BofA can kiss my bundt

Paying off my credit card debt was such a fantastic feeling! I always answered the phone, I looked forward to getting the mail and, surprisingly, I got very little once I paid off the bills!

Then yesterday I got an envelope from Bank of America, the Bank of Opportunity. According to their records, I owed them $7.76 on my zero balance. What?! Oh, I was livid. There was no way I was throwing any more money down the drain, not even seven bucks.

I called the 800 number today and the young man on the line said BofA was charging me based on my Daily Periodic Rate. That even though I paid my bill off a week and a half before its due date, I still owed the daily finance charges for the month.

He claims that this practice has been going since credit cards have been in existence but I have never received a follow up bill after I've paid off a card. He says that I should always call in directly when I pay off a credit card and ask for the "charge off" balance. I explained that I was not paying a "charge off" fee and that was something entirely different. And I threw in that a payment over the phone with BofA costs $15.00. He said, "Er, yeah." He apologized for MY misunderstanding and offered to remove the $7.76 fee. Like he was doing me a favor.

Of course I was polite and thanked him for doing his job but boy howdy was I pissed! Maybe I was too young and naive when I paid off bills in years past to ever realize this was happening, but I really think this is a first. No wonder it's so difficult to get out of debt.

I also asked about re-opening my account and he said it's a possibility but I needed to call a different department on Monday. I was only asking so I can reopen the card and fix my debt to credit ratio. It will significantly help my FICO score in the long run. I've had that credit card for 13 years and even though I'm pissed at them for their sneaky fees, I need the credit history.

It is beyond frustrating to know that credit cards are evil but also necessary to get loans in other areas of life. Or to know they are gauges for others to decide what kind of person you are. Apartment rentals, gym memberships, cellphone subscriptions, even financing a couch - you need credit to survive.

I hope this post gets out to people much younger than I and that they use it to be proactive about credit card debt. There is very little in life that I regret but this lesson was hard learned and I wish someone had shown me sooner what a problem this might become.