CEO of Chase Card Services to Apologize to Senate Committee Today

Since March of 2001, Wesley Wannemacher has paid Chase Bank $6,300 on the credit card debt he has with them.  The fact that Wannemacher’s original debt amount was $3,200 was a little troubling to the Senate – who has asked Richard J. Srednicki, CEO of Chase, for an apology.

The apology is part of a hearing called by the Senate to examine credit card industry practices.  And those practices?  Well, the words “unfair” and “unethical” are getting some face time at these hearings.

Chase officials now say that Wannemacher no longer owed the bank the $4,400 and that the bank erred in imposing so many penalties. In retrospect, bank officials said, they should have put him in a repayment assistance program back in 2005, where many penalty fees and charges would have been waived. Chase said that as a result of this case, it will no longer charge additional over-limit fees after a customer is over his or her limit for more than 90 days.

Chase isn’t the only one feeling the heat.  Citigroup, who will also soon be sitting in the recently Chase-warmed hotseat, announced that it would end two policies that consumer groups and some members of Congress have criticized as unfair and abusive — "universal default," under which a cardholder’s interest rate on a Citibank card increases if the holder is late on a payment for another, non-Citibank credit card, and reserving the right to raise a customer’s credit-card interest rate at "any time for any reason."