This has TREND written all over it. People complaining in public on You Tube. It should spark more and more of these vids. Let them come!! What is interesting to me, as this video makes the rounds, are the a-holes who defend this and other usurious banks. I bank with a good honest bank and know the difference. Apparently the public doesn’t.
It should be noted that when the Bank saw the video, the PR mechanism went to work to get this woman her old interest rate back. This means the only way to get their attention is via public out-cry.
This credit card rate increase was predicted when they passed the credit card reform bill, which was supposed to help consumers. In fact it helped the defaulters at the expense of people who pay their bills, as predicted, and as ignored by liberals.
BofA has always been this way. When I was around 19, I got the same advice when they raised my rate from 19.8% to 21%. I wrote them to negotiate. The response was, “Dear Mr. Scott, Should we in the future decide to lower our interest rates, you will be notified at such time…blah blah”
I did what most people twice my age (at that time) never do. I voted with my dollars. I immediately cut the card in half and sent it back to them. I closed my checking account and have enjoyed lower banking fees, no annual fees, and interest rates 8 points lower on average compared to anything BofA offers.
Tip everyone: My brother says he won’t quit BofA because he wants ubiquitous ATM machines. I told him, get an Etrade account. They have free interest-bearing checking accounts and reimburse all ATM fees, no matter what machine you use. My brother would drive 2 miles to find a BofA. I always said, “No, this one on the corner here is fine.” On my statement, I see the debit and right under that I see a credit for $2.00 or whatever the fee was.
Now why would anyone stay with BofA?
Do you think that the banks intentionally target those who are not in good financial shape? Perhaps the banks think that those customers who are in such bad shape will just roll over and be screwed by them for years and years at 30% interest. Just in case Jesus threw the money lenders out of the temples may be we should do the same thing.
We are too good of a Christian nation to do that!@#$% Hogwash
I can see both sides. On the one hand, banks are evil and the interest rates they charge on credit cards and the terms they impose are ridiculous and a racket.
On the other hand, this woman should be paying off her credit cards every month, and if she can’t do that she should find another way to get by. When I first started using my credit cards, I carried balances for the first little while. When I found out how much interest they were charging, I got so friggin’ angry it completely changed how I dealt with credit cards and I re-arranged my entire financial situation to account for them. I now have one card that I pay off in full every month, no matter how much it costs. I work my ass off to ensure I’m never in the situation where I can’t pay it off. I pay cash for most things, and if I can’t afford something, I wait until I can (houses and cars and other big ticket items notwithstanding).
This woman should focus her anger on re-arranging her financial situation.
i HAD TO ASK A cc COMPANY A STUPID QUESTION..
Why charge the POOR higher rates then the rich?
IF a poor person cant make the interest payments, you END up eating it..and a LOWEr rate would give them a chance to pay it back as WELL as wanting to PAY it back.
The rich? Have enough money that if they MISS 1 payment you can GAUGE them hard and they PROBABLY wouldnt care or notice.
The person on the phone said..
You are probably correct, but that not how we are setup.
Couple years latter…Some companies DROPPED rates…others followed..
BUT, there are those idiots that THINK missing 1 payment(because you want to EAT this month) means they can JACK the rate to the moon..
You want to send a message? Get 50% of customers to withhold payment for a month. Congress should have let these bastards fail. All they done was set another cycle in progress. What most people don’t get is the players are in it for the game, god damn warfare flanked by lawyers and paid off politicians.You heard John ask us to stop paying the bills and march on Washington and Wall Street and tear it asunder. Put Jeffersonian Libertarianism in place of corruption. John we’re all behind you on this, and the damn corn syrup stuff also. There is an ammunition shortage so someone here is going to have to share, and you know who you are.
My question is that if she has good credit. Why not just go to a different bank for a credit card? To me, cancelling rather then complaining will get the message accross. I question any bank that would raise rates that much for a good credit person. Sorry, I agree that many banks are ripping people off. But 30%? Even store cards give better rates then 30%.
I ‘spose it’s worth pointing out that this isn’t going on in a vacuum. This is going on when banks have received billions perhaps trillions of tax payers money. Where did that money go? Largely we don’t know. We know quite a bit went to bankers bonuses. The fed lowered interest rates to practically zero.
Presumably the government did this to ‘help the people’. After all thats there supposed purpose.
What did the banks do? They kept mortgage rates much the same – even though they were borrowing at practically zero. They raised fees. They raised interest rates on cards.
Sooo riddle me this. How did that help people?
If the banks had gone bankrupt – (but peoples savings protected by government) what would we have? Trillions wouldn’t have gone into the banks. Bankers wouldn’t have multi million bonuses. Banks could be split up, government run, until sold off. And we wouldn’t have banks too big to fail.
Look at the cluster f*ck we have now. Even bigger banks. Yet more foreclosures. The general population being screwed – and having to pay for the honor.
So yeah. Absolutely people should be irritated. And the ‘debters rebellion’ is just a small drop in the ocean.
See what happens come christmas. I don’t think theres going to be too much talk of ‘green shoots’ then.
Yeah…banks are evil…so what’s new here? You play with fire, you get burned. The bottom line is, when you use other peoples money you are subject to the terms they set forth. And you agree to those terms when you use their credit card. They spell it out that they can raise the interest rate to anything they like. Like the saying goes, ” A borrower is always a slave to the lender”.
So not paying back your debt to get “even” with the evil banks is the dumbest thing you can do. So this woman has no assets the bank can take. They can however park a judgment on her ass that she will drag around like an anchor. Consider the fact that even trying to get a job, potential employers do credit checks on applicants, no job for her. Try to find a place to rent to live….again credit check…no rental for her.
Bottom line is, if you owe, you should pay. Banks won’t be the losers, they have to much money and to many lawyers. Don’t do credit is the best defense against the banks.
she’s not the 1st
I deal not with banks.
I give nor take any credit.
I guarantee each of you I have more money in my pocket, at any time.
YOU need credit to survive.
Sad, really, but it’s your lot.
So is her goal to get hits to her new web site. Or help the consumer ? Sounds like she better get a good lawyer before telling people how to not pay their taxes. I call this half spam, half I want attention on You Tube.
FIA Card services, a BofA company, once charged me $39 for going $12 over my limit. That is weird. Sorry you went over your limit, now we will make the situation even worse.
I had been using the card to cover a cash flow problem. It was flowing out way faster than it was flowing in. Due to a late payment or 3 they also ran my rate up to 27%.
I did the second worst thing you can do to a credit card company. I paid them off. Now they send cash advance checks every month or so begging me to be in debt.
I do enjoy talking to their telemarketers. Although they haven’t called lately. I may have been labeled a malcontent.
there is a solution to this..
You can CALL them and demand they QUIT.
You tell them to CLOSE the account and LEAVE it at the OLD rate. Yes they have to.
Also Im waiting for someone to READ the EULA.
YOU SIGNED a contract. WHEN are they going to LIVE BY IT? 9% over the FED?? HA!
After you QUIT the card, GET another one. WITH LOWER INTEREST.
Saying “credit is the cornerstone of our economy” is about like saying “crack cocaine is the cornerstone of our economy.”
“Credit” is the cornerstone for INVESTMENTS, not “I want it now consumerism.”
To me, the revolt being generated is (should be) against our lame-ass government that has rescinded all the consumer protection laws from years ago==just like they did Glas-Stegal all coming to a head now.
No one is in jail. No changes to the law.
The Bubble is Rebuilding.
Bank with a Credit Union and You WONT get screwed!!!
If you have a credit card and the Banks suddenly upon thier own whim decide to hike the interest rates (especially in an environment of relatively low prime rates) their has to to be something immoral and illeagle about this activity… I say again the bankers are all Wankers!!!! I saw aniother individual yesterday on Fox that was complaining about sudden Increase to 29.9%… if this is accepted then 40% wil be next… time to chaneg the way America does business!!! I for one am doing my best to have no more credit ever again, no matter how much it hurts… I have beeen rid of my credit cards… If more folks do the same, the Ameican model of credit will change!!! Stuff the wankers…
The ultimate free market response is to close your accounts and move your money to a nonprofit credit union.
Reward good financial institutions, punish bad ones.
#13 This is new media, and completely competes with the old media and old capitalism. By old capitalism I mean the idea that “she should pack up her money and go elsewhere. That’s the way the market works.” Actually, that’s the way the old market worked.
The new market means you go in and change the market, and you set the rules. New media (low cost of entry, free distribution, etc) means you’re a lot more powerful than you think. It’s like your transition from old print media to your current self defined media.
Well actually you have your feet planted on both sides – because you use new media to make your brand more powerful in the old world. If this woman or anyone else wants to make this work they need to learn a few lessons from you. It strikes me that you:
You kept your core brand – didn’t really change your basic appeal
You made mistakes – old media types are afraid to make mistakes
You are transparent – new media hates fake, people aren’t stupid
You used the most effective channel at the time but kept finding new ones – YouTube is great for human appeal, but that could change tomorrow
You brought people into the fold – this type of approach only works if people follow (clicks, links, twitter, etc)
This woman has a point of being mad at B of A. As for her scheme she has to be the stupidest person alive. Just pay off the freaking card and be done with them. That’s what I did and I don’t regret it one bit. I’m not SLAVE to the LENDER. This woman by refusing to pay anything is being a deadbeat, good for nothing pain in the butt.
# 42: “In what part of that contract was it written that when a bank is about to fail out of sheer incompetence, they should be bailed out?”
I’m sorry — your comment makes no sense. But please do try again.
Beautiful! That is a woman with BALLS I’d say. I really hope that this will start off a revolution against the cozy couple, The Fed and G.Sachs and their cronies… a bunch of useless politicians included.
Banks and credit are as old as money itself, and you can’t have one without the other, and as it’s a necessity it needs to be regulated and audited by the government. So fix it or frag it.
OTH what I find compelling is the use of youtube for personal empowerment. I’ve been wondering how long it would take someone to figure this one out. They were smart to negotiate quickly with her. But I’m certain we’ll be seeing similar cases un the future.
#30 – MikeN – If her credit is so good, better yet, borrow from a bank and pay off the bill.
Exactly. She’s just another gullible idiot who lived well beyond her means.
I did business with them for years. They raised my interest rate. I canceled them. I have moved on.
This should be required in every school. Call it a self defense course.
frontline: secret history of the credit card PBS
http://pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/credit/
I agree with the sentiment.. the bans are ripping people off by raising rates and fees.
That being said, if you sign a bad contract, you have to live by it. If you don;t like BofA, find a credit union. If you can’t find card you like, don’t use one for day to day purchases, but only for the things you need to, like rental cars, etc.
I use credit cards for almost every thing, but I would NEVER carry a balance because I know it would make me vulnerable to thier ripoffs.
Coincidentally, I just got a call from citibank saying that, because they reissued our cards due the THEIR fraud prevention, and I didn’t change one of my payments to the new account number, that I had to pay a big fee. This is total bullshit and gooing the teh state AG’s consumer protection unit.
I quit those BofA money grubbing, nickle & dimeing bozos 48 years ago.I don’t do banks
well. I moved to a credit union and never
regretted it for a moment.
may as well get to the classic ending of the debate:
Friends don’t let friends deal with BofA. They have good service for business customers. But if you are an individual without a business account, they really don’t give a sh!t. I have been told more 1st-hand “BofA screwed me” stories than all other banks combined. I fortunately have no personal horror to relate, because I stayed away.
“Debtors Revolt”
-I like the sound of it.
Although, -she loses 5 points for taking advice from TV ads.
-s