BBR $5 Adjustment credit!!

[Subexistence]

I saw my first statement today and this is very disapointing. I got credited $5 so my balance on BBR is $0! I would to ask what I should do about this. I currently use amazon allowance for BBR.

 

[pip3man]

You made a purchase of $5 on Amazon and they were nice enough to credit back $5! So what exactly is the problem? You should be happy if anything but if you don't want it just call Care and tell them to reverse the credit. Simple as that! This is just meaningless....

[Anonymous]

I'm guessing this has to involve the quarterly cash back. You charged $5 and you got a small balance cancellation after the statement cut. Sorry that this happened. I don't have a BBR so I don't know the exact number. Just be sure to charge more to it to avoid the cancellation.

[Blodreina]

I'm pretty sure it's too late if the statement already cut.  Paying more than the minimum isn't possible with a zero balance.  You'll just have to make an adjustment moving forward.  $5 is by far the largest amount I've seen credited for "small balance"; usually, it seems to be around $2 or less.

[Anonymous]

Almost any CC company has been known to forgive a small balance, if the amount that the CCC will save by so doing is a lot more than holding you liable for it.  In BOA's case, they saved $30 by forgiving this $5 balance.  Sound move on their part.

The Doctor of Credit has discussed this problem a number of times, as it touches the BBR:

http://www.doctorofcredit.com/psa-put-a-5-charge-on-that-better-balance-rewards-card/

$5 seemed as though it was safe in the past, but of course it was still skating within pennies of the previously reported danger zone.  BOA has (as you know) been taking much more aggressive action in the last 45 days to control perceived abuse of the quarterly $30.  Specifically they no longer offer the card.  So it doesn't surprise me that they'd crack down on the $5 crowd.

A useful takeaway is to realize that the $5 is safe mantra no doubt became magnified in the echo chamber of BBR abusers who hang out on DoC and Reddit and so forth.  Thus raising the bar to $5.01 was probably an easy way for BOA to pluck most of the low-hanging fruit of the abusers.  They just had to do a little frequency report on where the tiny balance users tended to cluster.

The lesson here is to always try to separate yourself from the pack when it comes to any kind of possible trigger for adverse action (construing AA very broadly).  My own use of the BBR involved a minimum recurring monthly payment that is much higher, namely my Netflix bill of $28 so this did not happen to me.

[Anonymous]

@Subexistence

You need to edit the image you posted to remove the last 4 of your account number.  While it's not the entire account information, you do not want any personal information to be shown.

[Subexistence]

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@Anonymous wrote:

@Subexistence

You need to edit the image you posted to remove the last 4 of your account number.  While it's not the entire account information, you do not want any personal information to be shown.

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perhaps a cc thief could actually spend enough to get me $30/quarter

[Subexistence]

In any case here is my new plan. Please tell me your opinions on it.

I'm going to put $10 for Amazon. If they waive $10 each month, then in 1 quarter, I will get $30 waived. If they don't waive then I get $30 quarterly bonus. Either way I get $30. 

Does anyone know if money put on Amazon can be returned for cash? I don't use Amazon.

[Anonymous]

Wow, OP, sorry for your loss and thanks for the heads-up.  I have one BBR that I've been using for a "safe" $2.95 monthly charge for a year.  Methinks I'm going to be charging an extra $2.06 month on it going forward.  Another BBR has my Netflix which, at $9.99 should be safe.  Yet another has my Ooma, which clocks in at just over $5 per month, so probably also safe, for now.  My fourth BBR I was just making sure I made a single charge of >$2 per month.  I guess I'll have to up the charges on that one too.

Chris. 

[Anonymous]

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@Subexistence wrote:

In any case here is my new plan. Please tell me your opinions on it.

I'm going to put $10 for Amazon. If they waive $10 each month, then in 1 quarter, I will get $30 waived. If they don't waive then I get $30 quarterly bonus. Either way I get $30. 

Does anyone know if money put on Amazon can be returned for cash? I don't use Amazon.

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No it cannot.  If it could, people engaged in MS would have a gold mine.  Even people who simply wanted to open half a dozen cards with huge sign-up bonuses each year would have a gold mine (Amazon would meet all the minimum spend requirements and then would return all your money to you).

Your approach sounds very sound to me.  BTW, I just posted on that DoC thread, alerting them that $5 is likely no longer safe.  It's the last comment in the comment section.  I gave this MF thread as documentation.