Shame On You Bank Of America
Published in Widowism by chefswidow
Shame on you Bank of America.
This month the credit card laws changed and I’m pretty sure Bank of America just broke one of the new laws.
The Chef & I have had a Bank of America card since we moved in together back in 2003. It has been our most used card mainly because of it’s high credit limit. We have maxed it out 3 times and paid it off 3 times. It is was our go credit card.
Stressing the was…
I just opened up my credit card bill to find that Bank of America raised my interest rate almost 11%. I called and was told that I was sent a letter telling me of this increase back in October and I had the option to opt out. Well guess what? I never got a letter. The customer service representative, Mary informed me that if only I opened all my mail this wouldn’t have happened. I informed Mary that I do in fact open ALL of my mail. I pay all my bills on time and guess what? I somehow even manage to go to work every now and then. Mary then let me know that I had been late on a payment in June (by 12 hours & because of an online baking error) and this is why my rate increased. I’m pretty sure that nay be a violation of this:
Mary offered no apology and no ideas how to make this situation good. When I told her that this is exactly why the American public doesn’t trust their credit card companies she hung up on me.
Classy bitch.
I am so pissed off right now. I bust my ass trying to get these bills down and then Bank of America does something like this. How shady can one business possibly be? Super shady it seems because it looks like their about to get another bailout billion (on top of the 25 billion they have already received). Corporate America wins again! I sure hope all their CEO’s get their bonuses this year. Or maybe all the CEO’s could go to a spa on separate private jets. I offer up my new finance charges for a massage!
Shame on you Bank of America. Shame on you, you, and you!
Clap
i don’t know how these people sleep at night.
The same exact thing happened to me with them two years ago, but they closed my account and my other Citibank account because I was 2 days late once in 1996 & one day late in 2004, because of an online BANK error. That’s why I ONLY use AMEX. They have been nothing but helpful and have never charged me interest.
Sorry to hear this happened. I am afraid the new law does not go into effect until February 22nd. A lot of banks are beating this law change by increasing rates before that deadline. They needed to notify you – and it sounds like they did. We received some at our house too.
I would try and call again…be really nice….and then politely ask to speak to someone who is in management etc. Again, you have to be really NICE to them even though you want to beat the crap out of the person, who is probably really rude to you. You might have to try this a couple times. Talk about how much you want to continue business with them, but that you are afraid you may have to do a balance tranfer with another credit card and stop using bank of america. Talk about the years you have had the credit card. I agree it is bullshit, but sometimes you have to go through these steps in order to maintain your interest rate.
But whatever you do, don’t close the account. It sounds like you had it for a really long time. You need to keep it to maintain your credit rating.
I thought this site was helpful in outlining the CARD Act: http://www.askdoctordebt.com/14380-New-Credit-Card-Act
Unfortunately a lot of the beneficial rules take effect on February 22nd.
Apparently card issuers are supposed to review, every 6 months starting in August, any rate increases that took place after 1/1/2009 to see if there was a valid reason for the increase. So, all the jerks were likely hiking rates before then to avoid that review process.
If you got hit after that point, you may end up getting the rate decreased. The “late” payment hit would no longer be valid because it wasn’t 60 days past due, even though I’m sure it was just the excuse the phone rep gave and not the actual reason for the rate hike.
Like I said on Twitter, I’ve had a good experience with Chase so far. Maybe Chase or AMEX could get you a good rate on a balance transfer if you moved it all over upfront. I don’t know if local credit unions offer credit cards, but that might be an option, too.
Oh… do I have a classy story about a similar topic for you… Banks are horrible and sneaky. They only have one “person” in mind – and it’s not their customers!
Let me know if you are interested about how low a bank can go… on Christmas eve, no less!
It’s not a pretty story… but it’s true!
~meg
I hope you send a letter or email to the “you, you and you” folks you linked to, and CC your senators and congressperson.
Andrea’s comment was right on – it sucks that you are the one who has to bite your tounge when they screw you but she’s right…you need to talk to mgmt and be super nice. They should (if they have any sense) reverse the increase.
About a year and a half ago we had a similar issue with our then-bank Charter One who changed their algorithms so that all withdrawls were taken first, then deposits made, no matter the order in which they were made. For instance, my direct deposit check goes in at 2 AM and shows up as available in my ledger, then 3 online banking transactions take place that day (ie. I paid bills). Well, all of a sudden, without warning they started NOT actaully depositing the funds until the end of the day. So, even though it was showing as cleared and available, it really wasn’t then they would charge me $39 for EACH of the 3 transactions which of course overdrafted my account (even though I had so-called overdraft protection). I bitched in person and was told to call customer service , when I called they told me to go to my local branch. Which I did and the branch manager 1) couldn’t explain it as he was totally confused by it and 2) refused to refund the fees. So I withdrew all our $$ and closed the accounts and headed to a credit union which has been so much better.
Banks suck!!
the same thing happened to us! they claim they sent us a letter, but there sure as hell was no letter. complete bullshit.
That’s awful. . .Jose works for BOA and most definitely has some choice things to say about his company!
what a bunch of douche bags….hence forth BOA shall be refereed to as Summer’s Eve
re: katy’s comment, they also take out the biggest checks/debits first, so if you have three transactions pending, say for $10, $5 and $1, and you have $7 in there, they’ll debit the $10 first so you’re overdrawn and then charge overdraft fees on all three vs. debiting the smaller amounts and only having one bounced transaction. super shady.
crossing my fingers my own rate didn’t go up.
I had a running battle with Time Warner for months and finally got relief through the Ohio Attorney Generals office. Go to Ohio.gov and look around the site for the appropriate agency. Also our senators all have constituient services people in their offices. If you talk real nice and are very dogged you should be able to get some relief.
OMG this post makes my blood boil!!! Bank of America did this to ME TOO andm y minimum payment is DOUBLE what it used to be. When I called about it they insinuated that I couldn’t make the payments any longer, then they decresed my credit limit AND started sending me DEBT MGMT crap! HELLO – I have NEVER EVER been late on one payment….even after they did this to me. I am just PRAYING that my husband doesn’t have the same thing happen with his. It might make me stroke.
Is there a way to eliminate this parasite from our lives? The credit card industry makes money on dumb people. I run a retail business and pay them a huge chunk of gross income. Is it time to start a “Slow money” movement?
Join a credit union in Cleveland. They rock! I just joined one in NC that has a Credit Card with a 7.99% FIXED rate!
All of your comments make me so sad that this actually happens to all of us. It is so so depressing. I am going to write my letter and be done with it. And then I’m going to the credit union to get a credit card to transfer the balance. I’ll keep the card open but I will never use it again.
Thanks for all your comments it really helped me out on a dark day.
xoxo bitches.
OMG. Yes, Citi Card raised me from 14% (was 14% for 6 years!) to 24%!!!! Never a late payment and always paid OVER the minimum when I carried a balance. I got the letter, called them to talk about it and they said they would be closing my account when the new year came around because I disputed it. Same story for my boyfriend. Can’t wait to get this $4K balance paid off…it’s costing me a fourtune in interest, might look for a 0 APR card to transfer this balance!!! Grrr!