Bank of America Gold Option Loan Fixed to Variable Rates???

[ufcrules1]

Originally Posted by treasurekidd

Funny, I thought I WAS posting good advice.




I honestly do not mean to put you down personally in any way at all, really. What I posted was in no way a flame, nor was it consdescending in any way. It was just good old common sense, and it was a lesson that I personally had to learn the hard way many times over the years. That lesson being that, ultimately, the only person who will watch out for you is you. Why do we all look to others, namely the government, to provide protections that we are responsible for ensuring for ourselves? And why does everyone get so offended when someone preaches simple common sense? If more people understood that we are each responsible for our own protections, maybe we wouldn't be in such a mess in this country today.

But I guess you'd rather have a thread full of responses from others who will try to figure out how you can get out of a bad deal that you agreed to, or who will comiserate with you about how evil the big bad banks are, because that's easier, right? Again, I apologize if this isn't what you want to hear, and I mean no offense, but this should be about learning a lesson and getting smarter about future transactions, and not about what makes us feel better.

Your advice was solid in your first post and in this one.

[FootballLouisiana]

I received the same letter. Tried calling them but was disconnected after waiting for 45 min. I intend to get a copy of the original agreement because I did not recall seeing that in there. If it is, then that's life, if not, I will raise cain.All other things I have seen like this allow you to opt out. But it seems that is not an option here.

[ALTINOVA]

I have to admit I was a bit relieved and actually thought it was pretty cool after hearing when Bank of America "...first declared its pledge not to change terms between now and February in a letter dated Monday to Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., who heads the House Financial Services Committee." (CBS Online 10/7/09)

A bit of goodwill towards their customers? A way to get a bit of good press after recivieving all that TARP money?

Or just a way to snow over the committee members until BOA had a chance to get out all their terms of change letters before the Credit Card Act could be implemented any earlier?

Mmmm.

Well I got my letter yesterday. Did anyone notice how the letter was dated rather abiguously "October 2009"? "Gee Mr. Frank we sent out the letter about the change of terms BEFORE our October 5th pledge..."

I checked my original "Exclusive Offer" document which is peppered with terms (actually highlighted by BOA) like:

"This competitive rate will not be tied to an index, such as the Prime Rate, so the rate will not automatically fluctuate when the index changes."

"Since it's not based on a variable rate, it won't automatically fluctuate when the index changes."

On the other hand they never mention a "Fixed" rate it's only described as a "non-variable" rate.

And of course the biggest fine print loophole off all time: "We reserve the right to change our credit terms at our descretion."

The problem with these "offers" is that they are writted by contract lawyers on one side and read by non-contract lawyers on the other, in other words, us. And they know this.

The worse part of about all of this is that there is no "opt-out" option. So the consumer is effectively locked in a variable rate contract after he/she was heavily, heavily led to believe it was fixed rate contact. In my opinion that is the definition of deception.

[gunner44]

Originally Posted by mgt04

Does anyone have this? I opened up one a couple years ago before the market crashed and I opened it up because it was a fixed rate for the life of the loan. I moved over some variable rate school loans over to this one for the obvious reason that I wanted to keep my rates fixed since at the time the rates were moving upwards like crazy. So I got a loan for $15K fixed at 8.99% over 5 yrs.

Well today I received a letter in the mail from BoA saying the rate will now be changed to a variable rate. The variable rate will be 5.74 (margin) plus the index (3.74%) which is my current 8.99%. Basically once the fed started raising interest rates, so does my loan rate.

I called the BoA rep and the representative stated I needed to read the fine print in the beginning then because it says they have the right to change it to a variable rate anytime they wanted to. He also stated this is happening with all their Gold Option Loan customers. I believe this to be absolute BS but unfortunately I don't have my original paperwork to read any fine print.

I believe this to be a very misleading type of loan they marketed out hard 2 yrs ago and I feel very vulnerable about the situation. I tried to find information on my loan to see if I could find anything about this clause and I could not. I have always paid my payments on time and my credit score avg is 730.

What protection and options do I have as a consumer here? I am hoping more Gold Option owners come forward and complain about this as I just received the letter today.

Please post only if you have some good advice to share. Flamers keep out.

I have gold card loan which was touted and solicited by mail so many times i decided to take them up on it,,for 2 years.....Does any one have the original mail solicitation,,,,it clearly stated fixed rate for the term of the loan,,would appreciate copy emailed if possible,,,my loan is 20,000 + so can't just pay off and leave them in the pasture and am 65 on fixed income,,,reason for getting loan to pay off debt knowing what monthly payment would be and how long.....i got past a customer service to some big whig lady who said they could do anything they wanted to the loan,,sounds illegal to me but just a country boy....set my loan up on phone so there you go>>>>>>
email is gunner44mag@hotmail.com Never defaulted on a loan in my life but it crossing my mind

[floridasandy]

as i had pointed out in an earlier post, the new laws do not help the consumer. it is just more government BS:
4 Loopholes in the New Credit Card Laws by Mary Hunt on Creators.com - A Syndicate Of Talent

variable rates were exempt from the new "rules" so credit card companies are scrambling to variable rates...

[rosalitami]

Received my letter yesterday. I immediately got on the phone with BofA and was sent to the Gold Option department. I was disconnected after about 25 minutes on hold. I called right back started over again. They apologized for the wait, they are very busy taking calls from all of their customers who are having their rates changed from a fixed to variable. Honestly, I'm livid. Stellar credit scores, always pay on time, and I negotiated my fixed rate of 7.99% with an account manager in 2005 who said it would be fixed for life. Yes I saved all my information and spent 3 hours digging through filing accordions looking for my proof. Needless to say, I am very disappointed in my own organizational skills, I came up empty handed and BofA says there is nothing I can do but pay it off in full before December. I want to scream from the rooftops! I want to call the attorney general! What's the point of having good credit? I am so tired of paying everyone while constantly getting screwed while listening to others around me say, "we walked from our house, we are filing bankruptcy, we are Starting Over Debt Free"! They say this with smiles on their faces while those of us who would never think of that come home from work and rather than a "thank you for paying us" letter in the mail, we open a letter that says basically, "Your Rate May Look the Same Now but as Soon as the Prime Rate Goes Up", You are @#$#ED!

So I got that off my chest, thanks for listening. Yes, I did notice the date on the letter, one of the first things I said to my husband...who doesn't put a full date on a letter? October 2009. It is infuriating. Bank of America can suck it.

[newsfanatic]

I just received my letter today and I had done the same thing applied over the phone. The friendly rep at the time told me it is "alot like a car loan with a fixed payment" Oh well so much for trying to pay your debt down.
Banks are now in the legalized loansharking business.

[retentionguy]

I opened up my BofA Gold Option Line of Credit back in Feb 08 to consolidate older lines of credit to a lower fixed rate to pay them off sooner. I was guaranteed that the line of credit would remain at a fixed interest rate for a set term of months and that was it. That was the only reason I opened the account.

In Nov 08, I called BofA and tried to negotiate a lower interest rate on the LOC, but was turned down. A few days later I receive a letter in the mail saying that "due to a periodic review of my account, it has been closed." My credit score is in the 740s, and I had never missed a payment on any of my debts! I can only assume it was because I called to negotiate for a better rate. I promptly closed my remaining accounts and moved my checking and savings over to a credit union.

Now it is Oct 09, and I have received a letter for BofA saying that my fixed interest rate will now be variable, tied to the prime rate. That is not the agreement I signed on for. I called to opt out of this outrageous change of terms, but was told that it was being done on ALL GoldOption lines of credit and nothing could be done about it. This seems to me to be a case of bait and switch. If I recall correctly, the new credit legislation going into effect soon affects fixed rate interest, but exempts variable rate interest. It appears BofA is changing their terms to circumvent legislation, and something needs to be done about it!

[newsfanatic]

It would be in BOA best interest to leave the loans as is. You needed good credit scores to originally apply. BOA is now in danger of having thousands default on these loans due to greed. Can you imagine that there is no cap on these loans and could balloon hundreds of dollars in just one month.
Call me a Socialist if you wish, but I would NATIONALIZE BOA today. They took 20 billion dollars in TARP funds, and then mounted a great P.R. campaign that they really didn't want that much but the big bad government "forced" them to take it!! LOL!!

[cookiebun]

I got the same crap. I do have the original paper work. I won't bother to call them. As this was never supposed to be a credit card, the new credit card laws don't apply. When I signed up for this I was assured it was just like a car loan. NOT! It's just like a credit card but without the piece of plastic. Had it been a real loan I'd have had it paid off by now. They're doing the same thing Chase tried to pull with their balance transfer offer on their credit card: ConsumerMan: A Chase bait and switch? - ConsumerMan- msnbc.com
Just wait, the lawsuits are sure to follow, just as they did with Chase:
Chase class action lawsuit #14, filed by Green Welling LLP – ChangeinTerms.com
Dig around on that site, you'll find the rest of the lawsuits.
Citibank may get my outstanding balance on this. Them + Capital one are the only 2 banks that haven't tried to burn me since the markets crashed.
Our tax money at work. I had the sense not to try to buy a house too. Grrrr....
edit:
Sorry the links came out like that.
Just google "Did chase pull a bait and switch" Link you want is the Consumer Man on MSNBC.
Google "Change In Terms" and the Changeinterms.com home page should be at the top.