Worst Credit Cards Deals

News Type: Event — Seeded on Mon Feb 25, 2008 9:24 AM EST

Article Source: ABC News

business, money, credit, credit-cards, interest-rates, bank-of-america, customers, mbna, balances, rate-hike, credit-card-deals, worst-credit-cards, first-premier, worst-credit-card-deal

Seeded by newsguru

Bank of America told thousands of its cardholders in recent weeks -- even those with good payment histories -- that they faced a rate hike from 9% to as high as 28% if they didn't pay off their balances at the old rate and stop using their cards. The bank, the largest credit card issuer, since its 2006 acquisition of MBNA, says it's all part of its "periodic" review of customer credit risk.

Consumer advocates cried foul. It's one thing for card companies to raise rates on customers who are behind in their payments or whose credit scores decline greatly, but quite another for on-time customers with no apparent black marks against them to be put in the higher-rate camp.

Bank of America gives card holders the chance to opt out of the higher rate by paying the account off, but such a request must be made in writing.

See more irresistible headlines

• Woman Dies On Flight To New York
• Deputy Accused Of Head-Butting Woman
• Food prices continue to rise worldwide
• Painful Sex Still a Painful Secret
• Georgia couple win $270 million lottery
• Will Any Candidate Be Ready Day One?
• Clinton campaign circulating images of Obama in Muslim attire

Way beyond reading. Help write the news. Start a Newsvine column.
Join Newsvine now!

Published to:

newsguru's Column, All of Newsvine
Groups: Examples of the Justice System Gone Awry, Family Finances, Living with Less
Regions: none

What's this?

Who's leading the conversation?

This visualization below allows you to see the impact that each user has on the current conversation. The top row contains the group of users who have had the most impact, the 2nd row the group of users who have had the 2nd most impact (et cetera). Users with similar impact are grouped together, and the average score of the group is shown to the left of the group. The author of the article is also shown on the left, in their corresponding group. Each user's score is based on the number of comments the user has made plus the number of votes their comments have received. The scores are calculated relative one another, so while their absolute value is not particularly important, their relative difference does indicate a larger difference in impact on the conversation.

4.9

{"commentId":1505987,"authorDomain":"newsguru"}

newsguru

Bank of America told thousands of its cardholders in recent weeks -- even those with good payment histories -- that they faced a rate hike from 9% to as high as 28%

That's a good way to keep customers. -- (sarcasm detected)

{"commentId":1505987,"threadId":"224826","contentId":"1323930","authorDomain":"newsguru"}

3 votes

#1 - Mon Feb 25, 2008 10:51 AM EST

{"commentId":1508005,"authorDomain":"MinnieApolis"}

MinnieApolis

Thanks for the heads up about this -- I halfway expected B of A to do something like this when the news broke about how much money they have lost in the mortgage fiasco.
A new Viner has seeded a great story tho about a proposed bill in Congress, dubbed the Credit Cardholders Bill of Rights -- it is at http://www.newsvine.com/_news/2008/02/20/1319759-consumerman-reining-in-credit-card-nonsense?threadId=225026&cmt=1507984#c1507984. If you want the link it is here.

{"commentId":1508005,"threadId":"224826","contentId":"1323930","authorDomain":"MinnieApolis"}

3 votes

#2 - Mon Feb 25, 2008 7:07 PM EST

{"commentId":1508529,"authorDomain":"dawgfan"}

lhornung

Credit card companies are the devil.
Along with insurance companies.

{"commentId":1508529,"threadId":"224826","contentId":"1323930","authorDomain":"dawgfan"}

2 votes

#3 - Mon Feb 25, 2008 9:49 PM EST

{"commentId":1508902,"authorDomain":"wbrianwhite"}

Brian White

Consumer advocates cried foul. It's one thing for card companies to raise rates on customers who are behind in their payments or whose credit scores decline greatly, but quite another for on-time customers with no apparent black marks against them to be put in the higher-rate camp.

Something similar happened to me when buy.com ran into money troubles in the dot-com burnout. I bought something on credit, and just a few months later they send me a letter saying "pay it all off now or we're sending it to collections". Ridiculous when this happens, but I don't know what the laws are that cover this situation.

{"commentId":1508902,"threadId":"224826","contentId":"1323930","authorDomain":"wbrianwhite"}

2 votes

#4 - Mon Feb 25, 2008 11:49 PM EST

{"commentId":1509641,"authorDomain":"newsguru"}

newsguru

FYI - To all who may receive a tax refund, tax rebate and the like over the next few months, pay off your debt. It's that simple. Debt is the single best tool the wealthy have to extract wealth from the middle and the poor. The economy is as overvalued overall as the real estate market has been.

{"commentId":1509641,"threadId":"224826","contentId":"1323930","authorDomain":"newsguru"}

2 votes

#5 - Tue Feb 26, 2008 8:51 AM EST

{"canLink":false,"threadId":"224826","isPrivate":false}

NEWSGURU

Backyard

Worst Credit Cards Deals

Published to:

FUN STUFF:

COMPANY STUFF:

LEGAL STUFF: