Recourse for APR Hike by Chase Bank??

Hi all. I don't know if anyone might have any advice for me with respect to this unfortunate situation, but I hope some people here have some insight.

Recently, my wife and I made some payments, one of which was to Chase Bank for a credit card bill. Without our knowing (yet), however, it turned out that, around the same time, someone got our check card number and had a little "illegal shopping spree."

We've gotten much of the mess cleaned up, and we've been closely in contact with all of the payees whose payments were affected and/or returned. We have promptly re-issued all of the affected payments, but because our payment to Chase bounced (despite it initially being timely made), they gave us a pretty good APR hike.

I've secured a statement from my checking institution vouching for the fraudulent transactions' being responsible for the NSF in the first place, and I sent it to Chase Bank. The patent response I got, initially, is the standard, "per your cardholder agreement..." thing about late payments. I am doing what I can to appeal to reason with them, here (though I am sure it is glaringly absent), because it was the fact that we were victims of illegal transactions that was responsible for the denial of payment, and our bank vouched for that.

Is there any recourse I might have to get the APR back down where it was, or is this just in the hands of Chase Bank and the "discretion" of their people? If I am unsatisfied with the result, who might it be best to contact?

Thank you!

 

I did file a police report with my local municipality, but beyond that, the police can't do much. I realize it's not the police's responsibility to tell Chase to lower the APR (Lord, I wish!), but that filing the report would otherwise prove good measure.

I'll forward the police report number to them and see if anything comes of it. They really are pricks, though. You got that right.