Contrary to any ads
touting financial responsibility, banks don't really make much money on people
who pay attention to their money, and they may just kick you to the curb when
they realize you won't be a huge source of fees and interest for them.
Take, for example, the
tale of Consumerist reader Jason. He'd been a Bank of America credit card
holder for five years, and a year ago he had taken advantage of 0% APR on
balance transfers to move over several thousand dollars to that card.
With the 12 months of 0%
interest ending in June, Jason paid off the balance before it bounced up to a
whopping 24% APR.
With his mind on that
24%, Jason decided to call up BofA to see if — since he had always paid his
bills and had decent credit — he could get the bank to drop that number a bit:
“
I
spoke to a customer rep that told me there were no lower APR offers available
so I proceeded to ask for a supervisor. I get on the phone with the supervisor
and I stated that I had no late or no missed payments and paid off the balance.
I then asked the supervisor is it possible to lower the APR.
She checked my credit and
proceeded to tell me that they were closing my account. Her explanation was
that they were afraid that with a $8000 limit, the debt on the card would go
up.
I asked, "How does
that make sense? I paid my balance off, I plan on keeping the credit card
active, I have a job, I always pay on time, I have never missed a payment and
you're closing my account?
"If you're so
worried about the $8000 then lower my limit to $1000. I just want to keep my
account active because if you close my account it hurts my credit score."
She went on to say
"it's our decision to close the account at this time."
I then pointed out,
"If I never miss a payment and always pay on-time, isn't that beneficial
for Bank of America to keep me as a customer? Bank of America is a financial
institution that makes money on credit card interest on paying customers and
yet you want to close my account? Does that make sense to you?"
”
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