I was Bank of America's bitch ... but no longer

I never did know when to leave well enough alone.

This past summer I had largely stopped getting credit card offers in the mail, having "opted out" earlier in the year. But Bank of America offers continued to get through. I'd held a platinum Visa card with BofA for more than 15 years, so I figured they had better inroads to pestering me about acquiring more credit.

Normally I rip up these offers at the door. I don't need any more credit, thank you. And those checks they send out are just identity-theft nightmares waiting to happen.

But when the California Automobile Association (AAA) sent me an offer for a credit card with 0% APR through April of 2010, I was intrigued. I reckoned I could switch my high-interest Discover card balance to this and pay it off quicker. And Triple-A is an organization that's saved my butt many a time. I called the number to see about opening a card with them. That's when the trouble began.