Debtor's Revolt: Woman Refuses To Pay Off Bank Of America Credit Card (VIDEO)

For years, Ann Minch of Red Bluff, Calif., has carried a balance of several thousand dollars on her Bank of America credit card, making minimum monthly payments of about $130, sometimes paying an extra $50 or $100. She says she's never missed a payment.

Bank of America rewarded her loyalty this year by repeatedly raising her interest rate, which reached 30 percent in July.

Fed up, the 46-year-old stepmother of two turned to YouTube.

"There comes a time when a person must be willing to sacrifice in order to take a stand for what's right," said Minch in a Sept. 8 webcam video. "Now, this is one of those times, and if I'm successful this will be the proverbial first shot fired in an American debtors' revolution against the usury and plunder perpetrated by the banking elite, the Federal Reserve and the federal government."

Minch announced that she'd be dumping Bank of America, refusing to pay off her credit card debt unless she was offered a lower rate. She explained that she'd been a reliable customer even though she'd lost her job as a mental health case manager. She said bank reps refused to negotiate her interest rate when she called them to complain a few weeks ago.

"You are evil, thieving bastards," she said in her video. "Stick that in your bailout pipe and smoke it."

The video made a splash online, getting links from all kinds of venues and garnering over 96,000 views as of Monday morning.

Minch told the Huffington Post she fulfilled part of her threat on Saturday, when she went to her local BofA branch and closed out her checking and savings accounts. She took her money (around $5,000, she said) and put in a local community bank. She brought printouts of web pages that had linked to her video, but a manager wasn't interested in looking at them.

"No, we're just going to let corporate handle it. In fact, I don't really even need to talk to you," she said she was told. Bank of America declined to comment when contacted by the Huffington Post.

Ed Mierzwinski, program director of the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, said credit card lenders had better be paying attention.

"Historically, powerful and arrogant corporations, often protected by lazy regulators, have ignored consumer complaints -- now social media tools are leveling the playing field for victimized consumers," Mierzwinski wrote in an email to the Huffington Post. "The old web 1.0 mybanksucks.com sites that no one found are being replaced with realtime viral outrage that will require big business to start treating consumers more fairly or pay the price."

The credit card industry made a villain of itself this year by benefiting from billions in taxpayer bailout dollars and then thanking taxpayers by raising interest rates and minimum monthly payments, even on their good customers.

Minch said she hadn't been paying much attention to her account -- she didn't even notice when her interest rate went from 12.99 percent to 25.49 percent in January -- but that the more she read about the $700 billion bank bailout, the angrier she got. Still, the decision to stage her one-woman revolt wasn't easy.

"When I finally made my decision about what I needed to do, it was scary," she said. "I knew I was probably going to ruin my credit."

Indeed. But Bank of America will be out $5,943.34. Minch shared some of her statements with the Huffington Post. Here's part of a screen grab of her credit card account:

Minch sent Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis a letter demanding that he watch her video and get in touch.

"If you would like to collect payment for this account, it will be necessary for you to view my video and then contact me with your response," she wrote. "The video will take less than 5 minutes of your time, which I know must be extremely valuable because of the gargantuan amount of money you are paid."

Minch said that regular folks will continue getting "bent over" by the government and the global financial industry unless consumers take a stand.

"Tea parties and letters to representatives hasn't done squat," she said. "We need to form a cyber revolution."

Here's Minch's video:

HuffPost readers: Anyone else doing this? Is this revolt thing really gonna happen? Let us know if you're jumping on the bandwagon, and we'll post your video. Email [e-mail].

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Comments

[justiceforallunderGod]

05:45 PM on 11/01/2009

Thank God! Finally someone who has the courage to stand up for what is right! I fully intend on supporting the Debtors Revolt organization and have considered the cost! It was never Gods intention for His people to become enslaved to huge corporate companies or government for that matter. After seeing the recent movie Capitalism a love story by Michael More and other you tube videos such as those called the New World Order it's eye opening and it has to stop. I intend on sending this information into the hands of all of my friends and family and current database of about 5,000 as well as intending on writting a newsletter to inform people of that is really happening in our country! It HAS TO STOP! I will keep you in my prayers and will be praying for everyone involved in this revolt. God bless you and stay strong.

[bill still]

12:22 PM on 10/27/2009

The solution in the short run is the State Bank idea. I have a 5-min YouTube up on it. Search and ye shall find.

[LeAndre Anderson]

11:22 PM on 10/19/2009

I felt like I had to say something regarding the Bank institutions, Credit card companies, and health care companies. I noticed that no one has asked the citizens of our country to revolt against these institutions. What do I mean? We the people, are exposed on a daily bases as to how people are being ill treaded by the listed institution. I believe if people only truly knew how much power they have, thing would truly change. What am I getting at, OK let me tell you. First of all forgive me for not knowing exact percentages, But if I'm correct a very large number of people are invested in all types of retirement account, and don't realize it. I think we can let these companies know how displeased we are by taken our money out of those companies. What do you mean, as some of you ask? I mean we could use other investment tools to get the same result. There are socially conscious mutual funds that invest in companies that have a soul. It is sad to see our government bailout banks and other institutions, by loaning them interest free money. Only in turn, to have them find bogus reasons to raise interest rates on the average faithful paying person. They then rip off share holders by not letting them share in the profits. The same is true for insurance companies.
Lets get the money revolution started. Our money invest any where, lets invest with people that care.

[AmericasReady4Change]

12:15 PM on 10/30/2009

I'm ready for a revolution. I had 2 credit cards and during a time when I had surgery, I paid late. When it happened I called and explained what happened and asked to have the fees waived and was told no. The representative even acknowledged I had paid on time until that point. Trying to recover and deal with those bloodsuckers just took too much. I eventually just stopped paying them so I could concentrate on recovering. I figured if I was dead they wouldn't get their money at all.

[Cambridge9]

04:16 PM on 10/19/2009

I'm one of the lucky ones. When my husband died in the early 1980s and I couldn't afford to keep my hosue I sold it and I took whatever money I needed off the top and paid off every bill I had, car, credit card, etc.

Ever since then I have never paid a credit card interest charge. I do use my card but limit myself to what I can pay in full at the end of the month. I'm astounded at how much money has stayed in my pocket ever since.

I know there are other people like me, but the majority of folks today have no choice but to use plastic and the deeper they get into debt the pit keeps getting deeper. I think this woman has the right idea and needs more folks to back her up. Most folks want to be honest and play by the rules but when the banks change their rules without notice and interest rates become LOAN SHARK rates, it's time to let them know that a 'contract is a contract'; that when they contracted with the user at a certain interest rate it is morally wrong to cange the terms of that contract midstream.

If a card user abuses the contract then I'm with the bank (within reason) but when the user pays the required amount on time then I'm with the user.

[pepe68]

01:58 PM on 10/02/2009

What we need to do is unite. There is power in numbers and if we all, as one, united with purpose and persistence, raise hell with senators, house members, senate and house finance committees, bank executives, the Federal Reserve Board, the various regulatory agencies, and the President of the United States, we will succeed in our quest. But we need to get organized, we need to establish goals, and we need to establish an action plan. Just in the past few days, the Fed (Federal Reserve) announced that they are working in drafting regulation that would limit credit card rates, that would impose a one year limit between rate increase. These are just two of the items that they are currently working on. They also have other terms they are working on. But as usual, some members of congress have already found out about this and are indicating that they are opposed to this.

Ann Minch has established a web site, which is currently under construction, to fight this problem. Her website is http://debtorsrevoltnow.com/

I am not talking about signing petitions letters, we need to submit individual letters to everyone we can think can help us out. Swamp their offices with hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of letters.
Banks and credit card companies are fully aware of the upcoming changes that will take place in the next 10 months and they are gearing up to come down on us, again. We need to act now.

[PepperoniPizza]

09:07 PM on 09/30/2009

You're missing the point. She was perfectly willing to repay the money, but they refused to work with her to lower the interest rate and treated her like dung after taking the bailout money that SHE AND OTHER TAXPAYERS GAVE THEM!! Hello? It's about time people stood up for themselves.

[Seaglass]

01:48 PM on 10/19/2009

Cosign!

[leecohen01]

07:25 PM on 09/29/2009

Have to agree with previous poster. Basically what everyone is saying here is ...hey as a country we spent way over our heads and now we regret it so can we have a do-over...oh yeah, and keep all the stuff we bought?
People these days act as if they one day woke up with an unknown wad of cash in their lap, went out and spent it, then got bamboozled when they found out there were stipulations tied to the free money. Seriously when you get a credit card you know what you're getting into. Or at least you should. If you go into that (or for that matter, anything) uninformed and dont bother to learn the rules until after the fact then that's on you, not the card company.
It's way too easy in our society to just blame someone else. Especially when it's "the man" (aka a bank or big corp). No one wants to take responsibility for themselves anymore.
A real hero would be someone big enough to man-up and admit they bit off more than they would chew and then work at paying it back. Citizens overspending and having companies eat the debt is pitiful and no way to run a country or fix the economy.

[poopface]

05:37 PM on 09/29/2009

This woman is a hero?? Wow. Seriously? I agree it would be nice to go out and charge a bunch of crap onto a credit card and then never pay it back, but that's not how society works. Maybe tonight I'll go buy a 60" LCD tv on my credit card and then turn into a hero and not pay it back. Sounds like a win-win situation. I'm a hero and I get a free tv.

Consumers need to stop acting like dummies and realize what they're getting themselves into. Borrowing money from a bank isn't the same as borrowing money from a relative. You can't just keep the money however long you want and pay back what you think is right. Borrowing grown-up money comes with terms. And some of you are shocked that the banks are....gasp TRYING TO MAKE MONEY?? Well that's kind of the main goal of most businesses. I mean do you go to the grocery store and fill up your cart and then on your way out throw a fit when the cashier expects you to pay for what you're taking?

The reality is if you can't handle paying something back then don't buy it in the first place. Stop blaming everyone else for your problems.

If people would educate themselves before they foolishly spend money on their cards that they can't (or won't) payback then our society wouldn't be in this financial mess.

[hypnotoad72]

05:02 PM on 10/18/2009

If banks wouldn't give $700k ARM loans to $15/hr construction workers, we wouldn't be in a mess...

If countless Americans didn't have to train their H1B replacements before being walked out the door, we wouldn't be in a mess...

If wages kept up with the cost of living, instead of being told "use this plastic card instead!", we wouldn't be in a mess?

If everybody paid their fair share to begin with, our national debt wouldn't be in a mess to begin with, either...

Why not try looking at the whole picture? (Note: Everything I've posted can be found very quickly using web search facilities. I implore you to try it out.)

Here's one link, just to help start you out. It's about the "paid their fair share to begin with" point above, because of the four points it's the one you're most likely to have some trouble finding:
http://www.jrlc.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=81&Itemid=158

[Rmath]

04:35 PM on 09/29/2009

The public has been distracted from the urgent need to hammer away at usury and to demand real credit card reform.

[denvergirl76]

12:47 PM on 09/28/2009

My situation is very similar to Minch's. Just a few days ago I called Bank of America to negotiate a lower interest rate and they absolutely refused to do anything. Just a few months ago, my account was at 0% interest, and now it's up in the high 20s. The slimeball I spoke to on the phone asked me several questions about my monthly income and specifics about each of my monthly bills, only to tell me that there was no reason whatsoever to lower my interest rate. The jerk told me that because I had been paying more than the minimum monthly payment, I had proven to them that I was capable of paying my bill.

I said, "You work for a credit card company, so you should know damn good and well that if you pay the minimum each month, you'll never pay off the balance."

I even threatened to destroy my own credit by going through a debt settlement company. BofA wouldn't budge. They could give two sh*ts about their customers.

In the end, I am paying off my Bank of America account this week. My husband and I decided it was in our best interest not to destroy my credit. I will never do business with Bank of America again, and I will bad-mouth them every opportunity I get.

[indiana46278]

06:01 PM on 09/29/2009

So if you were able to pay off your debt, why were you only making minimum payments before? This does lead to a terrible credit score, a fact I learned the hard way by being in about three times the amount of debt Ann is in. I worked my way out. I made sacrifices. And it sounds like you have too. Good!

But let's look at this from Bank of America's angle. They got you to pay off your debt. You're off their balance sheet. They're happy whether you bad mouth them or not. And they are, after all, a bank. Their job is to make money. Your job? To use them wisely and carefully. I have changed my ways since working my way out of 22k in credit card debt. Now I'm an evangelist:

Living within your means is the best protection, and the best revenge.

[Will333]

04:08 PM on 09/27/2009

I totally support this woman. what disturbs me tho is that she calls what she is doing an act of "civil disobedience." I think the banksters are not only uncivilized brutes, they are also disrespectful and disobedient towards what is fair and just. Instead, they have heartless intention to enforce their
demands on others with no regard towards how that will affect their customers who are the very people that support their multi billion dollar lifestyles. It used to be a clever ruse of thepower elitetosay they are helping you while in fact they are sucking off of you. Too bad for them because people are seeing thru it now and just saying NO to BS.

[Mike Daly]

06:44 AM on 09/24/2009

I thought that credit card fraud was against the law. I guess not, if your in bed with the government.

[hypnotoad72]

05:04 PM on 10/18/2009

HSBC's CEO is on record telling banks they owe the 'real world' an apology. Pity that, the same week, people started getting letters from them saying they were jackin' up everyone's rates...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8293981.stm

Two-faced; the arrogance doesn't get more obvious than that.

[Mike Daly]

06:16 AM on 09/24/2009

Now is the time to take back our country. Get rid of these big bankers and insurance companys and rich politicians. The American consumer contributes over 70 % of the economy. Don't believe it? (cheeck any news report on the economy). We have the power, let's use it. Hit them in the wallets, let them fail. A new strong honest America will rise up from the ashes of coruption.

I belong to a credit union, savings only, with a debt card. I keep a small balance($5.00) so that I can cash checks there. I pay all bills with cash or money orders(.35 cents at my local grocery store). With my debt card or cash, I can buy anywhere, even on the internet. The money that I save gives Me a better lifesyle. I have no overdraft charges, bank charges, or interest of any kind. I rent now so I have no interest on a mortgage, plus I have the freedom to live where I want to live, when I want. I've had it all, fancy cars, new homes, credit cards, and stress,stress,stress. Now I am truely free ".No bank fee free". Live life, be happy, be free once again. Revolt against the fat cats stop doing business with them.

[ProfDog]

09:56 PM on 09/28/2009

YES!!! Let's drive them out of business, then we will be far better off! Sure, there won't be any jobs at these big companies, but that's OK we can all work at smaller companies, because they'll thrive with their economies of scale...oh wait a tic...never mind!!

But at least we won't be FORCED into paying them back for money we chose to borrow from them!! Yes, that will show them. Not only will you not bank with them (judging from your above statement not a big loss), but you won't be employed by them. Good for you comrade!!

[hypnotoad72]

05:05 PM on 10/18/2009

See my response above; big companies offshore outright, or have their existing workers train their replacements.

http://www.google.com/search?q=Americans+training+replacements

[Beancounter59]

01:40 AM on 09/24/2009

If you have a limited amount of savings, I don't suggest you use your savings to payoff a credit card account. These days if you pay your debt off, many times the credit card issuer will close your account. So then you have no savings and no credit either for emergencies.

[TheSecularist]

08:07 AM on 09/27/2009

I disagree. Pay off your debts and close those credit card accounts yourself. Put the money you save in a savings account, then you'll be able to meet most, if not all, of those unexpected expenditures. Here's how I did it:
Action AnnualSavings
Bus to work, drive less on weekends 2,280
Skype instead of landline phone 432
Cancel cell phone 525
Cancel cable 240
Use heaters & fans, dress accordingly 1,500
Eat less (but nutritiously) 900
No entertainment outside home 600
Look for alternatives to spending 1,200
Better mgmt of car maint. Costs 700

Total annual savings------------------------- $8,377

Never stop questioning your spending choices BEFORE spending. Belt tightening in a consumer society is not easy, but it feels better with time. And you can't beat that feeling of freedom.

[bsavada]

11:27 AM on 09/28/2009

Do you really think the Bank of America executives cancelled their cable tv, cell phones, meals out, and took the bus to work!!! The courts don't allow being tried twice for the same crime, so why should these corporate crooks collect twice on their crime! They don't respect the public. Don't pay 'em another cent!!!

[Anjisan2]

07:11 PM on 09/23/2009

Wait... With her video blog and all the views she's getting on YouTube she can pay off all her debt with all that internet money she's making. Yeah... She could be a theoritical millionaire and just not know it... ("Don't call me Guy, Friend!" Well I'm not your Friend, Buddy!" "I'm not your Buddy, Guy!")

[notadumbblonde]

07:30 PM on 10/16/2009

How do people get paid for putting their videos on YouTube?