Screw The Customer

Once upon a time, the proprietor of a business would swear by the maxim, "the customer is always right." The focus of the business model would be pleasing the customer in every way feasible. Only if the customer was happy would he purchase products or services from the proprietor. Sadly, the idea of make every customer happy has fallen by the wayside. As larger and larger corporations have taken over locally-owned businesses, the mantra for the 21st century has become "please the customers who make you the most money and screw the ones who don't, and hopefully you'll get them to take their business elsewhere."

Case in point is the notice I received from MBNA's new corporate parent, Bank of America. It explained that starting in May, the minimum finance charge on carried-over balances would be $1.50. Now, this new minimum floor (it had been $0.50 beforehand) only affects a small number of customers, namely those who carry balances of less than $100 per month. If you carry a huge balance, the bank makes money off the usurious amount of interest you pay. If you just use the card as a backup and never charge anything, the bank needs not spend the money to send you statements (though they're always happy to send you those blank checks you can sign over and trigger the cash-advance rate). But, if you use the card to make small purchases and occasionally leave a small balance on your account, well, the bank is spending a lot of money servicing you without making much of it back. That's not the kind of customer they want.

Bank of America knows it's doing something it shouldn't be doing. I know that because the terms amendment contained a notice that you can reject the change in writing before a certain date. It's not one of those deals where you have to close the card but can still pay off your balance under the old terms. It's a deal where you say no and the bank pretends this unfortunate incident never happened. Therefore, the bank is counting on your ignorance or your apathy to push this change through.

It may not be a lot of money, especially if you never carry-over a balance, but I'm sure Bank of America has done the calculations and has figured out that the money they save will more than overcome the losses from alienated customers and bad press.

P.S. I love when these corporations preface customer-unfriendly policy changes with the words "to better serve you." My personal favorite was when a certain cellular phone company planned to report account information to credit bureaus as a favor to its customers, allowing them the opportunity to develop positive credit histories.