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Woman Refuses To Pay Credit Card After APR Jumps To 30%
By theoffer | September 14, 2009
Ann Minch has given up on paying off her Bank of America credit card. Until this weekend, she’d been a loyal customer, holding checking and savings accounts with the bank as well as a revolving line of credit card debt. But this year BOA raised the interest rate on her credit card more than once, until now it’s at 30%. When Minch lost her job, she called the bank to negotiate a more realistic rate in order to keep up her payments (she’s never been late). BOA said no, so Minch has said forget it, and she’s walking away.
The easy sides to take here are Hooray For Minch versus Pay What You Owe No Matter What. But there’s a more nuanced issue here, which is how does a powerless consumer fight back against a faceless corporation? In particular, a bank that repeatedly modifies the terms of the agreement to the point that they will now drive the customer into a spiral of late fees, penalties, and anxiety?
By refusing to pay, Minch will trash her credit and have to deal with paying off the debt in the future when it’s sold to a collection agency, either at full value or by agreeing to a lower amount and paying taxes on the difference. But BOA won’t see the $5,943.34 balance that remains on her account.
According to the Huffington Post, which has been covering the story, Minch has set up a YouTube clip and aims to turn this into a customer revolution.
What do you think? Does there come a time when your bank behaves so horribly that walking away from the debt is justified?
Is it okay to walk away from a credit card debt if the terms become abusive?(trends)
“Debtor’s Revolt: Woman Refuses To Pay Off Bank Of America Credit Card” [Huffington Post] (Thanks to Rob!)
Topics: Consumerism |