“Dear Steve,
I have 3 cards with Bank of America with high interest rates on each….I have had these cards for 10+ years. I have made maybe 2 or 3 late pmts in such time. As I am paying these down, they keep lowering my credit limit which in turn is hurting my credit scores because it looks like I’m always above the 50% of my credit limit. I just need a break….I can’t get out of debt paying 24% interest. They don’t want to lower the interest because my debt to income is hurting my credit scores. HELP!!!!!!!!
Becky”
Dear Becky,
I’m afraid you are suffering under the delusion that credit card companies are supposed to treat you fairly. THEY DON’T WANT TO!
Bank of America is not rewarding you for being a loyal customer or giving you bonus points for sticking with them. They are sticking it to you because they can. You are nothing more than a little number to the bank. They only give you credit to make money off of you, not because they value you or your business.
Your relationship with your credit card company is nothing more than a business transaction. Apparently Bank of America is sending you a clear signal that they do not value your business or you as a customer. Are you listening to what they are saying?
The 24.99% interest tells me that Bank of America has identified you as a customer they can raise the interest rates on to the maximum amount so they can generate as much profit as possible and hopefully make up a bit from their boneheaded lending mistakes which nearly brought down the bank.
You are absolutely right that the constant reduction in your balances is hurting your score since it shows the card heavily utilized, ‘maxed out’.
If Bank of America isn’t willing to be fair to you then I suggest that you stop letting yourself get abused. Take action. Get a copy of your consolidated credit report and see what is actually being reported about you. This consolidated credit report, the same one I use, will tell you exactly what adjustments you can make to improve your credit score or dispute incorrect information.
Once you’ve done that and shined up your score a bit, then switch to a different bank that will treat you better. You can find a more appropriate card for you by using this credit card search tool.
You are not alone. I'm here to help. There is no need to suffer in silence. We can get through this. Tomorrow can be better than today. Don't give up.
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Recently you advised that the Bank of America rate raise required a 15 day response. My letter was dated April 2009 so there is no way to know when the 15 days start and end. (also not registered mail) Like others, my payments were always early and above the minimum required. What are the consequences if I used the remaining $10K on the card and then defaulted on the entire obligation? We taxpayers gave them a fortune and then they gave some to ML. It’s time for payback if Tim G. only furrows his brow and tilts his head to all questions, maybe this will get his attention.
Tom,
I understand the anger and frustration.
The consequences for using the remaining 10K and defaulting is that you will either wind up in bankruptcy or potentially get sued by Bank of America.
I’m totally pissed off about the bailouts as well. Banks made purposeful choices to make uneducated investments and then we the people wind up carrying the rescue burden when the banks care less about rescuing the individual in trouble. It’s wrong and rotten, but letting the banks fail and further bring down the economy doesn’t make sense either.
I hate to be cynical about this but, consumers defaulting out of protest will not get the banks attention. If we look at what banks did to get bankruptcy reform passed in 2005, they cooperated less with people that wanted to make payments and then used that as evidence that consumers did not want to pay and the banks needed more power. The banks got it.
If large numbers of consumers formed a plan to default on loans, the very well financed and influential banking lobby would use that as proof that consumers can’t be trusted and consumers need less access to the only legal solution available in the U.S., bankruptcy.
The best way you can show how angry this makes you is to just not carry a balance on your credit card. Pay the thing off each month and use the banks money for free. Now that will make them really mad. Besides, as long as you pay off the balance in full each month, who cares what the interest is, you’re not paying interest.
Steve