Rep. Michael Arcuri, D-Utica, is telling Bank of America and Citigroup not to penalize people for paying off their credit cards monthly or limiting their credit purchases.
Arcuri sent letters to both banks Monday asking them ``to immediately reconsider your decision to institute new credit-card fees on customers in good standing.''
His letters were prompted by a decision made by the banks to impose new fees on some customers.
According to Betty Reiss, spokeswoman for Bank of America, ``a small percentage'' of the bank's credit-card holders will be billed between $29 and $99 a year beginning in February.
The new fee is an experiment to see how much customers value their cards and is not limited to cardholders who pay off their balances, she said.
``While it's conceivable that some accounts in the test don't carry a balance, it is not correct to say that any account that doesn't carry a balance is included in the test,'' she wrote in an e-mail to The Daily Star.
Customers who don't want to pay the new fee on their credit cards ``do have the option of rejecting the fee and closing the account,'' she said.
Asked whether customers who cancel their Bank of America credit cards risk a down-tick in their credit rating, Reiss said, "I'm not sure about that. That would be a question for FICO'' (Fair Isaac Corporation) bank consultants.
According to Arcuri, the risk is real. In his letter to the banks, he wrote, ``This practice may also bring unintended consequences for credit in America, as a consumer's credit score is negatively impacted by closing a credit-card account.''
Citigroup has already begun charging fees.
According to Samuel Wang, vice president for public affairs at Citi, an article that appeared in ``American Banker'' in August accurately describes his bank's new fee.
In that article, reporter Maria Aspan wrote, ``According to posts on several different consumer blogs and online discussion boards this month, including Bargaineering.com, Citi has been informing some of its cardholders that they will be charged an annual fee of $30 to $90 unless they spend a certain amount per year, usually $2,400.''
On Friday, James Doig, president and CEO of the Sidney Federal Credit Union, said he was not surprised by the new fees. But the local credit union, which issues credit cards, has not made plans to follow suit.
Arcuri noted that Citigroup and Bank of America were bailed out by American taxpayers last year, each receiving $45 billion.
In an e-mail sent to The Daily Star Friday, Arcuri wrote,``To see two companies that came before Congress only a year ago and asked for federal funding to save their banks and gouge the consumer is despicable.
``The American people have done more than their fair share to rescue our country from this economic downturn, and it is time for these banks to recognize that they are in the business of customer service and are not set up to prey on the consumer but rather help them succeed.''
