This morning I'm eating my eggs and toast while going through my mail. I open a B of A letter and it tells me that my $25,000 line of credit has been terminated. That pretty much ruined my breakfast.

I go online to find out that sure enough my available balance is $0.00. Long story short, the bank does these random assessments of home values and they decided that the value of my house (currently a rental) has gone down (no kidding). Because of this, they closed my account with no warning at all. I even had called them a few months ago asking how long my HELOC is good for. They told me the final withdraw date is 2016 and I can take money out, or put it back in as often as I'd like.

We were counting on that money. We currently are in the middle of renovating our home (one bathroom is gutted), and we're also going to be closing on a house in Charlotte after the holidays.

Anyway, I'm working with my local B of A to get the line of credit opened again.

I just wanted to warn everyone. This is something that I never saw coming.

Steve

Seems to be a side effect of the market tanking. I've heard other stories of similar accounts just going away one day. Hope they get it sorted out. There are just too many homes under water, REALLY under water these days. I'm afraid it's going to get worse before it gets better, but maybe we're closer to the bottom than I think.

As an appraiser I can tell you are in a lot of good company.

I have a friend that used to make his living renovating homes then renting them out...financing each one via a LOC with a local bank (not BOA).

One day they called him and said they needed him to come down to the bank to bring his LOC current, and give them 50 grand because one of the homes in the portfolio had fallen below the agreed value.

They were using an online automated appraisal which gave them a range and they were using the lowest possible value. They were wrong. THE BANKS MAKE MISTAKES.

Fight for your LOC. Good luck.

I found out they valued my house about $60k lower than it actually is. That's one of the thing we are going to try to fight.

I will say, this is absolutely the time to buy a house! Another reason we are moving sooner rather than later. Rent out our current home and buy another house dirt cheap. $71 a sq/ft isn't too bad.

I've not ever heard anything good about BOA in the first place. Maybe you've had a good experience, but places like consumerist.com always has bad news about them. YMMV.

I told my dad what happened and he informed me that he's heard of BOA doing crap like this in the news. Stuff like closing accounts for no reason, and even as far as foreclosing homes with no notice. Apparently I need to watch the news a little more often.

I've never had a single problem with BOA, but this really pissed me off. If they correct this problem, and make it right, I'll probably stay with them. It's a lot of effort to change everything over to another bank. And who's to say another bank won't do the same thing?

I just can't believe they can close an account like that with absolutely no notice. Kinda makes me feel like asking, I have never defaulted on anything, been a customer for 10 years (since my first year of college) and this is how they treat me?

I really just feel insulted. Kinda funny how a bank can make you feel like that.

The only reason I was able to buy a house in this area is because the market has tanked. We would have never been able to afford it otherwise. BOA has been a disaster for me. I used them for years and the service had become so bad that I cut ties with them about three years ago. I moved on to Chase but they really aren't doing anything for me, the banks are nice and the customer service is decent but at this point I'm considering a local credit union.

B of A sucks.

I had my mortgage with Countrywide until BofA bought Countrywide. I also had a HELOC with them. Even though I have never had a late payment on my mortgage and my house value is worth more than both mortages combined. BoA cancelled my HELOC just because I was former Countrywide. Good luck dealing with those mega bank assholes.

Chase locked my HELOC in 2008. I was as a savings account basically (cash reserve). It didn't end up effecting me but was startling.

The stupid this is it is not a full mortgage on the house and they are at risk because of their new value estimate. Your LOC is only $25,000. No risk to them at all.

I would go to your bank and make a case for them renewing your LOC. The officer at the bank should be able to fix this for you. When it is all done, go get another account at another bank and drop these guys.