Chase Forgiving All Credit Card Debt In Canada

By: Ben Schlappig

Published: August 8, 2019

53 comments

It’s not often we hear positive stories about credit card debt, but for the first time ever many of us will be wishing we had racked up credit card debt. 😉

I always say that you should only use credit cards if you’re in a situation where you can pay your balance in full every month. With few exceptions (like if you’re in an absolute bind, or if there’s a good 0% introductory interest rate), it’s not worth financing charges on credit cards. The interest you’ll pay will negate any rewards earned.

So that brings us to what seems like a totally unbelievable story. Chase is forgiving all credit card debt in Canada. You read that right.

What happened? Chase issued credit cards in Canada for 13 years, including both Amazon and Marriott co-branded cards. However, in March 2018 they decided to exit the Canadian credit card market, because I guess it got to the point where it just wasn’t worthwhile to them anymore.

Why would they stop seeking payment of debt, though? While they haven’t said officially, presumably it’s for similar reasons that they left the market to begin with — it just wasn’t worth collecting anymore. I assume there were significant costs associated with collecting the debt in a country in which they don’t otherwise operate.

We don’t know just how much debt they’re forgiving — are we talking millions, tens of millions, hundreds of millions, or what?

CBC has interviews with all kinds of people who were understandably in absolute shock when they got this message.

A 55 year old with $6,157 in debt said:

“I was sort of over the moon all last night, with a smile on my face. I couldn’t believe it. It’s crazy. This stuff doesn’t happen with credit cards. Credit cards are horror stories.”

Meanwhile a 24 year old who hadn’t made a payment towards her debt in five years said the following:

“It’s kind of like I’m being rewarded for my irresponsibility.”

I’m not sure there’s actually a moral to the story here. It’s certainly not to rack up credit card debt in hopes of it being forgiven. 😉 But it is the first feel-good story I’ve ever read about credit card debt, so there is that…

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Azamaraal Diamond

August 24, 2019, 6:18 pm

Chase did sell off some of their cards. Some were picked up by Scotia Bank I believe. This is terrible news for points collectors in Canada. AMEX is a waste as they only have two cards that are worth having and the Canadian partners for the Gold Rewards are Air Canada and BA at 1:1 and Asia Miles and some other one at 1:.75 (loss) (I'm too lazy to look them up as they are losers). I sure wish they had other partners such as SQ Chris Flyer - then I would be doing handstands down the aisles. So by not recovering their debt and by letting bad credit risks be rewarded it certainly taints the Canadian CC market. God I wish we could get the Aspire card!

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Callum Guest

August 10, 2019, 4:40 pm

Eskimo - I don't think it's credit card debt, nor have I ever said it is. Learn to read you complete and utter moron...

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Eskimo Guest

August 9, 2019, 8:43 pm

@Arie I wouldn't say only the delinquent are irresponsible. Paying the minimum is irresponsible too (maybe not to the creditors but to yourself). The rest of your statement is spot on. @callum I want to end our little conversation with some closing remarks, I have no interest in wasting time with AOC level debates. I never throw in any numbers or percentage nor do I intend to make numbers up to justify myself. It's just my own opinions. And if your dim wit thinks the 2.2 trillion (again not verified, but who cares I'll play along) private debt is only credit card debts then you should question your own financial literacy and stop wasting time, this isn't a constructive debate at all.

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bill Guest

August 9, 2019, 7:07 pm

Chase will just pass the bill on to the Rich Americans, Profit is the only way we stay in business. All CC Debt is someone spending to flash, live responsively.

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Arie New Member

August 9, 2019, 5:58 pm

Wow the amount of hate here is crazy - most of you don't even bother to try and understand what happened here. The vast majority of forgiven debt was not 'delinquent', it was simple people who were paying the min payment each month or just paying it off slower. There are a few delinquents yes (they exist in every country), but the vast majority is just people like most people on here, who carry some balance from month to month and are playing by the rules. Very very few got 'rewarded' for being irresponsible. People who made min payment after that decision was made were being refunded.. As far as why they didn't sell the debt - because they couldn't - it's not a debt legally speaking. The only thing they could have done is sell the credit card itself along with the credit card customers - which would mean they would sell customers who are not great at paying off their cc every month, but are playing by the rules the company itself created - so legally, that isn't a deb't, the only debt is the min payment. The bean counters at Chase figured out that they are better to take a write-down loss than to sell the business itself for pennies on the dollar. So some people got rewarded - good for them! If you are one of them, please go and do something good for some random person today, and if you're not, try and not hate them for being responsible adults. And don't freak out that for a change the little guy won!

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