Don't Use Bank Of America!

Avoid them like the plague! They're crooks, corrupt and thieves. They overcharge, underserve and they show no respect or regard for their customers. Here's what they did to me:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I'm warning folks not to do business with Bank of America. I am one of a growing number of consumers who've been victimized by BOA's illegal usury practices. BOA charged my 56% APR on a line of credit, refused to fix it, and without my permission or knowledge, contacted the 3 major credit reporting agencies and had false and misleading info added to my profile. The result has been a 140pit drop in my Credit Score.

After discovering that BOA has engaged in similar tacts with thousand of other customers, I'm encouraging anyone seeking credit to avoid Bank Of America at all costs. if you are a current BOA customer, check your records--make sure they aren't over charging without your knowledge. Make sure that BOA isn't ruining your credit score behind your back.

The following is a letter that I recently sent to BOA. They, of course, have offered no response.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

2/05/08

Bank of America
P.O. Box 15720
Wilmington, DE 19850-5720

Re: GoldOption Line of Credit Acct # XXXXX XXX XXX XX
CC: Equifax, Experian, TransUnion, BBB

To Whom It May Concern:

My name is HXXX WXXXX; I am a Bank of America customer whose credit rating and financial standing has been slandered, maligned, and deeply damaged by a faulty and misleading Bank of America line of credit transaction. This letter is one in a long line of attempts to salvage my credit rating and my previously good financial reputation.

After moving to California in the Spring 2007, apparently due to my status as a cardholder in good standing I began receiving promotional mailings from Bank of America offering lines of credit for up to $50,000 with APRs as low as 8.99%. Coincidentally, I was simultaneously pursuing avenues for infusions of capital to further my small business in my new local. Therefore I collected all the mailing that came in and added them to my research files.

After thoroughly comparing my options—Bank loans, credit card limit extensions, Bank of America’s GoldOption line of credit seemed the way to go. So I applied via mail-in application in late June 2007 to determine my eligibility. In July, “Terri” (I believe), a Bank of America rep contacted me by phone and informed me that my mail-in application had been reviewed and approved for a “GoldOption” line of credit in the amount of $30,000 with an APR of 12.99%.

She asked me what I would be using the money for, I told her had a small, out-of-home business that I’d been running and the credit line would be used for that purpose. She was interested in knowing what type of business it was and whether I’d be maintaining my current day job in the process. I stated that I was running a small book publishing company and that I would still be working a traditional job during the day.

During our conversation, Terri explained my options and procedures for accessing funds and remittance should I accept the line of credit. She stated that because transaction fees accrue each time a BOA customer accesses their line of credit, she recommended that I do as most BOA customers have—take the full amount in one lump sum. By having BOA deposit the entire $30,000 to my account I would avoid the transaction fees that would come with repeated credit line accesses.

Aware that banks and lending institutions such as BOA profit greatly from transaction fees, I thanked Terri for her candor in helping me avoid said fees and followed with an obvious question: “If I take the money all at once, how does Bank Of America track my use of it?”

Terri replied by explaining that upon acceptance I would receive a packet including three checks, (in my case, checks nos. 1010-1012); whenever I wanted to access my credit line, I would fill out a check in the appropriate amount and deposit them in the account that the $30,000 had been deposited into; and because this account would be linked to my credit line account, BOA could monitor the account against each withdrawal check for billing continuity.

When I asked her what my monthly payments would be, Terri responded that my payments would be $296.12 per month plus my APR of 12.99% for 96 months. On my computer I noted that $296.12 per month for 96 months or 8 years would total $28, 427.52. Adding in the aforementioned 12.99% APR, my estimated total due back would be in the neighborhood of $43,000. With that total spread out over an 8-year repayment schedule, I deemed the deal to be more than manageable for my needs.

Pleased with her explanation of the process, the APR, the terms, etc. I asked her when the repayment billing would start; she explained that I would be billed 45 days from my first transaction, followed by bills due in 30-day cycles, not unlike a traditional credit card bill.

At this point she asked me if I had any further questions; if not, would I accept the credit line offered under the stated terms. I replied that I had no further questions and agreed to accept the credit line.

Terri then asked for my bank information including routing codes and account numbers and began processing a wireless transfer of $30,000 to my account. She this would take upwards of 7-14 business days depending on the protocol of my bank and that I would be receiving a Line Of Credit packet with “everything we discussed on the phone in writing” along with checks to facilitate accessing my credit line. Before ending the call, Terri thanked me for my patience, whished me luck and success with my small business and hung up.

In mid-September, I received the discussed packet. On the first page, in black & white in the upper left hand corner it reads “Pending Balance Transfers, Washington Mutual Bank $30,000.” But just a few spaces down, right beneath my new account no., it states: “CREDIT LINE: $32,000.” My credit line is now Thirty-Two Thousand Dollars—two thousand dollars more than what I had previously agreed to.

Perplexed, I read on.

First paragraph of Page One states: “You should receive your first billing statement within 45 days of your first account transaction.”

On Sheet Three, second column, Paragraph Two under the heading of “PURPOSES FOR USING YOU ACCOUNT” the second sentence states, “You may not use your Account for business or commercial purposes.” After reading that, I thought to myself, “I explained that ‘business’ specifically a small business was precisely why I wanted the credit line.” Why would I be given a credit line with these terms?

With this info in hand, I promptly decide hold off on making my first transaction, thinking perhaps I’ll just use the credit line to offset personal credit card debt and instead use my personal funds for my out-of-home business.

A few days pass, when I receive a bill dated, “September 2007.” It’s for my credit line. First thing I notice is how much this credit line bill resembles a standard credit card statement. This is confusing given that I specifically researched, specifically inquired about, was specifically offered and accepted a Line of Credit, which is very different from a credit card. Still, I read on.

Under the “account information” section, it lists the following: Cash Advances: $30,000. Purchases and Adjustments: $296.12. Periodic Rate Finance Charges: $563.40. And Transaction Fee Finance Charges: $900.00. New Balance Total: $31, 759.52. And if that’s not enough, in the center of the page, it states: “Annual Percentage Rate for this Billing Period: 56.33%.” (Again, that’s Fifty-Six percent.)

After reading this bill, one thing’s clear: I’ve just been the victim of bait ‘n’ switch by Bank of America. I was sold and accepted—both verbally and in writing—a Line of Credit from Bank of America. Instead, I was given a maxed-out Bank of America credit card filled with hidden fees, taxes and an excessively high interest rate.

As an educated and patient consumer, I specifically sought to receive a Line of Credit as opposed to a credit card. I specifically took on a Line of Credit because the access to the funds are cash-use based, and not purchase-based; also unlike credit cards, lines of credit offer (traditionally, at least) significantly lower interest rates; and lastly, lines of credit traditionally offer more flexible repayment offers.

But wait, it gets better: My statement notes that my minimum payment of $1,006.12—which is almost 4-times the $296.12 that I agreed to when I accepted the credit line on the phone—is due on 10/11/07—less than 25 days from receiving the money. Oh, did I mention that even according to my bank records, while the $30,000 and only $30,000 posted on 8/14/07, I didn’t make a single transaction involving those funds? That’s correct. I’d never accessed the credit line and still have the unused checks and bank records to prove it.

Apparently, Bank of America actually counted the initial depositing of the funds as a transaction, which is outright fraudulent charging. Now keep in mind: the whole point of my agreeing to have the entire Line Of Credit in my acct was—as “Terri,” the BOA rep explained—to avoid transaction fees. So simply depositing the money into my account shouldn’t have counted as a transaction; and if it did, Terri shouldn’t have lied about that fact.

Furthermore: a $900 transaction fee?!

That extra nine hundred dollar transaction fee was more than my monthly minimum of two hundred and ninety-six dollars plus the finance charge of five hundred and sixty-three dollars combined! And given that none of this was explained to me either via phone or in my credit line packet, this constitutes multiple blatant and excessive acts of “bait ‘n’ switch” tactics—which are illegal in every state.

This also constitutes criminal usury and loansharking. Loan-sharking was legally defined by the Supreme Court in the case THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK V. VINCENT FERNANDEZ AND JOSEPH HALEY, 1978:

“A person is guilty of criminal usury when, not being authorized or permitted by law to do so, knowingly charges, takes or receives any money or other property as interest on the loan at a rate exceeding twenty-five percentum per annum or the equivalent rate for a longer or shorter period…”

So according to the Supreme Court, the 56.33% APR that I’ve been saddled with by Bank of America’s is a clear case of criminal usury, also known as “loan-sharking.”

Reeling from these realizations, I immediately called Bank of America at the contact number listed in my packet. I spoke to a male BOA rep that rudely upon pulling up my account information immediately inquired as to when I’d be making a payment. After explaining to him that not only were the terms on my bill completely different from the terms that I agreed to and that these additional charges were excessively high but that I was also being charged sooner than the 45-day term or even a standard 30-day billing cycle, despite not having even making a transaction yet, the BOA rep interrupted me by dismissively saying, “Yeah, yeah, yeah… so what do you want to do about it?”

The obvious high level of annoyance and dismissiveness in his voice was palpably stunning. Despite being a customer service rep, he spoke in tones and language that made it quite clear that he had more important tasks at hand than serving BOA customers.

Still, I calmly and politely replied, “Well I haven’t even used the money yet. These fees are wrong and I’m being billed before I don’t want this so I want to give the money back.”

He derisively cuts me off again by snapping, “Well fine then; just give money back!”

Just give the money back. It was as if I was being ungrateful for such a wonderful deal and was wasting everyone’s time; and simply giving it all back would keep me in BOA’s good graces. The rep made no attempt to address BOA’s outrageous 56.33% interest rate, or the sneak attack of excessive and undisclosed charges or the absence of explanations for the undo change in payment schedule, etc. Nothing. Just a dismissive, “give the money back.”

Given that I still hadn’t yet accessed any of my Line of Credit, and given that I was still well ahead of the (inexplicably sped-up) payment deadline, and given that this customer service rep was of no help whatsoever, I decided to attempt to give the money back, hoping that this would help rectify the matter.

The BOA customer service rep informed me that I still had10 business days to return the money without being charged. I replied that I’d like to return it now if I could, given that I hadn’t used any of it. The rep decided to process a wire transfer to expedite matters. I agreed. The rep then asked for my bank’s routing info, verified my checking acct and was ready to begin.

Next I asked him point-blank, “What about all these fees? Since I’m retuning all $30,000 ahead of time unspent, I shouldn’t have to pay these fees.”

The rep said he would process the transfer, but that BOA’s partnering companies were responsible for some of the fees so I needed to talk to them directly, After beginning the transfer process, I was transferred to another service rep who after explanation agreed to reverse all the related charges. I waited 3-5 days then requested account statements from my bank. I read thru and confirmed that the $30,000 had indeed been wired back to Bank Of America.

Just when I thought the matter was settled, I received another BOA bill—this one labeled: October 2007. This bill listed my previous balance of $31,759.12 with $31,483.40 listed as “Payments and Credits”. It also listed a debt of $446.13 under “Periodic Rate Finance Charges.” Under New Balance Total I saw the amount: $742.25. Under “Minimum Due”: $710.00.

It also included an inexplicably-adjusted APR of 21.99%. Now while the 12.99 isn’t the absurdly loanshark-esque 56.33% I was stuck paying before—it was still 10 full points higher than the 12.99% that I had been offered and agreed to. And had I known the APR would be anywhere from 21.99% to 56.33% I would’ve never accepted the line of credit in the first place.

Infuriated, I called back Bank Of America. After the customer rep pulled up my records and I explained the chain of events, I was told that the charges would be reversed.

Weeks later, I received a new bill—this one label: November 2007. It reads: “Total Payment Due: $347.41.” The total includes “Purchases and Adjustments” in amount $39.00, plus “Periodic Rate Finance Charges” in the amount of $12.29. I promptly call back BOA demanding an explanation. The BOA rep tells me, “It could take 1-2 billing cycles for all the charges to be reversed and reflected in my account” but they should be removed immediately.

Roughly two weeks later, I receive another bill—this one for December 2007. It states that I owe $393.19 in late fees, APR, etc. I call BOA, who claims that I owe this money from the Line of Credit. After re-explaining my case, they say only that they’ll take care of it.

It’s now January 2008 and I have just received another statement. According to this one, I owe $439.62 in APR, late fees and past due charges.

Now all while I’m receiving these bills, I was also being flooded with updates from my credit score monitoring services. According to Experian, Equifax and TransitUnion, I not only have outstanding amounts of $32,000 in newly-acquired credit debt, but I have also been late 3 months in a row in making BOA payments. I have in my possession three notices for “30 days past due,” “60 past due” and “90 days past due,” respectively all linked to Bank Of America.

Despite canceling my credit line and returning all monies less than 2 weeks from receiving it in August 2007, and despite being promised that all charges would be reversed, Bank Of America has instead spent the last six months marring and maligning my credit history and financial profile with a series of knowingly false reports and slanderous addendums to credit reporting agencies. The result has brought excessive stress and strain to my personal, financial and business relationships.

Over the last 7 months I have seen:
• My credit score plummet from 810 to 716 and falling.
• I was denied credit by 3 different creditors specifically because, after they checked my
credit report they decided that “I already owed way too money.”
• I have been unable to qualify for car loans in California because of BOA’s falsely reported
outstanding debt.
• My fiancé and I have even had to postpone our 2008 plans for buying a home. Why?
Because of my low credit score I can’t get a favorable interest rate.
      • My home-based business, which I’d been attempting to refinance with a line of credit, is
      now in shambles. As a small book publisher with distribution, I had orders for titles ready
      to fill and paying customers attempting to purchase my books. But, due directly to BOA’s
      negligence I was unable to pay the necessary vendors (printers, typesetters, and shippers)
      needed to fill the orders and supply product to customers. Consequently I was forced to
      my business’ doors in Nov. 2007.

After years of building up a stellar credit rating—one that consistently hovered around 810 and never dipped below 780—Bank Of America has marred, defamed and maligned my credit history to the point of no return. Bank of America falsely and erroneously misreported non-debts and missed payments associated with its Bank of America Line of Credit.

What Bank Of America has done to my near A+ credit rating and good financial standing is tantamount to repeated acts of slander and defamation of character. My options for securing favorable rates with reputable realtors and car dealers have been reduced to nil. Since I have been turned down for several credit card lenders. Thanks to Bank Of America my (previously unlimited) opportunities and access to necessary capital needed to restart my business are now nil. It will take me years to restore my good standing with realtors, car dealers, and creditors—that’s if it can ever be done.

The damage that Bank Of America has inflicted upon me, my financial character, financial history and identity, along with my credit opportunities for building a solid financial future has been reprehensible, malicious, and inexcusable.

Therefore, unless I am contacted by a BOA rep that is authorized to offer adequate and fair recompense for the wrongs Bank Of America has committed against me in the next 10 business days, I will take all the documentation collected over the last 7 months (including credit reports, updates, promotional mailers, bills, etc.) and immediately and aggressively pursue all legal means at my disposal, including litigation against BOA and all parties involved in my credit line.

I will seek restitution and compensatory damages for the following acts that Bank Of America has perpetrated again me: Consumer Fraud, Bait & Switch tactics, Criminal Usury, Defamation of Character and Slander. Furthermore, I will contact as many politicians, media outlets and states attorney’s offices in every state that Bank of America has an office in the name of shedding light on and bringing a halt to Bank Of America’s destructive and unethical financial practices against consumers.

I look forward to your timely response.

Respectfully,

Mr. HWW WGGG
XXX Swewe PXXXXX RX #82
Dwxwxw, CA 19765
(909) www-wwww