Live, Love and Laugh

American service section: Part-2

Bank of America:

6/5/2010

We decided to open a bank account for my wife, and get a credit card, so that she can improve her credit score. We went Bank of America, and opened account, and applied for a secured credit card. Secured means they will charge money to me, and offer me same amount of credit line. We applied for $300. Now, when we applied, I remembered, asking the person specifically, that if there is any annual fee associated with it. He said no.

OKEY.

6/13/2009

We got the card, and letter says that there is $39 annual fee with it. What?

Now, we have been receiving offers by many credit card companies, and we decided to use Bank of America, since it is our bank. Wellsfargo offers free secured credit card!

12.18 PM EST

I thought there is a mistake, and called customer service.

I told person, that I had asked if there is any annual fee, and was told that there is none! The customer service representative said that if we like, we could cancel that card and apply for the new one! What? The only reason we got this card is to improve the score. Now, if we cancel so soon, it is going to affect the score adversely. I asked, let me speak to his manager. And he put me on hold for 20 mins. No reply. And eventually hung up.

12.33 PM EST

I called again, and was speaking with Rob. This time, I was clever to write down name. He said he is the manager. I told him the same thing.

He said, the fee is associated with credit score. The annual fee is based on credit score, and they make decision about annual fee based on credit score.

Understood: however, if I am asking specifically while applying the card about annual fee, then I must have given same information. I was told that there is no fee. I opted for this card, since it is free. Otherwise, I could have selected Wellsfargo, or Credit one!

Rob said, it is written in the credit application, and it is my responsibility to read the document before signing.

True: however, if I am asking a specific question orally, then I must be given a honest answer orally. If Bank of America told me that my answer is in those documents, then I would read them. They said that there is no annual fee!

I told Rob that there was lying, and almost stealing on money.

Rob, kept on saying the same thing, that I should have read the documents, and there is fee with the account. He was happy to cancel the card for me, which would adversely affect the score. It was their fault, why should I pay for it? I kept repeating the same thing.

Rob is a manager, but not at all good at customer service sector. Eventually, I told him that I am going to write a complaint to Bank of America, he offered to cancel the annual fee for the first year only. Strange. I don’t know how this works?

I have the address, and I am going to report all this in any case.

Lessons:

• One has to be very persistent.
• They want to squeeze as much money as possible from their customers, so one should be careful.
• I was told that Bank of America is not that good, got one experience!

posted by Nikhil @ 7:31 PM