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My B of A Mastercard rate went up by (not to) 14% on this month's bill
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Latest politicsUser loginNavigationAbout KnoxViews |
My B of A Mastercard rate went up by (not to) 14% on this month's bill
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BofA has to pay for Merrill and Countrywide somehow, I guess.
But since BofA is now partially owned by the US Treasury, this might fairly be considered a tax hike.
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the distance between black & white is much further than i would like until now i never noticed that fascism has many disguises -d. boon, 1981
...I should phone Bill Dunn? (snark)
Wasn't a 25% interest rate considered to be usurious, and hence illegal, at one time?
As for who you should shoot.... I'd call BoA and shoot off my mouth by demanding an explanation.
Did that pretty quickly, using some language you've never heard me use.
The clerk told me it is "illegal" to threaten someone.
Usury rates, apparently, are not illegal.
Well, then perhaps you should "hack" into the "Big Board" on Wall Street, and flash the message, "Avast, ye scurvy swabs! Bank of America is about to go belly up!"
(Reference to a favorite, early Bloom County strip. Sorry, I remember it every time I hear about BoA.)
I have a Citi card that did a similar jump last year. Turns out I was 1 day late on the payment. I called and complained and got it back down to the lower rate. They don't want to lose your business, particularly if you have good credit. They know you could you could get a new card and transfer a balance at any time.
No, smalc. That's the first thing I looked at on the bill.
My payment due 10/10 was made with a check I wrote 10/4 and was posted to my account on 10/8.
I'm tellin' ya...the rate just went up by 14%.
I guess so. I'd call to complain anyway.
Strange coincidence. I was just getting ready to post a warning about credit card scams. We got one in the mail yesterday for a "pre-approved Chase Platinum Mastercard".
• 0% introductory APR on balance transfers and purchases until Feb. 1 2010
• No annual fee
• No balance transfer fee
• 8.99% fixed APR after introductory period
The fine print:
• The 8.99% fixed APR applies only to balance transfers
• Cash advance APR: 20.99% variable
• Default APR: Up to 28.99% variable
• Overdraft Advance APR: Up to 13.99% fixed
• Variable cash advance APR: Prime rate plus 15.99%
• Variable Default APR: Prime rate plus up to 23.99%
• Minimum finance charge: $1.00
• Transaction fee for cash advances: 3%, min. $10.00
• Late payment fee: $15 min., $39 on balances over $250
• Over credit limit fee: $39
• May change account terms and APRs at any time for any reason. APRs are not guaranteed. APR may change to higher APR, fixed APR may change to variable APR.
• Payments and credits are allocated in way most favorable to them, i.e. apply payments and credits to balances with lower APRs before balances with higher APRs.
The "Credit Cardholders' Bill of Rights Act of 2008" was passed in the House and is now in the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee. It would prohibit most of these abuses.
Link...
I think the deal on usury is based on a change to federal law that allows a credit card issuer to charge the highest rate allowed for any state in which it operates, effectively circumventing state usury laws.
I'm citing this from memory, and I could be wrong.
Tamara, your rate actually went up 117%.
Yeah.
I have kept a signature line of credit with my local credit union for many years. They charge 13% and they auto-deduct payments from my savings account. Fortunately it has a balance of zero right now but it's nice to know it's there if I need it.
You may want to consider something similar. You can then do as I did with J C Penney a few years ago when they applied my payment to the wrong account then called me wondering when I was going to be sending them some money. I went online, transferred funds from the loan account to checking, and send them a check for the full amount.
Visit us at
The Home
Or just get a card with a better rate.
I've got a Gold Mastercard via my credit union (not one in Knoxville, though) that charges 10.9% with no annual fee, and 1% cash back. It's not the best credit card deal in the world, but I keep it because I've got a 20+ year relationship with my credit union, so its easy enough to keep it there.
I know you this will piss people off, but you can thank Joe Biden for this bullshit. I recently received a letter for my Visa card (that sits in our safe) saying that if I didn't use the card or reply to the letter within 30 days of the posting of the letter to me, then they were going to raise my rate from 4.9%APR to 29.99%APR. I called them up and asked under what possible logic this was appropriate as the balance was zero and the annual fee ($79) was paid. They were allowed, according to the rather nice woman at issuing bank, to raise my rate for "no reason" (her exact words) other than my inactivity on the card. I canceled it immediately. She tried to get me to not cancel it by saying that if I merely replied in writing to the letter sent to me and made a charge on the card, and made the minimum payment (not pay the balance off) that the "software that generated the letter" would reset for 2 years. Bullshit. I canceled the card, which STILL requires that you send them a letter (which I had notarized and sent registered mail) to cancel the card formally. I asked her when my contract changed as I had not received notice and she cited two acts, a credit reform act and the Bankruptcy Reform act, that enabled them to do this. Guess who.
I use Amex now exclusively. If you can't cover the balance, which must be paid in full as it is a charge card, not a credit card, you can open a credit account if need be. The points system is excellent and it gets you into almost every Airport and Rail club lounge on the planet for free. Screw the credit card companies. If you aren't leveraged up to the hilt with them, they are trying to FIND ways to get you leveraged up to the hilt with them.
That said, I am still voting for Obama with the added benefit to get Biden out of the Senate.
True happiness is knowing you are a hypocrite. -- Ivor Cutler
How strange. I've always heard that we should NOT close inactive accounts, but keep them open. The conventional wisdom I heard is that credit rating services will then note our restraint in not tapping every source of credit available to us.
We have Lowes and Home Depot cards thrown in a drawer since we completed construction on our home, nearly ten years ago. At that time, we used them for convenience, but paid them off monthly with draws against our construction loan with the bank. We haven't had any balance on either of them since completing the house a decade ago, nor have we ever once used them.
We have a couple of old Visa cards thrown in a drawer, too, "balance-less" and inactive for almost as long.
Thought we were doing the right thing...
The old wisdom on credit ratings is out the window. The average credit score is around 700 (little less depending on which agency) in America. I heard recently that the value of one standard deviation on the credit score is about 75 points. That means that 66.7% of Americans are between 625-775 or so. Meaningless? Well, it must be to the banks because now they are really watching people based on on debt-to-income ratios (which is allowed under the Fair Credit Reporting Act and a component of your credit score) and these new bankruptcy probability scores where they predict whether or not there is X chance that you will go bankrupt in the next 2-5 years and rate you that way (which is not covered under the FCRA and is questionably legal). You are not entitled, right now, to you bankruptcy probability score. Basically, if your debt-to-income ratio is high and you are of a certain age and do certain types of work or etc. your probability of bankruptcy approaches 1 (probable). Ironically, if you have filed bankruptcy and been discharged recently, your probability of bankruptcy rating is 0. Why? You can't go bankrupt again for 7 to 10 years. This is why folks who have recently gone through bankruptcies get flooded with credit offers, especially if they kept their houses and are still working. You are a guaranteed pay/lien/garnishee for the foreseeable future. Friggin' cynical.
Also, those old credit cards are a security hazard for identity theft.
True happiness is knowing you are a hypocrite. -- Ivor Cutler
But Randy, how do those "secret" credit scores factor assets, I wonder?
Where default risk is concerned, assets available to liquidate debt are part of the picture. Those folks don't know how much our homes are worth, if we own other property, what we have in our IRAs and other investments, etc.
Sounds to me like a lazy analysis on their part, likely undertaken in such a half-assed manner to justify exhorbitant rates.
(Right now, I'm still thinking this action on my card is specific to B of A, tho.)
Amex is cutting back on credit limits based on criteria involving where you purchase items at and who your mortgage company is.
Link...
Amex is cutting back on credit limits based on criteria involving where you purchase items at and who your mortgage company is.
Could be related to this:
Link...
(See the part about "secret" credit scores.)
Didn't know that. See my post above viz the secret credit scores that R. Neal mentions.
True happiness is knowing you are a hypocrite. -- Ivor Cutler
Credit profiling?! Whoa...that *is* spooky.
My mortgage is with Citigroup. Am I supposed to be a higher default risk because of it?
(As for where we make credit card purchases, we generally don't make them at all. We've used that B of A card strictly for major car repairs, medical, that sort of thing. I don't even carry mine in my wallet.)
At this point, the credit card companies are like Lily Tomlin's old phone company operator character -- "We don't care. We don't have to. We're the phone company."
(To the young'uns out there.... there was a day when there was no competition for phone service, and you got your phones and the service from The Phone Company, by cracky, and anyone who had more than two phones in their house was probably a zillionaire and a phone was a big heavy thing that could be used for self-defense if need be, and you actually dialed it, not pressed some wimpy buttons and I'm starting to sound like Grandpa Simpson so I'll stop...)
Interest rates are going up as morals are going down. Oh, wait, wrong post, sorry.
Go through your credit union for credit cards. I'm with USAA (quasi-credit union). I couldnt be happier. I charge about everything I can to get cash back at the end of the year (I pay it off the day after I charge something). I havent run into any letters advising me my rate is going up or my limit is going down. USAA rocks if you are eligible to join.
I have USAA too. They rock. Great customer service and a AAA rating to boot. We use their points program for plane tickets too. Basically, they give you a point for every dollar in credit/debit on your checking account, then at the end, you can either take it in cash to apply on any other account or get plane tickets. I've gone to Europe for free (other than taxes) the last two trips.
True happiness is knowing you are a hypocrite. -- Ivor Cutler
My husband just phoned from the office to say the crisis is resolved (I'd had to delegate the task to him because B of A wouldn't talk to me--not on the account).
Apparently, I had shredded and tossed an insert in the bill a couple of months back that was a "return reply requested" piece. I was to have offered an "update" on our income status. I rip up all those offers they insert for overpriced costume jewelry, coins, and crap without a glance, so I guess I got in too big a hurry that month...
He was able to offer an update over the phone, though, and the clerk said our rate will revert to the former 11.99% on next month's bill. They'll credit the difference on the finance charge next month, too, although we still have to pay the higher payment (to cover the higher rate) applicable to this month's bill.
I don't recall a credit card issuer ever before asking us for any update on income, but it's a wise practice on their part, I've gotta say.
Just too bad B of A didn't do something like that on all their subprime mortgage customers. If they had, maybe they wouldn't now have more exposure than any bank in the nation (per Motley Fool, I read).
Think we need to shuffle some cash/assets to debt, nevertheless. The newspaper headlines make me nervous and this morning was likely a wake-up call for this household.
I'm not that worried about what it does to my credit rating if I close an account.
If you close it, they will usually keep the same APR for the life of the card. This is best for me because it really makes me hot to pay those cards off quick. Some transfer offers are good, others are sneaky as in the post above, you have to read the fine print carefully.
The Congress is to blame for the high rates. They (and this includes Biden) voted for ridiculously high ceilings to be put on what the credit companies can charge. I felt personally betrayed by this.
I think the bottom line is more people have to become enraged and complain a lot.
Some of course blame the victims right away.
$700 billion to rescue banks
For little people like you and me?
NOTHING!
God bless America!
companies are engaging in arbitrary increases in rates and charges, not related to individual credit or payment history. They are doing this in order to make more money (!). Bank of America is the leader in the practice, or so I read.
Recent bankruptcy law changes are said to make it more difficult to absolve youself of credit card debt. I have read it, in relevant part, and this certainly seems to be so. Per the pundits and commentators, Jos. Biden gets considerable credit (no pun intended) for this change. Odd that Obama would have chosen him as a running mate, unless this is the "change" he has in mind.
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