This is my first time on any message board...please be gentle!
5 years ago I set out to purchase a home. It was suggested that we consolidate our credit card debt which was around 18,000. We had good credit and banked with BofA. We went into the bank and met with a loan rep who suggested we take out a Gold Option Loan. I am an educated person, but apparently I am also naive. The loan rep set it up so we had 21,500 on our line of credit (though we only used 18,000. He told us that it would be a 5 year loan (60 months) at 7%. Our payment would be 407.00 a month for 5 years. I specifically asked about the difference between the line of credit and a credit card. He told us that this loan was a set amount, set interest and set repayment term. I took this loan out in 2007. Just after we purchased our home and the purchased showed up on our credit report, I knew something was wrong. I noticed that my balance wasn't going down like it should be. Bank of America boosted our "set" interest rate to 16.99% after we purchased our home. Additionally, I noticed that every month I was being charged over half the payment amount (256.00) in balance transfer fees. I never made balance transfers. Apparently I get charged every month for the initial amount I borrowed. Okay, I understand this, but this is exactly what I asked him - he told me that the interest was figured into the 407.00 payment (256 went to interest and the rest to principal) however, my statements show less than 90.00 going to principal when it should be at least 150.00 I called and tried to get answers from customer service and they told me I misunderstood the loan rep and those were not the terms of the loan. She told me that BofA could raise or lower the interest rate as they see fit. I had all my paperwork and the original loan reps name and branch number. The customer service gal told me he no longer worked for the company and even if I did have paperwork, they couldn't be held responsible for what he told me, as he was "not authorized to make that agreement". Here it is, 4 years later and my balance has gone from 18,000 to 16,988. Each month I am being charged 256.00 in fees. How on earth am I supposed to pay this off? The bottom line is, this is not what I was told. I had paperwork that I thought was set in stone but was not told that the terms were subject to change. I am not a loan officer. I am a teacher. I trust these people, whose profession it is to lend money, to be honest and forthcoming with their terms. Unfortunately I have learned the hard way that you can't trust anyone in the money lending business. I am at a loss. I feel so overwhelmed by this one loan, I am haunted. It seems that there should be something I could do. Did I mention that every time I try to get my interest rate lowered, or my repayment term shortened they take all my financial information and give me figures and timelines. Then, a week or so later a new rep calls me and tells me the other rep shouldn't have offered the ability to renegotiate my terms - "they were not authorized to do this, your type of account doesn't qualify". I am so FRUSTRATED.