God Bless America (The Bank of)?

I have a Bank of America (hereafter referred to as BoA) credit card. In general, BoA has treated me well, delivering statements promptly, crediting payments promptly and addressing the majority of my concerns. They certainly have a much better reputation than credit card-issuing banks such as Providian and even, at times, Capital One. That doesn't mean, though, that BoA would win any award from me for banking under the model of "love of neighbor" or "do unto others."

Are Americans in general, particularly younger ones, aware just how much business and specifically business-to-client ethics have declined over the years? Let me give just a few examples.

1. There are 12 months in the year and I receive a monthly statement so I get 12 statements in a year. For years, my bill always arrived around the 27th of the month, the previous bill due date being the 18th and the ensuing due date the same day of the next month. Then came an invite from BoA to make a balance transfer at a 5.9% fixed-fixed rate (as opposed to "fixed until we change the rate") for the life of the transfer and with no transfer fees. There isn't a lot of leniency before a penalty rate of over 20% kicks in for late or "over-the-limit" defaults, but that's fine with me. I would just be real careful. I made the transfer. Low and behold, my next statement didn't arrive until the 3rd of the month, with a new due date of the 14th. Then the following month, the statement went back to arriving at its usual time of around the 27th and being due on the 18th of the next month. Was BoA trying to "trip" a default with me? If so, they failed, so fine. I got the payment in, and with use of on-line banking I'm able to make sure payments are credited in time, anyway.

2. Next event with BoA. I had a vacation coming up and was going to be gone a couple of weeks. I didn't want to wait for my statement and risk being late. So, on around the 24th of June, I mailed my payment in toward the July due date, having already paid for June. True, the July statement hadn't yet arrived, but the regular due date for the prior month, being June 18, had already passed. However, when I returned from vacation, I discovered that BoA had credited the payment I mailed on June 24 as received and posted June 26, but toward the prior month's statement, never mind that I had already sent in a payment for June that had arrived on time and been credited. So the new statment, while listing the payment as received and posted on the 26th, credited the payment toward the prior month and none toward July such that I still had a minimum payment to make and about two days left to do it before the July 18 due date arrived. Well, I got it done. In the old days, outfits such as BoA would have had a closing date and any payment received after the closing date would be credited to the next month and you could be charged late fees. Fine, as that seems very logical to me. But what BoA and other national banks have sought to do is not only shorten the amount of time that you have to get a payment in but also put you at risk of not being credited for the proper month IF you make the payment during their "window" time as I call it -- the time between when your payment is due and when the next statement is prepared. As it was, June showed credit for two payments and July's would have shown none if I hadn't been observant. So, by trying to be "early" I was almost late. Yes, I could have probably solved the problem by writing in bold letters "I'VE ALREADY PAID FOR JUNE AND WANT THIS CREDITED TOWARD MY JULY PAYMENT BECAUSE I'M GOING ON VACATION!!!" But really, why should I have to do that? What's wrong with just a common sense approach? And also true, the bank may claim they are doing you a favor in posting late payments toward the prior month in that they may tell you, correctly, that although you have made the payment late and are being charged late payment fees, they will report the payment to your credit bureau as being on time, which IS clearly to your benefit.

3. As noted earlier, I took advantage of BoA's low fixed transfer offer. But soon after, I noticed a curiosity. They would mail me, as often as once a week, new checks that I could use for further balance transfers. The catch? Some of those checks come with a provision for the 5.99% transfer fee (they actually allow you to write the check to yourself and still qualify it as a transfer) but others do not. Could it be that BoA hopes that I mix up the checks and accidentally use some of those that don't have the 5.99% offer? In that case, the transfers would be posted to my account at my regular rate of over 12%. Well, I happen to be very careful and take the non-5.99% transfer checks straight to my shredder. There's nothing illegal about BoA's practice, but it doesn't strike me as in keeping with the highest ideals of Christ OR the more usual practices that once existed of being very up-front about what offers consist of.

What do you think? What have been some of your experiences with BoA or any bank that issues credit cards?