Bank of America quietly delayed their changes to the way they calculate balance transfer fees. Changes were to go into effect in March, 2008. They are now delayed until at least June 16, 2008.
The fee will remain at 3% of the balance transfer with a minimum fee of $10. However, the cap of $75 will be removed altogether.
What this means is that for a $5,000 balance transfer, your fee would be $150. This amount can be added to the minimum payment due for the following month.
There is no reason provided for why Bank of America delayed this increase. All other major creditors have increased or removed caps altogether on their balance transfer fees too.
For Bank of America to delay an obvious profit-making change, there must be one of two reasons behind the delay.
- The legal department may have identified a regulatory vulnerability or potential legal issue behind the change. Perhaps enough notice was not provided or maybe it was left out of certain required publications. We have not discovered any evidence behind this theory.
- What is more likely is that the credit card giant is aware of continued scrutiny of credit card issuers by Congress. They may be postponing this increase in fees so that they may determine how Congress views this industry-wide increase in fees.
Whatever the reason behind it, this means that the increase will be delayed for a few more months. For consumers still looking for balance transfer offers to reduce their finance charges, it extends the window in which they can still apply for the special transfer offers. We will continue to monitor the terms and report any changes.
Tags: balance transfer fee, Bank of America