Consumer complaint received 2023-01-30
Company: JPMORGAN CHASE & CO.
State: MI
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Other features, terms, or problems
Sub-issue: Problem with rewards from credit card

Complaint:
I have a XXXX XXXX XXXX, opened in XXXX. My wife has a Chase Freedom and XXXX XXXX. We transfer points from her account to mine to take advantage of my superior redemption rates. Chase has the following policy on points transferring : You can move your points, but only to another Chase card with Ultimate Rewards belonging to you or one member of your household. If we suspect that youve engaged in fraudulent activity related to your credit card account or Ultimate Rewards, or that youve misused Ultimate Rewards in any way ( for example by buying or selling points, moving or transferring points with or to an ineligible third party or account, or repeatedly opening or otherwise maintaining credit card accounts for the sole purpose of generating rewards or manufacturing spend, repeatedly opening or otherwise maintaining credit card accounts for the sole purpose of generating rewards ) we may temporarily prohibit you from earning points or using points youve already earned. If we believe youve engaged in any of these acts, well close your credit card account. 

In XX/XX/XXXX, we tried to transfer points from my wifes account to mine. My account was no longer an option on her screen. We also could not find a place to re-add me as a member of her household. We searched the issue online and found that others shared the issue, but that calling customer service usually resolved the issue : https : //thepointsguy.com/news/combine-ultimate-rewards-points-changes/ Customer service told us that they could not add me to her household because somebody else was already connected to my account. Chase described this relationship as one-way : this unknown person could send points to me, but my account was not set up to send points to them. Chase told me they could not tell me the identity of this person. I listed off members of our families, though we had no memory of being part of anyones household. No names matched. I asked if they could just sever this tie ; I no longer wanted them associated with my account. Chase said they were unable to do so. I escalated the issue, and was told that someone would review the situation and mail me a letter. 

This pattern occurred 5 times since XXXX. I have searched the bowels of Chases website, my transaction history, and my emails. Ive called and explained the issue multiple times. Each time, the call was escalated to a manager, the manager said there was nothing they could do but they could put in a request to review the account. Each time, I received a letter saying that my wife should add me as a member of her household on her account she could not, which was the original reason I called. I now have a stack of letters. I've attached the most recent one. 

Today, after receiving yet another letter, I called Chase again. After being transferred to an escalation agent, I explained our issue. She said that the only way to resolve the situation was to have the person who was connected to my account remove themselves from my account. I said I knew of nobody other than my wife who ever was connected to my account, and that I did not want anyone else to be connected to my account. It is not a joint account ; nobody should be able to control how it works. She said she was unable to help. I asked what would happen if I discovered who was connected to my account and asked them to remove themselves, but they refused to do so. She said there was nothing Chase could do. I was alarmed. 

In short, Chase is telling me : -There is a connection between another persons Chase account and my individual account. 
-Under this connection, this other person can send me rewards points. But I cant send points to them. 
-Chase cant provide any details about who this person is, when the connection was set up, or when it was ever used. I havent been able to find any details in any documents from Chase that I possess. 
-I dont have the option to remove this connection to my account. That right is reserved solely for the other person. 
-I am unable to add my wife to my account because this other person is connected to my account. 

This troubles me. Points aside, I should have control over my account. If I want to remove some sort of previous connection, I should be able to. I should be able to know who this person is.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation