BOFA Grace Period Changed; Poor Disclosure

 Bank of America changed the grace period from 25 days to 20 days on my
previously branded MBNA credit card.  However, the only notice of the
change was the following disclosure on my monthly statement.

    Please Note: Your due date has changed.  Please ensure your
    payment is received by the payment due date to avoid late fees
    or other impacts to your account.

Pretty slimy way to disclose important changes in the terms of agreement
and certainly not clear language.  Did the due date change for this
month only?  Is the grace period now an average of 20 days or a minimum
of 20 days?

  John Baker wrote:


How about a maximum of 20 days?  When you factor in 3-5 days to receive
the bill & 3-5 days for them to receive a mailed payment (more if
weekends are involved), you likely have a 1-2 week window to make
payment which becomes a real nightmare if you  do any traveling.

Electronic payment is becoming the only means to avoid late fees.

 
It works really well for me, too. I wonder if in addition to getting their
money faster, the card issuers are doing this to attempt to get more and
more customers to switch to electronic payment. That's got to be cheaper for
them than processing paper checks.

I've noticed something similar at my bricks and mortar bank, where it seems
to take longer and longer to get waited on by a human teller. I cut my
aggravation level way down once I started doing every possible transaction
electronically or at the ATM.

 wrote:


Same here -- it works great for me.  I recently put my (2) electric
bills on auto pay with a credit card that gives extra cashback for
utility bills.  Likewise the annual bill for satellite TV.  I pay the
credit card off in full each month via online banking.  Quick, easy
and convenient.  I like it.  I think we usually write about 2 or 3
paper checks a month now.  I can't remember the last time I actually
went inside my bank (probably about two years ago when I withdrew some
cash for a vehicle purchase).


Dennis (evil)
--
I'm behind the eight ball, ahead of the curve, riding the wave,
dodging the bullet and pushing the envelope. -George Carlin

 
I hadn't fully gotten with the program until I had a hassle over a bill
where the payee (a medical office) claimed they never received my check.
Indeed, whether they received it or not they didn't cash it, but after
waiting several months to bill me at all, they went straight to a collection
agency in a matter of a couple weeks. Since DH and I have a high credit
score and want to keep it that way, this sort of thing unnerves us. That was
my wake-up call to set up online bill payment for any entity that accepts
it. I won't set up a month-to-month recurring payment from my checking
account, though. It may be more convenient, but I want to be spared the
horror stories of billings run amok that wipe out people's account balances.

I don't mind automatic billing to a credit card, though. You always have the
option of not paying and disputing the charge if the payee makes an error.

I had to go into the bank last week to get a cashier's check for a payee who
requested one. It had been so long I couldn't remember where the entry door
to the lobby was <g>.