Another Corporate Rant

So, right on the heels of Comcast's customer service answering my complaints online, I run into another problem with Big Corporate to rant about!

My corporate victim today: Bank of America

If you have a Bank of America credit card and currently have it on autopay or wold like to place it on autopay, you had better read this carefully!

I wake up this morning and decide I'm gonna do some financial stuff and check my bills, etc. I check on my Bank of America credit card bill that I got in the amil Friday night, to see that it says I paid late. Oh no! How did that happen? I am meticulous about my bills!?

My payment was due on April 23 and it was posted on April 25. So there was a $39 late fee on my statement, which isn't even the worst of it: I currently have my entire balance on that card at a 0% promotional rate, which was now jacked up to 17.99%!!!!

BUT. . . BUT. . . BUT. . . I have this account set up with BankofAmerica.com on their monthly autopay! So wtf????

I call them to find out that their online service, which they call "autopay" is, and I quote: "technically a monthly recurring transaction". And since I set it up to pay on the 25th, it IS MY FAULT that the payment was late! Not to mention, that is a ridiculous penalty for being 2 days late, anyhow!

Now eventually, after about 45 minutes wasted on the phone, they fixed it for me, refunded my late fee and reverted back my promotional rates. But I had to go through 3 different people and suffer the anxiety the entire time, being blamed for this as my mistake and at first telling me that all of my promotional balances could not be reverted. Since I had made a recent transfer check transaction after my apr was switched to 17.99% and even though they continued sending me checks labeled 0% interest rate, just got one in the mail Friday night WITH THIS BILL!!!

Now I checked with them and my payment due date does not fall before the 25th for several months, so I don't have to worry about it for a while, but isn't the point of autopay, that it automatically pays it for you on or before the due date so that you don't have to worry about it every month? Sheesh!

I would hope that some bright financial mind at Bank of America (afterall it is a freakin' bank!) could see how this can be a problem and fixes their autopay system to actually BE an AUTO PAY system. AND find it in their good conscience to refund any fees paid by customers that didn't recognize this problem before, and set their accounts and their credit right.

I can't be the only one ever affected by this!? If I wasn't so careful and double checked all my bills anyways, I would have never noticed this until it was too late! It doesn't alert you to the fact that your payment will be made late when you sign up for this. I assumed the first time I set it up it paid on the 25th, because that was the date for that month!