Dawn, if you receive a notification of amended terms & conditions to include an increase to your annual percentage rate, all you need to do is sign and date on the amended contract that you DO NOT ACCEPT the new terms. Several friends have done this, and they all kept their prior APR instead of the new higher one.
You missed my prior post. I had a LOC from BofA for $35K to finish repairs to my house after hurricane Wilma – I put $28K on no interest no payment cc for a year. Paid off $10K of it- should have saved me roughly $19K or so in interest over the lifetime of the LOC. Before the no interest/payment offer expired BofA RECINDED the LOC that they had ALREADY AGREED TO. No reason other then ‘the economy’. And no, I didn’t go out and mortgage 300% of my home. I’m still at about 65-75% of CURRENT value even with the $35K they PROMISED ME IN WRITING. I didn’t cash out on my entire house.
So, if I tell you I’ll loan you $5 to go to McDonalds, then AFTER you eat I change my mind, take the money out of your bank account, causing your transaction to bounce, what would you do?
Take that $18K, add the interest that the credit cards retroactively apply to the original balance, I now have over $40K at 30% thanks to BofA. What should have saved me $19K will now cost me more then I can even begin to guess in interest. I’m trying to avoid BK, but I’m not sure I can.
If they provided formal written acceptance wouldn’t they be obligated to stand by it?
$40K at 30% in my opinion should be subject to RICO prosecution. It is usury and should be illegal. It is not “making credit available to higher risk groups”. It is loan sharking. You could make a payment equivalent to a mortgage payment and not make any progress on the debt.
Well, you think they’d have to stand by it. Guess what? It’s entirely their discretion. Cutting off LOC is the rage these days. The banks simply fall back on the ‘unstable housing market’ to shut them off. Haven’t you been reading about the homes and business LOC’s that have been cut off with no notice?
Yep. 30% SHOULD be RICO. But since our gov’t has no interest in stopping it, they can get away with it. Default is 35.9%.
Well, maybe they’re cutting off the ILOC’s because of the default rate. So many people are not making mortgage payments that it is time to pull in the reigns on credit.
They stated because of home values dropping. But, like I said, I’m still in the range that they should (or claim to) consider acceptable.
And the only payments I ever missed on anything was the same month hurricane Wilma hit my area. Power was out for a month, no one worked, no one got paid, no banks, gas, stores, etc. for weeks.
So, again, BofA made stupid loans (more than a few to illegals that skipped the country) and I got to pay for it. So yes, I would join a class action in a second.
It’s nice now, but wait until you want to open your account again. It won’t happen. As for the interest rate, watch it carefully – they will increase it. Also, check your credit reports, it will show a ‘closed account’, something that FICO doesn’t like. Yes – they are helping, in their own interests, not yours. Best of luck, I hope I am wrong on all these points – but my experience tells me differently.
Re the caution about closed accounts and FICO, you are right…now, but if we all start doing what is right for our personal finance and close all those accounts that hike the interest rate and start using credit more cautiously as long as the rate is open ended, the majority will win.
I have closed every account that has hiked the rate above 20% and soon those balances will be gone and since I bank locally with people who know me I can show income and debt and that will speak louder than a credit score ultimately…specially since there are no late pays in my history.
We should not be bullied by the greed mongers and their big brother buddies.
Oh yes you will be hurt. These credit scores are used everywhere for every reason. And the credit agencies use just about anything they can to downgrade you. I marveled at the news that AMEX gives a bad rating for shopping at certain stores because people that shop at those stores don’t pay their bills on time. What’s next?
That’s why I say if the majority starts walking with their dollars things have to change…not tomorrow but eventually.
Remember when bad credit derived from having too many open accounts even though there were no balances because the ratio of available credit to income put you at risk for going on a spree? Now that is reversed. Why shouldn’t we be able to close an account with a company that has not treated us well?
We have updated our privacy policy to be more clear and meet the new requirements of the GDPR. By continuing to use our site, you accept our revised Privacy Policy.
Dawn, if you receive a notification of amended terms & conditions to include an increase to your annual percentage rate, all you need to do is sign and date on the amended contract that you DO NOT ACCEPT the new terms. Several friends have done this, and they all kept their prior APR instead of the new higher one.
You missed my prior post. I had a LOC from BofA for $35K to finish repairs to my house after hurricane Wilma – I put $28K on no interest no payment cc for a year. Paid off $10K of it- should have saved me roughly $19K or so in interest over the lifetime of the LOC. Before the no interest/payment offer expired BofA RECINDED the LOC that they had ALREADY AGREED TO. No reason other then ‘the economy’. And no, I didn’t go out and mortgage 300% of my home. I’m still at about 65-75% of CURRENT value even with the $35K they PROMISED ME IN WRITING. I didn’t cash out on my entire house.
So, if I tell you I’ll loan you $5 to go to McDonalds, then AFTER you eat I change my mind, take the money out of your bank account, causing your transaction to bounce, what would you do?
Take that $18K, add the interest that the credit cards retroactively apply to the original balance, I now have over $40K at 30% thanks to BofA. What should have saved me $19K will now cost me more then I can even begin to guess in interest. I’m trying to avoid BK, but I’m not sure I can.
If they provided formal written acceptance wouldn’t they be obligated to stand by it?
$40K at 30% in my opinion should be subject to RICO prosecution. It is usury and should be illegal. It is not “making credit available to higher risk groups”. It is loan sharking. You could make a payment equivalent to a mortgage payment and not make any progress on the debt.
Well, you think they’d have to stand by it. Guess what? It’s entirely their discretion. Cutting off LOC is the rage these days. The banks simply fall back on the ‘unstable housing market’ to shut them off. Haven’t you been reading about the homes and business LOC’s that have been cut off with no notice?
Yep. 30% SHOULD be RICO. But since our gov’t has no interest in stopping it, they can get away with it. Default is 35.9%.
Well, maybe they’re cutting off the ILOC’s because of the default rate. So many people are not making mortgage payments that it is time to pull in the reigns on credit.
They stated because of home values dropping. But, like I said, I’m still in the range that they should (or claim to) consider acceptable.
And the only payments I ever missed on anything was the same month hurricane Wilma hit my area. Power was out for a month, no one worked, no one got paid, no banks, gas, stores, etc. for weeks.
So, again, BofA made stupid loans (more than a few to illegals that skipped the country) and I got to pay for it. So yes, I would join a class action in a second.
It’s nice now, but wait until you want to open your account again. It won’t happen. As for the interest rate, watch it carefully – they will increase it. Also, check your credit reports, it will show a ‘closed account’, something that FICO doesn’t like. Yes – they are helping, in their own interests, not yours. Best of luck, I hope I am wrong on all these points – but my experience tells me differently.
Re the caution about closed accounts and FICO, you are right…now, but if we all start doing what is right for our personal finance and close all those accounts that hike the interest rate and start using credit more cautiously as long as the rate is open ended, the majority will win.
I have closed every account that has hiked the rate above 20% and soon those balances will be gone and since I bank locally with people who know me I can show income and debt and that will speak louder than a credit score ultimately…specially since there are no late pays in my history.
We should not be bullied by the greed mongers and their big brother buddies.
Oh yes you will be hurt. These credit scores are used everywhere for every reason. And the credit agencies use just about anything they can to downgrade you. I marveled at the news that AMEX gives a bad rating for shopping at certain stores because people that shop at those stores don’t pay their bills on time. What’s next?
That’s why I say if the majority starts walking with their dollars things have to change…not tomorrow but eventually.
Remember when bad credit derived from having too many open accounts even though there were no balances because the ratio of available credit to income put you at risk for going on a spree? Now that is reversed. Why shouldn’t we be able to close an account with a company that has not treated us well?