Bank of America ... PIRATES!!!

[Deep C]

21 years!!! Loyal customer, have several accounts, very few issues through the years. I once upon a time had a credit card of theirs but switched to MBNA and a better rate about 16 years ago.
Last year I saw MBNA had snuck up my interest rate by a good bit. I called them on it and they told me it had been done by Bank of America who recently aquired them.
I told them that I would pay off the card that second if the rate was going to be sky high. They immediately went to work to keep my business. And in minutes my rate was set back actually a point and change below where it had been. I went on to "Lock' that in...
Today I got a letter from Bank of America notifying me that my rate was about to go up TWELVE POINTS!!!!!!!!
So out came Mr. Telephone and I started chewing asses from Delaware to Utah... Along the way I dug up some ugly ugly shit... It seems that this is being snuck past all of those customers that had MBNA. The options are ugly and brink on extortion too.
1. I can "reject" the new rate. If I do. The card is closed and must be paid at the rate I was paying. (I only paid that rate to keep the card at my disposal for emergencies). Also under that, rejecting the rate will result in a negative mark on your credit score. (I have closed accounts before and seen the devistation it can bring)...
1A. Just pay it off to nothing... (See above)
2. I can switch my card to AMEX (that isn't accepted in nearly as many places) (and has no cash advance possibilities).
3. Or I can open a home equity line of credit with them... (These sob's are trying to get their grubby paws on my castle)... They were quick as bunnies to offer that up...
This sucks, they suck... IS there not one honest entity left on this whole friggin planet????

I gotta think about my next step but I'm certainly gonna draw every cent from every holding we have there including Mini's trust, my retirement fund, my wifes retirement fund, our investment portfolios, my companies, etc...
That'll be a start...

If you had MBNA or BOA cards be on the look out for that letter. Its burried in a bunch of junk like they always send with offers of this and that...

[retainage]

at least Jesse James had the decency to wear a mask

[Double D]

Can you get another card that offers 15 months zero interest for balance transfers? Then you can either close the BOA card or leave it with zero balance and dont use it. Not sure if either of these things affects credit, if you find out let me know because I just pulled the same maneuver

[Jer]

Damn banks!

My main CC is a Citibank (Mastercard). I don't have accounts with them, but they keep trying to sell me more credit cards and also to make me not pay all my balance every month like I do. I forgot to pay the CC bill about 3 times and between the interest and fees it's about 10%... for paying 3, 5 or even 1 day later (!!!). I don't even remember if I accepted when they offered me a Visa card a few weeks ago. I know I decline credit cards every other week from other banks or them.

I just looked and my current rate is 7.05% a month (it was 5.5% the last time I read that part of the bill). If I pay the current balance in 9 months they will charge me their special rate of 3.9%/month.

I hate our giant taxes and interest rates

[Deep C]

Can you get another card that offers 15 months zero interest for balance transfers? Then you can either close the BOA card or leave it with zero balance and dont use it. Not sure if either of these things affects credit, if you find out let me know because I just pulled the same maneuver

Whats Ironic is I have a dozen 0% transfer invites... All from BOA ... I might give it a go... who knows. I do know every application you do though lowers your score some...

Jer
Citibank is the only one worse than BOA... I've had a load of fights with them in the past. They had a bad game of buying other card companies I had then played bad games with the rates... Then if I paid off they wouldn't post the payment til the next day. A couple cents of interest would roll over. They wouldn't send any further bills until six months later and bill you for six late fees plus interest. You'ld try to pay off again and same thing happened all over. I finally had to threaten law suits and have lawyers prepare papers on several cards before they backed off.

[bite me 05]

They are all out to screw you, just like insurance companies. Most of the time you feel like the bottom banana.

[Deep C]

Yep... I know what you mean...

[Double D]

my current rate is 7.05% a month

Holy crap!

Even the loan sharks don't charge that much

[Deep C]

I think thats close to what bank of america wants...

[Jer]

Holy crap!

Even the loan sharks don't charge that much

I'm not sure if I'm reading it right, but seems that they'll increase it to 7.42%!

The "standard" rates here are around 10% a month. Insane.