Pay Off Your Debts Once & For All!
By Ryan Healy | October 30, 2007
I received a letter in the mail recently from Bank of Amercia. The teaser copy on the envelope said…
“An opportunity to help you pay off your debts once and for all, all at once.”
Compelling, isn’t it?
Upon reading the letter, you’ll discover the offer is to consolidate all your credit card debt into a single loan. The program is called the CleanSweep Debt Consolidation Plan.
At first, it sounds like a good idea. But the fine print proves otherwise.
We will set your initial APR between 7.99% and 19.99% based on your credit worthiness. [...] We reserve the right to change your APR, fees, or other credit terms at our discretion. Additionally, if you fail to pay any minimum monthly payment by its Payment Due Date, we may increase your APR up to a Default APR of 27.99%.
Hmmm… This offer doesn’t sound so good anymore.
Based on my personal experience with Bank of America, you should be extremely careful doing business with them. They are merciless when it comes to interest charges and late fees. I once had a payment due on a Sunday when there is no mail delivery. My payment cleared on Monday and they still charged me the late fee and jacked up my interest rate.
One way they lure you in is with a 3-month payment deferral option. In other words, you don’t have to make payments for three months, although interest is accruing.
But this is just one more way Bank of America takes advantage of people in a poor financial situation. If you’re even 12 hours late with your payment, you’ll be raped by the corporate policies.
Almost everyone sends in a payment late at some point. It might be caused by a vacation, moving to a new home, a birth in the family, a medical emergency, etc. Any of these “life events” can cause you to be forgetful or mail a payment late. It is a mistake to believe you will always be on time.
As the letter say, “One 10-minute phone call is all it takes”… to jeopardize your ability to repay your debts! (That last comment was mine, of course.)
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Topics: Credit Cards |
2 Responses to “Pay Off Your Debts Once & For All!”
Comments
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October 31st, 2007 at 5:49 am
I just received that same letter from BofA! You’ll be happy to know it was deposited straight into the paper shredder.
November 1st, 2007 at 2:11 pm
Nice!
By the way, my paper shredder gets a lot of use, too.