April 10,2009
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News: Credit Card Nightmare has Happy Ending.
Sometimes we don't win the gold but mercury is just as good. That was the story here when Mercury News in San Jose (ActionLine@MercuryNews.com -- 408-920-5796) got involved. The story began when a woman wrote in and described the great deal she had gotten from Bank of America. She opened a promotional credit card account with only a 2.99% APR. All was going great until she tried to make a $1,200 payment on the card from her bank account. Like me, she already had several credit card accounts open with B of A and accidentally chose the wrong account to pay on. It's easy to do when you're clicking away with the mouse as I found, when I hadn't noticed that my new account had the same last four digits as an older account. I didn't notice it until the next credit card statement came.
But this woman did find the error after two days and immediately made another payment to the correct credit card. Unfortunately, though, the payment was now late. The woman not only got slammed for missing a payment but also lost the promotional APR and the interest rate was now jacked sky-high. She immediately called the bank and explained the whole story and begged for mercy. What she found was Mercy wasn't available (joke, but not funny). No matter what she said, the answer was always "No, no, no". She was bounced around and ‘round as she finally reached someone on the supervisor level. The final reply was: "Madam, no one can help you."
In dismay, she finally contacted on the good people at Mercury and reached Dennis Rockstroh. Dennis went right to work on the problem and contacted the bank in the woman's behalf. Like myself, Mr. Rockstroh had had some dealings with B of A in the past and knew a few things. He got in touch with bank spokeswoman, Colleen Haggerty and managed to get all the damage undone (I've had the same success with B of A, as well.) The unfortunate woman was given another chance and forgiven all. I've always found B of A to be friendly to work with (if you know a few things) and have always recommended them to friends, relatives and associates. They forgave me the same way, the one time. I wasn't asking for a reckless license, just to get one more chance – and they gave it to me. Kudos for Mr. Rockstroh and the good people at San Jose's Mercury News Action Line.