Bars2005 said:Beware of the problems at WaMu with calculating your rebates. I received my very first statement, and right away I saw that the rebate amount calculated was way too low. Trying different combinations of possible % points (try it - it could be fun for the whole family! ), I was able to figure out that a couple of my Shell gas purchases were calculated at 0.25%, instead of 5.5%. I called CS three times. First two times they were reading me the terms, saying everything is fine. Third time, they said that they are having a problem with the rebate-calculation formula, and will fix it at some point. Advised to wait for another month, and call back if it's still incorrect. Makes me think in a month I will have to call multiple times again, and will be told to wait another month...

Just calc your rebates, to make sure they are Ok.

Same here. I used the card for gas and the rebate was way low. I've been messaging them through the web interface, and got the same response about terms and conditions. Then I got a message saying they are forwarding the info to a different department for research and to check back in a few days... =P

Hopefully they work it out. Anyone else have similar issues?

An observation and a couple question about Washington Mutual credit card practices.

They gave me quite a low credit line, $2500, and I understand they don't take requests for increases but grant increases based on periodic systematic reviews of your account. I am dealing with this by making online payments about twice per week to keep some headroom in my credit limit. A pain in the butt, but hopefully one I only need to deal with for a few months before they raise my limit.

What I've seen twice now is that my payments are being held on the WaMu side. The payment shows up in the transaction history, but the available credit does not reflect it and there is a large amount (larger than my payment) in the "Outstanding Authorizations" balance. Normally I expect to see outstanding authorizations for recent charges that haven't fully cleared, a process that may take a day or so. What I am finding is that my pattern of payments is triggering something that puts unusually "large" (a relative term here, we are talking amounts like $1000) payments on hold. In these cases I have verified that the funds have cleared my checking account. So the money isn't in my bank account, but I am not getting the benefit of the payment in seeing my available credit go up. When I call customer service they tell me it will take 5 days for the payment to fully clear. When I inform them that it has already cleared my account and wamu must have the funds already, I get escalated and they do a conference call to my bank who verifies the payment has cleared, and then the CSR supervisor releases the hold. These have been 30 minute phone calls, not fun or convenient.

This all seems very irregular to me. It has happened twice now and I expect it will happen again next time I make an online payment of over $1000. The CSR tells me that the system flags my account to put the payment on hold because I am making too many payments. WTF? I am considering writing some complaint letters as this seems to be a pretty anti-consumer practice: my money is gone from my bank account but wamu isn't giving me the benefit of the payment, usually putting me in a condition where I am about to max out my credit limit and be faced with denied charges. Is this something others have seen? How long should I expect to have to wait for a credit line increase?

OK now my real question: I have racked up some cash rebate $ and was about to try to redeem them, but on reading the rebate terms and conditions there is some weasel language that has me concerned: "When we issue a Rebate Check, your Rebate earnings will be reset to Zero, and you will earn Rebates on future Net New Purchases as described in the table in section 3". The table in section 3 describes the tiered rebate structure. I might be being paranoid here, but I could read this as possibly saying that the tiering gets re-set to zero. At this point I have maxed the tiers and am getting 10% on gas and 5% on EDP and don't want to go back to the bottom of the tier just because I got a rebate check. Please tell me this isn't something to worry about and that someone has drawn multiple checks and retained their maxed out rebate rates without going back to the beginning of climbing the tiers.

-Pat

Got a mail offer with tiered Cash Back up to 10% gas, 0% purchase APR until April 09 when you do a no-fee BT of $100 or more at 8.99% APR. I applied this card with $100 BT and got instant approval of $22,000.

It's really a pleasant surprise as I usually got 5~6K credit line in my past personal card applications. Since my Experian credit score (728) hasn't changed much in the last two years, I must say WAMU is more generous on credit line than others.

I also like their clean online account UI, as well as the FICO score feature. I paid $100 BT via bill pay section and the credit showed up the next day, very nice.

pocketdeuce said:Also, am I missing something, or is this card really better than Blue Cash?

not if you can't apply for it.

yes, the lower tier thresholds make (made?) it more favorable than Blue Cash at reasonable spending levels. lots of folks have reported problems getting WAMU to honor the terms of the card. personally, i decided to pass on this one and get the Citi Platinum Amex instead.

Just had my account closed and $667 accrued rebate declared "forfeit" because I mis-typed a digit when setting up a new checking account for online payments (see full story here (okay I don't see to be able to get a hyperlink to work...it is this reply to the "I screwed up" thread http://www.fatwallet.com/t/52/759532/11930504#m11930504 )

a sad end to my relationship with WAMU

Signed up 6 months ago, after spending about 10k called to ask for my Cash Back and am told THERE IS NO Cash Back ON THIS ACCOUNT! They tried to offer to add 1% Cash Back which i declined. Last time i do buisness with WAMU!

Just applied online and was instantly approved for $30k. My info:

HHI: $162.5k
Experian: 742

I applied online with a targeted visa offer with the same rewards structure that is in the quick summary...did a 100 bt with the application (no fee) but at the regular purchase rate...will pay off and get 0% on purchases until jan. 1, 2010...I probably can get the 4000 in purchases in the first 2-3 months to take advantage of the higher rebate during the first 6 months...

Instant approval of 14k. First WAMU card...

taxmantoo said:Much the same result as maddybeagle, I'd been getting targeted offers of 0% on purchases until 9-09, 10-09, then 1-10, and finally last week got one for a Visa with 10% back on gas after $4k in purchases and no interest on purchases until 1-1-2010 if I transfer a $100 balance. I did it with a $100 BT request and got a $13k CL. Perhaps WAMU wants us to do some real spending on these cards? As soon as I pay off the BT, I'm buying $4k of construction materials, and I'm making minimum payments until Dec '09.

BTW, I'm in Michigan and they pulled EX. I would have been PO'd if they had given me a $3k CL.

Be careful with this balance transfer offer. I had a similar offer if you make a $100 balance transfer you get the 0% (I got a 30k limit too). I made the balance transfer then paid it off. I then made a purchase three months later and they hit me up with finance charges.

They tried to claim that since I paid off the BT I was not eligable for the 0%. I had to talk to a CSR... AND a supervisor... and both said I wouldn't get the 0%. After I threatened to sue them since I still have the original offer I got in the snail mail in my possession with all the terms they transferred me to "executive customer relations".

Finally got them to honor the 0%. We'll see if I get finance charges next month as I am going to purposely carry a balance to see.

I probably should sue them anyways for the hell of it because this company is the worst. My wife had the 10% on gas WAMU card and they screwed up her Cash Back. She never got what was owed to her. She then cancelled the account because she was so pissed.

DjPiLL said:

Be careful with this balance transfer offer. I had a similar offer if you make a $100 balance transfer you get the 0% (I got a 30k limit too). I made the balance transfer then paid it off. I then made a purchase three months later and they hit me up with finance charges.

Hmm, I take it WAMU likes to deal with OTS complaints?

In light of your experience, I have some choices. I can leave the $100 unpaid at 8.99% for two years, pay part of it and see what they do, or pay it all of it and expect trouble.

If I depend on the written terms of our agreement and they don't live up to their side of the contract (an adhesive contract that they wrote), I think I'll make one phone call to them to point out their "error". If it's not treated as a rare and unforseen accident and quickly cured, then I can fire off a complaint to the Office of Thrift Supervision. It's probably best to take this approach, as it's my belief that banks who bait and switch their customers need to have their feet held to the fire.