Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
NORTH CAROLINA, the legal interest rate and the general usury limit
is 8%. However, there is a provision for a variable rate, which is
16% or the T-Bill rate for non-competitive T-Bills. Above $ 25,000
there is no express limit. However, the law providing for 8% is still
on the books- be careful and see a lawyer!
That was the initial information I found while looking up the limits. As I dug deeper, I found that the State of North Carolina usury limit (8%) is not applicable to those companies who are incorporated in other states. Guess what? BAC is a Delaware corporation. What does that mean? It means that it can charge up to the limit allowed in its home state per Marquette National Bank v. First of Omaha Service Corp.(1978). Now, I know the next question you all are thinking: what is the usury limit for Delaware?
There is none.
Just one of the many reasons corporations love to incorporate in Delaware.
Am I the only one here who doesn't have to worry about this stuff because I don't use CC?? It's been about 7 years since DH and I realized that if we could afford to make payments we could afford to save up and pay cash for what we want. I sure don't miss having to deal with CC companies.
Ani, I do understand the frustration though. It's more than lousy and it should be criminal, IMO. It's not like the consumer can go in and change the terms of a contract but these banks get away with it all the time.
As for BofA, we won't deal with them anymore. We had accounts with them years ago but they started getting ridiculous and we left. We use a smaller regional bank now and are very happy there (but I can't speak to their CC programs).
Like you, I had a similar definition of what being a "good customer" is - I use my credit card all the time for convenience purposes only. This eliminates the need for me to carry cash around all the time. However, I do not charge more than I can pay off every month. The only time I ever was late on a payment was when, years ago, I moved and the bank in question (Citi) did not pay attention to the fact that I filled out the change of address form on the back of my bill. They charged me late fees, I raised a big storm with a manager, and got those fees pulled off my account.
My husband looks at it differently. According to him, the banks view me as a BAD customer because I always pay off my balance in full each month. They cannot earn any interest off of me that way, so to them, they couldn't care less if I canceled my account (as I threatened to do in the situation above). I thought I was all high and mighty ( ), but if I had canceled it would have meant zero to the bank.
It's an interesting take, for sure. But his perspective opened my eyes to the way that some banks and cc companies may approach their customers. Is it right? Of course not, but as consumers, what can we do?
Is Chase out of Omaha, NE? Someone from Omaha calls my home phone continuously, from 8 AM to 9 PM. If I don't answer, they call right back. This has been going on since last week.
Same deal here Ani with BOA (started with MBNA). Never late, more than minimum payments, accounts paid to $0. Then they raised my rates for no reason, very high. So I closed my $60K of open credit with them. That's 3 cc's and a line of credit.
That was the initial information I found while looking up the limits. As I dug deeper, I found that the State of North Carolina usury limit (8%) is not applicable to those companies who are incorporated in other states. Guess what? BAC is a Delaware corporation. What does that mean? It means that it can charge up to the limit allowed in its home state per Marquette National Bank v. First of Omaha Service Corp.(1978). Now, I know the next question you all are thinking: what is the usury limit for Delaware?
There is none.
Just one of the many reasons corporations love to incorporate in Delaware.
It wouldn't matter if BOA was incorporated here. NC usury laws are not applicable to credit contracts such as credit cards.
This has been quite enlightening! There is nothing to be done but what I did, I guess.
For the first 45 years of my life, I never carried a balance (nor did hubby) on a credit card. I wish I didn't have any now. But medical bills, college tuition bills and car repair bills had to be paid while out of work . . . so I put those bills (or parts of them) on credit cards w/ low interest rates, and switched things around to cards w/ 0% introductory rates. This worked very well. I paid nearly everything off, and maintained an "excellent" credit rating. Now I have a few things left to pay off and they gouge me. I could take the money out of savings, but like so many of you, I am concerned about the future and don't want to use savings. I work hard to set money aside to pay for recurring large bills, like tuition/books and HOA dues, etc.
Now we are faced w/ a big bill from hubby being in the hospital. I had assumed I would work out a deal with the hospital - negotiate the balance - cause they will do that if you immediately pay in one lump sum. I thought I would put that on a low interest fixed rate credit card.
This has created a real situation for me. So I am going to check out the credit union, but I doubt they will give me a line of credit that will cover $15,000 or so, which is what I expect I will owe (minimum after negotiation) for the hospital stay and all the diagnostic tests.
Pretty discouraging. BCBS is putting us thru/ HELL by denying hubby's hospital stay, saying it was approved for only 23 hours (observation). The guy was hooked up to every kind of monitor and was almost admitted to intensive care but I protested, saying I would be there to watch him during the nite, and b/n my vigilance and telemetry, the doc and nurses agreed that he should be okay and if his bronchial spasms did not improve - THEN they would move him to intensive care. Supposedly, BCBS has had a "peer review" w/ the admitting doc and they are saying he agrees hubby was there only for observation. Now the man was in congestive heart failure and had to have a CT to detect any embolisms, then a cardiac cath to detect blockages. They couldn't do the cath until he was stabilized, so the cath was five days after admittance. (I believe that should qualify as more than "observation" LOL!!!) His heart was irregular and he was throwing PVCs, and lost over 20 lbs of fluid while in the hospital. He is still under the care of both a cardiologist and pulmonologist and on 8 meds. So why BCBS is giving us this runaround is beyond us - and we are in healthcare administration! Hubby has a doctorate in healthcare admin and has been the CEO of numerous hospitals as well as a system COO. So we know how the system works, yet we are getting a bigtime shaft w/ the insurance. We have written letters and made calls and for some reason, BCBS doesn't GET IT.
So having credit cards for our situation was a fallback position to help us pay for this as well as other bills w/o having to slam our savings account. It is upsetting enuff to know we will owe around $15-20,000 but to think we might owe $100,000 - well, that is not helpful w/ my husband's progress. This has been quite upsetting.
Now, I am not only dealing with BCBS and what will be a big hospital cost . . . but also limited as to how I am going to be able to pay for it.
As many of you have heard me say before . . . between insurance and pharma . . . consumers are screwed in this country. Now, please add the banks to that.
It wouldn't matter if BOA was incorporated here. NC usury laws are not applicable to credit contracts such as credit cards.
True. North Carolina H.B. 1192 of 2003 has a usury limit exemption on credit cards. As of this subject in this particular state, no it woudn't matter. However, BAC deals in more than just credit cards, and in the grand scheme of things, it technically does. BAC gets much more leeway in Delaware than they do in North Carolina.
True. North Carolina H.B. 1192 of 2003 has a usury limit exemption on credit cards. As of this subject in this particular state, no it woudn't matter. However, BAC deals in more than just credit cards, and in the grand scheme of things, it technically does.
Well, the facts are: between our crappy Congressional "leaders" and the state legislature, statutes protect the interests of the BANKS not WE, THE PEOPLE. Legislators here in NC have let us all be sitting ducks to protect the BANKS, not the people who use the banks. It SUCKS and I am disgusted. I was disgusted w/ the way all our lawmakers have bent to allow banks way too much leeway. After all, if stricter controls would have been in place and oversight been more stringent, we would not even BE in this situation w/ the whole BAIL OUT DEBACLE.
So, add the North Carolina General Assembly to my list of do-nothing nincompoops who have helped put us all in a situation to get screwed.
Let's not forget: most of us have lost a big chunk of household wealth due to this economic collapse. My recourse to pay off a hospital bill would have been to borrow off a 401 K in years past. The value of my 401Ks has been slammed, too.
Anyone who defends this worthless pile of pond scum feces is ignorant. BofA is the epitome of corporate greed. Their fees are outrageous and their customer service is non-existent. My wife and I left them after several years of faithful patronage. I accidentally scheduled the $300 power bill to be paid from my measly personal "play fund" (separate from our joint checking, but still showed up as the DEFAULT account to schedule bills from...how convenient) which had a balance of maybe $30. Needless to say, it bounced, then they decided to delay all of my other smaller lunch charges from that week until after the power bill hit and made me negative...so there I was with one, two, three, four, five, SIX overdraft fees...multiply that by $35 each...yeah, you see my problem. When I called and exaplined everything to them (mind you, this was in the peak of public interest in banks getting into trouble last fall, so you'd think they would have been rolling out the red carpet to keep customers), the fact that there was more than enough to pay this bill from my joint checking and more than enough to cover the smaller charges on my account had it not gone negative and that it was a simple stupid mistake of not clicking on the correct account to auto-pay (which they push on customers relentlessly) my bill from, the response was "well you will hopefully learn from this mistake." They removed only two of the six charges...even after my question of "exactly how do I close all of my accounts at BofA?" Their reply: "oh it's easy...just go to a local branch and tell them you want to cancel."
So yeah...I feel ya Ani. And to those who defend this crap hole of a bank, think again about that before they bite you harder than you'd ever imagine. Kick them to the road before they get the drop on you...it's that old addage: it's not a matter of "if," it's "when."
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
), but if I had canceled it would have meant zero to the bank. 
