As you may have heard, last month a California woman named Ann Minch decided to take a stand against the rising interest rates on her Bank of America credit card. According to her, she had been their customer for 14 years. Recently, they decided to jack her rate from 12.99% to 30%.

She called B of A to try and get it lowered, but in a nutshell they told her “tough s***” (her words used to summarize it). Sick and tired of their “casino scams” she proclaimed a “debtor’s revolt” and that she would no longer make payments on the $5k balance as long as they charge her a 30% APR.

But the question is… did it work?

Well, after hundreds of thousands of views, it finally got the attention of B of A. An executive from the bank contacted her and tried to get he to go with 16.99% (still higher than her previous rate). She responded with a good argument: their money is coming from the Fed right now at a 0% rate so the 12.99% she was paying is more than fair. The bank executive finally caved in and agreed to give it back to her.

I’m happy to hear the outcome, but it’s kind of ridiculous that it took a YouTube video with a quarter-million views just to get them to budge. A customers shouldn’t have to go through such drastic measures just to get a fair interest rate.

What is the biggest credit card purchase in history? Here’s the answer… sort of…

Imagine opening up your monthly credit card statement to discover that you owe $23 quadrillion dollars! Well, around 13,000 cardholders of Bank of America’s prepaid cards saw exactly that – an amount that is more than the entire planet’s GDP! Of course, there was not an actual purchase of that amount, but rather a glitch which caused these accounts to reflect that amount. A New Jersey man discovered this when routinely logging on to his B of A online accounts to check his balances. He first fled to the gas station where he last bought a pack of smokes to inquire on the charge. They had no idea what it was, so only then did he call Bank of America’s customer service, where he was on hold for more than two hours before they were finally able to resolve the problem. Visa responded by saying it was a “temporary programming error” in there systems… that sure is one heck of an error! They claimed they have correct the problem and refunded the overdraft fees associated with these errors.

Do you own a U.S. Airways Dividend credit card? Then you may be asking “Why did my U.S. Airways switch from Visa to MasterCard?” Well, it is very unusual for a financial institution to change from MasterCard to Visa and vice-versa. Historically, you only see this occur during a mergers and acquisitions, when the two companies are affiliated with different payment networks, so they therefore switch one so it’s the same for their entire card portfolio.

This is exactly what we saw with the U.S. Airways Dividend card. Bank of America sold off around two-thirds of the venture to Barclaycard (the American subsidiary of Barclays). It’s highly unusual that B of A will continue to own a small number of the accounts… neither companies would comment as to why.

If you a cardholder of the U.S. Airways Dividend MasterCard, there is no cause for concern. As of now, there doesn’t appear to be any other major changes to the accounts. Reps from Barclays have stated that they will ensure the accounts continue to be reported accurately to the credit bureaus and the length of time your account has been opened will be preserved.

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Warning: You may get a Bank of America credit limit decrease for absolutely no valid reason. Today I received this letter in the mail from B of A, chopping my credit limit from over $16,000 to $8,500 on my Financial Rewards Visa Platinum card:

Dear [NAME REMOVED]

Thank you for being a valued customer. We appreciate the opportunity to serve you.

We periodically review out customers’ accounts to ensure we are offering each cardholder the most appropriate credit line. In some cases, we discover we have extended customers more credit than they are likely to use or need. Given the size of your credit line and the way you have historically used your account, we have adjusted the credit line on your card to $8,500.

It’s a good idea to review your credit reports periodically. Our decision was based in part on information provided by the following credit reporting agency. You may obtain a copy of your credit report by contacting TransUnion, Consumer Relations – East P.O. Box 1000, 2 Baldwin Place, Chester, PA 19022, or you may call them at 1.800.888.4213.

If you have any questions or need assistance with your account, please call 1.800.726.5628, Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Eastern. You may also manage your account online at www.bankofamerica.com

Again, thank you for allowing us to serve you. We look forward to continuing to meet your credit needs.

Sincerely,

Card Services

This account has been used regularly, but never carries a balance. Apparently they will only allow you to keep your high credit limit if you carry a balance (and pay them boatloads of interest).

It looks like B of A’s billions in bailout money is really loosening up the credit markets! [yeah, right]