Finally BofA unsecures!!!

  • Posts: 118

Replied by CG101 on topic Re: Finally BofA unsecures!!!

Yes and No. I left my checking and savings accounts open with a dollar in each one, so that they will have to mail me a statement each month and I plan to deposit a dollar in each one every month, lmao. On a more positive note, it turns out that you are able to have your deposit applied to your balance if you close your account. I spoke with someone directly in the secured card department and he said that you may do either of two options. My deposit was applied and I now owe them 6.88, Yahoo. Good riddenings BOA



Good deal. It wasn't always like that, but I'm glad things worked out for you.
15 years 5 months ago #1
  • Posts: 333

Replied by charonh on topic Re: Finally BofA unsecures!!!

Yes and No. I left my checking and savings accounts open with a dollar in each one, so that they will have to mail me a statement each month and I plan to deposit a dollar in each one every month, lmao. On a more positive note, it turns out that you are able to have your deposit applied to your balance if you close your account. I spoke with someone directly in the secured card department and he said that you may do either of two options. My deposit was applied and I now owe them 6.88, Yahoo. Good riddenings BOA.:cheesing:
15 years 5 months ago #2
  • Posts: 296

Replied by Brian23 on topic Re: Finally BofA unsecures!!!

Thanks for the response and it makes sense, but its still stupid IMO. I am fully aware that you should never close a card, however, I am so disgusted with Bank of America as an entity that I do not want anything to do with them. Its just another ploy to hold onto money that they are earning interest on, which by the way, they do not pass on to the cardholder. Its ok, it was a learning experience. As you can see, I am not a fan of BOA


Are you no longer banking with BOA now???
15 years 5 months ago #3
  • Posts: 118

Replied by CG101 on topic Re: Finally BofA unsecures!!!

I wonder if all secured cards work this way?



From my experience, yes, I believe they all work that way. BTW, I wasn't saying you shouldn't close an account. Just not when you have a balance. You are right though, it's a learning experience. I personally went through many of them in this rebuilding credit process. While I don't personally share your hatred for BOA, I at the very least can respect it. :D Good luck. :)
15 years 5 months ago #4
  • Posts: 333

Replied by charonh on topic Re: Finally BofA unsecures!!!

Thanks for the response and it makes sense, but its still stupid IMO. I am fully aware that you should never close a card, however, I am so disgusted with Bank of America as an entity that I do not want anything to do with them. Its just another ploy to hold onto money that they are earning interest on, which by the way, they do not pass on to the cardholder. Its ok, it was a learning experience. As you can see, I am not a fan of BOA :upset:. I wonder if all secured cards work this way?
15 years 5 months ago #5
  • Posts: 118

Replied by CG101 on topic Re: Finally BofA unsecures!!!

Well I discovered something today about this card that really upset me and I did not know. I closed this account, mainly because I just hate Bank of America, and was told that I must pay this account off before they will send my deposit. Why was I under the impression that if you close a secured card and you owe a balance at the time, they will just apply your deposit to it and send you whatever is leftover, if anything is left over. Either I am slow or this just does not make any sense to me. So technically, I will give them $500 and they will turn around and send a check to me for $500. Stupid if you ask me, but I am going to do it, just to be rid of this money hungry bank. I refuse to give them a dime for finance charges on my own money. Had I known that, I would never have opened the account, because I did not do it to improve my credit, I did it for overdraft protection on my checking account (which I no longer use). What gives!!!!!



Hello, all.

I don't post or lurk here much (though maybe I should). I was reviewing my TU CR via the backdoor ( http://annualcreditreport.transunion.com/tu/disclosure/currentSituatio n.jsp ) and saw MetaBank suddenly appear. I got spooked as I never had an account with them but when I saw it was still my closed Rewards 660, I breathed a sigh of relief (that information I found here and did more searching). So I decided to poke around a bit and answer this particular question.

As someone who has both burned a secured card (in my youth) and had a BOA secured card for 9 months (which I converted to a WorldsPoint and have been "good" since 11/2007), I can tell you that your assumptions on how a secured card works is inaccurate. When you give X amount, it is merely collateral. What happens is that the X amount you give, in your case $500, stays in a collateral account (and with BOA, you get no interest). If you, for whatever reason, default on the balance, then they will treat the deficiency as a regular card, charging you fees, interest, etc. They will do this until the amount EXCEEDS the collateral amount and then at that point they keep the collateral and you will OWE THEM. The collateral is never meant to go toward an unpaid amount (though it will, just not to your benefit), it is there to secure your credit line. (Even if you close the account, with a balance, which is NEVER a good idea to begin with. Anytime you close an account, for the sake of your credit score you always want to be PIFed and then you close it).

I don't want you to think that I agree with this though, but I learned that lesson the hard way 7 years ago. That aforementioned account will fall off this August. Between that and my repo (which falls off this Novemeber), I will have a clean TU report.

Hopefully that made sense.
15 years 5 months ago #6
  • Posts: 333

Replied by charonh on topic Re: Finally BofA unsecures!!!

Well I discovered something today about this card that really upset me and I did not know. I closed this account, mainly because I just hate Bank of America, and was told that I must pay this account off before they will send my deposit. Why was I under the impression that if you close a secured card and you owe a balance at the time, they will just apply your deposit to it and send you whatever is leftover, if anything is left over. Either I am slow or this just does not make any sense to me. So technically, I will give them $500 and they will turn around and send a check to me for $500. Stupid if you ask me, but I am going to do it, just to be rid of this money hungry bank. I refuse to give them a dime for finance charges on my own money. Had I known that, I would never have opened the account, because I did not do it to improve my credit, I did it for overdraft protection on my checking account (which I no longer use). What gives!!!!!
15 years 5 months ago #7
  • Posts: 3479

Replied by hjm331 on topic Re: Finally BofA unsecures!!!

Relidtm, the $29 AF is a small price to pay for what BoA has to offer. I would pay the $29 and move on. However, before I pay the AF, I would call them again to see if they can be more of assistance to you because it's a hit and miss with CSR's nowadays.
15 years 6 months ago #8
  • Posts: 64

Replied by relidtm on topic Re: Finally BofA unsecures!!!

ok thanks will do still its messed up that someone says that
15 years 6 months ago #9
  • Posts: 648

Replied by smcc on topic Re: Finally BofA unsecures!!!

relidtm, I'm assuming that you talked to someone in Card Services who gave you the information that you would be approved for the WorldPoints Card. Card Services doesn't make the final determination of who gets approved/denied for a card.

I have been in your situation as I'm a current BOA customer. My advice to you is to stay with BOA and continue to build your history both with the bank and on a personal note.

BOA has great cards and once you establish a sold history with them, they will open the floodgates to you. To give you an example, they were going to give me a line of credit off my Visa Signature at .9% for 12 months.
15 years 6 months ago #10
  • Posts: 64

Replied by relidtm on topic Re: Finally BofA unsecures!!!

I dunno im pretty upset right now. I call them to see if I can get the annual fee waved, the girl said that since I had no missed payments balance payed in full for a year that I could get a boa mastercard with worldpoints, and the rep would see even with my scores ( i told her) that I have had good payment history that I would get this worldpoints card no problem. So when I talked to the guy on the phone he didnt even ask me if I had a boa account, and I said before you do this are you doing it online or are you actually reviewing my account, he said hes reviewing my account, and I go oh ok, so I hear him typing up another form and of course I get denied, I told him to look at my credit history with them (I have made all payments for a year and I am an AU on a 25k dollar card with them) and he said no If you want you can go to this address, and write in writing what you want, and I said I wanted to talk to someone now about it and he said no. Why would someone set me up to do this when I didnt really want to in the first place only to be pushed along like a number in an assembly line. Should I call the backdoor # I mean what do you all think I should do ? let it go say forget boa, because right now Im pretty upset because the lady I orginally spoke to said it would be no problem they would see my 2 good standing accounts and I would be good to go. Im thinking of switching banks that is how mad I am.
15 years 6 months ago #11
  • Posts: 3479

Replied by hjm331 on topic Re: Finally BofA unsecures!!!

BoA doesn't allow you to combine accounts anymore, they allow you to reallocate credit limits meaning you can't combine 100% of a CL and close the account, you have to leave a $500 CL on the account that you don't want.

When I upgraded my Student Visa to a WorldPoints Visa last year, my account history on the account remained the same.
15 years 6 months ago #12
  • Posts: 64

Replied by relidtm on topic Re: Finally BofA unsecures!!!

should I have done that during the call?
does that mean I have to apply for one again? reason I ask is because my credit is still bad I signed up with the boa credit monitoring service and its alot lower than wamu told me before

my scores are
equifax 648
experion 642
transunion 630

even though last i checked with wamu it was 678 with tu so I'm not sure what happened..
I dont have any balances with my credit cards, and i finished my debts
maybe the other student loan?


also if you convert to a new card it kills the credit history to the new cars date, for instance my girlfriend had a boa rewards amex and she combined to acclerated rewards now the account says since 08 vs 05
if I convert will it do this?
15 years 6 months ago #13
  • Posts: 3479

Replied by hjm331 on topic Re: Finally BofA unsecures!!!

Congrats! You can avoid paying the AF by converting to a no AF card.
15 years 6 months ago #14
  • Posts: 64

Replied by relidtm on topic Re: Finally BofA unsecures!!!

I just called boa and they said im getting my deposit back plus i got a cli to 1k im stoked! woot woot..
too bad its still a 29$ annual fee boo!
15 years 6 months ago #15