MyCardBlog

Recently, there are a lot of emails from MyCardBlog.com readers regarding the easy steps to pay Bank of America (BOA) credit cards online. I must indicate that to pay Bank of America’s credit cards online is not so easy if you are not familiar with BOA’s rules and do not have checking account with them. If you have a regular checking account at Bank of America, then there is no such problem because you when you click the “pay now” button, it will re-direct you to the checking account bill pay section. Then everything is very simple.

If you do not have a regular checking account at Bank of America, you need to find other ways to pay your credit card bills online. It seems even Yahoo! answers do not have the right answers on how to pay Bank of America credit cards online. I believe it will be very easy for you if you read this post.

To pay your Bank of America credit card online from other financial institution, you have to visit www.myeasypayment.com to submit a payment online. You will need following information for each payment (This website does not store your payment and personal information!).

• Credit card number
• Last name as it appears on the credit card
• Last 4 digits of your Social Security number
• City and ZIP code where your statement is mailed to
• ABA/Routing Number of non–Bank of America financial institution
• Account number of non–Bank of America financial institution

Of course, this myeasypayment.com is also the only website that you can pay your Bank of Ameirca loans online.

If you have a Bank of Ameirca checking or savings account, you can go to your online account and click “Make Transfer” tab and follow the directions to transfer money to your credit card.

It is a little boring to remember everything for each payment at www.myeasypayment.com. Will Bank of America do something to make online payment much easier like other credit card issuers in the near future?

Bank of America just announced the launch of a new online shopping site-Add It Up, which is said to allows enrolled customers to earn up to 20% cash back on their purchases at more than 270 online retailers, including top names such as Walmart.com, BestBuy.com and Barnes & Noble.com. This seems to be a new cash back website for Bank of America’s online banking customers.

It looks like a new cash back website for me. Many credit card issuers also offer similar reward website. For example, Chase has the Chase Rewards Plus, Discover Card has the ShopDiscover, and Citi has the Citi Cash Bonus Center. But from this move, we can see that Bank of America is dedicated to serve its customers. “With Add It Up, Bank of America is giving customers a new way to stretch their money by getting cash back on purchases from hundreds of retailers they do business with regularly, and letting them do it online at their convenience.” as indicated by David Owen, Checking and Debit executive for Bank of America.

The merchants listed at Add It Up look really great. Add It Up has included essentially all major US online merchants and covered all categories. You can get up to 20% cash back from more than 270 participating online retailers (such as iTunes, Macys.com, BestBuy.com, Barnes & Noble.com, Walmart.com, Homedepot.com, Sephora.com, Staples.com, Gap.com, PETCO.com, Overstock.com, REI.com and LandsEnd.com). Plus you can combine Add It Up cash back with existing deals and discounts from retailers and other Bank of America programs such as Keep The Change and BankAmericard Rewards. It indeed is a great cash back deal for Bank of America customers!

Bank of America customers with a current Bank of America credit or check card who are enrolled in online banking can register for free through the Add It Up site at http://www.bankofamerica.com/additup.

Bank of America is always offering $75 to $100 sign up bonus for its MyAccess Free Checking Account. This account features no minimum balance requirement, no direct deposit requirement and no monthly fees. However, a very obvious problem with Bank of America is the overdraft fees. Many Bank of America customers are reported to pay huge amount of overdraft fees to Bank of America. My post “Get Overdraft Fees Back from Bank of America by Writing to Their CEO” is very popular and helped a lot people get the overdraft fees back from Bank of America.

Today I am going to briefly introduce a funny story happened between Bank of America and a customer.

According to the report at Herald News, a Bank of America customer who was unhappy with the service his received at a local Bank of America branch simply dialed 911 and reported a robbery. “As odd as it sounds, we took a bank robbery (call) from the bank robber,” Lt. Ken Teppel said.

According to the police, the man had attempted withdrawing some money that the bank had a hold on. When the bank wouldn’t release the funds. Then the suspect indicated that he was going to shut the bank down.

As reported by the newspaper, after about 15 to 20 minutes of talking by phone with the branch’s employees from the parking lot, police determined the bank was not, in fact, being robbed. They promptly entered the building and arrested suspect.

SO here comes the suggestion for most Bank of America customers:”if you feel angry with the service received at the local branch, please don’t call 911 but the 800 number.

Fidelity Investments, the No. 1 provider of Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs), partnered with Bank of America to launch a new credit card product—the Fidelity Retirement Rewards American Express Card. Fidelity currently has two credit cards: Fidelity 529 College Rewards American Express Card and Fidelity Investment Rewards Visa Signature Card with WorldPoints Rewards. The new credit card is a great choice in the credit card market.

The Fidelity Retirement Rewards American Express Card is claimed to “give investors an innovative way to save for retirement while purchasing everyday necessities”. This new credit card product is offering a 2 percent earn rate on everyday purchases when Cardmembers redeem their cash rewards as a current year contribution into their Fidelity IRA.

Features of this credit card:

• Turn 2% of purchases into a contribution for your Fidelity IRA
• No limits on cash rewards
• No annual fee

Here is how the Fidelity Rewards Card works:

• You’ll earn 2 points for each $1 you spend on purchases.
• Reach 5,000 points after you make $2,500 in purchases and $50 can be automatically swept into your Fidelity IRA as a current year contribution or other Fidelity account.
• Enjoy more flexibility with additional WorldPoints rewards options, including travel, merchandise, travel, and other rewards.

This is a really great credit card if you have a Fidelity IRA account. Combine the Fidelity Retirement Rewards Card with the tax-advantaged benefits of the Fidelity IRA, you can really save a lot of money. The Fidelity 529 College Rewards American Express Card and Fidelity Investment Rewards Visa Signature Card with WorldPoints Rewards are rated as the top 5 credit cards by SmartMoney.com in 2006. Thus this new credit card is really promising.

This new credit card is accepting applications now via www.fidelity.com/retirementrewards. Or you can call 866-598-4971 and mention priority code FAC5D2.

Fidelity Investments is one of the world’s largest providers of financial services, with custodied assets of nearly $2.7 trillion, including managed assets of over $1.2 trillion as of October 31, 2008. Fidelity offers all kinds of financial services to American people. Fidelity is the largest mutual fund company in the United States.

There are many black card designs out there in the market. The most famous one probably is the American Express Black Card which is dedicated to those with high incomes. Other credit card issuers are also promoting their “Black Card” to attract more customers. This post is a summary of 5 cool Black Card designs.

1. American Express Centurion Card: This is the most famous credit card with an annual fee of $2,500. And you must have to spend more than $250,000 each year otherwise your card account will be canceled by American Express. This card is not available for general market. You must have to receive the invitations from American Express to be eligible to submit your application. The complete review of this card can be found here.

2. Citi Chairman Card: This is the Citi version of Black Card. The annual fee for this card is $500. This card is the high end card product from Citi. But the benefits from this card is not so good as those from the American Express Black Card. This card is actually an American Express card although you can’t find any visa, mastercard, or American express card designs. The review on this card can be found here.

3. Bank of America Accolades American Express Card: This is the Bank of America’s version of Black Card. This is the first premium credit card offered by Bank of America targeted exclusively for the banks “affluent, wealthy and ultra- wealthy clients served through Premier Banking & Investments, the Private Bank of Bank of America and its extension, Family Wealth Advisors. After you become one of the account members of the Premier Banking & Investments, you will be eligible to apply for this card. (You must have more than $200,000 in assets with Bank of America.)

4. Merill Lynch Merill+ Visa Card: This is the Merill Lynch version of Black Card. There is nothing special for this card but a black card design. This card features a 1.9% APR on balance transfers, check cash advances and direct deposits for the first 12 billing cycles. There is no annual fee associated with this card.

5. Chase +1 Student MasterCard: This is a very very special black card which doesn’t contain any black features. This card is designed exclusively for college students. So even students can have a black card now. If you are a college student and want to get a “Black Card”, this is your top choice.

Bank of America used to be the largest bank by assets and second largest commercial bank by deposits before the acquisition of WaMu by JP Morgan chase & Co. Bank of America’s most popular banking products may be the MyAccess Checking Account and the Keep the Change program. However, there are a lot of complaints about the terrible overdraft fees. Here I will tell you the most useful method to get the overdraft fees back from Bank of America.

Why the overdraft fees are so terrible?

First, what’s “an overdraft fee”? An overdraft item fee occurs whenever funds must be provided to cover a transaction that overdraws the account. Believe it or not, overdraft fees have increasingly become a source of profits. Banks and credit unions collect about $17.5 billion in overdraft fees per year. As reported by USA Today:

In 2007, Wachovia put in place a tool that tells employees how much they can refund to customers hit by overdraft fees. The bank, in memos, also tells employees to “sell” a debit card with every account because it makes money when consumers use it.

Bank of America raised the fee charged on the first day a customer overdraws to $25 from $20. BOA also raised the number of times a customer can be hit with this fee per day to seven from five. It’s really terrible. Furthermore, the next following days after the first day, the fee is $35.00 for each item. A customer can easily get up to $500 fees just for the overdraft. And it’s vry common to pay $100 over draft fees for just 2 or 3 cups of coffee!

It’s common to go to your local BOA branches to complain the over draft fees if it really happens to you. Or you may call BOA up to appeal. However, most of the employees are trained to give you a samll portion or even nothing to you. So there must be other ways to get the money back.

After a little search on the web, I realized that the most effective way to get the over draft fees back is to write to their CEO!

This has been confirmed to be successful for many victims of BOA’s over draft fees. The CEO of Bank of America’s address is:

Mr. Kenneth D. Lewis
100 N. Tryon Street.
Mail Code NC-1-007-18-01
Charlotte, NC 28255

In the letter to the CEO, all you have to do is to state the reason why you have so many over draft fees and tell him that as a loyal BOA’s customer, you hope he can help you!

And there are other methods to reach BOA’s executive customer relations.

Executive Customer Relations general line: 704-386-5687

Nancy M. Condos
VP/ Customer Advocate
Executive Customer Relations
Office of the Chairman
nancy.m.condos@bankofamerica.com

Martha Dominguez, Executive Customer Relations Specialist: 714-792-4264

Corporate Headquarters (Bank of America):
Bank of America Corporate Center
100 North Tryon Street
Charlotte, North Carolina 28255

It seems there is a new banking promotion out there with $100 sign up bonus from Bank of America. Bank of American was offering $100 bonus for its MyAccess Checking Accout for a very long time. But then in late 2007, all the $100 bonus offers are gone. And we can only have $75 promotion codes available until the very recent promotion code. I can’t find anything about the $100 offer but this was very popular on the internet and I was informed by one of MyCardBlog readers.

Last time I mentioned the $100 offer from Bank of America was back in September 2007. After that, all we can see is the $75 bonus offer. The lastest promotion was said to offer $100 sign up bonus for opening a new MyAccess Checking Account with minimum $25 deposit. The promotion code is WGSUOISI808.

The MyAccess Checking Account is the most popular checking account product offered by Bank of Amerca. The MyAccess Checking Account features:

• Free with no direct deposit requirement
• Free Online Banking service with free Bill Pay
• No minimum balance required

The promotioin link can be found here. Although everything is branded with the University of Iowa, you don’t need to be a University of Iowa alumni to qualify for this offer. All you have to do is to proceed to open an account online and put the pormotion code on the application page. $100 cash bonus will be credited to account within 90 days. You must be a new customer with no checking accounts closed in last 3 months to qualify for this offer. This offer expires 10/15/2008

Please also note that the initial deposit can be funded with a credit card! And it will not counted as cash advance for the credit card but just a regular purchase.

It seems the promotion is targeted to many Bank of America partners. You can find the similar offer with NASCAR and I Love New York. You can’t find anywhere that mentions about the $100 offer, but you can put the promotion code on your application page. Yor are advised to save a screenshot for your application page.

The Keep the Change program is still valid to Bank of America customers. All you have to do is to open a checking account together with a savings account and use your Bank of America check card. It would be a great chance to get $250 bonus!

Warning: Bank of America will do a hard pull for opening a checking account online.

I reviewed two credit cards before: American Express Centurion Card (also known as the Black Card) and Citi Chairman Card. Both of them charge very high amount of annual fees ($2500 for Centurion Card and $500 for the Chairman Card). Note that the Citi Chairman Card is also an American Express card. Actually, there are many other cards network (Via and MasterCard) offering high annual fee credit cards. The 2007 Luxury Brand Status index (LBSI) survey from the New York-based Luxury Institute indicated that the American Express Centurion Card is the most prestigious credit card among those super wealthy.

Other high-end cards were also rated by the group of 500 ultra-wealthy American consumers with an average $77.5K income and $14.4 million networth. According to the study, American Express Platinum Card was rated as the second best credit card among those super wealthy. And MasterCard Platinum, MasterCard World, MasterCard World Elite, Visa Signature and Visa Platinum were also rated. MasterCard World Elite Card ($395 annual fee) was rated as the third best card.

Obviously, the affluent represent a high-spending and low-risk crowd. They typically charge hundreds of dollars in a single transaction. The credit card issuers can get pretty much transaction fees from the retailers. There are more credit card issuers join this market which will bring high profitable merchant fees to them.

Bank of America later launched the Bank of America Accolades American Express card which is designed to cater the ultra wealthy of Global Wealth & Investment Management’s client. The Accolades card provides the highest level of service Bank of America can offer — superior rewards and unparalleled benefits. Only those with with more than $100,000 in deposits and investments will be invited to apply, and the $295 annual fee will be waived so long as the client maintains a relationship with Bank of America.

Another prestigious credit card for our rich people is the Stratus Rewards Visa Card issued by US Bank. This card is also known as the “white card“. This card has a $1,500 annual fee and only be obtained by invitation or nomination by another card member.

I hope I would be the one with one of the above mentioned credit cards in the future.