Bank of America Feeling Backlash from Credit Card Program

Bank of America is feeling the backlash from its controversial decision to market credit cards toward illegal immigrants. The card, which is made available to individuals without social security numbers, sparked quite the fury in recent months. It created so much hoopla, in fact, that Bank of America lost out on a lucrative county contract in North Carolina

Apparently, county leaders turned down a four-year contract with the bank because of the controversy – despite the fact that turning down the contract will cost the county $120,000. County commissioners decided they were not comfortable with supporting a company that supported illegal immigrants in this way. This falls right in line with other decisions the county has recently made, including reducing funding available for programs and services that are commonly used by illegal immigrants.

Instead of banking with Bank of America, the county is considering contracting with Wachovia. From a financial aspect, Wachovia made the second best offer. Before accepting the contract, however, the commission wants to make sure Wachovia does not offer a similar type of credit card.

This is just one example of the backlash Bank of America has received after announcing the new credit card in February. Other groups have staged boycotts and television talk shows have also verbalized their outrage at Bank of America’s choice to offer cards to illegal immigrants. Even Rep. Sue Myric publicly stated that she will be closing her Bank of America accounts as a result. A number of other customers have also closed their accounts, even going so far as to cut up their cards and send them back to the bank.

It seems as if Bank of America may want to reconsider their program priorities. This one county spends about $10 million every year – that translates into quite the loss for the bank when it comes to interest lost. Perhaps this attempt to take a bigger bite of the pie wasn’t such a good decision after all.

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Tagged as: card issuers, Security & Technology