SETTLINMYG  EXORBITANT INTEREST FEES AND DOUBLE-DIPPING WITH CHASE.

So I have this overdraft line of credit that I opened with chase a long time ago. It was one of those things that when I opened my checking account, the rep very sneakily suggested that I open an overdraft accounts of that I don’t get decked with overdraft fees. This was probably more than a decade ago—I complied, of course never wanting to get rejected the cash register because I had two dollars left in my account and was buying a five dollar product. Such is the resident evil of overdraft accounts that are plaguing people today.

Well, since I first opened this account, in the beginning, it worked very nicely. I had about a $10,000 line of credit and, if a debit card purchase or check went beyond my checking account balance, the overdraft line was there to pick it up. No problem. I would pay in full and keep it zeroed out. And it did its job just fine.

Well, times change. In the past few years, chases change the terms on these overdraft accounts more times than I can count. In fact, they do at such a blinding• and dizzying pace that there’s probably no way to read in full the complete disclaimer brochures in six point type that they send in the mail. Nonetheless, I stuck with Jason stuck with my overdraft account knowing that it could back me up. Or so I thought.

Then about a year ago or so, came a dramatic change. Chase changed the terms of their overdraft accounts completely in a way that even when simply stated in a direct mail piece, it was as confusing as hell. Nonetheless, I chose (probably like many other people) the option that Chase presented as the one that wouldn’t get me rejected at the cash register or in a restaurant.

Of course, With the Way, Chase presented the option for that account, who wouldn’t? When I was a stage magician in high school, I practiced card tricks and sleight-of-hand. One of the techniques we used to get people to pick the card we wanted was called “forcing.” You would give people a choice of 52 cards in a deck—but make one so prominent or so attractive for them to grab that they would be absolutely convinced they did it on their own. Nonetheless, you knew beforehand exactly which card the person would pick, and you could rig your trick accordingly. I think that’s what Chase did with the overdraft options.

My fault was that I ignored this account for a long time. I let charges racked up, and because of my wife’s accident and the medical hardship we suffered in our household a few years ago, this overdraft account ended up going haywire. Interest charges racked up, interest rates change, APR’s went through the roof, and chase had a field day tacking them onto the bill that I barely glanced at every month.

Well, at recent glance, my overdraft account was beyond its limit (which was now $7500.) What’s worse, is that Chase was tacking on about $150 per month in “overdraft interest.”

It doesn’t stop there. We chase was also doing with my checking account was charging me $34 for every overdraft incident. So in essence, at the same time I was paying fees in my overdraft account—which was supposed to be protecting my checking account from nasty charges—I was also paying at the front end too. Double dipping at its best. Roughly $185 per month. And the charges just kept snowballing.

I finally felt compelled to do something about it when I got a call from Chase notifying me of a late payment. My minimum balance due for this month? Over $1000. Yes, about 20% of the entire account was due at one time. Enough was enough.

After lots of procrastination, I finally rounded up all of my statements for that overdraft account, and march down to my local Chase branch. I explained to the nice banker the dilemma of being double-dip Don and having snowballing rates—I was prepared to pay down the account that very minute by $2000. But I just wasn’t going to do it to pay off interest. I wanted them to bend a little too—because this wasn’t fair.

Seemingly confused by my dilemma, the young banker took my statements and said that he would bring them to his manager. After I gave him a stack of my statements, he bid me and you and I left. He said they would call me when they had investigated my case.

Ironically, I got a phone call from his branch before have I had even gone home. That’s usually bad news; it means they either looked at my statement and made a quick decision, or, they made a slim one—maybe just discounting me a little bit of these fees.

We’ll see.