Your article really shed a great deal of insight to the corrupt banking world.

Our business failure left us with over $350,000.00 in debt. We are actually $550,000.00 on paper with $200,000.00 in reserves because we maxed out all our lines and took advantage of 0% credit card offers. I know this is very expensive money but my husband is not working and I don’t want to run out of money yet.

We have been on time with all our payments.

We own 10 properties with 3 mortgages and 7 we own free and clear.

We are in the process of short selling one of our Florida property because it is so underwater.

There is one property we own free and clear we can refi/cash out to become debt free.

We are not sure if we can get that type of financing being in our situation.

What do you suggest?

Thanks

Your article really shed a great deal of insight to the corrupt banking world.

Our business failure left us with over $350,000.00 in debt. We are actually $550,000.00 on paper with $200,000.00 in reserves because we maxed out all our lines and took advantage of 0% credit card offers. I know this is very expensive money but my husband is not working and I don’t want to run out of money yet.

We have been on time with all our payments.

We own 10 properties with 3 mortgages and 7 we own free and clear.

We are in the process of short selling one of our Florida property because it is so underwater.

There is one property we own free and clear we can refi/cash out to become debt free.

We are not sure if we can get that type of financing being in our situation.

What do you suggest?

Thanks

Their business practices do not seem up to par!

As a success coach, I consider it part of my job to inform my clients about how to avoid pitfalls like these.

You are providing an important service!

Sheila Van Houten

I like LendingClub.com and happen to be one of the many lenders that helps people through there. A loan from LendingClub.com would hurt your credit no more or less than a loan or extension of credit from any other similar source. While your credit score today is 750 nobody can predict what it will be in the future. It may be higher or lower but that is also a function of how the underlying formula for the score changes.

Anything other than draining protected retirement funds is more preferential.

If you follow my link to LendingClub you will see how I would be happy to help fund your loan once it is live on their site.

Steve

Thought I should stop by and update my story, too. I got a phone call right after I contacted BOA. It was from one of the executive offices. She was very nice and told me my account interest rate would stay the same.

I then got a letter, just to me, stating that it would stay the same.

I then got another letter, more of a form letter, stating that all accounts would remain fixed, not just mine.

SO! It seems like the pressure from all the individual contacts got them to finally do the Right Thing.

Isn’t it lovely when the Right Thing happens?! Of course, I like to think that it was my letter that made all this happen… ;) (just kidding…)

Thank goodness I saw this post to begin with! Thanks, everyone…

FO

Steve, seriously, your article and the forum attached inspired this to happen. I think writing a follow-up on how the action affected change (or the retraction of a wrong change) would be a great article! I know we all wanted this loan to stay fixed for ourselves, but it is SO MUCH MORE satisfying knowing that together a few of us were able make this happen for everyone.

I just wanted to comment that I have BoA and while most of the people that I’ve had the displeasure of dealing with at the bank (mainly my local offices), when I call their executive support team (don’t have the number off hand, but it’s out there if you google) they are very friendly and more importantly, very helpful.

I’ve gotten to the point that I no longer even bother much with the branch office if I have a problem. I give them one chance, over the phone, to fix it, and if they refuse, I call the executive customer support and get treated like a real customer.

Good luck to everyone on these sham loans…

Mike

I will cut out any personal information. You can feel free to black it out before you sent it to me. I just need to see what they said to get an idea of what they are offering.

Steve

Thanks for the kind words and the update. Would it be possible for you to upload the letter you got so I can see it? If you can scan it you can upload it to me here.

With a copy of the letter I’ll write a follow-up article. Excellent idea.

Steve

Steve, I’m not sure I would have pushed for changes to be made had I not found and read your article. If they haven’t changed this for everyone, I wonder if you could write a follow-up that could further reveal this loan.

Sure, direct them to my site. I’m happy to help.

Maybe once they look at the original review of the offer I did they will see it was a stinker from day one.

Steve

“We recently notified you in October of a change to your Account Agreement describing how the Annual Percentage Rate ((APR) on your account woul be calculated using a variable rate formula tied to the U.S. Prime Rate. After careful consideration , we have decided not to implement this change. As a result, your account will retain its current APR and remain unchanged.

Pease not that no further action is required from you regarding this notice.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused as we continue to evaluate our business practices in response to changing market and economic conditions.

We appreciate your business and look forward to continuing to meet your credit needs.”

I think it proves that we were able to make some difference with the amount of pressure consumers put on BofA. I think it also helped that many of us had very similiar stories of being “mislead” by customer service reps who were either poorly informed about the terms and product or did indeed intend to mislead customers.

Marlo….KEEP THE PRESSURE ON!!

I think we’ll have to keep our fingers crossed this becomes a reality for all. Those on the site have had some success in getting it rolled back to fixed but if anyone is counting on creditors to do the right moral or ethical thing, they’ll be disappointed. The number one value at all creditors is profit, not morality.

I’ll keep watching for updates from you and others for a confirming word.

Steve

I truly hope this rumor is a truth!

Timmy B.

Thanks for the update.

Steve

Thanks for this excellent article and for your follow up to the comments.

I got the Clean Sweep loan more than a year ago and have met the terms, making the minimum payments or more on time.

I found this site AFTER just dropping a letter in the mail to BOA, basically stating that I don’t agree to their change in terms. My letter is notifying them in writing that they are attempting to violate our original agreement and that I do not accept the new terms. I’ve requested notification in writing that they have received my communication and will honor our original agreement.

I don’t know if this will work, but I need to keep my current interest rate. I’ve got a large enough balance that I’m terrified that something will happen to increase my monthly payments substantially – this would really mess things up for me!

Thanks again for this site…

FO

I don’t know which person made it happen, but I did speak with a few different people who were in the higher rankings. They were all incredibly nice, not like the service center managers that we speak with on the phone regularly.

I say: keep emailing the list given above and see what happens!

Keep us posted on what happens next. I’m very interested.

Steve

In the text of the email, I outlined specific conversations (including dates) I’ve had with Bank of America regarding this loan. I also had sections addressing the change from fixed to variable, quoting my original paperwork, and addressing the deceptive practices involved with these loans, again quoting original paperwork as well as identifying other means of deception: for example, did anyone else notice that the “Change in Terms” was attached to the access checks they sent to us, the checks that ALL experts say to shred (the checks and all paperwork attached to such checks) to avoid identity theft? Also, the language of whether this is a “line of credit” or a “loan” is deceptive.

Just some hints about what I put in the letter that has now received two contacts. No action yet, but still two contacts.

Take a good look at LendingClub.com for a place for a reasonable opportunity to find a cheap consolidation loan.

Steve

My wife and I are actually doing fairly well now but we moved into a money pit of a house 3 years ago. The problems were huge and we quickly got into serious debt quickly.

Our credit is good though; we want to get a consolidtion loan, but my research has found some pretty sketchy offers. Our bank is USAA and they are offering 12%. Would you consider that pretty good? I have only found 15%. Are there any reputable banks you would suggest.

Wells Fargo doesn’t seem to even have consolidation loans.

Thanks for any help!!!

Also, who contacted you? What was her name? That way I can contact her.

Have you considered calling customer service and asking a CSR if it is now a fixed rate? If it made it into the general system and is noted on your account that might be comforting enough to know for now.

Steve

Was the woman one of the specific people on the blanket email list?

Do you care to share the body of the email you sent that worked for you?

Steve