My daughter was hit with a whammy from Bank of America. She did not know they changed her interest rate from 8% to 30% until they compounded the balance! Automatically she owed 30% more. BOA said she didn't check the opt out square from the notice they sent last summer. My daughter had no idea they sent anything. The bottom line is BOA said sorry, you have to pay the balance with the 30% interest, don't call us anymore. Thank goodness she has the means to pay it all off in a couple of months and drop BOA for everything. She found out many of her co workers have had the same thing happen to them from BOA. Some cannot pay the monthly payment plus an extra 30% to keep the balance from being compounded over and over.

That is an OMG moment. I would be beyond "unhappy with them" lucky for her she will pay it off and probably has a lower balance but that is bull... total bull.

I agree -- total bull!! Just another way to rip off the consumer :evil:

She has had this credit card since she was 18. She's 34 now. She had the very lowest interest rate available because she had excellent credit score. Now BOA has dinged her credit report, saying one late payment but cannot show her details, only that the payment was made one day past the due date. They want their 30%! And if the balance is close enough to the card limit, the extra 30% will throw it over the card limit and they up the 30% to a much higher interest. My daughter has learned an expensive lesson for sure.

saying one late payment but cannot show her details, only that the payment was made one day past the due date


Legally a creditor can't report late until you are 30 days late, not just one. Since they won't show her anything, they are probably making this excuss up. The credit card companies are loosing money so they are raising everyone's interest rate regardless of your credit history.

I have also heard that for those of us that pay off our balance every month so we have no interest will now be charged interest from the day of the charge. So far that hasn't happened but I am certainly watching our account.

Also, we bought some furniture with 3 years no interest. We have the money in the bank but I thought I would let it draw interest for 3 years. We received a notice they will be changing our agreement. Needless to say I paid it off. I don't trust the credit card companies.

Best Buy almost always holds your payments so you have late fees. My husband calls is "Worst Buy"

I'm sorry this has happened!!!
You have to be really careful. The late payment could have been on another credit card or a rent or anything that had been reported to the Credit reporting agencies. Bank of America jumped on it and charged the extra interest. I have seen BoA do that several times. Personally, DH and I would never choose to use BofA again, too many issues with us and with family members getting raked over the coals over the most minor of issues!!
We had a credit card issue with them. We had a payment due on a date that was a Sunday. Dh paid it electronically on Thursday, before the due date. They claimed it was late because it had to be paid by noon on Thursday to be counted for Friday because they don't accept payments on Sundays. It was paid before noon on Thursday, just when you make an electronic payment, they don't process them until the night. So, basically a payment was late unless you paid it at least 4 or 5 days early!!!

Sorry to hear about your daughter.

I work for a Credit Union (not a Bank-that is a four letter word to us here) and the banks are infamous for pulling tricks like this. That is why the Credit Card Act was put in to place and will go in to effect in February of 2010.

"Legally a creditor can't report late until you are 30 days late, not just one."

this is a true statement, however they are not saying she was late they are saying the payment was one day past the due date so therefore they can change her interest rate which yes they can do (again another reason the act is going in to place).

When the bill goes in to effect it will require CLEAR disclosures on total cost in interest and principal payments if only minimum payments are made, how long it will take to pay the card off if only paying the minimum...things like that.

A lot of banks are freezing credit lines and dropping limits so it automatically is pushing people into overlimit so they are getting fees that way. Funny how banks got all that money in the bailout program and are lending nothing and freezing lines....

Credit Unions did not get any bail out and are lending. If you have a credit union in your area I would highly recommend looking in to joining one. They are not-for profit so it is not about chasing the dollar for us.

Hugs
April

Unfortunately it's not just BOA. My cc company sent me a notice that my rate was going up but I could choose to keep my old rate at which point they would close my account and I would have to pay the balance in total immediately. How very generous of them!

Yeah, they put that stuff in the fine print and bury it in with a statement or marketing materials, something to make you throw it out rather than notice it.

This is one of the reasons I stopped using credit cards.

If I were your daughter, I'd take the money out of savings to pay them off right away. If she doesn't have enough in savings, she ought to borrow from you or a friend. If she has a balance of several hundred dollars, she'll probably be paying a few hundred in fees.

It might be worthwhile to apply for another credit card, one where she can transfer the balance and get a no-interest-for-six-months offer. Then she can pay it off more slowly.

BOA might profit from fooling people initially, but they will overall lose business very fast. I imagine people will be quitting them by the thousands.