A Big Wag of the Finger to BoA

Bank of America is officially on my Bitch List.

Mark and I have been working VERY hard at getting our finances in order.  Actually, we've been working very hard at it for quite a long time, but we're finally to the point where we are SO close to being completely debt-free (not counting our mortgage of course :) ) that we can taste it. 

Recently, we paid off a credit card which I had through Bank of America that had a small balance from paying a few medical bills when I was pregnant with Jack.  I don't know why we chose to put some bills on this card, but it was one of those, oh we'll put it on here and then pay it right off and of course we never did because that's how the blood suckers get you! 

I opened this particular card to help establish credit when I was 18 years old.  I have hardly ever carried a balance on it, but rather paid it off every month.  At one point they even cut my credit line considerably because they said they had to rein it in since it wasn't being utilized.  Seems really dumb, and unnecessary, but whatever even though I think it's crap I wasn't using it anyway and I guess it's their prerogative. 

So, anyway, back to why I'm angry - We paid off the balance a couple weeks ago and today we see an alert on Mint.com (GREAT tool, by the way!) for an $59 annual fee assessed by Bank of America.

My first response, Uhm, NO!  I've never had an annual fee on any credit card and I don't intend to start now.  So I immediately give them a call expecting that surely they'll be able to work with me on this.  I've had the card for nearly 7 years now and I've never had a late payment. 

Which, side note: therein lies the true problem I'm TOO good of a customer.  I pay my bills, I rarely carry a balance and if I do, it's not a large balance, they just aren't making enough money off of me.

Our conversation goes a little like this:

Me:  I'm calling to find out why I have an annual fee on my card now.

Bloodsucker Representative:  Well, we have the right to change your terms of service and we did.  Your current interest rate of 11.75% is below fair market value so to recoup our money we need to assess an annual fee of $59. 

Me:  Is there any way to waive the fee?

BR:  No. 

Me:  Is there any way to raise my interest rate and therefore waive the fee?

BR:  No. 

Me:  So... there's no way I can get around the annual fee?  I'd really like to keep the card.

BR:  No.  You can choose to close the account if you don't want the annual fee. 

Me:  Okay, I'd like to close the account.  How do I do that?

BR:  Okay.  I can do it for you right now. 

THE END. 

No negotiation.  No compromise.  They didn't even pretend like they cared to keep me as a customer.  Actually, they seemed quite overly anxious to dump me. 

I'm actually more annoyed with them about their crappy customer service regarding this issue than I was about the annual fee to begin with - although I'm fairly upset about that as well. 

I completely understand the way credit card companies work and that they exist to make money.  And just like any other large corporation, they're not there to make a living wage, they're there to make LOTS of money.  More, and more money every year, so they're always going to be searching for a new fun way to screw over their consumers in order to squeeze another dime out of their pockets.  But how they're going to make any money off of forcing customers to leave them is beyond my comprehension.  While I was a customer they at least had the potential to make money.  Now they don't.  I realize I'm small fish to them, but if that's how they treat all their small customers it surely must add up to something! 

So anyway, I did choose to close the account.  I'm frustrated that they put me in that position and I know it might have a negative impact on my credit score, but I'm not going to be bullied into paying a credit card company $59 annually to keep a $2000 credit line open for me.  Sorry, it's just not worth it.  I still have one other card with no balance on it and if I'm interested in having a second, which I'm not at this time, there are plenty of companies out there with better customer service and no annual fee.

Go Us!

Yeah, that's right, we deserve a trophy! (A giant one.)

We are doing a good job sticking to our budget - not that it is much different than the way we spent our money before, but we are trying to be more aware, and we HAVE made some notable improvements that we are doing a good job sticking with.

#1) $25 per week is automatically deducted from our joint checking account and transferred to our INGDirect savings account. We earned $11 in interest this month! I know that our weekly contribution isn't a ton, but we are trying to pay ourselves (our savings) while still having enough cash to put towards the CC debt that we are working on paying down, which brings me to...

#2) Last month we paid 3x the minimum payment on our CC with the highest APR! It's a pretty significant amount for us and I hope we are able to keep it up!

I feel like we are actually accomplishing something on the financial front! I hope we can look back in a few months and really appreciate where we are now, and how much we will have improved!

We are also (mostly) sticking to our allowance - essentially $100 per month deposited into our personal checking accounts. We use this for any "extra" expenses, for example: Mark's poker money, lunches that we eat out during the work week, any random and unnecessary shopping purchases I may make, etc. Someone, *cough* Markwhoeatslunchoutalllllthetime is having a bit of trouble keeping within the $100, but I hope that the "allowance" concept will help both of us to realize just how much "extra" and unnecessary money we are spending individually and encourage use to come up with a way to cut back some on these "extra" expenses.

I do have to give Mark props because he historically struggles with budgets, but he's doing a VERY good job of putting forth effort to keep within the budget that we have agreed to. Great job, Honey!

Update on the Financial Front.

We are making some headway on our Financial Reviatalization goal.

We got all of our checking and savings accounts straightened out. All of our cards came in the mail yesterday - mine with my new married name! The last thing that we - erm, MARK! needs to do, but is dragging his feet and he'd better do it today if he knows what's good for him, is get his paperwork in to get his paychecks direct deposited into our joint checking account, which will then allow him to close out the personal account that he has with another bank and move it over to the bank where his new accounts are. ::gives Mark the side-eye::

Today, I called to finish off the last part of getting my name changed - my credit cards. I have two CCs in my name.

I called the first company and after getting all of my name info updated, I requested a reduction in my APR. This card is kind of a secondary card for me. I usually don't carry a balance on it. I just put small things on there and then pay it off. First, they were willing to reduce my APR by 11% (yeah, my request was WAY overdue). Then, I talked them into an additional 2% by offering to do a balance transfer of $500, which is fine with me because I was just getting ready to pay that off anyway. Overall, they cut my APR by 50%! Yay for me and my lightening-fast-ninja-financial skillz!

::pats self on back::

I called the second company and got my name stuff straightened out, but they were unable to lower my APR at all (it's already low anyway so I'm not surprised). They claimed it's because I don't use it enough. Whatever, dude. It's just because I don't carry a balance on it for very long.

We are also getting ready to move some of Mark's debt around in order to make things work better for us in paying that off. I'm excited to get started!

ALSO, I just checked out our new ING Orange Savings Account (this is the first whole month that we've had it) and we earned $10 in interest on our balance! Woohoo! You can't beat that! I wish that I had known about the wonders of ING Direct sooner, but at least we are using it now.

I Feel So Accomplished for Mid-Week.

Yesterday, we had a very full evening.

First, I took all of the items that I have sold to the Post Office to be shipped out. I spent more on shipping than I thought I would, but oh well. It's better than the stuff taking up space in my house. So, ladies that have made purchases from me, you got a discount on shipping!

Then, I ran by the library to drop off books. Uneventful.

Then, Mark and I went to the bank to straighten out all of our account info. We finally figured out a system for the finances that will work for us. Step one of Goal: Financial Revitalization!

We opened up one joint checking account, into which our paychecks will be deposited. We each also have a personal checking account where I will transfer a bi-weekly "allowance" that will be our own individual money and we can use it however we wish. I will also transfer out a set amount to put into our savings account, which we just opened with ING Direct (I highly recommend after hearing great reviews from current customers and because of their awesome interest rates - 3%!), and then the remainder of the money in our joint checking will go towards bills, groceries, etc. I think this will go a long way towards really getting the most out of our household income.

Initally, I was weary of combining our finances at all. I'm very strict with my money, Mark is a little less so, but he has more to play with because he makes more than me. I was worried about not having MY OWN money, but I think that the set up that we have will allow us to have the best of both worlds.

The only hiccup that we experienced was that they were unable to change the name on my existing personal checking account to my married name, and we had to open the joint checking with my old name, because I have not yet gotten a new driver's license. For cereal. This is so stupid because I brought along my new Social Security card, which I just received in the mail. Whatever, dude. Now, I have to go pay to have my license updated (when I just got a new one last year, and I like the picture bytheway!), then, make a trip BACK to the bank to have them switch everything over to my married name. THEN, I can order new checks with the proper name on them. Ugh.

After we got home, we grabbed dinner, then I was going to read some and ended up falling asleep after about two pages. Mark woke me up around 10PM to get in bed, I got up, got in bed, and went back to sleep. Apparently, my body needed some extra sleep.

Mid-year Resolutions.

I didn't really get to make any resolutions in January, because my only goal for that time was to get through the next few months and have a successful wedding. Mission accomplished. Now that all of the wedding related things are wrapping up, and the thank yous have been sent, and we've made it through the mad rush of birthdays in our family during the end of June/beginning of July, I'd like to lay out a couple of mid-year resolutions to accomplish during the next 6 months.

1. Get control of our finances.

Not that they are currently out of control, actually, they are pretty stagnant, which can be a good thing when compared with the sliding downhill option, but I would like to get them to the point that our money is working for us. We are taking this oppurtunity, while everything is getting messed with to change my name, to sort out all of our banking needs, combine, separate, and delgate as needed. My pet project is to make us Millionaires over the next 6 months. Okay, maybe not Millionaires, but I would like to start out 2009 being able to look back and this year, and identify right where we started to really take firm control of our financial situation.

2. Organize the house.

Ugh. This is really something that I need to work on. We moved into our house two years ago next month. We still have unpacked boxes stored in closets. Long story short, if we haven't needed these packed items in the last 2 years, we don't need them taking up space in the 2 spare rooms that we have.

Currently, our spare rooms look like a disaster area. The closets are both packed full of crap we don't need, the office floor is completely covered with shower and wedding gifts that I have no place for because I need to organize our storage space, and the other spare room is packed to the hilt with all of our wedding crap that I need to dispose of ASAP! I'm planning to sell everything, but again, there's where organization rears it's pretty little head, first I need to go through it and figure out what the heck I even have.

We have plenty of room in our house, more than enough storage space for the two of us. We just need to properly utilize it. If we do, we will be much happier on the storage front.

So, these are my goals for the next 6 months, I hope to accomplish these things which will obviously benefit us as a household.