Being Citybroke is about perspective. It’s about seeing glitter in the gutter and a sense of humor when life is giving you everything you don’t exactly want and you’re hanging on for a dream that you sometimes can’t remember.
It’s not sales or survival - it’s an electronic letter from the trenches. It’s what suits who make $60K in at age 24 can’t even imagine. It’s Freedom. It’s Poverty. It’s Broken. It’s Beautiful.

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Thanks, Obama -- Chase Gave Me a Choice!

I was waiting in a ridiculously long line today at Chase bank about to withdraw a ridiculous amount of money to secure the lease on a new apartment when a mysterious thing happened -- a customer service rep walked up to me and asked me if I needed help.

I was speechless.

After helping me with my check, he pulled up my bank account and started asking me questions about overdraft protection. No, he wasn't being friendly (what was I thinking?!), he had a specific purpose.

Because of Obama's new Credit CARD Act, which was instated on Feb. 22 of this year, banks can no longer cover you (and then charge you for it) if you overdraw on your checking account-- unless you opt in for the service.

And, if you don't opt in for overdraft protection by this summer, you are automatically opted out. This means that for all the customers who are too lazy or uninformed to opt in for overdraft protection (probably most of us, including me), Chase could lose money. (As it stands now, if you don't pay Chase back for "helping you out" within the day you overdraw, they charge you $30.)

So, Chase is picking off customers one by one from the banking line to try to get them to opt in.

Beware! As most things in life -- if great customer service seems too good to be true, it probably is.