Feb 20 '09, 12:10 PMI would like to apologize to the nation and to everyone here at BiggerPockets. Unfortunately, I must confess that I am personally responsible for the demise of Bank of America and American Express and quite possibly this entire banking crisis. Well, to be more accurate I and millions of others like me. Let me explain.
For many years, I had an American Express credit card that I used for my business. It was one of those business cards that must be paid off every month. I put business purchases on the card every month (for years) and dutifully paid it off every month, never late on a single payment. As a matter of fact, I have never missed ANY PAYMENT on any account in my entire life and my credit score (currently 772) and credit report reflects that.
About 4 years ago, my wife became gravely ill and had major surgery. She was in the hospital for a long time and the medical bills were hundreds of thousands of dollars. We had insurance, but of course had thousands of dollars of copay to pay.
Anyone that has dealt with the insurance companies knows how incompetent they are. They screw up early and often when it comes to billing. Needless to say, many of the bills were inaccurate and needed to be reviewed by the insurance company. Three of the bills they were reviewing were never billed to us and the morons at the insurance company sent them directly to a collection agency. Of course, when we became aware of the bills we paid them. These three bills totalled a whopping $300, which was a small pittance compared to the thousands of dollars we paid in copay. It was an OBVIOUS error on the part of the insurance company and clearly just an insurance company mistake.
One day (approximately 3 or 4 years ago), I got a letter from American Express saying that because of the collections (which were an obvious error), they were lowering my credit line from $15,000 to $300! Needless to say, I called them and explained the situation. It didn't matter. They said that there was nothing they could do and left my credit line at $300. I promptly cancelled my American Express card!
The bottom line is that they pissed off one of their best customers and lost an account.
Fast forward to today. This afternoon, I picked up the mail and discovered two letters from Bank of America. The letters explained that my checking privileges for both of my lines of credit had been suspended because I had other open credit accounts. NO KIDDING! I've got millions of dollars of rentals and loans in the seven figures! My credit is spotless. My credit score today is 772. There are absolutely no late pays; no collections; no derogatory public records; and no other adverse items on my credit. I am aggressively paying down my debt and making extra principal payments on many of my loans.
You can guess what is going to happen. I will pay these morons off and close my accounts with Bank of America.
Is it any wonder that Bank of America and American Express are in such financial trouble. They made millions of bad loans and lost a bunch of money. Then, their solution to their woes is to cut the credit of their best customers - customers with spotless credit and a perfect payment history!!!!
So, I apologize for destroying the economy by cancelling my accounts with Amex and Bank of America. I admit it - I killed the economy!
Mike
