The so called balance transfer...FUCK !
 

I had a smal loan on my house for 20K - use this money to buy the place in Budapest. Ok all is good and I have been paying the loan. Loan balance was down to 5600.00 and at 7.5 % interest rate. Get offer in the mail about using my CC for balance transfer. On the Balance transfer I get 0% interest until July of 2010...WOW so I say why not. I find out the exact amount to be paid off on the 7.5% loan and it's 5600.00 about and to pay this off I have to send in a "Cashiers Check". So then I go to Bank of America get Cashiers check with the Credit card - now doing this for the 0% rate!! Well today I check my balance on the CC and find out I'm being charged interest on the balance and the interest is 24.99 %, Not 0% or even the 9.9 % which is the normal rate of the Card. Ok well here is the deal, I got a Cashiers Check so they call that a CASH Advance not a Transfer and the interest rate is 24.99% with NO 0% at all. Nice so I just took a 7.5% loan and turned into 24.99% loan and Paid 160.00 to do it....I'm a Genius!!!

Turns out when I was on the phone and they said ya just call US and we will put the money into your checking acount if you don't want to wait for the credit card Checks. So I think ok I can just have the cash put into my account by going into the Local B of A branch. So by not calling them and going into the bank it's now a cash Advance..........................Nice.

Come fucking on like I would do that, but I did and they will not CHANGE a FUCKING thing.

Ok laugh away :disgust

I think charging the % on a CC is illegal.. You may want to look into that.

its' the Cash advance rate for a Platinum Plus Visa from Bank of America.

I can't fucking believe this has happened. The card is at 0% until july 2010 then goes to 9.99% on all Purchases and Balance transfers. That was what got me the 0% and I mean fuck it's only 5600.00 so I can pay it off. However I will not lie I was going to wait until the end of the year and take advantage of 0%. Now it's costing me more then 3 times the orginal loan. Now unless I feel like paying more then 3 times for the money I have to pay it off NOW. So you can imagen this eats into my budget a little....just sucks

Also when calling B of A both the CC department and the Branch were I got the Cashiers check say Sorry nothing We can DO....

wow, you really got fucked good there, it's possible to get great deals with these cc offers, but have to be very careful, and better read the fine print 10x...

You got sccrewed. I had a very similar situation where the card company transferred the money to my checking instead of sending it to the CC but it counted as a balance transfer not as a cash advance. If I were you call up and talk to a supervisor and explain to them that you feel like you got ripped off and why. Usually if your card is in good standing most CC companies will fix it. Make sure they understand you are not going to let this go.

No shit dude, you use your CC to get a CASH ADVANCE and expect no cash advance fees?


Of course you have to use a "balance transfer" form or "blank check" in order to get the promotional rate.


Man some people ...........

Are you claiming this is in any way the banks fault?

What are you talking about? You are trying to say that hundreds of millions of people are illegally being charged interest? LOL

Balance transfers and cash advances scare me for that exact reason. Too much fine print to go through, too much risk.

I suppose now you have a pretty good incentive on paying off your loan as fast as possible. :-)

Cash advances on a card will always kill you.

....and then we all wonder why the economy went kaputz.

At first I was and of course hoping it was just a mistake. However, because I didn't call the B of A CC department and say PUT the cash in my "checking account"...it is now a Cash Advance. The part that really sucks...is you would think what is the difference if I called or just went into a B of A branch and did it. The answer if you call it takes 3 to 4 biz days for the cash to show up. When you go into the branch you get RIGHT there and THEN....so now it's CASH Advance at the you MUST BE HIGH Rate of 24.99 %.


So were it looked like I would save a few bucks in now going to cost me a few hundred. No way I'm leaving the balance and just going to pay it. So I have the 160 fee plus a month of interest 72.00.

Bottom line for me is if it ain't broke DON'T Fix it.

Also just so you all know...I really thought it was a good deal and would just free up some cash. I'm not upside down in either of my places or do I have any refi BS.


:(

If you have the cash, go in and pay the amount in full. Then use the balance transfer option to get the 0% promo money transferred into your account over the phone.

Do a search for BOA and rate hikes they are the biggest scumbags.

That sucks. I'd talk with a lawyer. If you didn't understand the terms, you might be able to rescind the deal.

yeap CCs have always been an absolute butt rape....

I don't use credit cards any more. I pay EVERYTHING in cash and I have ZERO debt.

Don't allow yourself to get into debt. If you can't afford something, simply don't buy it.

Just out of curiosity, did you have a balance on the card before you added the $5600?

Sounds like a straight up scam

Sounds like very much...

Where did you buy in Budapest? I did the same thing last month, got a cheap balance transfer offer and bought a small place to work from in District 6.

But yes, for future reference, you need to let the card company make the transfer. I got them to transfer it into my bank account at home and then just transfered it to Hungary.

Rather then paying the cash advance rates for the duration, you should try and find some other card company with a low or 0% transfer rate and do a transfer. Otherwise you should get a regular bank loan to cover it, because those cash advance rates are lethal.

Balance Transfer refers to CC to CC balance transfers... not bank loan to CC balance transfers.

ugh sucks to hear man