Ben, a reader of mine, recently received a notice in the mail about his Bank of America credit card. Like others, his interest rate is climbing. What’s more, fees are moving higher as well. Ben, whose FICO scores are around 825, decided that he would call the bank and find out why his account was targeted for these increases. What follows is not a verbatim transcript of the call. Instead, Ben tried — as best he could — to capture the essence of the entire conversation. Ben is an intelligent guy. It’s pretty clear that, after a while, he was just having fun with the Bank of America employees. I think we’ve all done this from time to time. If you haven’t, you can live vicariously through Ben. The call, by the way, illustrates why customers are so frustrated with card issuers’ customer service these days. Of course, I don’t necessarily blame the agents who are hired to handle these calls. They’re just doing their jobs as well as they can. Still, these phone calls can be an exercise in futility and frustration. What follows is the back and forth between Ben and Bank of America.Customer service representative (CSR): The general cost of lending has gone up and, to remain competitive, we had to raise rates across the board.Ben: To all your card holders?CSR: Yes. Let me review your account for a moment. (A minute or so passes.) I’m glad you called. I’m reviewing your account and I see that I can maintain your purchase interest rate at x.xx% and your existing promotional balance transfer rate is still good until May 1st so if you’d like to transfer a balance I can do that at the existing promotional rate. And the transfer fee is 3% still. It goes up to 4% on June 1st.Ben: I presume the transfer fee is on the entire amount of the balance transfer, with no cap?CSR: Yes.Ben: OK. Thanks. I’m not interested to make a balance transfer. But what about my other interest rates – can those be dropped back as well?CSR: I can’t do anything about those.Ben: All right. Thanks for the information. I do want to clarify something with you. You said that the rate increase was across the board – to all your card holders. I’d just like to be sure I understand you. You’ve passed on the general cost of lending increase to all your card holders?CSR: Yes. Everyone has been getting letters…Ben: Just to be sure I understand you clearly – everyone who has a Bank of America credit card?CSR: Um, I can’t really answer that question. I don’t know.Ben: OK. I’d like to speak to a supervisor – someone who can answer that question.CSR: OK. Please hold.Supervisor gets on the phoneSupervisor: How can I help you?Ben: The customer service rep I was just speaking with told me that the rate increases you’ve notified me about are “across-the-board” increases due to the general increase in the cost of lending money. I asked her to clarify (since it is a General cost increase) that all of your card holders have seen similar rate increases. She reconfirmed that. Just to be really sure I asked her if ALL Bank of America card holders had their rates increased recently. At that point she said she couldn’t really answer that question and turned me over to you. So I was wondering if you can tell me why all the rates and fees associated with my account have been raised.Supervisor: It was a business decision to raise rates due to General cost of lending.Ben: The General cost of lending or the cost to lend to Me specifically?Supervisor: Yes. Costs have gone up across the board.Ben: So were rates raised for ALL your card holders?Supervisor: No – I can’t say that.Ben: Your customer service agent did say that until I pressed her on it. Do all your customer service agents say that when card holders ask why their interest rates and fees have gone up?Supervisor: No.Ben: So she would be the only one who does.Supervisor: Probably.Ben: You yourself just explained to me that it is an “across-the-board” increase.Supervisor: How can I help you?Ben: I’d like to know what were the reasons for raising the rates on my account?Supervisor: Because the cost of lending funds has gone up.Ben: Lending money in general?Supervisor: Yes.Ben: So you would have raised all your card holders’ rates to cover that cost increase…?Supervisor: I can’t say that.Ben: OK. So you’ve told me that the general cost of lending money has gone up but you can’t tell me that you have passed the increased cost on to your general card membership. Is there something about my account specifically that has raised your cost of lending?Supervisor: Yes. (long silence)Ben: Does it have anything to do with the way I’ve handled my account, my credit rating, or anything specific to my account?Supervisor: No. It’s just that the cost of lending money has gone up.Ben: You mean the cost of lending money to all your card holders?Supervisor: I can’t discuss anyone else’s account.Ben: The cost for lending money to Me specifically has gone up?Supervisor: Yes.Ben: What caused the cost of lending to Me to go up?Supervisor: We reviewed your account and took a business decision to raise your rates.Ben: But what specifically caused you to make that decision?Supervisor: The cost of lending has gone up.Ben: You mean the cost of lending to Me specifically?Supervisor: Yes.Ben: But what is it about Me that caused your cost of lending to ME to go up.Supervisor: I’ve already told you that.Ben: You told me that the cost of lending money to Me has gone up but you haven’t told me what it is about Me that has caused your cost of lending to Me to rise.Supervisor: The cost of lending in the general market has gone up.Ben: So it’s an across-the-board increase?Supervisor: Yes.Ben: So if it’s a general “across-the-board” increase in the cost to lend money you would have raised everyone’s rates?Supervisor: I can’t talk about other cardholders’ accounts. That’s against the law.Ben: I’m not asking you about any one person’s account. I’m asking if the general cost increase for lending has caused you to raise rates to all your cardholders, across the board.Supervisor: It’s a general increase in cost.Ben: An increase in the cost to lend to everyone?Supervisor: I can’t talk about another card holder’s account.Ben: OK. What caused you to raise my rates specifically?Supervisor: I’ve already told you that. It was a business decision.Ben: But interest rates have fallen sharply.Supervisor: Yes, that’s true but it’s costing us more to lend money.Ben: To Me specifically?Supervisor: Yes. I’ve already told you that.Ben: But what is it about me specifically that has raised your costs? Why would you take the decision to raise my rates and not take that decision for some other card holder – say someone else who, like me, pays on time and has a stellar credit score?Supervisor: I can’t talk about another card holder’s account.Ben: I’m not asking you to speak about anyone specific. If someone had the same payment history and credit rating as me, would you raise his interest rate?Supervisor: I can’t talk about any other card holder’s account.Ben: I’m not asking about any other specific card holder. I’m just asking, if there were someone else out there with equivalent metrics to me, would you raise his interest rate?Supervisor: You’re asking me to give you general answers…Ben: No, I’m not. I’m asking you to give me SPECIFIC answers regarding why you’ve taken the decision to raise MY SPECIFIC rates and fees. SPECIFICALLY.Supervisor: I’ve told you 4 times now. We took a business decision to raise your rates.Ben: But why Me specifically?Supervisor: We felt that your interest rate was too low.Ben: You mean it was a touchy-feely sort of decision?Supervisor: Of course not. Look, I can’t stay on the phone with you all day answering the same questions over and over again.Ben: You haven’t answered my question. Why have you passed your cost increases on to me specifically? If you can give me a real answer we can close this conversation. If you can’t tell me what factors made Bank of America single me out for rate increases, I’d like to speak to someone who can.Supervisor: There isn’t anyone else you can speak to. The conversation is closed now. Good bye. (click.)—-First things first. Ben obviously knew that he wasn’t getting anywhere with these representatives. But I suspect he was frustrated with the entire process — including some of the answers he received — so he decided to tie them up for a while, just to get some kind of satisfaction (even if it wasn’t the kind of satisfaction he was ultimately looking for). By the way, I have to hand it to the supervisor. I would have hung up on Ben a lot earlier! That said, there has got to be a better way for Bank of America and other banks to get a handle on these sorts of calls. Rather than winging it, which is what both agents appeared to be doing, these banks need to keep it simple. These kinds of calls only serve to frustrate the general card membership.
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