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Chase cut my mine of credit from $70k to $35k in one a month

Filed under: business, random — taewoo @ 3:50 pm November 3, 2009

So pissed off. Writing to all the C-level execs (James Dimon, Michael J. Cavanagh, Charles W. Scharf, Gordon A. Smith, and Frank Bisignano):

Dear Mr. James Dimon

My name is TaeWoo Kim. I have been a faithful customer of Chase/Washington Mutual for over 8 years now. The reason for this letter is simple: I need your help.

First off, let me start off by saying how much I’ve appreciated Chase, especially with customer service and communication. Your online service alone has saved me countless hours and money. Thank you for your years of service.

I understand that I am one of millions of customers Chase deals with. I also understand that not everyone’s needs can be met. I don’t believe in entitlement nor do I expect things in return for my loyalty. But I feel lost in this big banking system of yours. I have spoken to many of your employees but I get the same answer without getting any solution.

I have three three credit cards with Chase. One had a limit of $40k, another with $15k, and the last with $1k. My credit score has always been outstanding (see latest report from MyFico.com) and I’ve rarely had late payments. Even if they were, it was due to ACH delay issues that I’ve managed to clear with Chase. I’m certain your call service center logs can verify this. I’ve always been a cautious borrower so I made sure I did not borrow beyond my means that can jeopardize my financial situation or my business standing with Chase. That’s why my history shows lack of information regarding revolving balances.

But lately, despite the economy’s downturn, my business has had tremendous success in the past few months. To expand my business advertising and marketing efforts, we rely heavily on our line of credit to buffer us. I haven’t had to use my Chase credit cards in a while because we’ve had partners who have fronted us their line of credit, but now they’re also in a crunch. So lately, I’ve started to use my Chase credit cards.

I get 3 letters within days of each other with the following changes to my accounts:

  1. One line of credit went from $40k to $20k
  2. Second one from $15k to $1k. Let me repeat: $15,000 to $1,000.
  3. Third one was flat out closed due to lack of activity.

Now, you can see how anyone would get extremely disturbed by this. While I’m no credit guru, I do understand my borrower-worthiness depends on my credit score, and a big chunk of it depends on my total line of credit. Effectively, $35k worth of line of credit has been wiped out. (The one with $1k line of credit wasn’t used because well, it only had $1k.)

I do admit there was a problem with one payment of $9k to Chase being returned as a result of my mistake. I have two bank accounts that submit payments from and one night, I carelessly chose the wrong account that did not have the balance. That resulted in payment to be returned from Chase. But I did remedy the situation right away by submitting the payment within days to correct the situation. Other than this one blooper, my account has been in good standing 99% of the time.

I hope I can appeal to your sensibility.

  1. In the current economy, we need more jobs. While my company’s not huge (yet), we are in state of growth. The more line of credit we have access to, the greater the growth. The more we grow, the more we can borrow. The more we can borrow, more we can do business with chase.
  2. I do understand mistakes are red flags but don’t we all make mistakes as humans? As the good Bible says, “let those without sin throw the first rock.” I hope a single mistake isn’t going to spiral me down from a good borrower of many years to a bad borrower due to one day’s event.
  3. All I get from your Chase reps are: “I can’t help you”, “we can’t do that”, “call us back”, etc. Is Chase a can-do company or not?

For years, I’ve been raving to my friends about how great Chase is. Why? My experience with Chase products and customer service has been phenomenal. But over a short period of time, my faith in Chase has slowly deteriorated to a point where I’m considering alternatives as far as banking goes. Of course, I would rather stay at chase because my financial details are well entrenched with Chase.

I am asking your helping restoring my line of credit on all three. If possible, I would like them even increased to double. I’ve spoken to a bank representative about why banks close idle accounts (i.e. holding cash just in case I borrow loses money). So if you’d like, I can concede to a condition that if I don’t use them in a year’s period of time, I will forfeit them.

The lives of four (to six, depending on season) rest heavily on my ability to borrow (responsibly). This line of credit is the buffer we need to get our “lifeblood” going in our company. Even if I haven’t made a convincing argument, I hope I can appeal to your sense of human camaraderie and mutual business respect.

Very sincerely,

TaeWoo Kim

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LA traffic vs. Bay Area traffic

Filed under: random — Tags: , , — taewoo @ 7:28 pm May 7, 2009

As of Thurs, May 7th 2009 6:25 PM..

San Jose:

sj_traffic

Los Angeles:

la_traffic

 

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Ridiculously low rent/phishing scam on Craigslist

Filed under: random — Tags: , — taewoo @ 12:04 pm

This is a brilliant scam.

Post on apartments for rent sign with dirt cheap rent, then reply back with somewhat true-story sounding email (of course, the landlord is out of the country)… then ask the potential renter to email/fax back their personal info.

Example:

May the Peace of the Lord be Upon you and,Thanks for your interest in our  my property and sorry for the late
response. Our  names are Mr and mrs Peter and my wife is  Mary
the owner of the house.

bdrm.,\\ full bath home features granite counter tops,living roomand dining room or den, tiled floors and all appliances.  The kitchenopens to a private backyard.. The home is on a no-thru street creating
minimal traffic. State of the art recreation center My wife and family have been relocated to France,Europe while i am here in Lagos West  Africa for a missionary work with human right awareness in conjuction with UN(www.humanrightstour.org).We will not be coming  back
until five yrs from now. Before we depart from Home, Iwanted to sell the house before My wife advised that we should rent itout than to sell it. On getting here, I discovered that my missionary work will last for 5 years so I decided to look for a responsible and caring person to maintain and take proper care of my House as I do.we search for a God fearing and reputable agent who can take good care of
the house, but we couldn’t get anyone then.

We left with the key, codes and papers. I’m willing to rent out the house to a tenant who is able to come up with 1months and security deposit rent as a deposit and I will like him/her to assure me that the house will be properly managed. Concerning the lease, duration is minimum of 6months or as the tenant pleases. I’m giving out the property with such a reasonable amount of $1000 a month and $500 for deposit,utilities included because I am  only paying God back for his kindness and mercy over me and my family with what I have, that`s why I asked for such a reasonable amount. It`s also a pride for me to work for him on a missionary work. Also I need someone/a family that will take good care of the house as their
own property. Firstly, you can  go take a look at the Neighborhood and exterior part of the house because you will not be able to go inside to see the interior hence I have all the keys and security code here
with me.

Let me also tell you a little about my self,I own a three restaurant in New York I have so many cars I leave fine in my whole life. I don’t really believe in God I smoke and I Drunk in my entire life,suddenly I got married to my Wife we married for 4years without Children we are hoping that one day we are going to have a children after 5years we  moved closer  to God and I started praying after 6month God said yes to our prayer,
we had a baby boy after 1year I discovered that the boy can’t work nor stand by  himself we spent so many money we do everything but nothing as been done.
when the boy clock 5plus,I was advised by my pastor that I should fast for 3days and God is going to say yes to our prayer and I do as he said and after seven days of the fasting the boy was illed.Since then I decided to move closer to him I own three house in the State.And I want you to believe in him I want to tell you that he is existing you are Blessed.

If you can assure me that you can take proper care of the property and also you can afford 1months rent and deposit to move in,  below is the rent application form which I will like you to fill and Send back to me. If you can do all this for me, then I will be willing to rent
my house to you.
Looking forward to hear from you. Your full information will be used
to process all documents that will be coming together with the keys
leading to the house and this will come to you through FedEx courier
service. Thank you and remain Blessed.
You can reach me on +2348085-137-047 or dial 011-2348085-137-047
So kindly confirm your interest  by filling  out the  rental
application form below.
RENTAL APPLICATION FORM
TENANT’S PERSONAL INFORMATION FIRST NAME: _________________MIDDLE NAME : __________________LAST NAME: __________________
PROFESSION: ________________PHONE (____) __________ (WORK)
PHONE (____) __________ (HOME) MARITAL STATUS: _________KIDS _____ (YES/NO), HOW MANY ________
PRESENT ADDRESS: _________________________CITY: _______________STATE: ______________ZIPCODE: ____________
HOW LONG? ___________IF RENTINGWHY ARE YOU LEAVING? ______________________________
______________________________CURRENT RENT: _______
PREVIOUS ADDRESS: ___________________________CITY: ________________STATE: _______________
ZIPCODE: _____________HOW LONG? ____________ IF RENTING,APARTMENT..
WHY DID YOU LEAVE? ______________________________
_________________________________________PREVIOUS RENT: _______IF THIS APARTMENT IS BEING GIVEN TO YOU,HOW LONG DO YOU INTEND STAYING? ____________
WHEN DO YOU INTEND MOVING IN? ______________PERSONAL REFERENCES (LIST 3 PERSONS, OTHER THAN YOUR RELATIVES, THAT WE CAN CONTACT TO
VERIFY YOUR CHARACTER.)FIRST PERSONFIRST NAME: _______________MIDDLE NAME: ______________
LAST NAME: ________________ RELATIONSHIP______________PHONE (___) ________________SECOND PERSON
FIRST NAME: _______________MIDDLE NAME: ______________LAST NAME: ________________
RELATIONSHIP______________PHONE (___) ________________THIRD PERSON FIRST NAME: _______________
MIDDLE NAME: ______________LAST NAME: ________________RELATIONSHIP______________
PHONE (___)________________
EMERGENCY(IN AN EMERGENCY, LIST 2 PERSONS THAT CAN BE CONTACTED STARTING WITHNEAREST RELATIVES)FIRST PERSON
FIRST NAME: _______________MIDDLE NAME: ______________
LAST NAME: ________________RELATIONSHIP______________PHONE (___) ________________SECOND PERSON
FIRST NAME: _______________MIDDLE NAME: ______________LAST NAME: ________________
RELATIONSHIP______________PHONE (___) ________________*PETS* IF YOU HAVE A PET,
NAME OF PET: ______________KIND OF PETS: _____________WEIGHT: ___________________
HABITS DO YOU SMOKE? ______________DO YOU DRINK? ______________DO YOU WORK LATE NIGHT? ____

God Bless You

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