Kids Lie...So Does Bank of America

To start this story off, I get a UPromise card last year and decided to use it to consolidate my debt a bit. It seemed like the perfect solution. It has been a pain in my butt ever since!

The card was originally through Citi Bank (a horrible company to work with when it comes to debt to begin with). They wanted their payment to be paid online. Ok. I can handle that. My husband gets paid on the 5th and 20th of each month. The payment was due on the 6th. Since my husband works for a small company, they do not offer direct deposit. We had to wait until the 6th to make the payment so that we knew the money was in the account (the responsible thing to do). About half of the time, I would make my payment that day, but it wouldn't post to their computer until the next day and sometimes two days later. That meant that I would have to call them a few weeks later and explain to them what had happened. They would, after a good yelling at, take off the late fees, lower my interest back down, and take off the over the limit fees caused by the other things.

The last time this happened was in February. (Ok. I will admit that I was actually a day or two late that month. I am human after all.) I decided to suck it up and pay as I could knowing that the card was being transferred to a new bank at the end of March (UPromise ended their contract with Citi Bank). I also decided to go ahead and get a new card through USAA and see if I could just transfer the entire balance over to that card so that I could have my lower interest rate back. (I know. Dawn is cringing just reading this.) The balance transfer did not go through before Bank of America took over my account. That means that it showed that I had only tried to make half of the payment in March. Bank of America (actually I believe it was an outsourcing company) starting calling me right away. I hadn't even realized that the account had already been transfer to them.

Last week, I claimed defeat. I called them and agreed to bring my account up to date. They told me the amount that I needed to do that, and I came up with the money on Friday. They also assured me that the next payment was due on May 3. That is next month. I figured I could get at least part of the balance transferred by then.

Today, I got an email from Bank of America saying that I now owed twice as much due on May 8. What in the world?! I called them immediately. I asked for the retention department. I was told I could not do that because my account was past due. What? On Friday, I was in good standing and my next payment was due in May. When I told her that, she just said, "Due dates change sometimes." Are you kidding me? So sometime between April 10 and April 14 they can just decide that my due date was supposed to be April 12? Where were these magic changes when I was having babies? She said that they could do some kind of "financial assessment" and put me on a payment plan. I really don't want that. Despite what they think, I pay my bills, and I care about my credit rating. I don't want them to decide what I can pay every month. Whatever it is, I am sure I can't afford it. I am on a tight budget. Do these people understand that just like them I have other bills that have to be paid? I repeatedly asked for a supervisor. She told me that she was an "account manager." I don't care I want to talk to the person you report to lady. Ugh!

ahh...I feel better now. Where is my massage Melissa?