Last night I finally got to filing some credit card statements that had been on my desk for several months. As I was filing my BofA one from July, I noticed this on the statement: We are amending the penalty rate section 3.3.1.C of your cardholder agreement. Effective immediately, the following verbiage has been removed and will not be considered for penalty rate pricing at this time: "or you are reported 60 days past due by any creditor (including any Bank of America affiliate) or a lien or judgment appears on your credit report." Thank you for being a Bank of America customer. I missed this initially because it wasn't a separate insert like the change in terms usually is, it was printed on the side of the statement along with the "Earn More Dividend Miles" kind of stuff. So it sounds like, at least for now, delinquency on an account with another bank isn't grounds for a rate jack at BofA.
I saw that same change of terms on my BofA statement at about the same time, but the same statement included a rate jack from fixed to variable. I wonder what the story is behind this, since although I have considered such clauses as likely to lead to legal or regulatory problems since since erroneous late reporting happens fairly frequently, I don't know why a bank would unilaterally reverse a clause in its favor.
They didn't say they wouldn't cancel the card, they said they wouldn't jack the rate. I wonder if it it's as valid printed on the statement as the inserts which prominently say "Change in Terms of Your Account"?
They would have a hard time arguing that it isn't, when they chose to print it that way. Usually, less than conspicuous notice is an issue for *you* to bring up, not the party printing it.
I received a BofA statement last week jacking the APR rate to 25.5% if you are late making your minimum payment for 2 cycles blah, blah... unless you send in a coupon refusing to accept the new rate increase and providing you don't add new charges after your November bill. Looks like crunch time for the credit card companies. All you informed consumers and your frivolous lawsuits are taking effect.
