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This is the second part of the “10 Confessions Of A Chase Customer Service Rep”. I hope you can learn something from this series. Read carefully before calling them up!

COMMON SCENARIOS I ENCOUNTER

4. DON’T SAY “MY PAYMENT WAS LATE BECAUSE I DIDN’T GET MY STATEMENT”

Please, don’t tell me this. This is the worst excuse ever. While I don’t doubt that some people somehow legitimately didn’t get their bill, for the most part, its a lie to cover up the fact you didn’t make your payment on time. Hmm, for the past 5 years you’ve always gotten a statement to the correct address on file, but the one month you’re late it didn’t show up. Right. Somehow, whenever the car payment or the mortgage is due, people never forget that, even without a paper reminder.

3. WATCH YOUR CREDIT LIMIT

Going over limit- Its your responsibility to watch out where your credit line is. If you really don’t ever wanna go over your credit line, but a block on it. We do let cards go over a little bit, just in case you’re in a situation where you really need it. Imagine these scenarios. Imagine you’re in a restaurant, and you go to pay the bill. Would you rather be declined and be embarrassed in front of your friends and family, or have it go through and pay the $39 fee. Or, imagine you’re stuck on the side of the road and need a tow truck. Do you want the charge to go through so you can get out of the cold, or do you want it declined and sit there shivering for hours? We’ll allow the card to go over, but usually not more than $100.

2. READ YOUR CONTRACT

Not being aware of fees, or APR’s- Everything on your card is agreed upon when you accept the card. The Cardmember Agreement basically states that the bank has the right to change your limit at any time, change your APR, or close your account, no reason needed. That agreement basically leaves the bank holding all the cards. The one constant I see is people never ever read the agreement, and then are surprised by things later. Please, read it, or at least call customer service and ask any questions you need answered.

1. IF YOU DON’T NEED IT, DON’T BUY IT

The only other advice I have for people with credit cards….get a hold of your spending. I can’t tell you how many people I see every day who are absolutely drowning in debt. I get so many people making minimum payments, never getting ahead on their balance, or people just playing the balance transfer game to move their balance to a lower rate card, but they’ve moved that balance 10 times and it’s still not paid off. If you use credit cards wisely, you can make the bank work for you, but instead, we see banks with profits in the billions of dollars every year.”

This post is originally written by consumerist.com. I copy it here because I think it’s useful for you guys to know how to deal with Chase Customer Service Representatives. Remember this might be useful for other bank customer service representatives.

Do you know the one thing to never say to a customer service rep if you’re late on your bill? Do you know how Chase ranks you, and how you’re ranked determines whether they help you out in a bind? Do you know the best way to get what you want from customer service? After you read these 10 confessions from a Chase customer service rep, you will.

“HOW WE RANK CARDMEMBERS

There are 3 levels of cardmembers at Chase. They are segregated as BEST, VALUABLE, or NON-PROFIT.

10. BEST
Cardmembers make up a small minority of the people at Chase. If I talk to 100 people in a day, maybe 5 are best cardmembers. If you’re a Best cardmember, pretty much anything you want to get done. You want a late fee taken off? Done. Don’t feel like paying $200 in finance charges? No problem. How do you achieve Best cardmember status? You either have to move a lot of money through the bank, (we can tell if you have a mortgage, car loan, etc thru Chase), or have a high balance that you’re paying a good amount of interest on. If you generate enough fee revenue from finance charges, say $100 per month, and you want a late fee taken off, no problem, we’ll take $39 off this month to make you happy and make sure that $100 monthly keeps rolling in.

9. VALUABLE

Cardmembers make up the majority of people we talk to. Valuable basically means you pay your bills on time, and are in general a good customer. You can get a fee waived also, but not nearly as often. I don’t mind waiving a late fee for you, but usually only every 6 months. That’s standard, but we can base our judgment on it all the way back to a year. And if I remove a late fee for you, don’t think you’re getting anything waived in the foreseeable future.

8. NON-PROFIT

These are the cardmembers who know what they’re doing. They’re the group of people that pay their bill off, in full, every month, like clockwork. They don’t pay finance charges, and they’re never late. They don’t go over their credit line, they don’t have returned payments, and they earn rewards. Which all amounts to the bank isn’t making any money on your account. So if you get a late fee, you have absolutely zero chance of getting it waived. That late fee is revenue for the bank, and it uses it to offset the maintenance on your account. Maintenance includes your statements mailed to you, sending you replacement cards, dealing with customer service, and cashing out rewards point / miles / dollars. For this cardmember, if you threaten to close your account if we don’t do what you want, don’t be surprised to get an offer to close your account during that phone call. Why? What is the incentive to keep you? I know its pretty cold hearted, but that’s exactly how it works. You do a great job on your account, but you can get punished. Hey, I don’t make the rules, I just enforce them.

HOW TO GET WHAT YOU WANT FROM CUSTOMER SERVICE
7. I WILL GO TO BAT FOR YOU IF YOU TREAT ME LIKE A HUMAN

First and foremost, remember we are people. If you’re the type of person who calls up and rants and rave with a “you better do this or else” attitude, honestly, it’s just going to turn a service rep off. Remember, we talk to a hundred people a day, 5 days a week. It’s a thankless job, and in there somewhere, I’m cursed at, yelled, spoken down to, please God knows what else. Think about it like this….are you more likely to want to help someone treating you like a human being, or someone who is degrading you? It’s only natural.

I’ve waived significant amounts of money off of accounts if I feel its deserved, I’ve reduced APR’s, I’ve contacted credit bureau’s to get your record fixed, I’ve deferred your payment to next month, I’ve done a lot of things. But the one constant, I’ve only done this for people who have been pleasant with me on the phone, and in layman’s terms, haven’t been a douchebag.

6. STATE WHAT YOU WOULD LIKE DONE AT THE BEGINNING OF THE CALL

I understand its human nature to explain why you’re payment showed up late, how you’re a good customer, this has never happened before, etc, but if you just tell me you want a late fee waived, I’ll immediately look at the account and decide if you’re eligible. To us, it doesn’t matter if you forgot to mail the check, were on vacation, your boss didn’t pay you, bottom line, you want a late fee waived, I’m gonna judge you on our ratings system and check to make sure you haven’t had other fees waived recently.

5. YOU ARE NOT A UNIQUE SNOWFLAKE

I’ve taken thousands of calls, and I’ve encountered every possible situation. The earlier you tell me what you would like your end result to be, the earlier you can get your matter resolved. Screaming at me does you know good, and honestly, makes me want to help you less.

I have a post about how th banks rank their customers. You might also want to check it out here.

Bank of America is offering $100 Statement Credit for new approved Rewards American Express Card. In order to get the $100 statement credit, your new account must be used to make any purchase, balance transfer or cash advance transaction totaling $25 excluding any transaction fees, if applicable within 45 days of the account open date. I applied this card in July 2007. At that time, they were offering $50 statement credit after spending $25 with this card. I got the $50 statement credit within 2 weeks. It’s super quick! At the homepage of Bank of America, you can still see the $50 statement credit offer. If you want to get the $100 statement credit, you should use this link.

This Rewards American Express Card will give you 1 world point for every dollar. When you get 5,000 points, you can redeem them for $25. If you have 10,000 points, you can redeem them for $100 gift card.

Another good offer is $100 bonus for opening a new MyAccess Checking Account using the offer code AOU2612. (Click here to see.) In order to qualify for the $100 bonus, you have to deposit $100 in the new account. The $100 bonus will appear in your account within 45 days. The new MyAccess checking account features no minimum balance required, no direct deposit required and no monthly fees.

Creditcards.com is holding “Uniquely Yours” Card Design Contest through December 31, 2007. The contest is very simple. Upload your favorite artwork or photo, and then make a design at creditcards.com. (You are making the card deign by yourself.) You can invite your friends to vote for you. There is no purchase or card application necessary to enter or win the competition using their site or applying for a card will not affect your odds of winning.

The prizes are:

Jury Prize: Prepaid Visa Card in the amount of $2,500.00

Runner Up Prizes: Prepaid Visa Card in the amount of $500.00

Peoples Choice Prize: Prepaid Visa Card in the amount of $1,000.00

All prizes will be awarded. Winners will be selected on December 31, 2007. A list of winners can be obtained from Sponsor after January 30, 2008.

I’m not expecting to get one of those prizes. The reason to spread the information to you is to let you know that two credit card issuers (Advanta and First National Bank) can issue the credit card with your own design once your design got approved by creditcards.com. Of course, you have to submit the application with your own design. It’s really interesting. Advanta is issuing business credit cards with low interest rate and long 0% APR offer. You can find a post about Advanta here.

I personally submitted 3 designs several days ago.

Design I

Click here to vote for me.

Design II

Click here to vote for me.

Design III

Click here to vote for me.

For more information about “Uniquely Yours”, please click here. If you have a favorite picture and want to make it as a card design, you can take the chance to make one for yourself. You can also put the link here by leaving a comment to this post. We all would be like to see and vote for you.

American Express is offering gift card promotion at Walgreens! I have two posts about the gift card promotion from American Express (post 1 & post 2). In the December Walgreens Rebate Book, you can find the offer #64 about American Express Gift Card promotion. Buy 2 AMEX gift cards, you can get $10 mail rebate; buy 3 AMEX gift cards, you can get $20 mail rebate. You can click here to see the file.

It seems like this: buy 3*$25 AMEX GC=$75+$11.85 (activation fee for $3.95 each)-$75 AMEX card value-$20 rebate check=-$8.15. If you are willing to take your rebate on a Walgreens gift card, they will give you 10% bonus ($22 value).

Again, where can we use those $25 AMEX GCs? My top choice is gas station. In this way, you don’t have to remember the balance on each card. Of course, AMEX gift cards are accepted wherever American Express is accepted.

Update: Official American Express Gift Card information can be found at www.americanexpress.com/gift.

I have a post here about the gift card promotion from American Express. After using the promotion code HOLIDAY07 to deduct the activation fees, it’s really nice deal. However, most of you would ask where I can use those gift cards. Of course, a gift card is supposed to be a gift for someone you know. If you want to use the gift cards for yourself, I think the best place to use them is gas station. You can use a $25 gift card every time. It’s very simple. In this way, you don’t have to remember the actual amount left on each card. This is what I’m planning to do. If you have better suggestions, please leave a comment here. (Thank you for sharing your thoughts with us.)

OK. I’m going to tell you another promotion from American Express.

As a special promotion to American Express Cardmembers, when you buy or reload a subway card online using your American Express card, you will receive a prepaid movie card from American Express!

If you spend between $25 and $74.99, you will receive an American Express $10 prepaid movie card.

If you spend $75 or more, you will receive an American Express $20 prepaid movie card.

Limited 3 American Express prepaid card per cardmember. This offer expires 01/31/2008. If you frequently go to Subway, you can find more here.

When I put a post about getting a free $20 gift card by taking a survey from American Express OPEN B2B Supplier Directory, most of us may doubt whether or not American Express will keep the promise. (No invitation code needed!) Actually, when we finished the survey, we all got the message that we will receive the gift certificate in 45 days. I believe most of us got the email titled “Here’s your Amazon Gift Code from OPEN” from American Express yesterday. It’s really a big surprise! It’s a pity that they are not offering gift cards any more although the survey is still available.

The American Express OPEN B2B Supplier Directory is a tool for finding suppliers that accept American Express Card. It’s still in beta version right now. Will they offer gift cards to take another survey about the B2B Supplier Directory? I hope so.

The big shopping season is coming. Most of credit card issuers have launched their promotions. For example, discover is offering $20 cash back for every $200 in purchases made with discover card (this post). Citi Dividend MasterCard is offering 5% cash back for purchases made at department, electronics and apparel stores for 3 months (this post). American Express offers to double your rewards points (post 1 and post 2). Furthermore, they are offering buy 5 gift cards get 1 $25 Gadget Lover’s card free (this post).

This morning I received an email (got the mail in the evening) from Chase for my Chase Freedom Card. The Chase Rewards Plus+ is following the other credit card issuers to join the promotion campaign. The offers are very attractive. They offer cash back and most offers will expire on 12/31/2007.

Some featured merchants:

Circuit City 4% Target 7% Sears 5% JCPenney 5% OverStocks.Com 5% Walmart.Com 3% OfficeDepot 4% Staples 3% Dell Home 3% Newegg.Com 2% Toshiba 2% Buy.Com 2% OfficeMax 3% Apple 2% GNC.Com 6%

In order to see whether the price will change or not, I made a simple comparison. I found that the price of Apple iPod Touch is same as the one we can see directly from Target.com ($299.99)

If you have a Chase Freedom Card, you are eligible to register your Freedom Card through www.chase.com/rewardsplus. If you don’t have one, you might take the chance to get one. They are offering $100 cash bonus now. For more details, please login your account and find out more deals. Good luck!