Consumer complaint received 2016-11-15
Company: JPMORGAN CHASE & CO.
State: NY
Product: Credit card
Issue: Credit determination

Complaint:
I applied for a hotel chain 's credit card, in order to take advantage of a promotion it was offering. I did not bother to look up our actual income, but just entered a number I thought would be lower than the actual income, but still sufficient. 

The new hotel card was to be issued by Chase bank, where I already have a MasterCard and a Visa. Their internal Formula apparently decided that the {$2000.00} extra Line of Credit ( LOC ) of the card I was applying for was over what that income number would support. 

Chase did not call me during their deliberations. Instead, they sent a letter after the fact, saying the new card had been approved, but that it 's LOC had been deducted from the LOC of XXXX of my XXXX existing Chase cards! 

In other words, instead of discussing the situation with me during the deliberation stage, they unilaterally issued the new {$2000.00} LOC card, and REDUCED the LOC on XXXX of my existing cards by {$2000.00}! 

I called them today, when their letter came, and spoke to XXXX persons, a regular agent and an " escalation '' agent. I gave them both our actual income, which is far higher than the estimate I had used, and asked them to return the LOC on my existing card to it 's original amount. 

While they both agreed that I should have been called, they said they are often " too busy '' to do that. Both also insisted they could not return the LOC on the existing card to it 's original limit. 

The Chase letter to me cited " key factors that adversely affected your credit score '' and mentioned that my XXXX Score was used, too. The letter stated they had gotten their information, " in whole or in part '' from XXXX. 

What followed was a list of things like " Installment loans '' ( we do n't have any ) and " few accounts paid as agreed '' ( ALL of them are paid as agreed, and they are all Chase! ) etc. The agents I spoke to today said that XXXX and XXXX information did not actually apply to this decision. The decision was based on an internal Chase formula relating Income to Credit Limits. So, their ACTUAL reason was not cited on the letter. 

They both said, to fix this, I must either CANCEL the new card ( which would, of course, show on my Credit Reports as a cancelation by me ) and go then to the time and trouble of re-appyling, with my correct income. ( That also would show as another inquiry on my Credit Reports. ) Or, I must take the time and trouble to call them BACK with my correct income and ask for an increase in the old card 's LOC, the one they had just reduced! That also would show as yet another inquiry on my Credit Reports. 

Also, when I said I would complain about this inconvenience to 'the proper agencies, the second, supposedly " escalated '' agent said, in a threatening voice ... '' Well, if you are going to sue us (??!! ) there is someone who will call you within 2 business days, '' and proceeded to " verify '' my phone number. I reminded him that I had n't said I was going to SUE them, just report their failing to call me before making changes to my existing credit profile. He insisted I was still going to get this mystery call. 

To me, this was a thinly-veiled attempt to intimidate me into not reporting this incident. 

So now I am waiting to see what that phone call will be. Will they cancel all my Chase cards, for being a pain in their necks? Can they do that? One of those cards has over XXXX air miles on it. I 'll bet they would love to have the excuse to cancel it! 

Also, can they really change my credit profile without telling me they are contemplating it, and why?

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation