(I don't mean to be political here and I don't think this is a republican or democrate issue because both sides are soft on the border.) I am wondering how many others have the MBNA (now Bank of America) Ferrari Club of America Mastercard and if any of you were thinking about canceling it or switching banks from BofA to something else because of BofA's support for illegal aliens. Maybe I'm being too sensitive here? But this has been in all the papers and on all the talk shows. In case you haven't heard BofA is now offering credit cards to people without social security numbers in an attempt to get the illegal immigrant market. Commedian Dennis Miller was on the Bill O'Reilly show the other night and said that he had already closed his BofA account and O'Reilly said he was doing the same. Here are some posts with more details on this: http://news.google.com/news?q=%22bank+of+america%22+illegal - 500 articles on Google News http://michellemalkin.com/archives/006861.htm - a good summary of the issue and the law http://www.agweb.com/get_article.aspx?pageid=134448&src=agcmt - "Jay Leno: Well, heres something I find just hard to believe. The Bank of America here in Los Angeles is now offering credit cards to illegal immigrants who do not have Social Security cards. Isnt that amazing? Or Social Security numbers. Isnt that ironic? You dont have a green card, but you can get a gold card."
I had one - for actually a LOT longer than I wanted to..... At one time, I was carrying a balance of over $12,000 at 23% APR (if your check arrives at their doorstep late for any reason, the Banks RAPE you by jacking those 'teaser' rates through the roof and leave them there for years). As soon as I paid/transferred the balance, I tried to cancel the card account over-the-phone. I think this was 1997/1998. I cut it up, and forgot about it...... A month ago, I used Bank Of America's online banking system to check out when a certain check was cashed....as soon as I logged in, I got a pop-up message from the BOA website telling me that a credit account was 'attached' to my savings/checking account for automatic payment--- Huh?????? A credit-card account had somehow 'installed' itself, and could automatically remove funds from my savings to pay for itself? Visions of Identity Theft and credit-card fraud ran through my head. When I called the bank, the rogue account was for a Ferrari Club of America credit card (that I supposedly cancelled almost ten years ago). Bank of America had purchased MBNA, the account transferred, and now I had this long-dormant account for $30,000 attached to me. The account has been completely cancelled now, but I understand that such accounts, tied to your credit rating, can actually boost your credit score if left there 'dormant' for years. So even though I never used it, having $30K of available credit (long paid off) sitting on my credit ledger may explain why I've had excellent credit ratings for YEARS....
Ferrari... a new way to justify making customers pay much higher than average. Glad you got the situation settled, i'd be scared of ID theft too!
