WaMu reviews and complaints

Washington Mutual raised my credit card interest rate for no reason to 31.99%. I have paid above the minimum always before the bill is due. My credit score is 17 points higher than when I received the card. I called to aks them why and the response was that there was a notification in one of my previous bills. I asked again what was the reason and the woman on the phone said there was none and they would send me a letter.

I received a letter a week later stating it was based due to my credit risk. Because of amount owed on revolving accounts and balance to credit limit ratios.

I haven't used this credit card in several months because I received a new one at 7.99% (evidently they didn't think I was a risk) and paid off and closed two old cards (one for a store). Thw WaMu account is closed and I am paying off the balance.

So my credit score is higher, I own my own home, have a steady career, married for 20 years and owe less than when I first received the card. I guess being a responsible adult who pays their bills on time makes me a bad credit risk to WAMU.

Washington Mutual cannot be trusted, we have had our house for 2 years and just found out they never had the proper paperwork on our house. We are now fighting a battle that could give us our house free and clear due to their screw up. Its been a pain and a lot of stress and I would never wish this shabby company on anyone. We had filed bankruptcy on another property and re affirm on our current house. 3 times the paperwork got faxed to them.We kept making the payments then in Aug 08 we pulled our credit report and surprise the house went into bankruptcy due to them not filing the papers with the court. I never missed a payment in the 2 years we were there now I am only getting calls on the 2nd also Washington Mutual but no contact with the 1st. Went to the deeds office and found where they filed a lost of lien and title on the house in Jan 08 1 year after the bankruptcy was closed. I am really upset but then it might work in our favor cause I just became as mean as a junkyard dog.

In recent months, we like many Americans have been suffering a huge financial challenge. Rather than use a credit counseling service, we have managed to negotiate payments and close all our credit cards ourselves with the same outcome proposed by the counseling services...except for WaMu. They refuse to negotiate, and refer you to Money Management.com, or Springboard. Or even funnier, their WaMucanhelp link. Like many other complainants I've read, the individuals we speak to are robotically scripted CSR's, with little or no ENGLISH language skills, and the "supervisors" we are referred to be a joke. They all say to call back in a few days, as if by magic, the aging on our account will force them to negotiate with us themselves, while all along our account racks up additional fees. So far the outcome over 2 weeks has been none. Now the funny thing to me is that while most companies are seeing the need to negotiate terms, due to the economy, this financially troubled bank would rather force their customers into a corner.

Wamu has been holding my check deposits for 3-7 days and the same deposits in the past (last month and prior) would normally be made available in one (1) day. I've never bounced a check or had a deposit reverse and my credit is perfect so I'm wondering if anyone else has had the same "change in service" or if I am just getting some special treatment.

Anyway, I guess change is about to come with the Chase bailout of Wamu so I'll give Chase a chance before I jump ship.

I miss good customer service!

On the due date, I went to make payment on line and was told that I had to pay express of $14.95 for no reason. As this was on the due date I do know that batching of computers is not until 1200 midnight...I intend to write to Washington about fraud on part of credit card companies and WAMU is the beginning...No wonder people have high debt because we are being ripped off constanly by these banks in one way or another. I am also writing to my congressman...We need changes and Washington needs to correct these institutions who believe they are invincible...they're not. Wa Mu should go under for their unscupulous actions on the part of their creditholders. Speak up!

I have a WAMU online saving account, today, when i was trying to move money around with my other accounts, i found out that they were charging me $10 per transaction for every withdraw over 6 in this billing cycle.

I never know this before and this is the first time i see this. While i was using my MMA at HSBC, they usually send me a letter of warning, but not charge a fee like this. I tried to call their customer service to reverse the fee. I showed them this is the first time and 2 of the 3 'excessive' transactions due to the setup of direct deposit with other bank for me to move the money to WAMU (the other bank send in 2 small deposit and did a small withdraw.). The representative seems reasonable but explained to me that only the supervisor can reverse the fee.

The supervisor simply told me that that fee was used to 'teach me a lesson' and kind of required by the federal law. Yes, i learned the lesson and i then called in to close my account immediately and have all my money transferred.

WAMU has poor customer service, their 'free' banking has more hidden fees then other banks. People at WAMU are not reasonable, greedy and that is probably why WAMU is closed and taken over. And i wish this 'supervisor'(Eric) to lose his job in this financial crisis and therefore he can learn the lesson to be a a more decent man while serving the customer.

I am reporting this not to say not to get a credit card but beware! I was a long time card holder with this company and paid my bill every month without any problems always on time and always more than minimum due.

2 months ago I noticed that my interest rate went from 8% to 27.9% This was a shocker so i called Providian and asked the lady why the interest had gone up. She replied 'you did not pay your payment last month' which i responded back that I had paid it and had the receipt to prove it. She then told me that there was nothing she could do.

I then asked her to get a supervisor and she told me that the supervisor would tell me the same thing. So I said ok and good bye and started to look into it a little further. Well come to find out i had made my payment but it was a day early for the billing cycle and they had applied it to the previous month.

With that i called back in and informed another lady of what happened. She responded, ' we're sorry but that is your problem and there is nothing we can do for you so you will have to keep making your payments at the higher interest rate for 6 months and then then we can bring you back down to a 15% rate. Then i told her that i will just pay the card off and cancel my account and then said goodbye and to have a nice day.

2 days later I managed to get the cash up to pay the card off and according to the bill my payoff was $XXXX.XX well then when i called them back to make the payment I asked what the pay off was to make shure the amounts were the same and she came back with a price that was $169 higher than the normal pay off. I asked her what was with the higher price and she told me it was the interest for that month. I told her it was the beginning of the month and there should be no interest, and that i would not pay the extra $169 only the payoff that actually was needed.

With that said she got angry and said 'You will either pay the extra plus the payoff or we will call the collection agency right now and report me so that i could pay the payoff +plus the extra interest+the collection fees.
Make a long story short I had no choice but to pay it off because I pride myself on my good credit.

In conclusion i payed the whole balance plus the interest and then canceled the card well at least i thought. they said they closed the card but then 2 months later i received a statement to an account that i thought was closed.

So credit card users BEWARE. these people are rude and uptight and will bend you over backwards to make a even bigger profit from you!

I usually pay WAMU's bill in person by check at WAMU's branches. Last month I decided to pay via telephone a few days prior to the due date. I, repeated all information including the route #, etc. to WAMU's Customer Service person on the telephone.

A couple of weeks later WAMU sends me letter stating: that I gave the telephone person incorrect information, increases my fees plus a late charge. Thus, I drove to the Branch where I do business with explanation to the Bank Manager that since WAMU made the mistake I should not pay additional fees. Thus, an adjustment was agreed on by WAMU's managers stating that they would cancel the late fee charge of $39.00. Instead of paying $50.00 each month WAMU charged me $133.00+$39.00 late fee for their mistake! Anyone doing business with WAMU should go to the bank's branch and pay in person by check. I am being RIPPED OFF.

Our WAMU credit card was part of the Chase/WAMU acquisition much to our delight given the unfair practices of WAMU concerning interest rates and fees. However, since our account has been moved to Chase we have found that they are not anymore willing to work with their clients than WAMU. We received our card with a 9% interest rate in 2006. Since we have made payments on time and paid more than the minimum every month. In 2008 our balance was a little over $3, 000 and I knew I was going to pay it off but it was not until 2 days after the due date. It was due on the 24th of the month and on the 26th of the month the payment posted giving us a 0 balance. The next statement our interest rate had been increased to 31.99% because our payment was 2 days late and the late fee that they assessed put us over the limit.

Before complaining I thought I would give Chase the opportunity to lower our interest rate in the hope that their policies were not as unfair as WAMU's. The rep that I spoke with told me that our interest rate would remain the same and that we had to start the process of establishing our account that we had been working since 2006 to establish. I was told that I could not talk to anyone about decreasing the rate because the account would be randomly evaluated to see if we met the qualifications, yet she was unable to give me a time frame when this evaluation would happen. When I asked why new Chase customers were given an introductory rate when they applied, but customers that were acquired from WAMU through no choice of our own, were not given the same option, I was told that Chase had their own policies but there would be no changes to the fees and policies that we had as customers of WAMU. It seems we have jumped from the frying pan to the boiling pot. Is there no end to the unfair practices of credit card companies, it is no wonder our economy is in such bad shape.

Free checking!
And $33 overdraft fees...
Three in a row, I am in total $5 overdrafted, but the cost is $99
You gotta be kidding me.
I'm from Europe, so some things in the U.S. are new to me, but not this expensively new.
In Holland, once I was 18, I could overdraft up to -$400, and after turning 21 I could go $800 "in the red".
Apparently, at Wamu. regardless of how much, it costs you $33 every time.

THIS IS THE BIGGEST CON I'VE EVER EXPERIENCED!

Be Warned...