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.
When you needed $6K worth of stuff? Apparently, not you. You can thank the bank later.
A better “Debtor’s Revolt” is to pay it off, and do “Plastic Surgery” a la Dave Ramsey!
PING-A-ROONEY!
Huh. A few years ago Wells Fargo raised our rate, I just called them and said lower it or I am going some where else. They did.
But now I don’t carry a balance, it doesn’t matter.
I agree with her. Credit cards companies are downright criminal in their acts.
>> Minch said middle-class America is fed up.
Well, I’m a member of middle-class America, and I can assure you that I’m fed up... with profligate spendthrifts like Minch.
Parasites tick me off.
Screw you bank apoligist. Tell me why they have the right to do that to her? Hmmmm.
I have a feeling that the next time she tries to use her BofA card.....”DENIED!”.
Ya think?
They do you a favor, you don’t have right to buy things with imaginary money.
I have a mortgage with BOA. (I know! But they haven’t messed with me for some reason...)
After 0bama started dissin’ the banks and Wall Street, every month I’d put this statement in the ‘Memo’ area on my checks:
“My President says you’re a Predatory Lender, so you can Kiss My @ss!”
LOL! I’m hoping the minimum wage, illegal, Accounts Receivable clerk got a chuckle out of it!
Ummm... they sent you a statement. Did you expect a hand written registered letter?
banks charging 30% for someone who have never been late tick me off.
They raised my rate too and I have a high credit score. I just did a balance transfer to 0 percent and escaped.
Enjoy wage garnishment
You need be a self loather, then you would be on the right track.
Maybe she should take her business elsewhere
Right idea, wrong application of it.
Better idead would be for people to do this around April 15th to Uncle Stalin. Like, millions and millions of people. Taxpayer revolt. If the Congress won’t stop spending money like water, bailing everything under the sun out with our money, raise our taxes, and raise the debt ceiling whenever they want, then give themselves pay raises for f@cking this all up (Barney, Pelosi, Reid, O-hole), let’s stop sending in taxes, take tons of deductions, and start buying things on craigslist and going back to doing some good old fashioned bartering and private sales.
Yes, you’re given the chance to pay off the balance at the old rate; that is, if you pay it off in full!
After she had paid on that amount for as long as she had she had already covered the principle yet still owed the full balance. I know its poor money management but she had a point, when does it stop!
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