Bank of America Address Change on Credit Cards

I have never really mentioned vendors by name that we are having problems with but Bank of America this week is one that made me a bit ticked. We have something like 25 PO BOX numbers in our system for BofA. Last month an issue came up with a client that has a BofA card. The statement came in and the BOX number is typically 37271. On this invoice, the BOX changed to 37279. We have both of these numbers in our system so the change seemed to be BofA simply changing from one box to another in what appeared to be in the same processing center since the rest of the addresses were identical. There was no stated notification of change on the statement (other vendors we work with periodically change the billing address, albeit to a totally different place and send a separate notice). This payment was delayed in its arrival and BofA called the client. We then noticed the change in address and wondered if that may have caused the issue. When we called BofA they stated that the issue was due we sent the bill to the wrong address. We stated that there was no notification of change and BofA stated that the change of address on the statement was the notification, basically saying tough luck. Only after heavy pleading and arguing did they reverse SOME of the charges.

We have noticed this quite a bit more lately of vendors randomly changing the billing address. This one really made me a bit ticked since the change in address was so minor and that the processing center did not even change. The vendor then was pretty smug on the phone in saying it is the cardholders responsibility to notice the change and they are not required to go out of their way to notify of such a change, even if the change can have a big impact on prompt payment.

This is a great lesson for the consumer to review all aspects of their bill and be cautious with auto payments. Many online banking systems will set up auto payments to go to a specific address and if that address changes, you need to adjust the payment info. Addresses are not the only changes that vendors make. Changes to the due date, amounts due and even terms of service change frequently.

BofA has a tremendous amount of credit cards but it gets quite annoying when the payment of bills begins to seem almost like a battle between vendor and client. There are a number of sites that give data on rates and fees for cards, maybe we need to start a site that talks about what being a client is really like.

Dont mind me...

Technorati Profile

Mortgage Payments / Change of Address

One trend we have noted lately is that when a vendor changes the billing address on a bill, not always is the customer notified. For example, one large bank recently sent a current statement for a mortgage to us. We noted that the billing address had changed but there was no official notice on it. Another client with the same bank had their address change as well and realizing we had not noticed this before, we called the vendor and sure enough, the payment was not yet processed. The bill was not yet late and a payment was made in time but due to the change of address, the bill would have surely been late and charged a late fee. In this case, with a mortgage the late fee was over $200 dollars and could hav led to credit concerns.

We have seen this with clients who set up autopayments before to send payments to a particular address. When the vendor changes the address, the payment is not processed at the old location or not in enough time for a timely payment to be made.

This is why we stress to our staff to always review the main parts of a bill for changes and new information. Not all vendors go out of their way to make you aware of changes to a bill that could result in financial penalties if not accurately noted.

Devin