Trying to lower BoA Interest rate, HELP!!!

[orscrubs]

I have a Bank Of America credit card with a $4000 limit. I owe $3300 on the card. My FICO is currently 676. In November of 2008 I made a late payment and my interest rate jumped from 10.9% to 29.99%. I've had the card for 4 years and it was the only time I had made a late payment. I called them up and they said there was nothing they could do to reduce the rate....the only option they gave me is that if I made 6 consecutive payments on time I could then call back in May 2009 and have the rate reduced. My minimum payment is $125 on the card due to the late payment....my minimum payment before used to be around $70. I've made all payments on time since then as instructed. Typically I make a $180-$200 payment each month.

 I called BoA In May and requested the interest rate reduction. They said that I did not qualify for a lower interest rate because my payments were not large enough over the 6 month period. They told me to call back at another time to see if I qualified at a later date. I asked what amount I should be paying each month in order to "qualify" for the lower rate and the lady I spoke with said that there isn't an exact amount but that paying between $180-$200 monthly is too low of an amount for them to consider giving me a lower rate. I called again in June and they told me that at that time didn't have a better rate to offer me either. I only have one other Credit Card, it's a Capital One card with a credit limit of $3500, I have a balance of $2800, at 10.9%, with a $60 minimum payment each month.

What advice can you guys give? I don't have another card that I can make a balance transfer to so I really can't call and threaten to transfer my balance over. Yet, they're not really budging at all on the rate. Currently, I can really only make a maximum payment of about $250 on the BoA card each month, but at 29.9% about $100 of my payment is going to interest alone!!!  Any suggestions on how to get the rate reduced??

Thanks!

[smallfry]

Did you escalate the phone call to a supervisor?

[orscrubs]

Yes, the second time I asked to speak to a supervisor who told me that I coudl basically just check back every few weeks and that sooner or later I "should qualify for a lower rate".

[Anonymous]

Wow 30% interest with only one payment missed. God I really hate BOA. Is it any wonder why these banks need us to bail them out. I wish we could allow these "too big to fail" failures to fail and be done with them. 

Getting back to the OP.....don't count on BoA helping you out anytime soon. I'd just keep paying the minimum for the next few months and instead rely on you other card. 

1. See if you can get a CLI on your second card. 

2a. If you do get that CLI....I'd suggest that you stagger your balance transfers. Do a transfer for a few hundreds the first month, then the next month, and the next. Use the balance transfer to pay BoA while you use the $100 that you are paying BoA to pay your secondary account. A few months later call BoA and ask them to decrease your rates. 

2b. Assuming you DON'T get a CLI then do a balance transfer to your other account for $500 as it would still keep that account under the CL. This will save you money in the short-term on that $500....at 30% it would amount to roughly $150 over the next year....while at 11% it would only be  $55....that's almost $100 that BoA won't be stealing from you. EVERY PENNY COUNTS when dealing with these predatory lenders.

[Anonymous]

OMG. BofA are really turning into a bunch of jerks. Don't ever be late with them. I was late one day due to a time of day issue with the posting of an on-line payment. They pulled my promo's and hit me with a late fee. I called and complained vociferously. I succeeded in getting my promo's back and the last fee cut in half. They really did not want to do both (they said I could have my promo's back or the late fee removed) but I whined long enough and loud enough to a supervisor to get the job done.

In your case just keep calling and calling. Keep a log of your calls and ask for a supervisor every time. Review your call log with the supervisor. Eventually they will cave.

You have two choices with BofA: 1) Always be on time, or 2) PIF. There is no other choice. BofA is facing desperate times. You don't want to be on the wrong side of that!

[Anonymous]

They (B of A) is doing this to you because they know you are in a critical stage right now and that you are making your HIGH payments too them. And they look at it in a business mindset, why should we lower your rates when we are making all this money off of this consumer.

You aren't seriously in default so don't look for them to budge on the APR. My advice would be to go to your local credit union and explain what they (B of A) is doing to you and ask them for a small line of credit to pay the balance off, be sure to bring any supporting documents you have to show the loan officer. Most Credit Union will do this if your credit isn't too challenged. Good Luck to you, I hate too hear stories like this.

Keep your head up, you'll come out of this ok

King

Message Edited by 74king on 07-09-2009 05:57 PM

[Anonymous]

I never like shopping for credit with a sob story. Chin up and best foot forward as they say!

Message Edited by creditwherecreditisdue on 07-10-2009 03:46 PM

[Anonymous]

Fire B of A.

if you bank with them look around, try a credit union (if you qualify for NFCU go that route.) or maybe a local bank.

Move all your business, ask for a line of credit and pay what you owe to B of A off.

Close your accounts..

[Anonymous]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

Fire B of A.

if you bank with them look around, try a credit union (if you qualify for NFCU go that route.) or maybe a local bank.

Move all your business, ask for a line of credit and pay what you owe to B of A off.

Close your accounts..

---

I'll second that... nice post.

King

[Anonymous]

It's really not you.  BOA started jumping interest rates for no reason some time ago. Both myself and my daughter had credit cards with them (as well as checking, savings, etc).  Once they bought Countrywide they needed to make money fast when they took on all that debt, and bad debt.  They were the first to send out notices of higher rates on EXISTING balances if you did not 'opt out'.  Of course, the notices were sent in plain white envelopes with no BOA logo or anything so it looked like junk mail, and you had to write an actual letter to some odd address never seen before to 'opt out' - was no online or form option.  We opted out and can't use the accounts without the huge rate jumps.  I accidently used a card, reversed the charges within 15 minutes, but it was enough to 'reactivate' my account at the new almost 30% rates.  I tried talking to them - nada, nothing.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123922365800702453.html

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Banking/CreditCardSmarts/IsBankofAmericaBlindsidingCardholders....

BOA is well known as catering to the illegals - in credit cards/banking/mortgages.   They don't really need us because a big portion of their customer base can't really complain to Attorney Generals or Congressmen.

As well as, the new laws are coming shortly for credit card companies - they are trying to drag in as much money as possible before they take effect, and also to position customer accounts as best they can for them (ie alreadfy have a super high APR since raising it is restricted after new law takes place)