Replies

I am for taking responsibility, but these credit card companies do play dirty tricks. We recently had our Bank of America credit card interest rate doubled. We have always paid on time, either paid off the balance or paid far more than the minimum due. I have a friend whose payment date was moved up by one day, therefore making a late payment likely.

I waited 20 minutes to talk to a bank manager and she said we had done nothing wrong and that BOA had made a blanket decision that affected all customers based on the economy.

BOA also reduced our money market account interest rate from 2.1 to .93 with the account maintaining 10 times the minimum balance.

Bank of America also said we could not use the rest of our home equity line of credit. They also would not refinance our home even though THEIR appraisal was $60,000 over what we paid for the house.

Getting back to credit card companies. I would rather owe money to the mob, than them.

Vicki, I ran into some similar stories with my Citibank cards. The ones who are jacking up interest without cause are the major banks getting the TARP money, including Citibank and BOA. I went to another bank (Compass BBVA) that’s not in trouble and got a nice interest rate and a great deal on transferring balance away from Citibank.

Normally, the transfer balance stuff is a huge rip-off where banks give you a very low interest rate then later charge you at the “cash advance” rate with very stiff interest. What Compass did was charge me a fee for transferring the balance ($75), made it interest free for a year and *then* will charge me at the “purchases” rate, which is currently 6.9%.

The other option I took was to take a loan out against my 401k which is then deducted monthly from my paycheck. The interest rate from the loan is far better than the interest on the credit cards plus I am essentially borrowing against myself so I am paying the interest back into the 401k. This will limit the earning power of your 401k while the loan is outstanding but, in the long run, you are better off eliminating the debt than building up a retirement fund.

See, the problem isn’t *your* credit; the problem is the bank’s credit so they are basically using the high rates as a way to encourage you to pay them off and go away so they will look more solvent when they deal with the government.

So, my advice is to shop for a better bank than BOA. Stay away from the big boys and find a smaller bank that stayed clear of heavy mortgage investments and bailout money. They’re apt to give you a far better deal. And look into ways to pay down the debt quickly so you won’t be in such heavy risk by another economic downturn. Good luck.

BOA did that to me, and when I called, they moved me to a companion card at the same fixed rate I had before. I simply moved “available credit” from the old card to the new one. They were very nice about it.

It is a global problem. The CC companies are arbitrarily raising rates to take advantage of the current climate. While they shouldn’t be allowed to do that, they can, and so they will.

I’ve also noticed that the CC offers in the mail have all but dried up, and I have “well qualified buyer” tattooed on my forehead.

I got rid of BOA too.Citicorp is one cc company I don’t do business with and they finance Circuit City purchases.Once I find out they’re trying to dupe me...they’re a goner.

I’m a Credit Union fan and if I need some money I usually can open the back door and holler “hey...put me $5000 in my checking please...do I need to sign anything? “Nope...you got it”.

I that means a lot to me...I was just thinging when I first got an account w/them...1994..I was broker than cooder brown.They helped me back to where I was supposed to be.

I only keep 2 cc’s and usually use my debtit it works for me.