Why Chase Destroyed the Debt of Canadian Cardholders
Have you ever wished for credit card debt to simply disappear? Aren’t we all, my friends. But if you’re a Chase customer, this could actually happen. There’s just one catch: you have to be one of her former Canadian clients.
Last year, Chase left Canada and closed accounts for people who held one of two Visa cards, one co-issued with Amazon and the other with Marriott. At the time, NBC News reported that Chase told affected customers to keep paying their monthly bills.
Then, at the end of last week, those same Canadian customers checked their accounts and found that their balances had reached zero. Their debt was canceled. A Chase spokesman confirmed the debt forgiveness to The New York Times , saying that after the company decided to withdraw from the Canadian market, “another business decision was made earlier this year to write off all outstanding balances in order to complete the exit.”
Basically, everyone had been using snowball techniques and whatnot for far too long , and Chase became impatient.
CBC News interviewed a lucky customer, Paul Adamson, who received an email from Chase stating that his debt on his old Amazon.ca bonus card had been cleared. This means that there will be no more payments on his $ 6,157 balance.
Unfortunately, this kind of good fortune is unlikely to affect cardholders in the US, as JPMorgan Chase is currently the largest bank in the country and is likely not to close any parts of its store in the near future. But let Canada’s windfall be a reminder to always open your credit card company mail, just in case there is good news.