BofA card recently unsecured, failed to get AF removed thru chat.

[Anonymous]

Anybody have any tips on how to get the AF removed? It's a Cash Rewards card that I PC'd to a couple months after opening but it still has the AF of the secured card ($39). The chat rep said this:

I see that your credit card is an annual fee based credit card.
Annual fee is an account service related fee, it will be assessed once in a year if the account is open regardless of the balance and/or has an outstanding balance on a closed account
The account is an annual fee based account.  It is the maintenance fee. If an annual fee based account is closed and it has a balance there would be an annual fee assessed on it. We are unable to remove this fee from your account.

I've had the card for 9 months. I've heard of people getting the AF removed before, is there an EO I can email or something? This is my first card and I'd hate to get rid of it but my new cards have no AF and better rewards so it's kinda hard justifying paying $39 a year for this.

[Anonymous]

I would definitely try to find a number for an analyst/EO.  You can google search for those numbers.  

If they consistently refuse to get rid of the AF, I would just cancel the card once you're done applying to other cards.  You got 9 months out of it, which is enough time to open up a card at another financial institution with solid cards (with no AFs if that's what you're into) like Chase or Citi.  Once approved at that institution, I would just cut out the BofA card (assuming you can't get the AF removed) and keep moving forward.

[coldnmn]

I'm not familiar with BoA removing the annual fee but maybe this will help. Good Luck

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Credit-Card-Applications/Backdoor-Numbers/m-p/408066

[Anonymous]

Thanks guys. I called the credit analyst and he submitted a request to have it removed and I'll hear from them by January 6th. Fingers crossed!

I've banked with BofA for years and am grateful for them giving me the 99/500 secured card to start my credit, but I really can't justify the AF for a card with the benefits it has when I have no AF Barclays/Chase/Discover/Amex cards in my wallet.

[Anonymous]

Haven't heard from BofA yet but I just checked my Info & Services tab under my account and the AF has been removed! Thanks for the info guys, calling the credit analyst and requesting its removal did the trick

[Ragelog]

Congrats! This was my path to removal as well. It showed up 6 days later as $0 versus $39 it had been previously.

[wmweeza]

Advice? Nope, but in my case it took them 2 years to remove it (no, I did not request it)