I recently read a somewhat disturbing post on the Alpha Consumer, written by Kimberly Palmer. In this particular post, someone wrote in because he was concerned about something that he read within his “Privacy Policy” on his existing Chase credit card. As far as he could tell, it appeared that Chase, and most other credit card issuers, fail to provide their customers with the ability to completely opt-out of sharing their personal information with other companies, making it very difficult, if not impossible.
The fact that Chase may share information as required by law doesn’t disturb me. After all, if certain information is subpoenaed, you should expect the company to obey the law and and produce the required information. It’s the part about sharing what’s “permitted by law” that disturbs me.
Now, I am not necessarily coming down on Chase for this part of their policy. In fact, the practice is common among credit card companies. Rather, it seems that something must be done with the law in order to close this loophole. Congress has been paying so much attention to the alleged predatory lending practices of card issuers that it seems they have largely ignored card holders rights to privacy.
So, who does Chase have the right to share your information, even if you tell them not too? Palmer contacted the company and spoke to a spokeswoman by the name of Jessica Hougentogler, who told her that Chase shared information with companies that have a “special relationship” with the credit card company. These companies are essentially those their merchant partners, such as Southwest Airlines, Disney, and Amazon.com.
Referencing the federal law that allows it, Hougentogler made no apologies for this practice even when the consumer requests that the information not be shared.
Ultimately, until the laws are changed, there’s really nothing you can do about having your information shared by your credit card company – unless, of course, you choose to close your account. While not being able to guarantee that your information won’t be shared, Palmer does suggest, however, that you contact the card issuer and request the highest degree of privacy allowable.
Related Posts:
- Social Media Latest Way to Connect Customers with Card Issuers - There are over 800 million Facebook users and 100 million Twitter users. Many credit card companies are discovering that social media is...
- Sharing Your Credit Card Purchase Activity On Twitter? FAIL - The idea behind Blippy was to create a new social ecommerce platform where registered users could broadcast their credit card purchases on...
- Card Issuers Want Your Children As Customers - Even with the new CARD Act in place, many people aren’t aware of this but children are primary targets for credit card...
- Card Issuers Taking On the Risk of Acquiring New Customers - Now that the economy seems to be picking up a bit, credit card companies are looking for new customers. Most companies use...