Wall Street word of the day: LARGE. Lehman Brothers Holdings, Inc. has filed the largest U.S. bankruptcy. American International Group (AIG), the largest insurance company in the world, threatens to crumble. Bank of America, which has the largest number of deposits of any U.S. bank, is buying out the world's largest brokerage, Merrill Lynch. Egads.
We had a foretaste of this in March when JPMorgan Chase bought out Bear Stearns with a little help from the Fed. I suppose that since Bank of America is doing its part to bail out America without the Fed's help (as it should be -- and should have been-- in my humble opinion), I ought to be singing B of A's praises, or at the very least saying nothing.
But I'm not. On the large scale Bank of America is the good guy, though don't think for a minute that I'm suggesting the Merrill Lynch buyout is purely humanitarian. On the small scale, I'm personally miffed with Bank of America.
Yesterday, when the biggest news on television was still the Sarah Palin-Charles Gibson interview and Hurricane Ike, I logged on to pay my Bank of America credit card online. Due date: Monday, September 15. You would think that when dealing with one of America's largest banks, complete with Internet banking, I could enter a payment on September 14 that would post by September 15. This is the age of instant everything, right? Wrong. My payment would not post until September 16, resulting in a $35 late fee plus interest. Their site informed me that Express Payment was available for a $15 charge.
Now, I wasn't completely ignorant yesterday. I've waited until the last minute or simply forgotten my payment date before. In the past I've paid the fifteen bucks for Express Payment or taken a beating with the late fee and interest. One time I even spoke with a customer service "manager" who finally agreed to void the late payment and interest fees only after lecturing me about how I shouldn't wait until the last minute and couldn't expect them to do this again. Yeah--whatever.
Yesterday I'd had enough. I've had this credit card for fifteen years (though Bank of America only bought out my previous credit card company a few years ago). I know good and well that Bank of America could get their money by the due date if I posted it twenty-four hours in advance. In fact, if I pay my other credit card online by 5:00 p.m. on the due date, I'm considered current. That other credit card is owned by the American bank with the largest number of assets. Surely B of A could compete. But why should they?
Full of righteous indignation, I called Bank of America's customer service line, punched in the last four digits of my account number, listened through sixty seconds of unrequested, automated account information and several different menus before being connected with a human being named Lenny. Seriously--Lenny. I immediately pictured this and couldn't get it out of my mind:
"Hey, Lenny, I want to pay my credit card online." And how are the Squigtones? I wanted to add. Remembering my experience with the previous "manager," I added, "The only way I can avoid late fees at this point is to make an Express Payment, right?"
"Let me look here." While I waited I mentally rehearsed my I-want-to-cancel-my-card-this-is-ridiculous speech. Lenny continued, "Yes, it's due tomorrow, so you'd have to use Express Payment. Or you can go to myeasypayment.com"
"What? Where's that? Is that website given on the Bank of America page I'm looking at?" I asked, incredulous. Had I been missing this all along?
"No. It's just a website people sometimes use when they don't have a Bank of America checking account."
"Why isn't it listed there next to the $15 Express Payment option?" I asked. Of course he had no answer. He's just lowly Lenny at the bottom of the Bank of America customer service chain. I went to myeasypayment.com a little fearfully, expecting to find a never-before-heard-of company that would ask for all the information I didn't want to give like social security number, birthdate, mother's maiden name.
But, no. The first picture to download to my screen was the well-known Bank of America logo. Myeasypayment.com was directly affiliated with Bank of America! Why was I just now learning of this? Was I the only ignorant Bank of America customer? Why didn't the earlier "manager" tell me about it rather than chastise me like a tardy kindergartener?
I didn't know and didn't care. I didn't give the megabank the benefit of the doubt but instead assumed that this was their greedy method of extracting $15 or more from thousands of other procrastinators just like me. I cancelled my card and insisted that Lenny document the reason behind the cancellation, certain that the large financial institution would take notice of little ol' me who pays her meager balance in full every month. I expected a letter of apology along with an offer for 0% interest over the next twelve months. Ha!
Anyhow--take that, Bank of America.
We had a foretaste of this in March when JPMorgan Chase bought out Bear Stearns with a little help from the Fed. I suppose that since Bank of America is doing its part to bail out America without the Fed's help (as it should be -- and should have been-- in my humble opinion), I ought to be singing B of A's praises, or at the very least saying nothing.
But I'm not. On the large scale Bank of America is the good guy, though don't think for a minute that I'm suggesting the Merrill Lynch buyout is purely humanitarian. On the small scale, I'm personally miffed with Bank of America.
Yesterday, when the biggest news on television was still the Sarah Palin-Charles Gibson interview and Hurricane Ike, I logged on to pay my Bank of America credit card online. Due date: Monday, September 15. You would think that when dealing with one of America's largest banks, complete with Internet banking, I could enter a payment on September 14 that would post by September 15. This is the age of instant everything, right? Wrong. My payment would not post until September 16, resulting in a $35 late fee plus interest. Their site informed me that Express Payment was available for a $15 charge.
Now, I wasn't completely ignorant yesterday. I've waited until the last minute or simply forgotten my payment date before. In the past I've paid the fifteen bucks for Express Payment or taken a beating with the late fee and interest. One time I even spoke with a customer service "manager" who finally agreed to void the late payment and interest fees only after lecturing me about how I shouldn't wait until the last minute and couldn't expect them to do this again. Yeah--whatever.
Yesterday I'd had enough. I've had this credit card for fifteen years (though Bank of America only bought out my previous credit card company a few years ago). I know good and well that Bank of America could get their money by the due date if I posted it twenty-four hours in advance. In fact, if I pay my other credit card online by 5:00 p.m. on the due date, I'm considered current. That other credit card is owned by the American bank with the largest number of assets. Surely B of A could compete. But why should they?
Full of righteous indignation, I called Bank of America's customer service line, punched in the last four digits of my account number, listened through sixty seconds of unrequested, automated account information and several different menus before being connected with a human being named Lenny. Seriously--Lenny. I immediately pictured this and couldn't get it out of my mind:
"Hey, Lenny, I want to pay my credit card online." And how are the Squigtones? I wanted to add. Remembering my experience with the previous "manager," I added, "The only way I can avoid late fees at this point is to make an Express Payment, right?"
"Let me look here." While I waited I mentally rehearsed my I-want-to-cancel-my-card-this-is-ridiculous speech. Lenny continued, "Yes, it's due tomorrow, so you'd have to use Express Payment. Or you can go to myeasypayment.com"
"What? Where's that? Is that website given on the Bank of America page I'm looking at?" I asked, incredulous. Had I been missing this all along?
"No. It's just a website people sometimes use when they don't have a Bank of America checking account."
"Why isn't it listed there next to the $15 Express Payment option?" I asked. Of course he had no answer. He's just lowly Lenny at the bottom of the Bank of America customer service chain. I went to myeasypayment.com a little fearfully, expecting to find a never-before-heard-of company that would ask for all the information I didn't want to give like social security number, birthdate, mother's maiden name.
But, no. The first picture to download to my screen was the well-known Bank of America logo. Myeasypayment.com was directly affiliated with Bank of America! Why was I just now learning of this? Was I the only ignorant Bank of America customer? Why didn't the earlier "manager" tell me about it rather than chastise me like a tardy kindergartener?
I didn't know and didn't care. I didn't give the megabank the benefit of the doubt but instead assumed that this was their greedy method of extracting $15 or more from thousands of other procrastinators just like me. I cancelled my card and insisted that Lenny document the reason behind the cancellation, certain that the large financial institution would take notice of little ol' me who pays her meager balance in full every month. I expected a letter of apology along with an offer for 0% interest over the next twelve months. Ha!
Anyhow--take that, Bank of America.
2 comments:
Greedy beyond belief, I want to see them with a big class action law suit to deal with to pay back all the customers they stole money from.
Anonymous--Count me in!
Post a Comment