Posted on 02/10/2008 5:20:35 AM PST by grey_whiskers
Originally know as the Bank Of Italy...it is this bank that made their mark after the 1906 SF earthquake by making high risk re-building loans to the survivors.
They later changed their name to Bank Of America.
Then you might be in the next group to be cancelled:
"...there is a strong suspicion that these are people who — because they don't actually get into debt and start paying high monthly interest charges — ... may not be the most highly profitable customers and they're being cleared off the books..."
Bank of America is trying to get ahead of Amanda Pennington, 29, of Euless, Texas. She says the bank raised her credit limit three months ago from $5,000 to $8,000 because of her strong payment history. Then she got the letter from the bank in mid-January notifying that her rate would rise from 15.74% to 25.99%. When she called, she says, the bank told her it was raising her rate because her balance was now too high, though it was still under the higher new limit the bank had previously granted.
I open and scan everything I get because a few years ago I received what looked like a typical credit card offer from the outside, I started to pitch it but opened it instead and found a valid check for $23. It was from a class action law suit that I knew nothing about. They wanted me to think it was junk mail and pitch it.
I also receive a solicitation from some survey company (more than once) wrapped inside the long survey they want me to complete and send back is a crisp one dollar bill. They expect that I will feel obligated to answer their many personal questions because they sent me a dollar. HA, I am one dollar ahead of their game!
Its a surprise for the envelope opener machine.
Good idea. I've noticed that the cards I have will send me "junk mail" with blank checks in them, trying to entice me to create a balance or a loan. What if those are stolen from the mailbox or the trash? They go straight to the shredder, which is about to expire from heavy usage.
We recently closed our BOA account which we had since 1972 because of the credit cards to the illegals. We had 2 accounts but no credit card with them. When I called to close the account, the young lady said but you have had this account for over 30 years and asked if there was anything she or the bank could do to change our minds. I told her the recent business practices of the back was the reason I was closing. I don’t regret it.
I guess it’s possible some of them make enough money in their other banking endeavors that it pays them to have the losses from the write-offs. I’m not a financial person, in fact haven’t even spent the night at a Holiday Inn Express, so my observations are pretty worthless.
I would never voluntarily be a BofA customer, but they acquired the (failed) bank that held my card. That lasted less than nine or ten months before I cancelled.
There is good advice in this thread - best of which is GET OUT of BofA if you can.
1) USE the optoutprescreen link provided above - IT WORKS.
1A) There is usually a number on the bill to opt out of the crap your CC company sends - cash advance checks and so on - use it.
2) if you are an NRA member, look into their member services. They have a good credit card offer and RUN THEIR OWN CALL CENTER rather than make you use First Bank’s call center.
3) there are more than one places on line to look up CC customer evaluations - use them.
4) don’t fall for those 10% off if you apply for sears/lowes/grossmans credit card. I tell ‘em “fsck you, you don’t want my business.”
5) have your available credit set low and locked from automatic increases. (the one CC company that argued w/me folded when I immediately said, “cancel the card or lower and lock the limit!”
Peet (this advice is worth every penny you paid for it)
Capital One is the worst bank I ever did business with. Expect the same treatment from them.
You are exactly right. Yest there are many here on FR who say these “deadbeats” deserve it.
Like you said, once your FICA score is shot, raising the rates and crushing the people only serves to make them give up.
Next time they send you a 0% for 1 yr offer with a couple of checks do the following.
Write a check to your bank account.
Transfer funds into a CD/Money market.
Make the minimum payments on the new “card”.
At the end of the 1yr offer withdraw the funds and payoff the card.
Pocket the interest.
They get nothing and you get the interest. Watch out for any “transfer fees” and make sure your rate of return will cover them.
Play with snakes long enough and you *will* get bit.
In the end, it tends to make you a timid, extremely risk-averse, and passive creature. I don't think it is a good thing.
Yikes. 28%!
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Here’s more on the selfless heroism of 9/11 Lifesaver RICK RESCORLA:
http://www.ArmchairGeneral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=24361
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i have been hearing so many people say they have had to use credit cards just to keep up with things because their expenses are growing but their salaries are not keeping up.
what happens to the person who cannot afford to pay that card off—do they continue to get hounded for awhile and then the collectors give up?
a friend of mine who works for a bank was telling me that since most credit cards are unsecured debt, they can hound you all they want but they cannot do anything because it is unsecured debt.
I just viewed the pictures from the unveiling ceremony of Rick Rescorla’s statue. What a wonderful event that must have been.
If the debt is in your name alone your best bet is to die. That hits ‘em where it hurts. They will try to get your heirs to pay the debt, but as far as I know that works only if the heirs are ignorant of the law.
Like you, I hear people say, and know people who do, depend on their credit cards to get by from day to day. It’s rob from Peter to pay Paul existence for a lot of people. It works OK until something goes awry. Used to be families could get by kiting checks between accounts, but those days are gone.
I would love to jump on the bandwagon and beat up on those who are living a day to day life using a dozen credit cards to get by, but one of the greatest phrases, and principles, my Mom taught me was “There but for the grace of God go I”. Amen.
I would love to be debt free and at one time was a devoted listener of Dave Ramsey and was in the process of snowballing my debts out of existence. But like Mom also used to say “Life, that what happens when you’ve made other plans” and now I’m far, far away from debtless Nirvana. Funny how quickly things can change.
Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing but respect and am really happy for those who had what it takes to spend their lives preparing for the future, all the way into retirement. I see them in their motor homes pulling a brand new, color-matched, SUV behind them. I envy them, in the best way, not the green with envy way.
Things did’t go that way for my wife and me, having gotten married when she was 15 and having three children by the time she was 18. That was nearly 50 years ago and we’re still going strong. We wouldn’t change it for the world. Mom and Dad both taught me from my earliest memories not to be jealous of those who have more or those on whom fortune shines a brighter life.
When it gets really tough I just tell myself that if it gets to be more than I can handle I can always set fire to myself in the parking lot of the nearest BOA. Lord knows I won’t have to travel far to find one, they’re on every other corner here in Tampa. That’ll teach ‘em, every time they see that little scorched, greasy spot in front of the bank they’ll wish they hadn’t asked for their umbrella back at the first sign of rain! Well, maybe they will, at least until the building is a muffler shop or adult video outlet in a year or so.
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