That sneaky Bank of America had me believing that they were actually being good guys by stating that they would not be raising interest rates anymore due to the new credit card legislation. As I wrote in my piece a few days ago, one of the reasons that they can afford to make this great PR move is because they probably have already raised all of the interest rates.

Well, it was announced today that they were going to start charging annual credit card fees ranging anywhere from $29 to $99 a card. According to BofA spokesperson Betty Reiss, it would initially affect about 1% of the bank’s credit card customers. “We’re testing this to see what the feedback is. In terms of any plans going forward, we haven’t made any decisions yet,” said Reiss.

Ms. Reiss, what do you think you are going to hear? “Oh thank you Bank of America for charging me fees. Please charge me the highest fee.” Some of the things that come from the communications department of Bank of America simply amaze me. Here is some feedback Ms. Reiss – I think that it stinks you are sticking it to your customers with fees as high as $99 a year.

This gets even better. Who do you think is going to get charged the higher fees? According to the bank it is based on “risk and profitability.” Does that sound familiar? They are going to slap the higher fees on those that pay on time and don’t accrue any interest or those who are late every once in a while. It is the same old abusive credit card practices disguised in another way.

So let’s do the math on this one. They have approximately 80 million credit cards in circulation. Let’s say the fees average $50 per person. That is an extra $4 billion dollars a year in cash once they get through charging fees to everyone. You can’t convince me that BofA will just charge a portion of their customers. Of course, that is just the introduction of that fee. The new consumer abuse in the world of credit cards will shift from raising rates to introducing new fees.

Now, let’s add in the fact that they have already raised the interest rates on their credit card holders and then changed them from fixed to variable. So, when interest rates go up (which is really the only place they have to go), Bank of America credit card holders will also experience a similar rise in their interest rates on their credit card debt. As a result, Bank of America ranks in even more in interest.

As I have said from day one, Congress did the credit card industry a favor with this credit card act. This is only going to be more profitable for these card companies.

Tags: abusive credit card practices, Bank of America, Bob Brooks, Congress, Credit CARD act, interest rates