Consumer complaint received 2018-05-18
Company: JPMORGAN CHASE & CO.
State: IN
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Advertising and marketing, including promotional offers
Sub-issue: Didn't receive advertised or promotional terms

Complaint:
I am writing about the Chase Sapphire Preferred card. The card was misleadingly advertised. Chase 's advertisements led me to believe there would be no annual fee for the first year I had the card. I am writing because I was charged an annual fee for my first year. I applied for my card during a very, very narrow window of time when they had stopped offering to waive the {$95.00} annual fee. Chase was waiving the fee immediately before I applied, and is still waiving the fee now. I do not know if this is standard practice for them or a one-time fluke, but in either case it seems that Chase is engaged in exploitative business practices : the link I followed to apply for the card was sent to my email address, and even the email ( alongside all the literature about the card online ) said that the {$95.00} fee would be waived. I got in contact with their customer service, but could not get through their canned responses to get help from an actual person.

I was especially attentive to this fee because I am a student, and will be doing research abroad this summer. My finances are tight, so I've been looking to save wherever I can. I wanted to use a credit card overseas in order to more accurately track my expenses for reimbursement, but I also knew that my university would not reimburse foreign transaction fees. Knowing this, I decided to look into credit cards without foreign transaction fees and found the Chase Sapphire Preferred card. All the promotional material published by Chase and by Chase 's advertising partners touted the card as perfect for travelers, since it had no foreign transaction fee. I was wary of the annual fee, though. As I ran all the numbers, I realized that this card would be better for me to use than my normal card, since I would save more than {$95.00} on foreign transaction fees over the summer. This would enable me to pay them back immediately when it was charged next year. I do not like carrying a balance on my credit cards. So I applied for the card and was shocked to receive the {$95.00} fee. When I went back on the Chase website I saw them advertising no first year fee ; when I checked the email I used to apply for the card I saw it said there would be no first-year fee. When I got into contact with customer service, I was told there was a short period where they were not waiving those fees, and I had happened to apply then. Chase 's unwillingness to correct what felt like a very honest mistake moves me to think that this kind of exploitative behavior is not just a one-time fluke but perhaps part of a wider pattern, so I decided to file a complaint with you. 

I applied for the card on XX/XX/XXXX. I have uploaded a number of images. Two of the screenshots from XX/XX/XXXX are a screenshot of an email sent to me advertising the card with no annual fee, the second is language from the rewards agreement in the email describing no annual fee. Another XX/XX/XXXX screenshot shows a breakdown of the card published The screenshot from XX/XX/XXXX is the advertisement I looked at after I was charged the annual fee. This advertisement also advertises that there would be no annual fee. Chase does not make its Cardmember agreement available online and since I am away from home I am also away from my paper copy of the agreement ( it is also upsetting that Chase does not make Cardmember agreements available to consumers online : they have to ask Chase to mail their agreements ). It may be that there was no annual fee waiver on my copy, but I am not certain that that was the case and, in any case, I was mislead by the advertising to think there would be.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation