I had two BoA cards...one that was opened under BoA, one that was bought by them from another bank.
In Feb, I received letters for both accts, stating that they intended to start charging a yearly fee for them.
The date that the fee was to go into effect was XX of this month, and it was stated that I had till XX-1 of this month to notify them that I wanted to opt out of the new terms. The letter also stated that I could opt out by calling XXX-XXX-XXXX, which would have the effect of closing the acct.
I called that number on xx-5 of this month, to opt out of both accts. When I checked them on day XX, one of the accts was fine, but the other had had the "annual fee" charged on xx-2, even though the acct showed as closed. I called customer service, and was told that the software required two entries to close the acct AND stop the fee. She reversed the fee, but told me that, unless I had paid off the acct before this time next year, that it would automatically be recharged, and I would have to call again to reverse it. She stated that, as the date to opt out had now passed (although she agreed that I had honored that date) she could no longer simply put it in as an opt out.
I haven't been able to find any language that covers this situation in the credit charges and credit billing sections here, so I would like to ask for information.
First: is it legal to require that a consumer opt out of a planned change in TOS BEFORE the date that they will go into effect, or they automatically do so?
Second: I assume that it IS illegal to institute changes in TOS (in this case, charging an annual fee) two days before the stated date of the change, and one day before the stated date to opt out. Is my assumption correct?
Third, is it illegal to continue to charge an annual fee for an acct that's closed? I assume, yes.
And, fourth, assuming that any or all of these actions are illegal, are there civil penalties for these actions?
