They Don't Care.

I feel his pain. I was late one day. One freaking day. I got the bill on the 30th, it was due following month on the 8th. The 31st and 1st were weekend and holiday. I mailed it out on the 2nd. They got it on the 7th (sunday) but entered it on the 9th. My 5.99% interest is now 16.99%. WTF?

Oh, and if you are late 2x within a 6month period, bam.

No. I will not allow BoA my routing info nor access to my accounts. I consolidated my debt and told them to GFY.

Try paying your bills before they are due, it really is not that hard. Did his card agreement not say they could do this? Did he not agree to the terms?

Damn it people be responsible for yourself

This seems really excessive. The worst part is that if you're carrying a balance you can really get screwed by the extra payments.

I'd be fine with these crazy rate hikes if they only applied pro-actively (is that the opposite of retroactively??). If you don't like the rate hike, that way you don't have to use the card anymore.

Or even if there was some element of a waiting period of 30 or 60 or more days where you would have a legitimate opportunity to find another arrangement instead of getting pounded by these absurd interest rates.

But if you wake up one day any your monthly interest payment has quadrupled you could be super-screwed if you're carrying a large balance

I've been late exactly twice on my credit card payment, which is housed through the same credit union that has my checking and savings and car loan accounts. You wanna know what they did? Nothing. Not so much as a 0.01% increase. My credit union, unlike BoA, actually cares, which is why I continue to do business with them.

I recommend credit unions to everybody, especially after getting hosed over by a larger bank.

BofA issued me a new number out of nowhere. They claimed it was when MBNA switched to BofA. I didn't want to argue with the lady that I got my card after Jan 1st which was when BofA finally owned us. I still had two credit cards showing up on my online banking screen. One day I did a quick glance and only saw the 2nd number at 0.00, so I didn't make a payment. On a Friday, my bill was due. On Sunday night, I got a notice saying my payment hadn't been made. I made an immediate payment, but still got hit with fees. It took over 2 hours to get the old card deleted off my account screen. NOW, I never get a owed amount online when I check my balance. I can only pay if I view my paper statement, and punch that into their manual payment screen. It's such a hassle now to see if I made my payment. I really dislike BofA.

@laserjobs: Wow, you just have this fascination with blaming the OP lately. Yes, paying bills late is bad, but it happens to everybody. Get off your pedestal.

I think the key wording here is that they paid LATE. excuse me for not having sympathy. you paid late...twice. sure it's by 1-3 days but it's late. I have had my credit cards for close to a decade and i don't think i've ever been 'late'.

i get paid bi-weekly as most people do so I just set up my credit card payment for the future on the day i get paid. it's not an automatic payment, i just go to the website on the 6th of each month, see what my bill is, and set up a payment for the full amount or half if it's really high and schedule it for the 15th, (the other half for the 30th if necessary). by the time the 6th comes the following month, the balance is paid off. I understand not everyone can do this so just schedule the minimum payment on one of your paydays.

are you guys stalking me?

i just went thru this YESTERDAY! i got sidetracked at work & when i finally remembered that i forgot something at 5:05pm, it was too late to make a payment online. so i called & tried to make a payment over the phone. nope - only up to 5pm. ok, maybe if i talk to a person. yeah, right. "there's nothing i can do for you, sir." (at this point it's 5:15pm). 15 minutes late - $35.

i know it's my fault for missing the payment - i know all about payment deadlines, all i'm asking for is a little freakin' leniency. throw me a goddamn bone here - i've been a customer for a decade. i've made your company thousands of dollars in interest payments over that time. isn't that worth an extra 5 minutes ONE TIME IN A FREAKIN DECADE??!??!

@SigmundTheSeaMonster: check your terms - 2 times in 12 months for me. both times i made the payment FROM a BOA checking account TO a BOA credit card on the day it was due - it just wasn't credited until the following business day.

BofA sucking is not anything new. They repeatedly put me in the wrong type of checking account, hitting me with service fees every few months, then told me specifically to stop transferring money into my checking from savings because they had "set it up to automatically transfer" so I wouldn't have to. Then when I got hit w/a bunch of overdraft fees they said they wouldn't reverse them because the guy who changed my account was on vacation.

In the end I made my money back by opening a new acct with them under a promotion that gave me $100, then closing the acct as soon as the money showed up. I still have a CC w/ them but I don't use it anymore. When my promo rate ran out, I called to ask them if there was a new promo rate, and they said "not for another 3 months." So I transferred my balance away and haven't used the card since. If the customer has never been late on a payment, never been over limit, and always had a moderate balance, there should be a promo rate avail at all times.

This makes me so angry... I feel like I'm going to blow a gasket. It makes me even more angry that people are already sitting there going "pay your bills on time". For ANY other type of debt (utilites, loans, etc) if you are a day or three late the worst you might get is a late payment fee. One time. Period. This situation is more like herpes... forever. One mistake and you have the big red A. However you want to call it. Serously, life happens. I can understand if it's habitual thing to be a few days late, but really, this is just the eviliest of evil. It's no wonder we live in a world of cheaters and theives. Seems they are the only ones that get ahead.

I apoligize... /rant off

This happened to my husband about 5 years ago when he was a day late. They said it'd go back down after 3 or 4 months, and it did, to around 22%. We quickly paid off his account and they still kept billing us for interest on a non-existing balance. His interest rate ended up at 131.31% because we refused to pay it and BoA admitted it was their fault and there was no need for us to pay it. After almost a year of phone calls and letters, they finally removed the balance and fees that'd accumulated on the $0 balance and fixed his credit report.

[www.flickr.com]

I am finally getting rid of my BoA accounts. I have switched banks. I have a credit card with them that I am paying off and unfortunately my mortgage is through them. But at least my bank accounts are gone. These people suck.

BofA did this to me for being a day late. I called and tried to explain, but no go. So I transferred, canceled, and that was that. I figured it was pretty much my fault, so I didn't make a stink. They could be nicer, of course. But they don't have to be. I agreed to their rules when I signed the card. If they think there's enough potential customers out there to keep running through them like water...well, we'll see.

This needs to occur more often actually. Why? It will cause people to rethink the need for credit cards. Until gas prices reached record levels, people didn't see that they don't NEED to be driving everywhere and anywhere.

Once credit card rates are so astronomically high because you were a few days late and you cut off the card, and this occurs more and more, it will cause people to realize that they don't NEED that credit card to live.

Once that happens, the CC industry will go "Gee, screwing people out of more money is bad I guess". We've seen how just gas alone destroys an economy, now its time to see absurd credit card rates for little things destroy the credit industry and then trickle back into the economy even harder thus screwing everyone again.

@RagingBoehner: prospectively

oh, also, I forgot to mention that if you have a BofA acct and you move to another state, they will tell you that you have to close the acct and open a new one in the new state. The excuse I got from a number of employees there was that they couldn't be linked from state to state because of differing bank laws. This is total BS as there are other banks that are linked throughout states and you don't have to reopen an acct when you move. BofA just can't get their act together because all they do is buy other banks.

I guess now would be the time to say that failure to plan on your part does not constitute an emergency for BOA.

I have a hard time understanding why the OP and several posters above don't just paying the bills when they come in. That would alleviate any potential "late payments" and keep your rates safe and secure.

Most credit cards will jack your interest rate up if you are late twice in a 12 month period. They will usually even reinforce that after you are late once. Whether this is reasonable or not is debateable, but it seems to be fairly universal.

Just be thankful that it didn't ding your credit score. That typically doesn't kick in until a bill is 30 days late.

As much as I hate blaming the poster, the guy was late twice in a short amount of time, and BoA did exactly what the terms of the card says they'll do.

Credit cards are a rip-off. You agree to be ripped off when you get a credit card unless you follow their very specific anti-rip-off steps. Use a bank card or a payment card if you can't follow the steps. It's not like credit cards are the only payment method around.

@SigmundTheSeaMonster: If they received your check before the due date, they can't raise your rates. You should have demanded to speak to a supervisor.

Being late once, I can see. But having it happen twice, then I kind of lose sympathy, especially in this day and age when you know that these large financial institutions are just itching to find any excuse to jack up your interest rate. I'm sorry, but he needs to be more responsible.

I receive all of my credit card notifications through e-mail and I write the due dates and the amount owed on my desk calendar. I pay these bills online and make sure I schedule them for at least a few days in advance of the due date. It's really not that hard.

Depending on the size of this mortgage, and how long he is into it, they may care. If he just started his mortgage, and his loan is like, eh 200k, then they just like hundreds of thousands of dollars. If his payment is all principle (IE mortgage about over) then no, they dont care, they've made their money.

This happened to me with Citibank at 28.99% and they wouldn't budge on moving the rate back down. I just transferred the balance to a chase card with 3.99% instead.

For those people here who are actually defending paying late, how would you feel if your pay check was late?
I'm guessing it wouldn't go over so well.
So- pay your bills on time, for crying out loud.

How much longer until the Bank of Opportunists will reach critical mass and just explode?

I feel for the victims and will do everything I can to help them (if they post at certain consumer credit forums that I participate in). It's just that I'm just getting tired of hearing complaints about Bank of America when it's futile at best.

Damn it, just die BOA!

@Jonbo298: Just out of curiosity, are you also in the "people should use their mattress as a bank" camp?

Suppose, as you've said people re-think the importance of credit cards. People drop their credit cards en masse after some people screw up. Do you seriously think CC companies will realize the errors of their ways?

Perhaps as recently as several decades ago, they might have. In the year 2008, that ain't happening! Dream on! The creditors will bank on more naivity and simply find other ways to screw customers. Profit and money above everything, including ethics and other basics that every human beings SHOULD honor.

Let's face it, banks and creditors suck. But in a time when they have surprisingly strong control of our economy, it's in our best interests to game the system and use it to our advantage.

Or you can just sit there, complain and hope for the best. Just don't mind anybody pointing fingers and laughing at you.

@laserjobs: Helpful comments (try x...) are fine. Being smug about it ("it's not that hard") is not fine and falls under 'blaming the victim'. Please read the comment code before commenting.

Late is late when your bank is looking for ANY excuse to nail you.

@ThinkerTDM: @Tightlines: The point is not that it should be ok to pay late-- it isn't. The point is the astronomical penalty imposed for paying late. It's the financial equivalent of imposing the death penalty for stealing a pack of gum.

BofA = Beasts of Armageddon

@ThinkerTDM: you know what, that's happened to me. funny thing is, i didn't get paid an extra $35 & i wasn't able to convince my employer that he owed me an extra $5 an hour for the next 6 months b/c he paid me late.

so, i guess what i'm saying is, i don't think your comparison is a very good one.

kudos to laserjobs for being a freakin genius and always paying bills ahead of time. For the rest of us who live in the real world, this sucks. I was late on a BOA CC bill by 2 days and had my rate jacked up. I got the same reply from customer service. I'm planning to move all of my BOA accts over to my credit union.

I understand that this is a pretty drastic step on the part of Bank of America, but COME ON. It's not like you got the bill the day before it was due, or that you don't pay the same bill every month. Take some responsibility for your own inaction. I used to work retail and people would come in to complain that they got hit with a late fee. There was nothing we, at the store could do, and even if I could I don't think I would. Happily coming in several times a month, and putting it all on their charge, then coming back just to complain about actually having to pay it, on time, just like what the contract they signed said they'd have to do? Jeez.

@mmcnary: I know we're not supposed to QFT, so I won't, exactly, you know, QFT. I'll just leave the link right there. See, no quoting (in a, "don't remove this jumper that disables your listening in on all frequencies--yes, the jumper this arrow arrow points to," kind of way, though).

Add on, "they like making money by punitive fees," and you've got just about every anti-BofA comment covered.

@Consumerist-Moderator-Roz:

Is this better:

Try paying your bills on time as your credit card agreement outlines the corrective action they can take. I hear if you do not like the terms offered that you should try to opt-out of new terms or cancel the card in question.

Personally I still think being late on two payments is irresponsible.

@QuiteSpunky: Yes, the penalty sucks. But as consumers, before we sign a contract, we need to know what the penalties for failing to live up to the terms of the contract.

I'm actually in the middle of switching to a CU, lower interest rates, no nickel and diming... help for other various things for free O_O i'm sold!

Never a late payment when it was an MBNA card. Then it changed to Bank of A**es, and I noticed a payment was posted one day late. I called to complain and asked why it took 10 days from the day I mailed the payment to post - the CSR was shocked too. He put me on hold, but then came back and said tough luck.

I think he knew that the payment had been held and posted late on purpose. They increased the rate from 7% to 20.99%. I stopped using it. Write to Congress - they are going to vote soon on Credit Card Holders Bill of Rights.

And you can make a phone payment for only what $15.00? Got to love the fee beasts at BOA.

I too had this happen. Jacked me to 29.99, then reduced to 27.99 when I complained, and said that I needed 6 months of good payments to "review" it again for further decrease. I will be applying for a 0% for 6 months transfer with a couple of apps I received in the last 2 weeks...

Man, I truly hate people who blame the OP so easily.

We were late ONCE with BofA. And we were late because they randomly decided to change the due date. And we have automatic bill pay! They jacked our low rate up to 30%!!!!
So please- come on haters- find a way to blame us on that one~ Life happens- BofA happens. It does not always equal irresponsibility.

@ThinkerTDM: If my paycheck was one day late, but I got to charge them interest, I might take that deal...

Once I forgot about a payment, and called the day it was due. The first rep said sorry it's gonna post the next day and will be chargeda late fee. I called back, and the next rep had sympathy for me, and told me to go to www.myeasypayment.com and submit the payment there. it will post the same day, and no extra fee's. It is affiliated with BOA and never had a problem using it.

Even though I hate that companies have "due dates" and wish they would just go on an honor system and just trust that everyone will send their payments in when they can.......

I honestly believe there would be many people out there that would take advantage of it, so I understand that companies have to have due dates.

....... and along with that, if they had due dates but nothing bad happened if it was late, guess what..... YUP, many people would probable start to take advantage of it.

So even though I hate to say it, I agree with the companies who have to have due dates and have "punishments" when they are not followed.

(I think some companies try to take advantage of it by having due dates too soon after billing dates - but that is a different subject.)

You know what the penalty rules are when you get a credit card. You get the bill/invoice weeks before it is actually due. You can make an online payment 2 days before it's due, at no extra charge. If a person insists on mailing it, then mail it a week and a half before it is due so it arrives before the due date.
The penalty is the price you pay for not giving someone back their money when it is due. Late is late, and although you don't like the penalty, just avoid it by paying on time.

Why was it late? Too lazy to send it on time? Didn't have the money in the bank yet? It doesn't really matter. Deep down, you know you made a mistake, made it more than once, and you knew the rules. Your fault, stop blaming someone else.

I'm just very surprised to see so many comments here from people who think it should be OK to be even a little late with a payment. My guess is that you don't own a business, and you don't send out bills.

My suggestion would be, if you *KNOW* you can't make a payment on time - CALL YOUR CARDHOLDER!!! Last winter I was snowed in - couldn't make it to the post office to mail a payment, or to the credit union to do it directly. Hadn't set up electronic payments through my credit union either (didn't even know they were available at the time.) I called my cardholder and explained the situation (it was about 5 days before it was due but we were due for another major storm.) They looked back through my history (always on time, always more than minimum paid) and waived the payment for that month. They didn't HAVE to do that, I was just hoping they'd give me a few extra days to find a way to get to the credit union so I could pay. Surprised me, but I learned that not *all* credit card companies are evil.

Same experience with Citibank, who bumped my rate up to 29.99% after I had been late for the first time in the 4 years I've had the card. It was my fault, so I did not complain. This penalty rate only lasted 6 months, after which the rate returned to normal automatically. I think this is a very reasonable practice, and the cost is really nominal.

A few months back as I was graduating from graduate school and moving, I paid 3 of my credit cards late. Two were a day late and the my citi bank card was 23 minutes late. The two which were a day late, only charged me the typical late payment fee which I expected. No other fees or penalties and both were very happy about waving them.

Citi on the other had charged me a late fee and jacked my interest rate from 10.99% to 30.99%. I was 23 minutes late. My payment went from 150 to close to 400 a month. It took me 2 hours of arguing on the phone to get them to reverse the interest rate change and get the fee back.

@TeeDub: I got charged with a late payment because I paid my MBNA card (pre-BOA) too early - I saw the statement balance online, paid what my monthly budget would allow, and once I confirmed it went through, assumed it was paid. Turns out the payment processed as part of the previous payment cycle - they had shifted the dates slightly and never let me know. So from their perspective, I paid twice for the previous month and not at all during the current month, and the next time I checked there was a late fee attached.

Luckily, no rate increases & I got them to drop the late fee (since I had no previous late payments ever). But it really frustrated me that you have to wait for them to bill you before you can pay, or else the payment won't apply properly and you get penalized. And if the billing date varies, it really screws with planning.

@ThinkerTDM: How would you feel if you paid on time, but your credit card holder held the payment until it was late, and then jacked your rate?

Since, you know, that's exactly what's been happening to a lot of people.

BOA customer for 10 years. Not one problem or fee. Ever. Then again I only use a credit card for airline miles and pay it off every month.

Just set up an auto bill pay for the minimum each month if you have to...