National Consumer Protection Week is a great time to give out our "Bad Bank" awards (or "BaBas" if you’re in the know). There were a lot of great entries into this year’s competition. It seems like almost ever financial institution managed to do something bad for consumers lately.
First, our runners up:
- Ameriquest Mortgage. One of the largest subprime mortgage lenders. Made big contributions in taking down the housing market along with 233 other, now defunct, lenders.
- Macy’s/Citi Cards. In October, these card issuers took the unprecedented and bold move to close 3.5 million dormant Macy’s accounts (one credit score ding) and open up new Citi accounts
on an opt-out basis (another credit score ding).
And now our winner:
- Bank of America
- They should have seen this one coming miles away. This has been a banner year for the nation’s largest commercial bank and credit card issuer. There are two main reasons they’re our 2008 winner:
- First, their move this January to raise the interest rates between 10-20% across the board for long term credit card holders with no real rationale right smack in the middle of the credit crisis. This alone would have earned them the BaBa.
- Second, Bank of America earned the dubious distinction this year of having by far the highest frequency of identity theft complaints to the Federal Trade Commission. They’re expensive and potential fraught with fraud danger…excellent!
- Bonus! As if this all wasn’t enough, Bank of America also led the charge in raising non-customer ATM fees to $3 in September.
I know that there are at least 60 angry CreditBloggers.com readers who support the granting of this year’s award. What do you think? Who would you give the BaBa to this year?
Emily Davidson – A former TransUnion insider and a member of Credit.com’s expert team. Emily writes about credit reports, credit cards, loans and personal finance as the CreditBloggers.com editor.
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Bank of America still gets it. Last year they took over Fleet Bank, with which we had a credit card for years (originating with a Gulf gas card). In the month of the takeover, I had a balance of about $25, which I paid early. Five days after the due date I got a telephone call from B of A “Collections” department informing me that I was seriously delinquent. A ruder call I have never received!! The woman threatened to call me every day until I paid up, though I was already paid up. When I asked what date was shown on my check, she actually knew but called me a liar and said I could have put any date on it. In other words, it was their fault but they blamed it on me. The next month they did exactly the same thing and again blamed it on me. Needless to say, I closed the account and insisted on refunds of all the fees and finance charges, which I received. However, in the final bill there was a “note” from the CEO to the effect that they “may” have made a little mistake but I should rest assured that my account was still safe with them. A more anal response I have never seen and it looked like some old mimeograph copy (remember those?). For what they did to me I should have received a personal letter of apology, typed by a secretary on cream vellum stationery, signed with a fountain pen and delivered on horseback by a man wearing a three-corner hat! What I got was mimeograph. I will never, ever deal with Bank of America again.