topic Re: advice on BoA credit cards in Rebuilding Your Credit

advice on BoA credit cards

Anonymous — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 19:39:50 GMT

Hello everyone, thank you for all the great information in these forums. I've been reading for quite a while now! I'm seeing a lot of negatives in trying to work with Bank of America, but decided to post my situation and ask for advice.

I'm working on rebuilding my husband's credit. I successfully raised my middle score to 670 from 540 in only 6 mos, and have raised his from 491 to 549 in about 8 mos. The remaining negatives on his file are both BOA related.

The "big" one is a credit card with a balance of 1,974 ... it is listed as a charge off. The other is a credit card with a balance of 807 ... listed as closed by consumer.

My husband never closed either of these cards. At the end of 2008 he received notification that there was possible fraudulent activity on his accounts (he also has a checking account with BoA). They were supposed to send him the statements for review, in the meantime they were going to suspend all activity on the cards, meaning no late fees, no overlimit, basically freeze the cards pending the investigation.

He never received any statements for review.

In February 2009 he was asked to enter a Special Repayment Program. He was told that after 6 months of consecutive, on time payments his cards would be reopened and all negative information removed from his credit. He agreed to this program & payments began automatically out of his checking account in March 2009.

When he contacted BoA in late August 2009 his request to have the cards reopened was denied.

He then refused to make further payments to BoA.

As he and I only got married on August 22, 2009, I wasn't aware of what he was doing. I'm now trying to get his credit score improved so we can both qualify for the FHA mortgage.

I sent a letter to BoA in October 2009 asking for assistance in getting the negative information removed from his credit file. Essentially there should not be any negative marks, as he was only 30 days late once prior to the notification of fraudulent activity.

We have no issues in paying them back, once the charges are verified. But I do not see how they can legitimately place late notices and overlimit information on an account that they told him they would suspend all such activity on. The bad part is that he did not get any of this information in writing.

The card with the 807 balance only had a 500 limit. He did not exceed this, the overage is due to BoA charging late fees, overlimit fees, and the like.

The card with the 1974 balance had a limit of 1600. Same as the other card ... he didn't exceed the limit.

His balance on the small card at the time of fraudulent notice was around 450, and the bigger card was around 1200.

My thought is to ask them to allow PFD on the 450, and to enter repayment for the 1200. I don't feel we should be responsible for the other fees as he was told that these would not be applied.

Also, keep in mind that he never received the statements to investigate for the fraudulent activitiy.

Please, what are my best options?

Thank you,

Evelyn

Re: advice on BoA credit cards

llecs — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 14:28:55 GMT

BofA is very tough to deal with. If I was in that situation, I would PIF both accounts and then GW them. Doing so would prevent additional lates, added interest, and eliminates the risk of being sued.

Re: advice on BoA credit cards

Anonymous — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 19:47:28 GMT

llecs, The only issue with PIF, not to mention not being able to afford that right now ...

is that we would be paying on balances that are very possibly not ours!

I'm not dismissing the option of PIF, but it will be almost a year before we would be able to do that.

Re: advice on BoA credit cards

llecs — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 20:28:45 GMT

If you haven't done so, I'd go line-by-line on every statement from that point forward to see if there's any charges that weren't yours.

It's not uncommon for a bank to temporarily freeze your account if they suspect fraud, even if there wasn't fraud. Two weeks ago I went to NYC. I hadn't used my BofA card in nearly 2 months, but did have a decent balance reporting. I used it in NYC and the merchant told be to contact the bank. I didn't contact the bank right away but later learned that BofA thought my spending habits were a bit odd and froze the card. While still frozen, I still have to pay the bill each time. They freeze so you can review it, with them if needed, to make sure all the charges that went through are yours. But in the meanwhile, you still have to pay it as though all the charges were yours. Anyway, BofA offered to send me statements too (there really wasn't one to send since it happened so soon), but I went online and saw that everything was OK and talked to them and had them confirm all of the cleared and pending charges. There was no fraud, but they made that assumption to protect my account.

If you suspect fraud, you have the burden of proof that fraud was committed and your statements would clearly show that. If you do find non-legit charges, then it becomes a different ballgame. You'd have to file a police report (it will help in getting the balances changed on your CR and helps you if BofA sues).

Re: advice on BoA credit cards

Anonymous — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 20:50:47 GMT

We can't view the statements from the larger of the two cards.

BoA was supposed to send the statements when the incidents occured, end of 2008, and never sent anything. My husband did not have online access at that point & was told the only way to verify the statement was for the bank to mail them ... which never happened.

I wish they had frozen the accounts, that was what they claimed they were going to do ... My husband was told the charge accounts would be frozen, no payments necessary, no interest, no finance charges, no overlimit fees ... until the investigation was complete. But since they never sent the statements, plus they never once froze the cards...

I've gone through the statements of the smaller card & can most likely rectify that one. The larger balance of 1,974 we don't have any access to records.

We are fairly certain that there was fraud on the larger card, because there was fraud on the checking account ... to the tune of $800.00. But we have no way of proving it, since they never sent the statements & there is no online access to that card.

Re: advice on BoA credit cards

llecs — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 21:00:09 GMT

They'll send you copies if you ask for them. I'd give them a call and request that. The first couple of people you talk to will probably say something like "we no longer have access to or handle this account...contact the CA". Ignore them and move up the chain. I had an issue with my BofA CC in the early beginning. They closed it because a teller tried to transfer more money out of my account than what I had into the card for an amount I never told him to transfer. I talked to the branch manager and found that they are excellent in pushing for more info from the CC division. They also have the power to pull statements, etc.

Re: advice on BoA credit cards

Anonymous — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 21:59:30 GMT

OP, you have a couple problems to face here.

1. The fact that he voluntarily entered a DMP or repayment program and made 6 payments will most likely be recognized as an acknowledgement of responsibility for the debt. Why else would he pay it? And by your words, he only refused to continue paying when they refused to reopen the accounts. A judge is not going to be sympathetic to that scenario.

2. The fact that BoA failed to send you statements is not a valid reason for not paying. When he did not receive in a timely manner, he should have followed up. He did have some amount in legitimate charges that he owed, I am assuming, otherwise he would not have made any payments.

3. Unless he received something in writing that agreed to the terms, 6 payments by auto draft, that they would reopen and delete derogs, then there wasn't an agreement that is easily binding.

4. The fact that BoA did not reopen the account or extend new credit is not a legal basis to refuse to pay legitimate amounts. Unless he disputes ALL charges, then he is legally obligated to pay what he believes to be the appropriate amount, and he should send a written dispute on any amounts he disputes. He should also send the written request for the statements that need to be reviewed. Send all correspondence by CMRRR.

5. At this point he needs to verify what charges are his, then attempt to make a PFD settlement. This would satisfy the debt and gain deletion of the derog items. This may take time and multiple written offers, but is worth while if he can get them to agree.

Good luck, and let us know how it all pans out!

Re: advice on BoA credit cards

Anonymous — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 17:23:59 GMT

OK... update on this ...

A week after I sent an e-mail to BoA my husband received a call from the CEO of credit with BoA. He just received this call yesterday.

They are adjusting the balance on the smaller card down to $72, and we will pay that in full. Once that is done they will remove the late notations on the credit report for that card.

On the larger of the two cards, they are removing it from collection, adjusting the balance down from 1,974 to 1,500 ... suspending ALL interest, late fees, and finance charges ... and accepting monthly payments of $100. ( We will pay more, but this is the minimum that they have set) And in 3 months they will remove the late notations from the credit report.

They are sending a letter listing these agreements this week. We are to pay the $72 before the 9th in order to keep up our end of the bargain.

All in all, I'm happy that they have agreed to work with us. Even though we certainly don't owe as much as we will have ended up paying out, I still see it as progress & hubby's credit will be improved.

They told my husband that as of tonight at midnight he could log in & see the updates to the smaller card ... unfortunately we won't be able to see the larger card until 2 weeks from now.

But ... for all those dealing with BoA ... hang in there, resolutions are being offered.

I'm not sure which of these two e-mail addressed did the trick, but here they are:

edited

Best of luck to everyone! And Happy New Year!!

Posting of others' info isn't allowed on here. However, feel free to PM this info back and forth or if you happen to google those addresses, feel free to post that website here as well. - llecs, myFICO moderator

Message Edited by llecs on 01-05-2010 12:23 PM

Re: advice on BoA credit cards

llecs — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 18:05:11 GMT

Here's one of the two e-mails listed in the prev. post. It is the first name in this link:

http://consumerist.com/2008/10/reach-bank-of-america-executive-customer-relations.html

The second name is found in the link below and is the second name under "Negotiators" (no e-mail listed). It follows a first name.last name format:

http://www.loansafe.org/forum/loan-safe-lounge-anything-goes-here/19173-mailing-email-address-contact-numbers-ba.html

em0622 wrote:
They are adjusting the balance on the smaller card down to $72, and we will pay that in full. Once that is done they will remove the late notations on the credit report for that card.

Congrats!

Re: advice on BoA credit cards

Anonymous — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 18:15:38 GMT

I am so glad that the email address worked that I sent you, even though they could not help me with my GW I am glad they were able to help you fix the problem you had. Happy New Year

Re: advice on BoA credit cards

Anonymous — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 21:27:49 GMT

Thanks, llecs, for posting those links ...

It's great knowing that my husband and I made some progress, at least! Hopefully his credit score will increase enough for him to be considered on our FHA mortgage instead of just me!