New Fee from BoA: Cash advance fee for certain PayPal transactions

[jebr]

Wanted to give people a heads-up: We used our Bank of America card to pay a counselor for some services via PayPal. Apparently the way this type of payment processes with Bank of America registers it as a "cash equivalent" transaction, instead of a standard credit card transaction. This results in no rewards, a $10 fee, and an interest charge on that amount from the day it posts! While Bank of America was able to refund the interest charge, they refused to refund the $10 fee, even though the manager we talk to stated that this is a new change that they rolled out last year.

The only way to avoid it (at least hopefully avoid it) is to set the credit line available for cash transactions to $0, which we did as we don't use that feature at all. Now time to wait and make sure that they make that change properly - and be ever wary of whatever new type of fee or expansion of a fee that BoA will implement!

 

[me_little_me]

BoA is about as sleazy as it gets in my experience. I have to take a shower after paying my bill so I rarely use the card. After all, a shower a month is just too much!

 

[jebr]

So our statement just cut. Not only did they not drop our credit line for cash advance to $0 (it's still at $200,) they charged another interest fee for this month despite paying our statement balance in full!

This YouTube video released today seems a bit on-point, given my recent frustrations:

 

[jis]

There is a reason that I stay miles away from trying to do anything that involves any credit card company and Pay Pal in any combination. I have never had a good experience when I tried way back when and that earned that entire set of transaction ideas a place on my Verboten list. Of course as Bob Dylan says YMMV, but ever since I placed that restriction on myself I have had no problem at all

 

[jebr]

There is a reason that I stay miles away from trying to do anything that involves any credit card company and Pay Pal in any combination. I have never had a good experience when I tried way back when and that earned that entire set of transaction ideas a place on my Verboten list. Of course as Bob Dylan says YMMV, but ever since I placed that restriction on myself I have had no problem at all

I've generally had fine luck, except for this one transaction. I guess it was sent in a different way and that caused all these issues, plus they changed how they classify certain PayPal transactions ("friends and family," I believe) last year, and we didn't realize it or realize that's how we were sending the money because it had worked fine for years with multiple cards. Other transactions still work normally with PayPal (which is good, since that's how a fair amount of websites I shop at process transactions.)

 

[jis]

It may have something to do with what they consider to be a cash advance through the back door. Unless a transaction is clearly identified as a credit card "credit" transaction I refuse to use that mechanism. Those are the ones that are fraught with the possibility of unexpected service charges and interests.

 

[me_little_me]

It may have something to do with what they consider to be a cash advance through the back door. Unless a transaction is clearly identified as a credit card "credit" transaction I refuse to use that mechanism. Those are the ones that are fraught with the possibility of unexpected service charges and interests.

No. It's just a sleazy company doing its usual sleazy stuff.

 

[jebr]

It's just a sleazy company doing its usual sleazy stuff.

Yeah. I'd cut them a bit more slack if they did a one-time fee waiver, and they followed through with what they tell me they'll do over the phone. After some research, it looks like PayPal "friends and family" triggering cash advance fees is becoming more prevalent, but it's not on all of them yet, and at minimum I'd expect their customer service to actually tell me accurate information over the phone.

 

[jis]

I think both Pay Pal and the Credit Card company should inform you about fees that may be triggered, since it is in some sense a joint venture between the two.

 

[jebr]

After calling them, supposedly the second interest charge was a "glitch" and they're refunding that fee. Though it makes me wonder how many people have had a similar "glitch" and been unable to get a refund or paid it not realizing it was a glitch...

(The cash advance stuff wasn't a glitch, though.)

 

[Devil's Advocate]

No. It's just a sleazy company doing its usual sleazy stuff.

Over a long enough time line most banks will screw with you eventually. Many states have rules against abuse but thanks to lopsided judicial rulings US banks are allowed to sell debt and other services under the loan shark rules of a state such as South Dakota regardless of what your own state does to protect you. That loophole needs to be closed.