Credit Card Outrage

I am AT IT AGAIN! I am OUTRAGED at the notice that I just received in the mail from Bank of America about a credit card I have. I am working on my response letter now, but thought I'd take a break and BLOG about it.

The notice arrived in a larger envelope than business sized, the same size that most junk-type mail comes in. The letter itself said that an important notice in change of terms was included. It also had a paragraph about New Offers, one about on-line convenience, one about helpful tips and benefits, which are on the reverse of the letter.

However, the oversized fine print sheet of important notice of change in terms included some substantial rate increases! The APR for cash advances is changing to 24.99%, and the default pricing APR is a variable rate with a margin of up to 23.99 percentage points - your example states that as of July 31, 2007, that would be an ANNUAL PERCENTAGE RATE of 32.24%

I am following the instructions in the letter to reject these changes. It's kind of funny, I should just let it go, since I have been planning to cancel this account anyway. I initially got the account as a 0% balance transfer, to give us some breathing room on some debt. I was not happy at the outset, as the initial transfer fee was higher than I expected, but I needed to do it at the time. It was an offer I'd received through AAA, provided by MBNA, both companies that I thought I would trust, not some "fly by night" type of bank. Unfortunately, MBNA sold the account off to Bank of America, and the changes keep rolling in.

If I had not had the option this spring of paying off this card entirely, I'd be in serious trouble now trying to pay it with the higher interest rates!!! The APR on that cash advance part was about 14%, so jumping the rate by 10% would have been a huge change!

I will post the letter I send... I am working on the vague fine print to include in it now. :) It ust amazes me that the credit card industry is allowed to do this. I seem to recall that it was illegal to charge that much interest, and that only loan sharks would charge over 30%. I guess times have changed!