BOA refuses to waive my annual fee on useless card

[Anonymous]

Hi, I posted about this previously last yr but hoping to get some fresh perspective or ideas on how do I get rid of this $39 annual fee that I keep getting charged on my BoA Platinum SockDrawer card. Every month I call and I ask for them to waive the annual fee...when they say no, I ask for a product change or lowered interest rate. Again a no. I've tried HUCA to no avail. The furthest I got was them offering me a 0% for 12 mths BT. But that offer is over and I paid back the Bt and now BoA it seems has suspended any BTs in light of the current economic climate. The last CSR I spoke to said "when you ask to waive the annual fee, that's you telling the bank you won't use the card and then they will close it". That's first of all not accurate. If they waive the fee, I would be more inclined to use the card. At least for some charges that I pay off before the statement cuts. The last time a charge hit the card last month, interest was assessed like the next day. I think due to the BT being only for BT and not for purchases.

There's no grace period currently on purchases. And The card is at 20% interest and has no benefits worth mentioning. I asked the CSR to list out the benefits that justify this AF and he was silent for a FULL 2 mins struggling to find any benefit whatsoever for this card then started trying to convince me to app for another card. This is my oldest account (started out with it secured when I was rebuilding my credit) and it is my 2nd highest limit. I don't want to close it but I also don't want to pay an AF on a card with no actual benefits. Last time I tried to get the annual fee waived, they pushed and pushed the Cash Rewards card and made it seem like I was prequalified and then denied my app costing me a HP. Basically the card I have now is the most credit they want to extend to me and they keep saying I'm "credit-seeking" when I have only apped for 1 card and that was 9 months ago. My FICO scores are in the mid 700s across the board and I have an excellent payment history of over 4 yrs with this card.

any advice would be greatly appreciated...

[Remedios]

You cannot expect a CSR to explain to you why you should keep the card, and what kind of value this card has for you. 

If you're not willing to pay AF, and they are not budging, your only option is to close. 

Close it and get it over with. 

[TSlop]

If it was me in that situation, I'd close it.

[K-in-Boston]

The topic states that it's useless, but the body of your message states that it's your oldest card.  That means it's useful, but you have to decide if that usefulness makes it worth continuing to pay the AF.  Using a card or not using a card should have nothing to do with having an annual fee, but whether the annual fee is worth paying compared to the benefit(s) of having the card does matter.  If you have are carrying a balance, and make new charges in any period after you have not paid the full statement balance, you have lost your grace period and new purchases are immediately charged your purchase APR; that's just how revolving credit works (note: CapOne does have an "interest saver payment" option to overcome this).  Your APR is about the same as my BOA cards; it can be pretty difficult to get low APRs with BOA even with scores in the 800s and low utilization.  If you often carry a balance, a low APR card from a credit union may make better sense.

It's unlikely to make much of a difference up to a decade from now when it falls off of your reports unless it's significantly older than your 2nd oldest card.  If you don't find it otherwise useful, close it.

[Anonymous]

Won't closing it lower my average age of accounts and reduce my available credit? It was my only credit card for a few years  and the card has a $10k limit. That's a hard hit to take right now as I only have a few other cards. I am up for a 3x on my Amex card later this month that will take me to $30K...maybe I will wait for that to go thru then close BoA. I don't know what else to do. I had heard of a few ppl on this site that got ithe AF waived but in light of current economic times...I was thinking I could say that but I don't think it will help my cause. 

[kdm31091]

Sometimes it just is what it is. They have no obligation to waive the fee. You agree to the fee by keeping the account open. You'd think they would let you convert to another card, but again, they have no obligation to do so and it could be something with your specific account that disallows product changes.

IMO I'd just close it and move on. Even being your oldest account it is not going to be a big issue unless it is way older than all of your other accounts. Even then AAoA is important but it is by far not the biggest factor in your score and not worth paying a fee for 10 more years to get no benefit.

[AllZero]

You have to wait for the annual fee to post. That is the time to call the csr and ask for a courtesy permanent fee waiver. Some csr are well versed in the process. Some are not. If you get the one that is not, HUCA. After the fee is removed and some time has passed, you should also be able request a product change.

[Anonymous]

@AllZero @The AF just posted in my account over the weekend. Maybe I just need to keep HUCA. My card payment is due Thurs. Well nothing is due right now because I PIF last mth so I guess the AF will show up on the next statement. 

[AllZero]

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@Anonymous wrote:

@AllZero @The AF just posted in my account over the weekend. Maybe I just need to keep HUCA. My card payment is due Thurs. Well nothing is due right now because I PIF last mth so I guess the AF will show up on the next statement. 

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@Anonymous  Good luck. I hope you are successful at getting the fee waived. I was in a similiar situation. I researched the boards for data points. When my first year annual fee posted, that is when I called in and had the fee permanently removed. I don't recall if it had to be on the statement or not. All I remember is it was posted in the online portal. I didn't do the PC at that time because from what I read, it's best to only let the csr do one task at a time.

[VPExecutive]

As already mentioned, there's little incentive for BoA to waive the annual fee. I would just close it. Perhaps your history with Bank of America will allow you to apply for an unsecured card with them. One card that has no annual fee in its terms and conditions.