Bank of America fascists

The BBQ Pit
1

You wonder why your stock is taking a beating? Try “fucking with your customers” for a thousand.

So we’re going along as happily consuming Americans, using our Alaska Airlines card for all our purchases, and paying off the balance every month (which I’m sure pisses you off mightily) via transfer from our bank account. We only use this card because of the unexpiring mileage plan, and grit our teeth at the fact that we have to bank with Satan in order to get that minor benefit.

So suddenly you send us new cards out of the blue, stating that there may have been security issues with your accounts. You don’t tell us what those “security issues” might have been, but it hasn’t cost me any money, so okay, I’ll go through all the hassle of changing my autopay accounts with all of those agencies to reflect the new card number. Done! Move on!

Not so fast. The Ms takes a look at the account online, which she does nearly every day, and notices that our monthly payment isn’t there, and that we are being charged an interest fee on the account. The Ms does her Exorcist 360 Head Turn, spews green vomit at me and snarls “You forgot to make the credit card payyyyymennnnnnnt”. I plead innocence as I wipe the goo from my face and swear that I did indeed make the payment. We quickly deduce that when BofA switched our card, they essentially deleted any information associated with that card.

The Ms tells me to call them, which she knows will result in a 911 call for medics to peel me off the ceiling and administer sedation. So she calls them and politely tells them they’re fucked up and to take that charge off of the account, and that we will redo the payment. Done! Move on!

Not so fast. Next day, she looks at the account and sees a late payment penalty charge of $50. Calls again, but this time has to deal with two people because the first one is too stupid to understand that it’s their fault that the goddamned bill wasn’t paid. “Well, you know,” says the supervisor, “when you change your account, it’s your responsibility to make sure that you link to a bank account.” Well, if it had been us that changed the motherfucking account, then I would agree. But since it was you fuckers that had the security breach, and you changed the account, it’s your problem and your fault, and you can lick my balls before I’ll pay that penalty. Okay okay okay, it’s our fault, but you should be more careful in the future ::incoherent and speechless rage ensues::

I won’t even go into how they are showing purchases on our card as fees instead of charges, and how THAT conversation went.

Mr. Buffett: you should probably rethink that $500M investment you just made with these assholes. They’re not too big to fail: they do it on a daily basis.

2

BofA has a decades long history of fucking their little customers. I have boycotted banking with them since the early 80’s.

3

Nitpick: Buffett put $5 billion into BofA…

4

Hah! That’s a great line!

Sorry about your bank. I hate banks. They’re all fuckers.

5

I’ve started two threads about a similar issue - credit card companies issuing new cards with new numbers that I don’t want. They call it an “enhancement” to my account. I call it a fucking pain in the ass because then I have to go and change my information with every vendor with whom I do regular business.

So the last time this happened I closed the account and got a different card through my credit union. They don’t do nonsense like that. The credit card company wanted to know why I wanted to close the account - I told them as long as I had to change everything anyway, I may as well find a reputable bank to deal with. Fuck 'em.

6

So instead of ‘fail’, it’s more like ‘epic fail’.

7

I ceased all dealings with BoA when they used the recession and credit mess (that they are part and parcel to) as an excuse to change my nearly 2 decade old credit card account from a fixed interest rate of 10.5% to a variable rate that currently equated to about 21.5%. I tended to carry a balance but was never late with a payment. I was their goddamn ideal card holder and they showed me just how fucking stupid they thought I was. Fuck them. I closed the account.

8

This reminds me of something I’ve been trying to Google up, but I don’t seem to be using the appropriate search terms. What was that incident where some B of A bigwig was caught boasting of his underhanded ways of arranging bank rules so that more fees were squeezed out of unsuspecting depositors? Or was I dreaming that?

9

Are you referring to the way in which they deduct from your checking account using purchases in descending order so as to accrue multiple overdraft fees per day?

10

How is that fascist? Unless you forgot to mention that in addition to stiffing you on a bill, they also tried to exterminate your race.

11

I’m petitioning the Ms to let us return to our credit union credit card, which we never use. We both have something like 500,000 miles built up on the BOA card, and I’m planning to never fly again if I can possibly avoid it. Mileage tickets are a pain in the ass anyway, since they always want to route you through Cleveland or some other place that is hours out of your way and involves lengthy layovers between flights. I traveled by air so much throughout my career that it just doesn’t interest me anymore. Yeah, that’s what I’ll tell her.

12

I didn’t want to use the word “cocksuckers” in the thread title, which is more appropriate.

13

This is why I have never concerned myself with these kinds of come-ons from credit card companies or anywhere else. To me, it’s not worth whatever potential savings to have to deal with the nonsense. I’d rather just pay a reasonable price and try to get what I pay for. TANSTAAFL.

14

You can’t say “cocksuckers” if you’re not referring to a poster? That’s a downer.

15

If BOA thought for a moment that there was the slightest profit motive in doing so and that they could get away with it, I have little doubt they’d consider it.

16

Oh, sure, blame it on the cocksuckers! I would remind you, sir, that an oral compulsion can be a very endearing characteristic!

17

They would be exterminating us if they could figure out how to make a profit on it.

18

I would never try and get miles on a credit card. Frequent Flyer miles absolutely suck. They are difficult to use and don’t really save you money anyway. I do get FF miles on my flights, but I view that as a “if I can get use out of it, then yay! Otherwise who cares?”
Creditcards have different options. For example, you can get cash back on many credit cards now. Take the cash, pay for the airline ticket.

19

Switch to a credit union. the banks are deep into squeezing every penny they can from their "customers’.

20

Yeah - BOA kinda blows, doesn’t it? I have two mortgages through them. Two years ago when I was laid off from my job, I went to their website to see what kind of options I had. The website told me that I should try working with them before I fell behind on my mortgage payments. So, being a responsible kind of person, I called them up to explain my financial straits and to see if something could be worked out. Their only response was that as long as I was not actually behind on my payments, there was nothing they could (read: ‘would’) do. Even though I pointed out to them that their own website advised calling before you went delinquent! They didn’t care.

Flash forward, its now two years later and the only reason that I have been able to maintain my payments is because I took in roommates to help with the monthly payments. That worked for as long as I was receiving unemployment, but that has long since run out and now my only income is a small SS payment plus what my roommates pay me. Right now it looks like I will be able to meet my September payments, but the outlook for October is grim. Should I call them again? Ha! why bother before they start calling me to find out where my payments are?

There is a possibility that I may be able to work with a state agency (subsidized by federal program) to light a fire under their ass and actually get them to work with me this time. Maybe. I don’t know. But if they won’t help me out, then I get to stop making any payments at all and just wait out the year or so that it takes them to foreclose. At which point, they get to take possession of my seriously ‘deferred maintenance’ house. Which I’m guessing is not really a preferred outcome for them either.

Very shortsighted of them. But I guess that’s not surprising. :rolleyes: