Bank Of America Don't Fall for the Post-Dated Check-by-Phone to save your credit card account scam Wilmington Delaware

I had a Bank of America (BOA) VISA card for 4 years that I used heavily. I always paid my balance in full and on time. I was never late with a payment and I never went over my credit limit.

In mid-2008, I fell behind after being unemployed for several months. I informed Bank of America in writing about my situation and requested a modified reduced payment plan since I didn't have the cash flow to make the recently-increased minimum monthly payment. Their response was a barrage of phone calls at all hours from numbers all over the US - Florida, Virginia, New York, Delaware - from both regular numbers as well as from 800 numbers. The "representatives" all used the same angle - pressure to make an immediate check-by-phone payment. They refused to take "no" for an answers, even when I explained that I had no income. Eventually, I had to block out the callers' numbers. Of course, they would simply call from another number.

Also, BOA uses the "universal default" ripoff. They pull your credit report frequently and use any report of a late payment to anyone as an excuse to raise your interest rate. By the end of 4/2008, my interest rate was 31%. Of course, that raised my minimum monthly payment.

In 11/2008, Bank of America started hounding me on my cell phone. In mid-December, I received a call from Bank of America while I at work (I had started a new job on 12/2/08). The representative told me my account was about to be closed and about to be reported to the credit bureaus as "closed by subscriber". She insisted that the only way to save my account was to immediately make a check-by-phone payment for a "past due amount" of $448.00. When I explained my new job situation and the fact that I wasn't getting paid until the end of the month, she pressured me into doing a post-dated check-by-phone which she promised would save my credit card. I agreed. What I didn't know at the time was that my card had already been canceled the week before. Of course, BOA refused to re-open the account.

No one at Bank of America will admit it, but it turns out that their collections representatives (they are in-house - NOT from a collection agency) are paid commisions on delinquent accounts. They will say anything to get a payment. Don't fall for it.

Calvin
Upper Marlboro, Maryland
U.S.A.