• If you are having problems logging in please use the Contact Us in the lower right hand corner of the forum page for assistance.

Banker Greed?

Mike

Well-known member
Tuesday, February 13, 2007

E-MAIL STORY PRINTER FRIENDLY VERSION
NEW YORK — Bank of America Corp. has begun offering credit cards to customers without Social Security numbers, typically illegal immigrants, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday.

In recent years, banks across the country have been offering checking accounts and even mortgages to the nation's fast-growing ranks of undocumented immigrants, most of whom are Hispanic, the paper said, adding these immigrants generally have not been able to get major credit cards.

The new Bank of America card is open to people who lack both a Social Security number and a credit history, as long as they have held a checking account with the bank for three months without an overdraft, the Journal said.

Bank of America tested the program last year at five branches in Los Angeles, and last week expanded it to 51 branches in Los Angeles County, home to the largest concentration of illegal immigrants in the U.S., the Journal said.

A Bank of America spokesman was not immediately available to comment.
 

Mike

Well-known member
Steve said:
I have had an account with Bank of America since the early 70's...

I closed it yesterday.

My son-in-law was fired recently by Bank of America as a branch manager for having a gun in his vehicle at work.

He was going to a dove shoot after work on a Saturday last Fall. A teller walked by his truck in the parking lot and noticed the end of a barrel sticking out from under a blanket on the floorboard of his truck.



They are very gun control.
 

Econ101

Well-known member
Mike said:
Steve said:
I have had an account with Bank of America since the early 70's...

I closed it yesterday.

My son-in-law was fired recently by Bank of America as a branch manager for having a gun in his vehicle at work.

He was going to a dove shoot after work on a Saturday last Fall. A teller walked by his truck in the parking lot and noticed the end of a barrel sticking out from under a blanket on the floorboard of his truck.



They are very gun control.

I am for gun control too.....
 

Sandhusker

Well-known member
The credit card industry needs some serious overhauling. They offer more unsecured debt than a bank will offer secured, they jump your rates to loan shark rates at the slightest provocation, and every purchase we make we are paying the 3% they charge vendors who accept the cards.

I recently saw an account that was being charged 32.6%. That's DOUBLE our bank's highest rate. I see rates in the 20s all the time.

Think about that 32.6% account - the card charged the merchant 3% on the purchase, a $39 late fee, and then 32.6% on the balance. I ask why that is legal?
 

Sandhusker

Well-known member
Mike said:
Steve said:
I have had an account with Bank of America since the early 70's...

I closed it yesterday.

My son-in-law was fired recently by Bank of America as a branch manager for having a gun in his vehicle at work.

He was going to a dove shoot after work on a Saturday last Fall. A teller walked by his truck in the parking lot and noticed the end of a barrel sticking out from under a blanket on the floorboard of his truck.



They are very gun control.

Come to my bank at the right time of year and there's bound to be a shotgun in the corner of my office!
 

aplusmnt

Well-known member
Mike said:
Steve said:
I have had an account with Bank of America since the early 70's...

I closed it yesterday.

My son-in-law was fired recently by Bank of America as a branch manager for having a gun in his vehicle at work.

He was going to a dove shoot after work on a Saturday last Fall. A teller walked by his truck in the parking lot and noticed the end of a barrel sticking out from under a blanket on the floorboard of his truck.



They are very gun control.

Was that in Alabama? Can he sue them? Is there some law there like the ones where you can not have a gun on school grounds, that involve Banks? Curious how they could get away with that?
 

Texan

Well-known member
With all of the emphasis on the 9/11 hijackers using credit cards, I just can't believe that there wasn't something in the Patriot Act that would make this illegal.
 

Econ101

Well-known member
Sandhusker said:
The credit card industry needs some serious overhauling. They offer more unsecured debt than a bank will offer secured, they jump your rates to loan shark rates at the slightest provocation, and every purchase we make we are paying the 3% they charge vendors who accept the cards.

I recently saw an account that was being charged 32.6%. That's DOUBLE our bank's highest rate. I see rates in the 20s all the time.

Think about that 32.6% account - the card charged the merchant 3% on the purchase, a $39 late fee, and then 32.6% on the balance. I ask why that is legal?

I recently saw the Senate committee that handles these issues have a hearing. We used to have usury laws. The banks have been able to play this game on the theory that the risk goes up and so should the rate. I think the consumer groups who testified showed this not to be the case.

The big problem is that it is a negotiable loan that can be unilaterally negotiated by the credit card companies with their terms.

Personally I think the solution, if you are still looking for the free market solution, is to allow them to charge more, maybe a multiple of what the initial rate was, but let there be limits. In addition make sure that the tricks they play in this game not be profit centers for the credit card companies. They are making extra profits off of the theory that the risk goes up and so they have to cover it with their increased fees.

Their underlying theory of business is that they provide a service. They will all say (or like in the hearing, they had the "good" credit card companies to represent the industry) that they don't mean to use these fees as a business model for profits. If this is true, they should be held to the standard they profess. They sounded a lot like the tobacco company executives. Of course all of these gimmick fees are hidden in the smallest print possible and change.

It is just white collar crime. It is a crime that Congress relaxed the rules to allow them to do this in the first place. Sleeping on duty instead of managing our democracy.
 

quickdraw

Well-known member
About 2 months ago i decided to pay off a Citi bank credit card, an amount about $5000 which we had been paying over twice the required monthly payment only to see the balance fall very slowly.
Long story short we found out what the balanced owed was and sent them a payment for that amount which should have paid the account off. Right?
Wrong! A month passes and we get notice that we owe a past due amount of almost $75 and that the interest rate had been increased :mad: :mad:
What seems to have happened was from the time we asked for a payoff and the day they posted the payment we had submitted there were added finance charges, then when the payment came duem and we failed to make the payment they added a $39 late charge :mad: :mad: They then sent a negitive report to the reporting agencies.
I immiediatly cancelled that card and one other that we had with them, and they didn't even care to hear why!
 

Cal

Well-known member
How do you issue a credit card to someone without a social security number and then collect on the debt?
 

Latest posts

Top