Posted on 09/17/2009 6:10:42 PM PDT by Libloather
Red Bluff woman launches credit card revolt
By David Benda
Posted September 17, 2009 at midnight
RED BLUFF - Ann Minch's vow to stop making payments on her Bank of America credit card has captured a nation.
Upset that the bank raised her interest rate to 30 percent, the 46-year-old Red Bluff native vented her outrage on video and uploaded it to YouTube.
She calls the four-minute, 28-second clip "the proverbial first shot in an American Debtors Revolution," and it has struck a chord with the public.
Minch will be in San Francisco today doing a live TV interview for the "Fox & Friends" morning show. She also has been contacted by MSNBC and local TV and radio and did an interview for The Huffington Post.
"I have just been bombarded with media," said Minch, who's a case worker for Tehama County Mental Health.
Minch posted the video Sept. 8. It had generated nearly 177,000 hits as of Wednesday afternoon.
"I did it that night. The next morning, I went to work and didn't really think about it too much," Minch said Wednesday by phone from her Red Bluff home. "My friends started to call me and said, 'You are famous; your video has gone viral. It's all over the Internet.' "
Minch was laid off from her job at Tehama County Mental Health but recently was rehired to fill in for somebody on medical leave, she said.
Minch's fury with Bank of America ignited in August when she got a letter from the bank that said the rate on her credit card had been raised to 30 percent. Minch, a 14-year bank customer, was carrying a $6,000 balance on the card but had never missed a payment.
When Minch started going over back statements, she realized the bank in January had raised her rate from 12.99 to 24.49 percent. But Minch said the bank didn't send her a letter, so she missed the change.
On the video, Minch says, "Now, these are my terms: Unless you return my interest rate and monthly installment amount to what it was before the rate hike ... you're not getting another penny out of me."
Bank of America spokeswoman Colleen Haggerty said the company is aware of Minch's YouTube clip but doesn't comment on specific customer accounts because of privacy concerns.
"Regarding credit card rate increases, customers are notified in advance of new rates and are given the opportunity to reject the new rate and pay off the balance under the existing rate," Haggerty said in an e-mail.
Minch is aware of the policy.
"But who has $6,000 just lying around?" Minch said. "The bottom line is that because of the bailout, this is what is making people angry. The banks are the ones that created this whole economic disaster in the first place. The taxpayers bailed them out, albeit involuntarily."
Minch said middle-class America is fed up.
"That is the reason why my video has gone supernova and has resonated with so many people," Minch said.
“Or until they bring back the good old “annual fees”.”
about 25 years ago my card vompany instituted an anual fee.
I canceled the card and the next month they called me up and eliminated the fee if I would retake the card.
I still have the same card today with no fee.
6 months ago they sent me a letter reducing my maximum from $30k to $15k. I called them up and bitched and got my previous maximum reinstated.
If you always pay your bills you can deal with them.
OOPS wrong thread with that last comment.
Doesn’t matter - your credit card use is between you and your bank.
Just like that huh? We bail them out, they give us no choice in the matter, taking our money to bail them out due to no fault of our own, but no bail out for the little tax paying peasants outside the marble walls?
You pay now or else we double your payments! lol...
They had a reason. They thought they could get it.
Yet you give advise to those who have loot?
Just how does that work? (Unless you're a professional freeloader.)
Just one other thing - it seems that responsible credit users are the people who are demeaned where the irresponsible ones are the victims ...
Back atcha!
Just like that huh? We bail them out, they give us no choice in the matter, taking our money to bail them out due to no fault of our own, but no bail out for the little tax paying peasants outside the marble walls?
You pay now or else we double your payments! lol...
One more thing,
Americans being forced to bail out the banks/credit card companies, while the card holders take it in the rear end, is a load of stinking bull sh**.
So you had money taken from you personally and given to the banks? You can bail yourself out of burdensome debt by declaring bankruptcy. Easy as that. The yearly interest rate is not that 30% you see. It’s closer to 900%!!! I read the fine print. Again, your debt, your responsibility .....
I have a Discover card and a Visa through my credit union, I pay any balance in full every month before they are due. So it doesn’t really matter to me how much interest they charge. I think my credit union is 7.99%, not sure though.
Combined total credit limit of $28,000.
The most I ever put on it in one month was when we were on board ship a couple of years ago. My wife bought some jewelry and we spent money on the Islands and all we could use was a credit card. I paid it off as soon as we got home.
Yep, I posted on the wrong thread. I think it’s bed time for old Graybeard.
Wait a minute here.
Are you disputing the American tax payer was *forced* to bail out the banksters that run the credit card companies to the tune of hundreds of billions?
I understand that they are able to raise their rates....but not on purchases made under the old terms....30% on what you buy from now on...O.K.....on what I bought last year when your rates were 6%....Not on your life
Ya see dancer, this is a cockn'bull response and you know it.
In a genuine free market, these bank that run these credit card companies would have been forced to go out of business, as they should have, instead of the corrupt government stepping in to help their corrupt insider bankster friends by forcing the tax payers to bail them out.
How does your contract word that?
As I said before. People think lenders are some sort of welfare organization and that they should keep the money they borrowed because of one crisis in their life or another. It's all about responsibility. Sorry you don't get that concept and think all my responses are C&B answers.
Maybe your wife's headache has cleared up. Go ask...
One of my credit cards went up to 29.9% interest for no reason. It took me three calls over 5 weeks time to get them to lower it. During this time, I waited for a letter that would supposedly inform me that the rate would return to its previous level. I finally got the letter, but it said the rate was still 29.9. I called back, was told the same thing, after which I demanded to talk to a supervisor, who, after much persuading, finally agreed to lower the rate. She also returned the extra interest I had paid in the past month.
You can do it. It just takes persistence.
One other thing. So I guess to you it’s ok to open a credit card account with a corrupt bank, BofA in this case. Max out the card then refuse to pay it because the bank received tax-payer bailouts. I wonder then how truly a responsible person you really are.
You going to answer the question?
Are you disputing the American tax payers were NOT *forced* to bail out the banksters that run the credit card companies to the tune of tens of hundreds of billions?
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