What's up guys, figured I'd detail this one since it's kind of a weird case.
Blew up some credit cards a few years back and had to get some of the banks put them on long-term payment plans at no/low interest. All have been since completed and the major banks have let me receive new cards with pretty big limits and all that without seeming to hold a grudge. BofA was one of them that I finished paying off about 14 months back, but I hadn't applied for a new one since I didn't really follow BofA.
Decided I'd go for the Customized Cash Rewards since it was a pretty good deal if you qualified for Platinum Honors, so I moved some stocks and cash into BofA/Merrill to qualify, waited a couple of days, applied, and got a generic decline. Called in for recon and the rep said the system won't approve because of "recent participation in reduced interest payment plan", but she wasn't able to tell me in how far in the future I need to wait before being eligible again. Some issuers, like Amex, have set time-frames after you finish a plan before you can apply for new cards. I was unclear if BofA has a time-frame that she just wasn't allowed to tell me, but it sounded like she really didn't even know what it was. If there's a chance to reapply in a reasonable amount of time I'll leave the funds with Merrill, otherwise I'll probably just move them all back out since it's not a great platform. At least I scored a few hundred in transfer bonuses for the time spent.
Since you are Platinum Honors, you could try giving Merrill a call for recon. Supposedly their reps have more power than the BofA reps do to turn a denial into an approval. Might give the same result in your case, but worth a shot!
I think there is a massive piece of the story that is missing. What previous card did you have that BoA issued? What happened to it after the payment plan was complete. How much did you really roast BoA for in thousands? BoA is a business bank and they prefer to rely on cold hard numbers and facts. The only other thing that can be said is that yes the Merrill arm has slightly more pull than a standard BoA rep so you might want to make some noise in that part of the bank for more leverage at recon.
@DakotaM wrote:Since you are Platinum Honors, you could try giving Merrill a call for recon. Supposedly their reps have more power than the BofA reps do to turn a denial into an approval. Might give the same result in your case, but worth a shot!
Good idea, I'll give that a try. Thanks
@zerofire wrote:I think there is a massive piece of the story that is missing. What previous card did you have that BoA issued? What happened to it after the payment plan was complete. How much did you really roast BoA for in thousands? BoA is a business bank and they prefer to rely on cold hard numbers and facts. The only other thing that can be said is that yes the Merrill arm has slightly more pull than a standard BoA rep so you might want to make some noise in that part of the bank for more leverage at recon.
Nothing missing as far as I can think of. Maybe $7k total or so, nothing too crazy. They were eventually paid in full, it was just under an essentially 0% interest plan for 60 months but it was completed earlier than that. It was just the most basic card, either the BankAmericard or whatever it was called a few years ago. I'll give Merrill a holler on Monday and see if they can hook me up.
Just to to update this thread. Talked to someone at Merrill in national financial solutions advisory. Told them the background, they connected me with someone over at BofA who seemed to be far less knowledgeable than the recon specialist I spoke to last time. Was asking me to wait for the decline letter and then to respond by mail with whatever they ask for. I'm just going to wait for the account transfer bonus to post, and then move the funds from Merrill to US Bank once they drop that 4% credit card and go for that one since it sounds like BofA is holding a grudge and there's no telling if/when they'll get over it.