Bank Robbery

I've been a Bank of America credit card customer for almost a decade, and have never missed a payment.

Until now.

Viewing my latest statement, I notice that BoA has just charged me $39 for allegedly not paying on time, even though I can see that my 1,000-dollar payment (about ten times the minimum I was required to pay) in fact posted on October 26. Ah, says the BoA rep I get on the phone, but that payment was indeed a few days late. Odd, I counter; I always pay my bills a few days before the end of the month, and it's never been a problem.

She doesn't volunteer what she knows full well has happened. I have to prod: "Have you guys changed the terms, by any chance?"

Why, yes, now that I mention it — BoA has! Didn't I get the generic dense little flyer with seven-point type printed in grey ink? The institution has shortened my 'grace period' from 25 to 20 days. A payment made on the 26th or the 27th or 28th was good enough previously, but now my account is officially in arrears if I don't pay up by the 23rd. Just so I don't feel bad, though, the rep informs me that this was an across-the-board change that affects all of BoA's credit card holders. And she'd be happy to take the charge off my bill, along with last month's finance charges, in acknowledgment of the fact that there's never been a problem with my account and I'm (ahem) one of BoA's "best customers." She doesn't want to leave me "with a bad taste" in my mouth.

I inquire what happens to all the clients who don't happen to catch the late fee, or don't call about it to complain. Surprisingly, she doesn't bullshit me. She readily admits, with a contrition that could be genuine I suppose, that "quite a bit of money, millions for sure" will be extracted from the very people who keep her and the management shysters upstairs in business (I'm, um, paraphrasing here).

The hubris and the self-sabotage are breathtaking. Since when is deliberately screwing your loyal customers a better long-term proposition than serving them?

The banking and lending industries have long fought heavy-handed regulation, and with good reason. Then again, no one makes the case for a regulatory crackdown quite as convincingly as the institutions themselves.

Comments

[smurfy]

I'm one of those now-famous sub prime borrowers. I have noticed that since this economic scandal broke, my mortgage company has instutitued a new form of late fee. Previously my mortgage was due on the 1st, late on the 16th, with about a $50 fee. Now I have to pay by the 9th or I will be assessed a $10 'service fee', in addition to the late fee should I go past the 15th.

I wonder if the shortening of your credit card grace period is due to the current credit crunch? At least my mortgage lender advertised the policy change in red font right there on the login screen (yeah, i'm young, pay my bills online).

[colson]

this is funny. i had the same problem with my card issuer as well. watch your interest rate as I guarantee that the interest will jump through the roof.

[tim]

I noticed similar changes on my cards as well. One of the more annoying issues I ran into was that one of my cards that I pay off in full every month had a closing date on sunday. My electronic transfer to pay off the bill will never post on a sunday - but on the following monday. Which happened last month. They refused to remove the late charge so I promptly cancelled the card. They had the gall to ask me why?!?!

[BobL]

This is a common practice, actually, but will normally happen to those who pay in full each month, since the banks do not earn the exorbitant interest payments from these customers. Commonly, the bank will delay the internal processing, figuring they will get away with this 70% of the time. I find a letter to the bank's State Banking Commission usually yields a quick apology and reversal, but if you can, just dump them anyway. Who needs that?

[Jozef]

There was a time when people laughed at me for not having a credit card or any kind of debt. Actually, some felt sorry for me, because without any credit history (Equifax can't even verify my identity) I'd have a hard time finding a decent job. Now, I feel sorry for those who do have debt - not the high-and-mighty kind of sorry, but the genuine kind, as many of my friends have also mortgages or credit card debts to pay. Still, deep inside it makes me feel good that being a little prudent saved me from the current credit crunch problem.

[Fred Mangels]

"watch your interest rate...".

Indeed. Had the same thing happen to me years ago. I was at my credit union at the beginning of the month. Since I had a little extra money in the bank, I decided to make my credit card payment earlier than usual.

About three weeks later I get a delinquent notice. I go to the credit union and ask what it was about as I'd made a payment on the second or third of the month. I come to find out the payment needed to be made in a certain time frame or it wouldn't count towards the monthly payment.

Don't remember if they charged me a fee, that time, but it took me months to notice the real low interest rate they were charging me on the card had been changed to a much, much higher one. The branch manager told me it was too late to do anything about it at that point. Oh well.

[Fred Mangels]

Oh, another credit card burn, if anyone's interested:

I don't pay annual fees on credit cards. You can usually get the banks to drop them by telling them to close your credit card account because you don't want to pay the annual fee, or some such.

So, a few years ago I get a statement in the mail saying I owed around $20 for my annual fee. I'd talked them out of it before and told myself to call them and do the same routine and have the annual fee charge dropped.

Problem was, I kept putting it off and off. A month or so later I get a delinquent payment notice for, not only the annual fee, but something like a $30 penalty for not making my payment on time- a total of around $50, and I hadn't even used the card. I had a balance of zero, earlier.

So I finally call the company. I think it was Capitol One. I tell the gal that answers I wanted to cancel my card with them. She says she can't because it has a balance due on it. I explained the balance was from an annual fee that I never had to pay before, blah, blah, blah. She insists she can't close the account with a balance due regardless of the reason for the balance.

I finally ended up paying them $50 and closing the account. I kinda blamed myself for the incident. You snooze, you lose, and that's what I get for putting things off.

[teqjack]

When I opened my checking account, the bank offered an "overdraft protection" line of credit. I declined, figuring I'd rather bounce a check ($10 fee) and be embarassed explaining it to a creditor.

What I did not realize was that the bank would cover my account anyway. I wrote a check for $0.03 more than was in the account: the bank cashed it, and charged a $30 fee for doing so - instead of the $10 "bounce" fee. Inquiring, I could not find anyone who could tell me how to go back to rubberized checks, even when I asked if they would cover a $10,000 overage ("there is no set limit"...

[Neal]

So I misplaced the bill on my Chase credit card, paying off the balance a few days late (4 to be exact). $39 fee plus $5 or so in interest.

I've had the card for 3-4 years paying off the balance monthly. Never paid late before.

I ask then waive the feel. They refused, giving the reason that I kept to my customer agreement. In other words, making them no money.

That card will, of course, be cancelled.