Consumer complaint received 2024-10-25
Product: Credit card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Struggling to pay your bill — Credit card company won't work with you while you're going through financial hardship
Company: JPMORGAN CHASE & CO. (TX)

I am a XXXX % XXXX, XXXX XXXX veteran who owns a small dog training business that I have been operating for XXXX years. In late XXXX, due to health issues stemming from my military XXXX, I was suddenly unable to work for a period of time. As the sole proprietor of my business, this resulted in a significant decrease of revenue in my business, which left me unable to meet my financial obligations. 

After my first missed payment, I proactively contacted Chase customer service inquiring about potential options for my business credit card payment. I explained my situation of financial hardship, and was offered a long term payment plan. I accepted the plan, with full intention of making all payments as agreed. I made a several payments as agreed through a specific payment portal created for the payment plan. However, upon making XXXX of my payments, the amount paid was a few dollars ( {$6.00}? ) less than the payment required. It was my understanding that the payment made satisfied the monthly obligation agreed upon in the payment plan. I was NOT notified on the screen or the main account page that my payment was not complete or still due. 

Chase made no outbound effort via email, phone call, message, or notification on my account page that the payment was not complete, and that there was still a balance due on the monthly installment. 

Upon logging into my account several days later, I discovered that the payment plan had been cancelled and was no longer available on my account. I did receive any communication from Chase that the payment plan had been cancelled. 

I then proactively contacted Chase customer and inquired as to why the payment plan was cancelled. I was told due to the missed full amount in my previous payment ( by {$6.00} ) the payment plan was no longer available to me. I inquired if there were any other options or to reinstate the payment plan, because I wanted to pay the debt in full. The agent informed me that a payment plan or any other options were no longer available to me. I strongly reiterated that I wanted a payment plan to pay the debt in full. 

I was told again that there was no longer an option for a payment plan, and that Chase would instead offer me a settlement on the account. The agent strongly encouraged me to take it on the spot, and informed me that if I did not take it immediately, they may not offer it again in the future. I felt incredibly overwhelmed, put on the spot, and pressured to make such a big financial decision, all without all the information and negative credit consequences explained to me. I felt as if I had no other option or choice, and due to the pressure the agent was putting on me, I reluctantly accepted the settlement. 

Due to the accepting the settlement, I was put into even further financial hardship and stress for having to meet the large monthly settlement payments, that was roughly XXXX larger than the original agreed upon payment plan. 

Another negative consequence of agreeing to this settlement, was Chase 's closing of my personal credit card- which I had used responsibility for years, with perfect standing, with never a missed payment. The closure of this account was never communicated to me, nor did I know that accepting this settlement would result in this other personal account being closed. 

The largest impact of being forced to accept this settlement, and Chase 's unwillingness to continue my original payment plan, was a severe negative impact on my personal credit reporting. 

Due to feeling overwhelmed and pressured to accept the settlement in such a short amount of time and without being allowed to hang up the phone and call back without losing the settlement option, I was unable to research and fully understand the consequences of accepting the settlement on my credit reporting. 

If I was given the time to properly research and understand the numerous negative consequences of the large financial decision I was feeling pressured to make by the agent, I would have not made the choice to accept the settlement.