golfingboy

True... Probably a more appropriate way to do this is to give the F eligible companion certs to those who applied on or before July 31 and whose anniversary dates are on or before July 31. Rather than, certs issued after Aug 1st will be Y only.

My anniversary date is this month as well.

IMHO, what AS and Bofa is doing is potentially deceptive on many levels. They failed to give proper advance notice in accordance with the law, marketing a benefit where it is questionable if the new applicants will get a certain benefit that was marketed to them, etc. I am not someone who likes litigation or making a big deal out of it [I am more of the take my business elsewhere type], but with the appropriate resources and evidence this could put BofA and AS in a bad position when facing the judge.

Since the MBS fall out and all of the bailouts [plus the recent derivatives screw up by JPMorgan], the government is not so friendly with the banks anymore. I work for one of the most reputable banks in their wealth management department and we are at risk of getting in trouble for some innocent conduct that is nothing compared to what AS/BofA is doing.

onefasteuro

Well this is a bummer. I got mine and my cert last month. I guess it will be bye bye before renewal time :/

czpdx

I suspect the PR risk is minimal. I'd guess 95-99% of cardholders use the card for Y tickets and will neither know about the change nor miss it.

beckoa

Well they did send out a notice to all cardholders so quite a few at least were aware of this, sadly.

dgreen12

Annual fee posted 7/26, no companion cert as of this morning.

Last year? Companion cert was dropped into the account at or about the same time as the annual fee or before.

BoA and AS are obviously manipulating the game. Pity, how far they have fallen.

AS Flyer

from what I understand it's 98%.

jackal

I and another FTer just did a check of our activity and it seems the companion certs are deposited 2-4 days after the annual fee posts. With luck you'll get it before the cut-off.

Also, I wanted to note that while I have not had an ounce of trouble (except one or two card number changes) in the 9 years I have had the AS Visa, I have had family members that have had major issues with BofA, so I can understand everyone's complaints here about them. I personally would like to keep the card as is with BofA as it is the oldest open card on my credit history (and I don't want whatever replacement BofA would offer me if AS moved on), but for the betterment of the AS community, I do hope another option comes along someday.

Eujeanie

Not meaning to continue to disagree, but I checked my BofA account again, and my annual fee posted on June 26, and my Certificate was deposited July 13.

Maybe because it was my first renewal? Many of you seem to have had the card for many years, and maybe they get more into a rhythm then, but I still have May to get card/first certificate, June for renewal, and July for second certificate.

ChugiakAk

You'd hope people would read what they signed up for as well as any changes that occur. Let the consumer beware.

golfingboy

Yes they did, and BofA probably forced AS to do it on their behalf since this was AS's decision.

Problem here is AS failed to meet (on behalf of BofA, where BOA is still accountable as the financial institution managing the terms/conditions of the card) the minimum notice requirement.

Why did we see BofA change the application site indicating the Y only change a few months ago? It is because they are following the law, and I am not sure what happened in between that got them to revert the posting of the new terms.

I suspect, AS wanted to notify current cardholders before the change actually takes place and yet they still failed to meet the minimum requirement for those whose cards are due for renewal this month and most of Aug.

Now they continue to promote this benefit onboard fully aware it is going away on Aug 1 without explicitly informing people that only those who applies and whatever department receives the application by July 31 will get the current cert? I am sure there are many people who would pick up the application onboard and fill it out and mail it on their own only to be "fooled" when they find out their cert is only good for Y?

This is why I, or my bank, will never promote such behavior to protect the employees and the company.

Eastbay1K

I believe that this was the first and only "change of terms" letter that was not a joint letter from AS and BofA.

beckoa

Wirelessly posted (beckoa's PWP wondrousdevice3.0: Mozilla/5.0 (BlackBerry; U; BlackBerry 9810; en-US) AppleWebKit/534.11+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/7.0.0.583 Mobile Safari/534.11+)

Its also interesting to note AS elites had a different letter then non elites...

Eastbay1K

No one ever said that a pig didn't have different shades of lipstick

dave1013

What is the minimum notice requirement? I looked through the T&C of both the personal and business Signature cards and couldn't find it. Closest thing I saw was in the Business card T&C where it said that the provisions posted on the web page were current as of May 31 and that if you wanted to apprise yourself of any changes since that date, they gave you a number to call.

I understand your assertion about deceptive practices but would appreciate it if you shared backup documentation of the minimum notice requirement. Thanks in advance.

golfingboy

It is under the CARD law [Credit Card Act] that was passed into legislation in 2009 and began full enforcement in Feb 2010..

"Must notify a customer 45 days before making a major change to the terms of a credit card contract."

http://www.responsiblelending.org/cr...-Don-t-Do.html

However for the business card the banks still can:

"Arbitrarily change any or all terms for credit cards issued to small businesses."

I am busy moving into a new apartment to actually read the actual CARD legislation, but I can do that tomorrow night.

ETA: the Federal Reserve is better.

"When they plan to increase your rate or other fees. Your credit card company must send you a notice 45 days before they can

increase your interest rate;

change certain fees (such as annual fees, cash advance fees, and late fees) that apply to your account; or

make other significant changes to the terms of your card.

If your credit card company is going to make changes to the terms of your card, it must give you the option to cancel the card before certain fee increases take effect. If you take that option, however, your credit card company may close your account and increase your monthly payment, subject to certain limitations.

For example, they can require you to pay the balance off in five years, or they can double the percentage of your balance used to calculate your minimum payment (which will result in faster repayment than under the terms of your account).

The company does not have to send you a 45-day advance notice if

you have a variable interest rate tied to an index;

if the index goes up, the company does not have to provide notice before your rate goes up;

your introductory rate expires and reverts to the previously disclosed "go-to" rate;

your rate increases because you are in a workout agreement and you haven’t made your payments as agreed."

IMO, the change in this benefit is a significant change in the Credit Card terms.

ETA2: let me clarify my position here.

Do I want to attempt to start a lawsuit? No. It is not my thing and this is one thing I despite about our society. The way to go is to just cancel the card and move on. If someone is concerned about their credit score, the primary drivers are credit utilization and responsibility (do not let your balances balloon over 20% for more than 30 days, pay the bills on time, etc). So, sign up for a new credit card then cancel the AS card, your credit will take a slight hit, but you will get back within a few months.

My biggest irk about the whole thing is the hawking of the benefit while fully aware the benefit will go away in less than 45 days. It is just not how I think businesses should behave (I know they are trying to maximize any potential sign up leads), and I think the right thing to do is to either promote this benefit while informing the customers that they have until July 31st before the first class companion certificate changes to coach only and put that notice in the credit card applications. That way they can show reasonable diligence that they are ensuring customers are aware of the change before making a decision. Another way to do this is to send a notice to current cardholders in late May or early June about the change to give them reasonable time to decide before the annual fee is due and yank this benefit from all new applications on June 1st. That way the 45 days notice becomes a non issue and everybody has reasonable advance notice.

If someone wants to press this issue further, follow the link below:

https://appsec.helpwithmybank.gov/olcc_form/