My Prius is going to be on TV!

Our local consumer advocate in San Francisco is doing a segment about a complaint I filed against my credit card company. When I bought the Prius in February, I used one of those "convenience checks" for the downpayment. The bank wasn't going to let the dealer cash the check, although I had plenty of available credit and a perfect payment history. They said they disapproved of consumers using a high percentage of their credit line.

Ultimately, our ABC affiliate's "7 on Your Side" program called me and said they wanted to run the story on the news. Since it all started with buying the Prius, they wanted the car be part of the interview. They came to my office this morning and taped the whole interview with me standing in front of the car. Then they filmed more of the interview while I was driving the car. They took long shots of me pulling in and out of the parking lot. Finally, there are shots of me sitting at my desk in front of my computer with the Prius screensaver on. This was good timing, since I just put on the hybrid stickers that I bought from Paul Demmitt yesterday, so all the shots of the car have the "GasElectricHybrid" sign in clear view.

It's supposed to air sometime in the next three weeks. The station told me they'd let me know in advance when it will be. I'll be sure to post it here so other Bay Area owners can tune in for my shameless plug for driving a hybrid!

 

The bank (Bank One, btw) did finally honor the check after two days of frazzled calls to the whole management food chain. I was told, however, to "never do that again" and that they would be "monitoring my activity". I filed a formal complaint with the goverment agency that regulates national banks. The bank immediately responded with a letter notifying me that they were exercising their right according to my cardmember agreement to increase my APR on future AND my existing balance to the maximum allowed by law, which is 27.99%, for "any reason they see fit". My interest rate was sitting nicely at 5.9%. When I called to ask them why they would do that to a long-time customer who has never even made a late payment, they said "because we can". That would have made my minimum payment more than my mortgage.

After a lot of panicked research, I found out that by immediately responding in writing BEFORE the effective change date AND closing my account, that they can't modify the interest rate on closed balances. The law says that if you don't respond in writing and close your account immediately, they can jack up rate as high as they'd like and it can't be undone. So now, I've frozen the rate at what it was and they can't touch it. Of course, there is still fine print in the cardmember agreement that says they can call the entire balance due on a closed account at any time for "any reason they see fit".... Scary, isn't it?