credit cards suck
Date: Fri, 07/13/2007 - 09:39
I was somewhere in Thailand, living off my severance package and unemployment compensation from my last job.. . at some point there was a question of my termination and they shut off my direct deposit funds w/o telling me. By the time I realized what happened I was overdrawing on my debit card which was pulling $100 at a time from me overdraft protection Bank of America credit card at a 24% APRcash advance loan... By the time I finally made it back to the Sates I was coasting at about $4000 debt with boa, 24% apr... bleh.
I started making my payments without complaining much and have been doing so for the last year, unfortunately I just not got a decent job, and so far have only been making the minimum payment, needless to say i still owe them $3000 (-$1000 thanks to my tax return)
Last week i got pretty fed up with it and called Bank of America and ask for them to lower the APR. The agent promptly hung up on me.
I called back and spoke with a different person who told me gleefully that Bank of America has never and will never lower an APR. I was surprised and ask for the customer retention line, and the rep proceeded to tell me that that department has been closed and will never reopen again. I ask to speak with his supervisor and the rep hung up on me.
I called a third time, and you have to understand that every call I spent about 30 minutes on hold, got a lady who i told about the previous two techs... She apologized, assured me that there is a way to lower the APR, maybe even get a debt consolidation loan from bank of America or one of their affiliates, ask to put me on hold to get more information..... and hung up on me.
Now, contrary to my usual nature, i didn't say a SINGLE curse word or raise my voice with either of the reps... I'm baffled, i feel like i borrowed money from the Mafia...
I regret the fact that the only time i have to make these phone calls is while driving to or from work in my car, and i did not have a chance to write down their names or associate numbers.
Anyway, all together after coming back to the US, relocating from the north to the south, being out of work, you know, the usual sob story, I now have a $9,000 debt. I have a decent job, but I just can't seem to lower it, I'm just barely getting by.
I started making my payments without complaining much and have been doing so for the last year, unfortunately I just not got a decent job, and so far have only been making the minimum payment, needless to say i still owe them $3000 (-$1000 thanks to my tax return)
Last week i got pretty fed up with it and called Bank of America and ask for them to lower the APR. The agent promptly hung up on me.
I called back and spoke with a different person who told me gleefully that Bank of America has never and will never lower an APR. I was surprised and ask for the customer retention line, and the rep proceeded to tell me that that department has been closed and will never reopen again. I ask to speak with his supervisor and the rep hung up on me.
I called a third time, and you have to understand that every call I spent about 30 minutes on hold, got a lady who i told about the previous two techs... She apologized, assured me that there is a way to lower the APR, maybe even get a debt consolidation loan from bank of America or one of their affiliates, ask to put me on hold to get more information..... and hung up on me.
Now, contrary to my usual nature, i didn't say a SINGLE curse word or raise my voice with either of the reps... I'm baffled, i feel like i borrowed money from the Mafia...
I regret the fact that the only time i have to make these phone calls is while driving to or from work in my car, and i did not have a chance to write down their names or associate numbers.
Anyway, all together after coming back to the US, relocating from the north to the south, being out of work, you know, the usual sob story, I now have a $9,000 debt. I have a decent job, but I just can't seem to lower it, I'm just barely getting by.
It's quite tough to have lower interest rates from BOfA. They us
It's quite tough to have lower interest rates from BOfA. They usually don't budge at the first time. You may speak to some debt management company who has dealt with BofA customers and lowered down the interest rates. Hope it works.
