Breaking Down Bank of America’s Recent Moves

It seems that Bank of America in particular has made more headlines than any other credit card issuer for the last couple of months. Although some headlines such as vowing not to raise interest rates on their credit card offerings until the CARD Act was fully implemented is very cardholder friendly, other news was not. Now many experts have gained more insight on these moves by Bank of America from the release of its financial reports, and believe that consumers could still see more major changes on the way.

According to Bank of America’s 2009 third quarter financial reports, they are losing millions within certain parts of its credit card portfolio. It seems that within its global card services unit, their credit card purchases declined dramatically just over fourteen percent from sixty-three billion to fifty-three billion. Their results also showed its charge off rates doubled from just over six percent to twelve from the same time period last year.

One spot that is showing some increases is its debit card purchases. It grew slightly over three percent from fifty-three billion to just over fifty-four billion. This growth for many is no surprise as debit cards are turning into the payment option for many consumers and should continue to grow moving forward.