vaicys, I'd try to just tell Chase that you didn't get the check with your new card, and you'd like a replacement. They usually included a balance transfer check with a new card.
kostie... with your weird billpay dilemna, who's billpay were you using, BofA's (and if so was it true BofA, or ex-MBNA), or were you using E-trade's? Regardless, think you're best off just waiting an crossing your fingers. Also, bear in mind that payments are often credited cards only at the extreme end of the day (after midnight).
Oh, and to determine the statement date, I usually just log in and look at historical statements, and determine the date or date range that they're generated.
markkundinger said: kostie... with your weird billpay dilemna, who's billpay were you using, BofA's (and if so was it true BofA, or ex-MBNA), or were you using E-trade's? Regardless, think you're best off just waiting an crossing your fingers. Also, bear in mind that payments are often credited cards only at the extreme end of the day (after midnight).
Oh, and to determine the statement date, I usually just log in and look at historical statements, and determine the date or date range that they're generated.
I was not using a billpay per se. I was using the usual option of paying from an account with a routing and an account number. I tried to play it as safe as I could with a test payment (which worked), but then I got this mishap with "we asked E*TRADE to send us a check" ... As far as statement date -- I'm keeping an Excel file for this AOR, which among other things keeps track of all statement and due by dates. For the BOA card in questions all statement dates (except the very 1st one) fell on 12th or 13th of the month, but this time I'd like to know for sure, especially if the payment is not going to be credited until the physical check arrives and clears. Feels like I need to start working on Plan B ... (being a bit paranoid) I cannot get rid of a feeling that BOA is actively trying to screw me (as well as tooshy, jairocon, as they tell us around here).
1. 08/09 called BOA. They said they submitted a request for electronic (i.e., ACH) money transfer from E*TRADE and it was E*TRADE's decision to mail a check instead. 2. Called E*TRADE, they could not explain why they did not honor a request for electronic debit and chose to mail a check instead. The check (that BOA says E*TRADE mailed on 08/08) is not in E*TRADE's system yet, at least not in the part of the system a CSR can see. The CSR put a research request in for me. 3. BOA (not totally unexpectedly) is trying to screw me further by making August statement date 08/10 (for the previous 5 months it has been the 12th or the 13th of the month). 4. I'll be paying $22K of my $30K BOA CC balance from BOA NEA MMA and the rest with a personal check (by going into a physical branch tomorrow morning [08/10, the statement date]) drawn against my checking account in Chase (which I just funded by a push from E*TRADE). BOA CSR tells that if I do that all the interest accrued between 08/10 and when the check actually clears will be credited back (as if I paid in full on the statement date). 5. BOA CSR told me that once E*TRADE check comes (at which point I'll have a $30K credit on my BOA CC) they will refund me via check. They cannot just transfer the money to the NEA MMA, they can only re-direct to checking acct., but I don't have one with them.
Well, looks like I'll be loosing 7-10 days of interest on that $30K that E*TRADE has sent a check for ... The only positive experience in all of this is that E*TRADE has the best "hold music" I've heard in years. Highly recommend -- 1-800-387-2331 to listen (but it still gets you after 10 mins. or so)
New developments over the course of 6-7 days since I last posted: 1. The amount of the check was credited (appeared online) on 08/09 (the payment was scheduled on 08/08, so this is in line with their policy of all prior day activity being reflected online next day). 2. BOA CSRs repeatedly claimed that the check has cleared (I did not see it debited from E*TRADE, so I never believed them). 3. On 08/16 the check bounced and $39 returned check fee was assessed. 4. Now BOA says it was their decision to ask E*TRADE for a check, b/c the transaction is over $25K (they referred to this threshold as if it's established by the Patriot Act). I'm confronting them on this in the fax I sent on 08/16 asking for the fee reversal, as when I submitted my online payment request I only authorized "Bank of America to electronically debit funds from the payment account". 5. E*TRADE is still unsure that if they have actually sent a check (can you believe that?!)
cardjuggler
Senior Member
posted: Aug. 29, 2007 @ 7:16p
cyberkost said: how we separate our credit cards once my wife's credit history no longer needs a crutch (say in 3 years from now). Ask them to send you a form; fill it out to move the card to one name or the other, both of you sign, send it in, wait ... and perhaps dispute on one or more credit bureaus who don't show the change on their own.
Or, as suggested, cards with low utilization may help both scores by reducing overall utilization.
1) Ok, the story with E*TRADE writing a check to BOA (to pay my cc balance upon 0% APR expiration) and then not honoring a check (first "due to insufficient funds" and then due to "a check writtenn agains a *savings* account) came to an end. Got BOA to reverse the finance charge and got E*TRADE to "refund" the $39 expense they incurred. Don't feel unethical about it whatsoever, as I had to spend hours on the phone to get this resolved.
2) EX score went up 9 points -- same inqs, same balances as yesterday. Could it be that some inqs just aged to 6 months?
3) Applied for BOA Defenders of Wildlife Money Market savings account as an existing customer. Not sure if approved, but there is a *soft* pull on my EX report as a result of this.
4) This is the most weird thing. I had to call BOA today to ask them to reverse a finance charge ... They applied my payment to the wrong card (a closed one) and by the time they sorted it out (with a bit of help from me) 0% APR had expired thus the finance charge (which was entirely their fault -- more on this story in the above posts). The CSR was very nice and said the charge will be removed without even listening to my arguments. Then he became extra-nice and told me that b/c I am a valuable long-term (since Feb'07, ha-ha) customer, he's offering 1.9% APR NO FEE BT to checking on both of my cards. I have a combined CL of $41K with them ($36K on one card and $5K on the other), so he was like "why don't we BT $41K to your checking". I said I cannot make such a decision on the spot and would need time. He said, "let me see, maybe there's a better offer" and came back with 1% APR NO FEE BT to checking till June'08 (still offering it for the entire $41K = both cards). I was thinking to myself that assuming 5+% APR HYS accounts are going to be around this is still free money, taxes figured in, but I still told him that I'd need to think about this. Then he said that BOA has a recent copy of my credit report (they soft-pulled Experian yesterday when I applied for the Defenders of Wildlife Money Market savings account) that shows about $90K debt, and asked what APR I'm paying on that debt. I told him that most of it is 0% (which did not seem to surprise him any) and there is only a small portion that is under higher rate, but I intend to take care of it in the next two weeks. He then repeated his offer of $41K to checking under 1% APR and followed up that I should open a checking acct. with BOA for an additional $25 (he also said that he understands that $25 is probably almost nothing to me). At the end we agreed that he'd give me until Monday (in 5 days from now) to make up my mind.
I'd appreciate if people can share opinions and/or similar experiences, in particular: ** are there any gotchas? ** how often what CSR says in situations like this one turns out to be complete BS and one gets some sort of 19.99% APR and/or huge fees? ** assuming everything goes like the CSR described -- what kind of a bet BOA is making here? Or is it that some (all?) CSRs are incented on the amount of BT they generate?
other threads seem to suggest that BOA CSR's get a bonus for getting customers to do BTs because the CSRs are pushy about it. I don't have much experience in that, a BOA CSR let me consolidate and reallocate some cards and do a 9900$ BT on the phone. Very nice guy to talk to, we chatted about various things (his work schedule, etc) while the computer was processing everything I was having him do.
markkundinger
Senior Member - 2K
posted: Sep. 13, 2007 @ 12:06a
Well, first Cyberkost, what would the actual effective rate be on the BT? 1%? 2%? That will affect the profitablity. Remember, a 5% HYS after taxes is only a little over 3%, so a 2% interest rate is not overly exciting.
I'd be tempted to go for it, as long as the rate was low enough, and it wouldn't send your global utilization off a cliff. Since BofA has been a little touchy lately (see jairocon), I don't think I'd max out the offer though.
kwg, thanks! That's almost exactly what I was going to do. My wife just applied and got approved for a fee-free MyAccess checking with them ($100 bonus). I was going to follow her footsteps, but, I guess, the link you provided is as good. I'll make sure there's no dd or minimum balance requirements (from the thread here I gather there's none) and apply later this evening.
1. In early 09/2007 (a month after I finished 6 mos. 0% APR with them) BOA offered to DD the entire CL with them into checking at 1% APR till 06/2008. I took the offer, BTed $37K and paid down to $34.5K (89%) before statement date. Balance reported to all 3 CRAs around 10/15/2007. Scores dropped by 5-7 points. 2. Expanded my BOA relationship to include MyAss Checking account ($100 bonus + it's nice to have [another] free checking account) and Defenders-of-Wildlife MMS account. Enjoyed DoW relatively high APR for 3 days and then had to move money back to NEA, which subsequently dropped to 5.1X% APR too. 3. 1 TU inq. disappeared after 38 PM123 pulls combined with 8-9 other softs not initiated by me. 4. Looks like PNC/Elan balance is still not reported on TU (kinda "lost in translation", when CC department ownership changed) 5. Contemplating opening a checking account at Everbank to take advantage of their 6.01% for first 90 days promo (thanks jackcrawfish), but not sure if it's worth another hard pull on Experian (their CSR says it's always Experian that they hit with a hard and no, they would not consider other means of verifying my identity)
Just another update (general theme is "not much is going on"):
1. As expected, BOA charged $12 maintenance fee on the DOW account, despite the addendum to the personal fee schedule that said they wouldn't. Calling did not help, went to the branch. They first tried to talk me into getting "advantage" status, but that is conditioned on $10K minimum balance with them (and I actually intend to pull all of the money out of BOA, given that their rates are currently not competitive), whereas all of my accounts with them are (should be) fee-free regardless of the balance or anything else (and that's how I like it). Then they were somehow trying to put a DOW code on MyAccess checking! I told them not to, but I'm not sure what ended up happening. Then they tried to change one DOW code on my money market savings account (the one that got hit with the fee) to another DOW code. One lady could not do it, but then the manager was able to trick the system to accept the code. They say I should now be permanently fee-free on that account, they did say that they were considering to just manually remove the fee, for a year, but decided to do it properly and, it looks like, succeeded at it despite some difficulties. 2. A year ago, when I signed for a new plan with Verizon Wireless, I thought their monthly bill of about $90 cannot be a good thing. But this KTC program makes me think otherwise. In fact, paying my VZW bill in $1.0X increments pretty much the only option for me to take advantage of the program. I think I should be able to close $250 in change kept before initial 3 months are over. 3. Started a process of opening a brokerage with Fidelity (for bonuses and FSLXX yield that seems to be more appealing than most of the HYS rates around). It's a ROYAL PITA to get a *savings* account (especially in a bank that does not have branches and is not too eager to mail you forms that you might need) linked to Fidelity ... but 3 weeks down the road I got my BOA NEA MMS and FNBO online savings into a "prenote" status on Fidelity. Few more days and I'll be on my way to earn $100 + 25K AA miles (hopefully). 4. BOA bumped up CL on their AMEX from $3K to $15K (that's while I have a $35K BT on my other card with them ($38K CL)). I tried to move $15K further up (since BOA CLI has been reported to be on crack), but for each of the two attempts I got a letter stating that I'm at the maximum total CL with them ($53K=$15K+$38K) given my HHI ($116K). 5. My FAKO (PM123) scores (I do track them in the OP) have been hanging just a tad below 700 for most of the time. However EQ climed from it's low 703 on 04/04 to 740-750 relatively quickly, but then fell 45 points on 11/14. I could not associate this drop with any change on the EQ report (# of accounts, number of inquiries, balances -- all stayed the same). I did, however get an e-mail alert from PM123 around that time: ------------------- Dear cyberkost,
This is an alert from Privacy Matters 123 to notify you that a change has been posted to your credit report on 11-15-2007.
Privacy Matters 123 monitors your credit file(s) daily and alerts you to when changes are detected by the credit bureaus, TransUnion, Equifax and Experian. We are committed to providing you with personalized updates and you will receive an email alert when any of the following changes occur in your credit file: * New inquiries * New accounts * Address changes * Public records * Potentially negative information ------------------- I did inspect my report for all of the items mentioned in the alert, but did not find any. I would appreciate if anyone could share similar experience and/or put forward a hypothesis about what happened. I'm concerned, but not too concerned, as my EQ score is now in line with the other two. 6. Mrs. cyberkost has been taking some WOR classes . She's got some 750-770 FAKO scores and has been able to get some solid lines through this year pursuing some nice offers [ $22.5K on Chase Freedom ($250 bonus), $17K on WAMU Platinum (0% APR on purchase through some time in 2009), $24.9 on AMEX SPG (initially $6.1K, 10K SPG points for her, 5K SPG points for me) ] ... The middle of December is going to be hot!
cyberkost said: 2. A year ago, when I signed for a new plan with Verizon Wireless, I thought their monthly bill of about $90 cannot be a good thing. But this KTC program makes me think otherwise. In fact, paying my VZW bill in $1.0X increments pretty much the only option for me to take advantage of the program. I think I should be able to close $250 in change kept before initial 3 months are over.You could use google checkout for this as well. Sending all those $1.01 invoices would be a pain. But if you've got a place to park a BuyItNow button, you could add a $1.01 item and fly through 50 'purchases' in less than 5 minutes.
I need some help ... somehow I'm not finding "BOA master thread", so I'll ask the question here (and give this thread a much needed bump to prevent from archiving).
The thing is that I used to be able to pay my BOA Financial Rewards Platinum Plus (FRPP) VISA credit card (at BOA web-site) from my checking account with Chase. 2-3 months ago I set up billpay (at BOA) and opened DOW MMS and MyAccess checking accounts (in addition to NEA that I've had all along) and I don't seem to be able to pay my BOA FRPP VISA from my Chase checking account. I'm not sure when exactly this happened, as I was using funds internal to BOA to pay the card in question during those 2-3 months. Now I want to go back to paying it from Chase, but there's no such option at BOA website: a) if I choose "Make a transfer to pay my credit card, mortgage or loan" at the "Accounts/Accounts Overview" screen the Chase checking is there among the "From:" accounts, but my WP VISA is not among "To:" accounts (in fact, "To:" drop-down menu only has my deposit accounts at BOA, and, ironically, no "credit card, mortgage or loan"s) b) if I go into "Accounts/Accounts Details" for my BOA FRPP VISA and click "Pay now", I'm taken to "Bill Pay/Overview" Screen ... for anything I pay there money seems to be taken from my BOA NEA account (perhaps this is how I set it up).
Is there a way to fix this problem (restore the ability to take money from Chase checking acct. and apply it directly to BOA FRPP CC as a payment)? I mean without calling them and letting them know that their "Make a transfer to pay my credit card, mortgage or loan" does not allow to pay credit cards ...
To answer my own question ... indeed BOA steers one to use his/her inside the bank accounts for credit card payments (how stupid is that?). However, there is a website https://www.myeasypayment.com/, which one can use to make one time payments. You'll need to enter your card and source account info each time you use it (there is no username and password) ...
edlisal
Happy Member
posted: Dec. 21, 2007 @ 12:43p
cyberkost said: To answer my own question ... indeed BOA steers one to use his/her inside the bank accounts for credit card payments (how stupid is that?). However, there is a website https://www.myeasypayment.com/, which one can use to make one time payments. You'll need to enter your card and source account info each time you use it (there is no username and password) ...
I'm still able to pay my BOA CC from my credit union. I just click on "Pay now" from my credit card screen at BOA, click on "Pay" next to the bill I want to pay and my CU checking account shows up in the drop down list. There is an option on that page to "Add payment account" which asks for routing and account number, so doesn't look like it is limited to BOA accounts. I do also have a MyAccess checking account (from signing up for the bonus), but it doesn't make me use it to pay the CC bill.
cyberkost said: Edlisal, you don't have BOA billpay, do you?
No, I don't. Maybe that is the difference, but I can't see why they would preclude you from paying with another bank. I would call them and see if they can straighten it if I were in the situation. Good luck.
Yes, billpay makes a difference (as I suspected when first posting about this problem, but now I know for sure). "Pay now" on credit card screen takes me to billpay screen, which (for obvious reasons) does not have external accounts as money-source... I did call BOA customer service and after ten redirects and two hang-ups I got somebody intelligent enough to understand what I was referring to. The guy basically admitted that forcing a customer to pay his cc debt using money BOA already has does not make much business sense. He went on to say that to address this problem, BOA (in its own screwed up way) has created a web-site to make payments from external accounts (myeasypayment.com). He also said, that he understands that myeasipayment.com functionality should have been there in my online account to begin with, but this is a project beyond BOA scope of problems so far.
markkundinger
Senior Member - 2K
posted: Dec. 21, 2007 @ 6:29p
Hey, if it's any consolation, when I click the "pay now" button in BofA's online system, I get two options. Bill Pay Choice takes me to the ex-MBNA billpay system, which I use.
Plain "Bill Pay" does nothing, I could click it all day long and get nowhere.
First adverse action here, hooray! I have cards with CITI, Chase, AMEX, BOA, PNC and WAMU. Guess which one was it? Don't look below (and no, this is not a trick question).
Well, you guessed it right -- my buddies from chase decided to poop under my Christmas tree (right before I was to put it away). To tell the truth, I was almost expecting it as the gap between the $49K CL and the $35.7K balance was too wide by their standards (as I read in so many posts here). They must've felt that a $300 headroom will fit me a lot better. Bastards, I direct-deposited with them almost since my first paycheck many-many years ago -- and that's how they paid me back for my true love? . Again, I kinda expected this to happen given all the posts describing similar AA ... what pisses me off to a degree though, is that I was within a month of paying my BT back and coming clean (under the assumption that the CL reduction would not have happened if I were not carrying the balance). Ah-h well, I'll just be milking them HARDER next time as I have such a good memory for bad things that happen to me .
markkundinger
Senior Member - 2K
posted: Jan. 11, 2008 @ 4:52p
Whoah, whoah, whoah.
You made it 11 months into your AOR, and THEN you get adverse action? That's incredibly annoying.
A $14k credit line haircut is annoying, but by no means fatal. You can get it back on your next app. Actually, you might even try calling them back up after paying off the card and ask to get the CL restored... who knows, it might work.
And I've it's any consolation, I've made it about 5 months into my rama, and I'm awaiting my first AA from somewhere. It's kind of a sword of Damocles that hangs over us all.
edit: BTW, go to the site of the credit bureau that Chase consulted, pull your adverse action credit report, and see if you can find out when Chase was doing account/review inquiries. Also see if their A/R review came after some other inquiry.
Yes, I'll definitely use this opportunity to get a free credit report (if it's TU or EQ, EX is free "on-demand" anyway ) ... but before I do, I need to wait for a letter from them telling me which CRA they consulted with. I guess, there's also a possibility that they decided to trim my CL without looking at any credit report ... and, yes, I was planning to ask them for my CL back (without hard pull) once I pay the balance back.
1. I just paid back my Chase balance. Had to do it installments, as they don't allow to pay more than $25K at a time and payments have to be spaced by at least 3 (business?) days. Paid it few days before the due date they told me via secure messaging system (roughly 30 days after it would have been due if I were to interpret T&C on my own), leaving myself some room to maneuver in case they pull another gotcha at me. Still, will have to wait until early March to see if they charged me any interest b/c their left hand did not know what the right hand was doing. 2. Have not decided yet whether to call Chase about bringing my lines where they were before "trimming". I'm leaning toward not calling until all BTs are paid back (late March), though I don't have large balance with Chase itself as of yesterday. 3. Called to convert my AMEX SPG ($50K CL) to Hilton HHonors, but chose "cancel the card" option to get to retentions. They offered $30 credit, which I accepted -- wanna keep SPG in order to prevent points from expiring.
.. it's probably one of the last few posts in this thread ...
1. I was very pleased to see my 2007 1099s add up to about $9.3K I have to say that without FWF the number would have been more like $2-3K. 2. I still carry a $31K balance on my BOA card (promo APR through 06/01/2008) which shows on all 3 reports. Also my funding of CITI checking+MMA combo with Chase CC (around $25K) is reflected on EX and EQ reports. Even with these hefty (by all regular measures) balances my scores are 790 745 783 (EX has 11 hards showing). TU and EQ scores are already well above what they have been pre-AOR. I may even have a shot at touching 800 once all of the balances are repaid. 3. Not that I was waiting till the very last second to pay my AOR balances, but none of the issuers gave me trouble as far as coming up with a different (from mine) interpretation of when promo BT rate expires. I am very glad this phase of the AOR went problem-free. 4. As a result of my exposure to all the knowledge in FWF I now have a $73.5K CL @ AMEX, $38K CL @ BOA and had a $49K CL @ Chase (subsequently trimmed to $36K). These are single cards, not my combined limits with each issuer.
Plans: 1. Not do another AOR till HYSA rates start going up (4%+). Focus on account opening bonuses in the meanwhile. Maybe apply for a couple of miles cards. No TYPs, as between wife and me we'll be getting 80K TYPs that have to be used within 6 months (for fixed rate redemption to work) .. and we don't fly all that often. 2. Try to undo Chase CL trimming ($49K->$36K and $6K->$3K) once all of the balances are repaid. 3. Perhaps continue to dispute 2 BOA hards on EX (in connection with the opening of a savings account). 4. Re-organize card portfolio (wife's as well) through conversion, reallocation, consolidation (or new apps as described in 1 and 6) to have (preferably) no low limit cards (everything has to be $20K+) AND to have a "highly liquid / expendable" card wherever possible -- the one that can be most easily reallocated to the new cards with promo terms. 5. Trim down the number of HYSAs (e.g., close Emigrant and HSBC) 6. Perhaps apply for a couple of cards known for high initial CLs (I'm thinking PenFed and CITI HHonors, maybe Wachovia) that would broaden the list of issuers that "like" me and will help with overall utilization in the future.
I thought it'd be natural to conclude this AOR thread with the credit profile summary once all of the balances are paid down (and reported to the CRAs).
When I started my stats were: 02/13/2007 730 759 769 (inqs: 0 2 1 or smth. close to that, total personal CL $63.8K) Today, when I'm "back to normal", my stats are: 06/20/2008 789 773 793 (inqs: 0 11 0, total personal CL $254.5K)
I did not hit the 800 points mark I was hoping to hit, but this, perhaps, is largely due to no mortgages/installment loans/etc. showing on my credit reports (and, of course, some of the cards being only 16 month old).
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