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Bank of America has recently began issuing American Express cards. This is ironic especially since the Bank of America is who created Visa. What happened was an antitrust ruling stated that banks need to issue American Express cards too. They can't squeeze them out of the game and only do Visa and Mastercard. Expect to continue seeing more Amex cards issued by more banks in the future because of this.
About the interest rate jump... that has to be for some other reason. I'm not saying their reason is justified but they wouldn't do it for using a BT check alone. May I ask what % of your credit line you're using on that card? If you use more than 30% of your credit limit on any card that can be viewed as being financially stressed (read: high risk) and they use that as an excuse to jack up rates.
On any of your other cards too... do you have balances above 30% of the credit limit? Also do you know if any of your cards are Mastercard World, Visa Signature, or a charge card? I ask this because these types of cards don't always report credit limits to the bureaus, which can in turn distort the calculation of credit used to credit available ratio.
Another reason it could be the issuer of the card. Was this a B of A card? They've been known for raising rates out of the blue this year for no justified reason.
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Current Cards:
American Express: Blue Cash, Simply Cash
Bank of America: Visa Financial Rewards Platinum Plus
Chase: Rewards Visa, Amazon Visa
Discover: More
Current Everyday Card: American Express Blue Cash
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