Called B o A credit card to request lower rate & was denied

[freespirited]

I just got off the phone with a really rude person at Bank of America. Here's the deal, I read online that like 9 out of 10 people who call to ask for a lower rate on their cards get one, so I thought I had a good chance.

I am a very longtime customer of theirs, maybe 10 years. I have never defaulted on any of my debts, I have always had a high credit limit with them and have paid the card off in full several times over the years when times were good for us. I have a credit score of 710. My credit limit with them is 17,500K. I owe $9500 now after just making a payment of $4200, so I thought I was in a decent position to get my 24% interest rate lowered, even if to 19.99%.

The woman was very rude and didn't budge. She said our income (33k with my home business that I do and reported 8k in sales last year) was too little for our debt. I said, "well I have other assets and means to pay. If you look in my history I am always making big payments. I have silver and jewelry I am working on selling, my husband is getting OT, and we are trying to sell the family villa in Costa Rica, etc." She said none of that mattered to her as it was not likely to sell in this economy.: I said, I have been a good customer for 10 years and have good credit and I was hoping that would count for something and she said "not in this economy." Of course, right? Heck, why even count anyone's salary since people are losing jobs right and left, that way they can look at everyone as a liability and not have to lower anyone's rate. I told her I was serious about paying down my debts and we were going to work hard on doing so this year. She said "I can transfer you to our debt consolidation specialists and they can help you be debt-free in FIVE years." At this point I was very insulted. Ugh. How rude are they?

Last year I called about a billing question and they told me that I qualified instantly with no credit check to have my limit raised from 14k to 17.5K so I took it and transferred other debts to that one. I said to the woman that they sure seemed to think I was a good customer and that our income was ok last year (it was even less than now) and she said "last year was completely different." Oh, really? I think things were already looking pretty bad last summer when they were eager to raise my limit. I hate this bank. I am desperately trying to think of some way to transfer my debt away from them and close my account. I tried raising the heloc on my house but they said no, because of my cc debt, so I can't win. I have some silver I am about to sell, that will give me 2k or so, and if I can sell my jewelry, that is another 4k so I do have some glimmer of hope.

I needed to vent! Has anyone experienced this kind of treatment from B o A? I mean, I had just made a huge payment, now I regret that I didn't talk to them first, but I am not sure that would have made a difference. These banks don;t care about losing me as a customer and I am a GREAT customer, I pay all that freaking interest and care about my credit and never default. Ugh. I am hating these places, and how they are using the economy to make things harder on their customers.

P.S. I had just done a balance transfer of $3600 to a 0% for 6 months card with Chase. I was just looking at the statement for that today and my APR went from 27% before I made the transfer to 36%! So that means when the 6 months is up, my new APR is 36%! Outrageous!

[Contrariety]

THose are some mighty high interest rates on your cards! Eeek! If your credit is as good as you say, maybe try applying for a new card with the intention to transfer your balances... I hear Discover has good intro offers like 0% for a year. Would that give you enough time to get the balance paid down?

[freespirited]

Originally Posted by Contrariety

THose are some mighty high interest rates on your cards! Eeek! If your credit is as good as you say, maybe try applying for a new card with the intention to transfer your balances... I hear Discover has good intro offers like 0% for a year. Would that give you enough time to get the balance paid down?

Yes, I think we will pay off the cc debt within a year, but I am afraid to apply because I feel like no one is going to give us another card now, with credit being so tight and our debt-to-income ratio so high, and then each time you apply for one it hurts your credit score right? I have 5 months before the 36%one kicks in, I can always transfer it back over to B o A unless they take away that option, maybe I've been blacklisted with them, I don't know. I told them I was going to close my account with them as soon as I paid them off. I'd rather deal with them for a little longer than pay another card 36% just out of principal! This sucks for us because I expected to be able to sell a lot of my items as they were selling fine even last fall but things slowed down quite a bit.

[rebeccalynn]

Keep calling back until you get someone nicer and more willing to help you. I would totally give it a few more tries. In the end though, you may be out of luck though - really sorry to say that, but I hear that cc are raising their rates left and right to get higher rates locked in before new legislation is enacted to prevent them from doing just what they are doing.

[Sonnenwende]

36%??

It's funny how if I were to do it, it would be usury, but if credit card companies do it, that's fine and dandy.

[freespirited]

Originally Posted by Sonnenwende

36%??

It's funny how if I were to do it, it would be usury, but if credit card companies do it, that's fine and dandy.

I know, it's sickening. There is no reason for them to have done that. I have always been a good customer with them as well and I haven't defaulted on anything and my FICO score is 710. They just did I guess to make up for the 0% I am getting for 6 months. Pretty disgusting. They are total vultures.

[rhiandmoi]

I heard on the radio yesterday that Arkansas has really good credit card rates because they have upper limits on what the banks can charge, and the banks are still issuing credit.

http://www.simmonsfirst.com/creditcards
https://www.pulaskibank.org/index.cfm

[limette]

I recently called one of my credit card companies to get them to reduce my limit and interest (without asking for that one).

They had just increased my limit without my permission so I asked them to reduce down to the balance. The guy pointed out that I wouldn't be able to use my card if there was no extra on it.

So I said "well I have no intention of using it anyway. My other card has a much lower interest rate so I'll just use that one."

Of course that wasn't acceptable! So here reduced the rate to match my other card in the hopes that I'll keep spending. It went from 19% to 11%.

They like it when you keep spending. People that pay off the balances are no good for credit companies. Maybe call again and say you've been offered a card with a lower rate and see if they can match it.

[sunflower.mama]

I keep hearing bad things about B of A. I am sorry, that sucks!

[Juvysen]

If you tell them you want to cancel and that you'll just pay it down and not have a line of credit available for spending any longer, they're likely to work with you, but you have to be prepared to actually close the account. I've had that happen a couple times (i didn't have a balance, though), but I called to close the account and they gave me a *much* lower rate -like from 19% to 5%. This was several years ago, though...

[APmomSoCal]

Originally Posted by Juvysen

If you tell them you want to cancel and that you'll just pay it down and not have a line of credit available for spending any longer, they're likely to work with you, but you have to be prepared to actually close the account. I've had that happen a couple times (i didn't have a balance, though), but I called to close the account and they gave me a *much* lower rate -like from 19% to 5%. This was several years ago, though...

I tried that with them last month. I made a phone payment and later it was not credited on my bill. : They socked me with a late fee and higher interest charges. So they took off the late fee, but would not lower my interest rate back to where it was. So i threatened to close the account. They still wouldn't budge, even though the fault was theirs. So I did close my account with them. I was a good customer, too! It's their loss...

[Norasmomma]

B o A is notorious for having one of the worst customer service records of all banks, basically they are at a negative rating for customer service. I'd also keep calling back and I would request speaking with a manager instead of some tele center person. There are actually people who are the "credit specialists" that I have talked to in the past who have taken away annual fees and lowered my interest-I'd call back and askk for someone else with more authority.

[Porcelain Interior]

Call back and say

I'd like to speak with a manager.

Say it 3 times.

Then ask the "manager" if they'll lower your interest rate.

The first person on the line rarely does anything.

Good luck- and fwiw BOA has always lowered our rate when asked UNTIL recently. I think they are locking down on people and milking them for all it's worth while they can.

[BrooklynDoula]

There was a report on NPR this morning about BoA being a shadow bank - basically they are broke and falling apart (or that is what NPR said). This might be part of why they are making no changes right now. They really need your money!

[cristina47454]

I HATE B of A!! i called to ask for a rate reduction a couple of months ago...my other ccs were so helpful! B of A said no. I pushed. They transferred me to a debt consolidation specialist who did me the favor of lowering my available credit from $16k to $6k - bastards. That's a big mark on my credit report. Then they signed me up for their repayment plan without my authorization. Sure, brings my interest rate down, but another strike against me because they closed the account. When I called to say "What are you doing??" They refused to reinstate my account for two billing cycles. And I've been with them for 20 years! I hate them and will never do business with them again.

[freespirited]

They sure are rotten! You know what else? They asked how much my mortgage payment was. I pay a relative for the major loan so that is not on record, and all we have is our 2nd mortgage which is currently $180 a month, so yes we make 30k a year but it appears we only pay $180 a month for our house that we own and they still gave me a hard time and the woman just kept saying over and over that us making 30k and owing 15k in total cc debt was just sooo bad, but we always made big payments, hello! We rarely pay just the minimum. I think I'm just too perfect of a customer for them. They don't care if I close the account because they know I want to protect my credit and will pay everything, and they think they will ultimately collect a ton of money from me before I can pay it all off and close the account. Well I am going to do everything in my power to prove them wrong. I am going to TRY anyway to get Chase to lower the APR to something halfway acceptable, but maybe they will raise my limit and I can transfer some of the B o A debt to that card. It's a long shot but worth a try anyway. Any other cards but B o A seem willing to work with loyal customers. B o A might be going down anyway so they don't care about loyalty.

[Doodlebugsmom]

Whew! After reading this thread, I'm glad we just paid off our BoA card. I can see them raising our "fixed" 9.99% for no apparent reason.

[Captain_Crunch]

Have you checked your credit reports recently? I ask only because unless there is something negative reporting with the credit bureaus there is absolutely no reason for you to go straight from the promo rate of 0% to the default of 36% which is ridiculously high (Discover's max default is 29.99%,high yes, but not as bad as 36%)

Also I would call back again and ask to speak with a supervisor, the credit card that I work for we don't give a hooey about your income (unless your asking for a hardship program) just your payment history. I would literally say that "my income is not your concern, I have always and will continue to make my payments on time."

However, yes CCs are cracking down. Used to be if you called us and said hey I have a great FICO and payment history they'd lower your rate no problem, but now with CCs losing big time they have to retain as much income as possible and don't even think of asking Citibank for a lower rate they're the worst off of all the CC companies.