. And believe me, I think we're getting better at it. I do apologize if you don't get your jobs, but I guess you have to have better PATIENCE to endure American haughtiness. And our numbers fare better than our other counterparts.

So there.

I too would like to know who I may call to help sue WaMu. Any help would be appreciated.

I believe that included in this current government repair for our economy there should be a cap on interest that credit card companies can charge.

No one can get any type of interest return on their money that is in the 18 to 30 % range. HOW DID WAMU GET AWAY WITH IT.

I want to pay off the cards...lets help the public and let them do it on the acutal balance they have. WAMU HAS MADE ENOUGH ON THE INTEREST THEY COLLECTED FROM ME IN THE PAST 3YRS TO PAY FOR THE USE OF THAT MONEY.

I think it is rediculous, these interest rates. over 7% jump. I would like the opportunity to close my account at the previous with payments continuing monthly until 0 balance. I have also never been late with payments. what's the deal? they do anything, anyway they want, regardless of customer loyalty? yes, that's it. I guess next it will be 40%. why stop there. why not make it 50% just because we can. shame on you wamu.

Maybe you were just confused, you obviously don't speak english. What is that, text message language or something?

I too was surprised by the jump in rate of interest with no warning. I also had paid mine without missing a payment. I feel it is not fair and measures should be taken.

I hear you on their customer service. This morning I tried to call customer service to get some help on my account. I called the 800# and was talking with someone in Canada, I asked to talk with someone from the United States. After being transferred 8 times I was never able to speak with a representative of Washington Mutual in the United States. I finally gave up. So in other words our so called confidential information does not stay with in the United States where we are citizens. I am so frustrated right now. I would like to share this information with someone who could be an advocate for us WAMU customers who thought we were doing business in AMERICA. Apparently we are not. And apparently instead of WAMU paying employees here in the USA they are supporting foreigners in other countries to handle our USA accounts.
Ugh!

Hello I had the same problem as darius didnt know they were going to raise my interest to I had 8.99% and it jumped to 17.99% and I had never been late either. To my suprise I called them and they told me the same thing we sent you a notice and basically tough luck they didnt care when I told them I was not paying anymore they sent me a copy of the notice and didnt really care. I feel the same way you do. Not sure what I can do I dont live in New York I live In Indiana.