Preview Review

Next Review

Bank of America Checking Accounts Consumer Reviews

Most Popular | Newest | More Options >
More filter options:
Unethical and criminal business practices
By -

RALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA -- Bank of America has behaved in an unethical and criminal manner regarding two checking, two savings accounts and a VISA credit card. I have contacted several bank officials and they continue to lie about the situation without any reservation. Bank officials such as ** behave as if they are completely above the law.

These problems began in early October, 2005. Many have not been resolved as of today. I have talked, written and faxed many letters to several "customer service" divisions of this bank and have got no response or resolution. The Executive Customer Relations of Bank of America has done absolutely nothing to resolve many problems discussed in this letter. What they have done is to work hard to hide and white-wash the problems, mislead the customers and continue their criminal behavior.

Bank of America created this mess because of its pure negligence. It grossly violated my privacy multiple times and put me through hell when I tried to resolve it. I had to make many, many calls to Bank of America and have nasty conversations with rude, clueless and dishonest agents and officials of the bank to try to correct this mess. After all that, the accounts are still not setup correctly.

This is the log I made (just a brief summary): August 11, 2005: I opened a new savings account ending with “xxxx” with Bank of America. I started receiving two statements: one for checking and one for savings. September 11, 2005: I called Bank of America to combine the two statements into one. I specifically asked the agent to send me a unified statement for accounts ending with “xxxx” and “yyyy”. Linking with account “zzzz” was never ever mentioned. There was no change of address of any kind for any account. In other words, the request was very simple: please send me one statement for both, my checking (“yyyy”) and savings (“xxxx”).

Early October, 2005: customer ** calls me and states that my savings account information is on her statement! This should have never happened. No one needs to see my savings account details. Early October, 2005: I called Bank of America and explained to them clearly that my savings account information should not be printed on another customer's statement. The agent promised to fix it. Since my current savings account “xxxx” was compromised, I decided to close it.

October 25, 2005: called Bank of America and opened new savings account “aaaa” and transferred the money from “xxxx” to this account. The agent was unable to close “xxxx” on that day and I was asked to call back again to close it. October 29, 2005: called Bank of America and made them close account “xxxx”. Why am I going through this? Because Bank of America messed it up. Then I started receiving statements for three accounts and customer ** was not receiving any statements! At this point we have a bigger mess.

November 23, 2005: I called Bank of America and spoke to ** who assured me that this mess will be corrected. The statement for Prima Interest Checking “zzzz” should go to ** in California and that should have never changed. No accounts should be linked to this account. The statements for checking “yyyy” and savings “aaaa” need to be mailed to me in North Carolina.

December 10, 2005: customer ** calls me again and states that my checking “yyyy” and new savings “aaaa” account information is on her statement! I was not receiving any statements! At this point we have even a bigger mess. Customer ** is extremely worried and agitated that her account details can end up on another customer's statement, just like it happened to me. This should have never happened. No one needs to see my checking and new savings account details. How badly can Bank of America mess this up? This is definitely not unintentional human error. It is gross negligence.

December 12, 2005: I was very upset and called Bank of America and spoke to ** supervisor of customer service of **. I demanded to speak to a manager. ** of Bank of America rudely informed me that there were managers on site but will not speak to me. He coldly said I should write to this guy called **€.

I asked him why the bank has phones when it can do all its business over US mail. He said that's how it worked and there's nothing he can do about it. He never mentioned that I should contact Executive Customer Relations. I found that out later all by myself. There was no way to get this mess fixed. No one cared at Bank of America or would take personal responsibility of this and see it to the end.

December 12, 2005: I called Bank of America again and spoke to ** who connected me with ** officer of Bank of America in the Escalation Dept. of Executive Customer Relations. Then I was transferred to ** (704-386-5687) who said was from the Office of the CEO.

I demanded to speak to the CEO. ** rudely refused and went on and on like a broken record. Then I demanded to speak to the CEO's secretary to make an appointment to speak to the CEO. ** rudely refused again. So does that mean the CEO of Bank of America and his secretary is in hiding or unreachable? I explained to ** the situation and demanded compensation. She rudely hung up the phone on me at 11:30 AM EST on December 12, 2005. Do all customers get treated this way by Bank of America's Office of Executive Customer Relations?

December 12, 2005: I called Bank of America again in trying to resolve this matter diplomatically and spoke to **. She also informed me that there was no way to contact the CEO of Bank of America. At least she did not hang up the phone on me. Still there was no way to get the situation resolved. Now I have no intention of speaking to anyone in this office.

December 12, 2005: I called Bank of America again and spoke to ** who said that no one by the name ** exists in Bank of America! So was I given a bogus name previously by this supervisor of customer service of **? What a way to get treated by a bank. December 12, 2005: I closed my savings account “aaaa” with Bank of America. It felt great!

December 12, 2005: I called Bank of America at 704-386-5687 again and spoke to ** who did nothing to resolve the issue and transferred me to ** voice mail. I left a message and have never heard back from her. Once again, there was no way to get this mess fixed. No one would take personal responsibility of this and see it to the end.

December 13, 2005: I called Bank of America again and spoke to **. This agent informed me that my checking account “yyyy” was still linked to Prima Interest Checking “zzzz” that my mom used as her personal account! As you can see, after going through all that, we still have not fixed the problem. This agent also promised to fix this mess, just like many others have done previously. I asked for proof: screen-shots or images or other documentation of how my accounts were linked with other accounts. The agent said there was no way to provide any and I just need to take their word.

December 14, 2005: received a call from ** (714-792-5968). I demanded that Bank of America pay me damages. She was very polite and listened patiently. I wanted to give the bank an incentive to fix these problems. December 15, 2005: I opened a savings account with the Credit Union at work and quickly removed the savings money from Bank of America. Wow, what a great day! The next step is to open a checking account with the Credit Union and get away from your bank. How nice would it be to share this with all of Bank of America's customers?

December 24, 2005: I received a letter from ** that prompted this reply. December 26, 2005: I still have not received bank statements for last couple of months. What the hell is going on with our accounts at Bank of America? Will closing ALL our accounts, including my brother's, with Bank of America be the best solution to this? I called ** at 714-792-5968 and left message asking for her fax number to fax this letter.

December 26, 2005: I called Bank of America and spoke to **. The agent was professional and promised to mail me the statements for last two months. I explained to him briefly why I was asking for this and about this letter. I was never informed of any charges/fees for this. December 27, 2005: ** returned my call and provided a fax number 714-792-6671.

December 28, 2005: Bank of America charged me $ 8.00 for the statements requested above! Why should I pay for statements when this mess was caused by your bank in the first place? The bank leaves no room for unintentional human errors. It just wants its fees. I called of America again and spoke to **. After exchanging a few words, he promised to credit my account the $ 8.00. I faxed this letter to ** hoping for a resolution in a timely manner.

In the mean time, Bank of America has once again grossly violated my privacy! January 2, 2006: Bank of America illegally charged me a service charge on my credit card ending with “bbbb”. They called it a “periodic finance charge”. I have paid the previous balance in full and on time and there was no reason for this charge.

January 5, 2006: I called the bank and talked to an agent named ** and to a supervisor named ** about this. They both informed me that there was a computer error and the bank was going through accounts and correcting them immediately. I asked them for contact info to report this to Bank of America. I was given the fax number 602-597-3346. I faxed a letter requesting an investigation of this “computer error”. I have not heard back from anyone at the bank to this day regarding this matter.

January 10, 2006: customer ** calls me again and states that my checking “yyyy” account information is on her statement, again! This should have never happened. No one needs to see my checking account details. Many, many agents and officials of Bank of America have assured me that this problem was taken care of. But it is still there. How badly can Bank of America mess this up? It is criminal for the bank to do this. Is this white-collar crime?

The log continues: January 10, 2006: I called Bank of America and spoke to ** and we exchanged some nasty words typical of a bad business. She claims that there is nothing wrong with the way the accounts are set up. This is what ** said on November 23, 2005! There was no way to get this mess fixed. No one cared at Bank of America or would take personal responsibility of this and see it to the end. Since I have been lied to before, I called again.

January 10, 2006: I called Bank of America and spoke to ** who told me that he cannot do anything. I was informed that the bank did not keep any record of customer's calls regarding problems with accounts. So I have to explain the story all over again. This is not the way to keep records for a professional business. Since I have been lied to before, I called again.

January 10, 2006: I called Bank of America and spoke to ** who told me that he cannot do anything about it. There was no way to get this mess fixed. No one cared at Bank of America or would take personal responsibility of this and see it to the end, so I called again. January 10, 2006: I called Bank of America and spoke to ** who told me that he cannot do anything. No one cared at Bank of America or would take personal responsibility of this and see it to the end, so I called again.

January 10, 2006: I called Bank of America and spoke to ** who told me that he cannot do anything. No one cared at Bank of America or would take personal responsibility of this and see it to the end, so I called again. January 10, 2006: I called Bank of America and spoke to ** who told me that he cannot do anything. No one cared at Bank of America or would take personal responsibility of this and see it to the end, so I called again.

January 10, 2006: I called Bank of America and spoke to **. He refused to admit that rules should apply equally to everyone. But I insisted and made him reverse an illegal fee the bank charged me before. A week went by and the illegal “periodic finance charge” was still on my credit card. So I called the bank again January 12, 2006: I called Bank of America and spoke to an agent and insisted that the illegal charge on my credit card be removed. The amount was finally credited.

Here is my concern: if the bank knew about this computer error and was correcting the problem, why did I have to call twice, over a 10 day period and speak to 3 bank employees, including a supervisor, to resolve the problem? What if I have not noticed this “periodic finance charge”? Many customers would have paid this illegal charge on their credit cards and the bank would have made millions by doing nothing about this “error” which was called “periodic finance charge”. Why would the bank ever bother to correct these errors on their own?

I was still not convinced that my checking account information is not on another customer's statement. January 12, 2006: I called Bank of America and spoke to **. We had a heated conversation and he threatened to close my checking account. I dared him to go ahead. How much can this bank screw me up? I told him to tape this conversation and send it to **, Assistant Vice President.

January 12, 2006: I called Bank of America and spoke to ** who refused to transfer me to the survey, but transferred me to **. She too refused to transfer me to the survey and started to give me the run around. I was still not convinced that my checking account information is not on another customer's statement.

January 12, 2006: I called Bank of America and spoke to ** who behaved very unprofessionally. I told him to tape this conversation and send it to **, Assistant Vice President. He rudely said he cannot. I did not want to continue the conversation with this guy. So I called back again.

January 12, 2006: I called Bank of America and spoke to **. He said I should take my complaint to a banking center! Pass the buck? Why not? I got his fax number (559-451-8145) so I can fax all the details of this complaint, hoping someone will read it and do something about it. This fax number does not work!

January 12, 2006: I faxed this letter to and called ** at 714-792-5968 and asked her what she plans to do about this complaint. January 21, 2006: I received a letter from ** saying that the matter is closed!!! Without resolving this continuing problem, Bank of America no longer wants to even discuss the mess they created. This is how banks treat their customers.

February 6, 2006: I received a reply from Attorney General's Office, Consumer Protection Division of North Carolina to contact the Comptroller of the Currency of the Department of the Treasury which is supposed to license and regulate national banks. February 10, 2006: I received the statement for account “zzzz” and customer ** was not receiving any statements, again! This is happening after many agents and officials of Bank of America, including ** has assured me in letters that the problems above have been resolved.

The log continues and so does the dishonest dealings of Bank of America. It seems like some phone reps are so corrupt that they don't transfer you to the survey. How can the bank get honest feedback from your customers when the customer survey is doctored in this manner? We really need strict laws to monitor the behavior of banks in this country. Banks should not be allowed to operate like criminal organizations and abuse customers under the protection of US law.

When banks operate with impunity. I am shocked to realize that there is very little or no regulation of banks such as Bank of America. These banks can do whatever they want to their customer's accounts and their privacy and continue to operate with impunity. We should not sanction such criminal behavior. Where are the laws to protect consumers?

When customers over-draft a bit or go below the minimum balance on their checking accounts by unintentional human error, Bank of America jumps at the opportunity and ruthlessly charges them a ton of fees. It probably costs the bank about $ 5 but charges their customers $ 16 or more. This is because Bank of America understands only one language: money! All it cares is about charging us fees, fees and more fees. The bank leaves no room for unintentional human errors.

Bank of America abuses its customers and engages in dishonest business practices. The bank has done irreparable damage to my privacy, seriously damaged the trust I had in the bank, causing a lot of aggravation and emotional distress to two customers. The least Bank of America can do now is to pay me damages. The longer this bank takes to settle this issue, the more aggravation and emotional distress it causes me and I plan to seek even more damages.

I will not let Bank of America sweep this under the carpet. I have written to Customer Assistance Group, Comptroller of the Currency, Department of the Treasury, 1301 McKinney Street, Suite 3710, Houston, Texas 77010-9050 about this.

Replies
Maintenance Fee Charges
StarEmpty StarEmpty StarEmpty StarEmpty StarBy -
Rating: 1/51

SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA -- I am with Bank of America since 1998 and just notice on one of my checking accounts monthly service fee of $25.00. I am trying to speak with the customer service by calling 800 432 1000, an hour ago they gave me an option for call back instead of holding for another 40 minutes....I took this option and got the callback. The system that called me kept asking me if it is me who answered the call. After 5 minutes of pushing the option key to confirm I was disconnected and I am on waiting call again. So far it has been 33 minutes and I am still on hold.

After reading other reviews I am afraid that the 25 dollars per month for maintenance fee that showed up on my account is never going back to me. I will close the account and move to another bank if they do not give me my money back. They are not banking organization, they are stealing money from the clients. 20 years with them - means nothing anymore.

Replies
Overdraft Fees: Bank of America Steals Money from Customers
By -

Bank of America steals from their customers. They create overdraft fees by not processing your purchases as they occur even though you have the money available and at the time of purchase they went through fine. If you look at your balance you will see the “Balance” and “Available Balance” and will notice the amount you just spent is now gone from the “Available Balance”. So this means they have removed the money you just spent for the purchase you just made.

Only problem is they don't actually clear your purchase even though they have removed the amount from your “Available Balance”. Instead of clearing payments they hold them, sometimes for several days, and they call them "pending transactions”. Then they wait for other HIGHER charges to come through. When this happens they will clear those higher charges and then process the lower charges and often times this creates a deficit and will overdraft your account.

If you have money in other accounts or a savings account they will freeze those accounts and not allow you to use or withdrawal any of it unless you use it to pay their fees and get the negative account into the positive. So you could find yourself with an unexpected negative balance AND be frozen out of your accounts unable to get any of your money.

Right now we are in the middle of this nightmare, which we have seen several times since opening up accounts in 2005 and 2007. We were paid on Friday, January 29, 2010. We had plenty of money in the bank and that day, the 29th I paid several bills and then that weekend we bought groceries, and made several small purchases. Our account online looked in order and the “Balance” and “Available Balance” were correct because all the purchases we made were now gone from the “Balance” and showed what was left in the “Available Balance”, which was in the positive.

When Monday, February 1, 2010 came I planned to deposit more money into the account to cover two car payments that were going to be coming out that day. When I went to check the online balance I saw that they had cleared the two car payments, which were supposed to clear Monday, and they used the money that had already been reserved (or so I thought) from the payments and purchases we made Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

Then they proceeded to overdraft five of those purchases at $35.00 each. Later, in addition to that, they added another $35.00 fee called an “Extended Overdrawn Balance Charge” because the account had been in the negative for 5 consecutive business days.

We would LOVE to close our remaining account and leave but we are stuck there. Because of one of the many times they put my account into the negative with overdraft fees and it snowballed from being a manageable amount to an unmanageable amount, I was unable to get caught up. Then they charged me an additional $35.00 for “Excessive Overdrawn Fees” when my account was in the negative for 5 consecutive days or more.

Soon I was unable to ever get caught up and pay my rent and bills and buy food and gas. I had to stop depositing money into the account because it was just getting eaten up by their fees and I needed to pay for basic necessities and rent. They eventually closed my account and then reported me to Chex Systems.

Now because of this I am unable to open another bank account anywhere and am a prisoner there, unless I want to have NO bank account at all but then how do you cash your checks and pay bills like a normal person? You can't without a great deal of hassle and the danger of having cash in your possession, which is risky and unprotected. But really, what's the difference? It can be stolen by some random thief or it will be stolen by the bank you are supposed to trust to keep your money. Not rob you blind.

My story is just one of MANY exactly the same and this issue with the banks using computer programs to overdraft their customer's accounts has to stop. They have literally stolen hundreds and hundreds if not thousands of dollars from my family. They refuse to refund the money and they continue to practice this fraudulent scheme year after year to hundreds of people without consequence. The Internet is loaded with stories exactly like mine. I have been talking to people at stores and other places of business and have heard the same story from many of them about Bank of America and a few other banks that are doing the same thing to their customers.

These banks squandered billions of dollars away on who knows what and then needed to be bailed out by the government. They created the sub-prime lending schemes to make money and we all see how that turned out. Now the country is in turmoil and the economy is in the gutter and people are suffering because of it. Now they add insult to injury and steal from their customers by creating this overdraft charge theft scheme to make money. WHY IS THIS LEGAL?

Replies
BOA Unauthorized electronic payments from my checking
By -

BOCA RATON -- I have been a Bank of America customer now for over 3 years. So far I am very dissatisfied with your service. Most of your tactics are deceiving and seem to trap consumers. Here is my #1 problem with this bank. I got a student credit card with you and used it irresponsibly and quickly went over the limit. At first I was paying on time then after a few months I stopped paying.

About six months later bank of America put me on a 5 year payment plan to pay off the balance of my debt of $46 dollars a month to be paid on the 21st of each month. I went about 3 months with no problems then all of a sudden you stopped automatically withdrawing the payment out of my account. I called up and you advised me that I needed to reschedule my payment plan and that's why you didn't debit the $46 out of my account that month.

I got a letter in the mail about 2 weeks prior saying that I need to reschedule the payments. I called the number and they said to never mind the letter that it wasn't necessary (which apparently wasn't true). So two weeks later when the payment wasn't made I got hit with late charges and fees. This did not seem fair I did everything I should have and I had to pay for a bank employee's mistake.

So after I once again rescheduled the payments 3 months later the same thing happened (this time with no warning letter) I got hit with late charges and needed to reschedule. Fed up and untrustworthy of this company I decided to call up and request a full statement outlining what my charges are and how they came up with my balance. They said they would send that in about May I would say. I still haven't received this or any other communication with bank of America.

Now on September 30th 2008 my checking account gets mysteriously debited $46 after not speaking with them for almost 5 months. I called and got the run around and gave up. Now on October 21st 2008 I get another charge for $46 so I called again today. I spoke to bank of America about the situation and they transferred me to a representative of FIA card services. She advised me that the reason these two debits came out of my account were because I called in and authorized them to do this on Sept. 30th 2008.

I am 100% positive this never happened. I ask them to let me listen to a copy of the recording of me authorizing this and she said she will transfer me to the manager who can help me out with this. I was transferred and I got a voicemail, so I left a message explaining my situation. It is now two days later I have not received any response back from this manager or anyone. These practices are very wrong in my opinion and hopefully illegal.

On a side note I asked them not to make any more debits from my account to pay this bill. They agreed and I asked them to send me written documentation verifying this and I was old this was impossible (she said they can't send a letter verifying something that is not taking place) this makes no sense to me why can't they send a letter saying 'no more electronic transactions will be debited from my account' So after I was told this I was asked for permission to record her saying that this will not occur, once again I was turned down. She also couldn't give me a straight answer of why the $46 was taken out of my account on different dates for the September and October payments.

My question is: What are you going to do about this? I incurred a $35.00 overdraft free from this unauthorized transaction. Bank of America should not be allowed to steal money from their customers accounts and then give them the run around when the start asking questions.

I'm so fed up at this point that I am going to send this problem to every organization that will listen. I have extensive experience in internet marketing and how to spread something across the internet. I'm not sure if you are aware but there are literally thousands of consumers' complaints about your company all over the web. In addition many of these people are starting to inquiry about class action lawsuits against you as most of their situations are all eerily similar.

After reading all of this I have no doubt in my mind that this is no coincidence and Bank Of America is intentionally trying to scam their customers out of money through any means possible (questionable practices, downright fraud, and resorting to low measures to make a quick buck). Fortunately I work at a law firm that specializes in credit and consumer laws. I have no problem proceeding with legal remedies this has gone on too long and it's time to take some action.

Replies
Advertisement
Piss poor customer service
By -

SAVANNAH, GEORGIA -- When I opened my account initially with Bank of America, they really messed up with me, and I should have used that as a warning of what was to come. They made a typographical error and sent my checks and cards to the wrong address. After several days beyond their normal processing time, I called them wondering where the checks and cards were. They said they would be there in a few days. Didn't come in, so I called them again. They then verified that the address was wrong, so they corrected it. They said the new checks and card would be to me in 7-10 days.

I waited. And waited, and waited some more. I called. They said the person that corrected the error had not sent the information, that the old checks had been returned by the invalid address. I asked them why they didn't catch the error, WHY, when they saw the checks had been returned to the bank, did they not realize or call the NEW customer? Finally, they closed the old account, and re-opened a new account since my privacy had been breached. THEN, of all things, the material for BOTH accounts comes in at the same time! This took from November 2, 2004 to December 29 of 2004 to get this straight.

They still didn't get the credit card request processed in a timely manner. I got snotty customer service associates, etc. And, it continues to get WORSE rather than better! I recently had a problem that was my employer's error. They had written payroll checks on the wrong account and they were all returned. My employer made the checks good with checks from the correct account, but the bank treated me as if it were my fault! They even threatened to put holds on my checks in the future! (That is only making a long story short).

Recently, they sent me a letter saying I had referred someone to their bank (AS IF!!). They have a $25.00 incentive for referrals. When I got the letter, it had a code number on it. But, when I called the bank (the 800 number, the branch, etc) they couldn't tell me who the referred individual was! I would NEVER send anyone to this bank. It took me two hours to find out that it was because of the error a year ago, and that this letter was sent tracing me a long time ago? But why was it written and dated in April for an October referral? I still haven't gotten any answers that are valid.

I eventually sent a letter to the Charlotte offices (area code 704) and got a call from an 813 area code, and the girl, after initial introduction, tells me I wasn't going to speak to anyone else, that she was instructed to handle the call. She was quite snippy with me, and advised me to close my accounts. Since when does a business make it policy to advise someone to stop doing business with them, after I am attempting every possible angle to PREVENT me from the trouble of opening new accounts with another bank?

When I told her I was going online to voice my opinion, I had no idea I was going to find the other complaints I have seen here. This is a statement of how the BoA cares about their customers (read "moneymakers"). As I said, this is the story in a nutshell. I could go on for days about this and the other episodes I have had with them, but I get tired of repeating myself, as I have had to repeat myself so many times with the representatives of bank of America. I would never do business with them ever again, and am working to get this resolved as I write this. I would never refer any person to do business with this bank and want out ASAP.

Replies
Overdraft fees generated by the bank
By -

ARIZONA -- This is my attempt at getting an overdraft fee reversed through the Chat Line. This is after already talking to a Supervisor "JN".

Welcome to Bank of America's chat service. Your chat may be monitored and recorded for quality purposes. A Claims chat specialist will be with you momentarily.
You are now chatting with 'Alice', a Bank of America Claims chat specialist
Alice: Hello. Thank you for being a valued customer with Bank of America and choosing our Online Claims text chat service. My name is Alice, and I will be happy to assist you today. May I please have your first and last name and may I use your first name during our conversation today?
You: Jim alverson
Alice: May I use your first name during our conversation today?
You: yes
Alice: Thank you Alverson. I'm sorry you had to take the time to contact us today. I certainly will do all I can to help you. Will you please provide me with the date and dollar amount of the charge(s) you wish to dispute?
Last text message received Alice: Sorry Jim.
You: I ordered checks online which resulted in an overdraft fee of $35 because the charge went in the day before my deposit. I'm broke with no food in the house, and I asked "JN" a Supervisor to please reverse the charge. The said I already had 2 reversed in there past year and there was nothing she could do. This account has been opened since 1986. How many charges in that total time. I 65 partially disabled and live on $1321 per month plus aboutt $70 week from a minimum wage job. I now have $22 in the bank and I need to pick up $24 in rx from a pharmacy for my wife. Please in the name of human decency reverse these charges. I'm, hungry, sick and this money has to last me 'til April1. Please in the name of the Lord help me.

Alice: So sorry for the inconvenience on your account and we definitely do value your business since 1986. Bear with me one moment to review your account.

Alice: Thank you so much for your patience. The fee is actually still processing so I am not able to request a refund at this time.
Alice: Unfortunately we will need you to contact us either through this chat or by calling 1.800.432.1000 once it posts to request the refund.
You: I saw it online it has posted, that's how I knew about it>
Alice: It is actually showing as processing so it is holding the funds but has not actually posted to the account showing a posting date.
Last text message received Alice: We would need to wait for it to post before we can request the refund.
You: How long will that take?

Alice: I apologize for the inconvenience. Transactions are processed during the overnight processing. I recommend to check first thing tomorrow to see if that has cleared.

You: I'm sorry too Alice will be posting on a BOA blog before days out. Sleep well, eat well and pray you never get old and sick like me.

Replies
Bank of America Not the bank for Americans
By -

I know this review may sound like I am playing that same old scratched record from the 70's but I believe this situation needs to be heard. I had some funds in my account and made some purchases. I had scheduled a payment to come out of my checking account for my mortgage on the 29th of January. I tried to make a charge to my checking account that week. Since it was rejected I wondered what was going on since I knew I had funds in there to cover all charges and would have funds in there on the 29th to cover the mortgage payment.

Come to be that BoA took out the mortgage payment on the 25th of January. This caused my account to bounce all the little charges since they paid the big charge first. I incurred $450 of overages due to the practice of the so called "customer recommended practice of paying the big charges first." I entered into negotiations with their payment reversal office and have been waiting for this reversal for the last 96 hours. I might add that to just talk to these people I was hung up on twice, and the last time I still never talked to this phantom payment reversal office.

So it is now the 30th of January and my Veterans Administration disability check was deposited. Yet I have no money in the account because they took it all to cover the erroneous post of the Mortgage and the overdraft fees. I called them this morning and spent the better part of an hour talking (if you can call it that) to the supposed supervisor on duty. He then informed me that if I had been more watchful over my account this would not have happened. What?

It was their mistake in the first place. I then asked him to comp some overdraft fees since they took the liberty of reordering my transactions to pay the larger charge first. I then asked what policy were they following that allowed them to do this. He said it was policy that was approved by the members of B of A in a survey. I then asked what survey because I never received one. He then said it was a survey that was administered before I became a member.

I then asked him who in their right mind would agree to this type of practice. This does not benefit the customer but rather the bank to reorder charges and pay overdraft fees. I indicated that was absurd and that if he thought that I was going to believe that then he was even more mentally challenged than I thought.

In short I told him that I was a USMC veteran and that they just stole my money from my disability payment. He said the bank didn't care if I was a veteran or not and that they would not make an exception, veteran or not. In closing, they may call themselves Bank of America but if they have no qualms about stealing the disability check from a veteran. Then they certainly will no longer be the bank for this American.

Replies
Hit Your Hard Working Customers When They're Down. B Of A's Motto
By -

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA -- My letter to BofA: I'm sure my story is not uncommon, and surely less disastrous than what some of your customers are experiencing. Recently I underwent a salary cut of about 30%. At the same time I was dealing with a foreclosure on a property I still owned in my hometown of Chicago.

Back in Oct., ‘08, with my foreclosure there were city building violations having to do with required repairs that I could not financially have completed. Thus I lost the property and incurred numerous fines by the city, for which by a court order, emptied my BofA checking account which had barely enough funds to pay for rent, child support, and other necessary bills. There was a domino effect of overdrafts. BofA was kind enough at that time to reverse some of these.

Then recently earlier this month, there was a charge by a rental car co. which appeared and then disappeared, then reappeared. At the time I had sufficient funds to cover the charge yet the final charge posted was actually higher. If the post date of this charge had been dated the latter actual date of confirmation, I would have not overdrafted eight (8) times (x $35 for each totaling $280). I was charged $35 for $3 - $5 transactions, which caused again a domino effect of overdraft charges on my badly needed funds to make ends meet. (This week the shortage may also cause overdrafts due to automatic withdrawals.)

I had asked the branch manager if they could have some consideration and reverse at least 3 of the overdraft charges. Basically they advised they cannot and are not allowed too. The same with your 1-800 customer service. All of this, not too mention BofA's nickel and dime charges I see on every statement, is a ruthless policy by BofA to try to make up for losses being felt elsewhere in the banking business, correct? Would not it be fair if there was an overdraft charge for every $50 or $100 that a customer overdrafted? Instead of charging $35 for every $1, $2 or $3 overdraft? Make justifiable sense?

Regardless, this letter is to notify you that this very unhappy customer will be closing his accounts with BofA ASAP, and will certainly not recommend BofA, and recommend that people stay away from BofA so as to not get ripped off and taken advantage of. And believe me, I am very involved in the Hispanic community in Los Angeles as well as in the top U.S. cities where we do business and support Hispanic community organizations. Basically, I've had it with BofA!

I also understand that in the next year, B of A will be charging a $39 fee per overdraft with up to ten (10) overdrafts per period. That can devastate a hard working family that needs to put food on the table and pay rent or mortgage. But I guess you need to make money on the short term. We'll see what happens in the long term.

Replies
Advertisement
"Bank" of America indeed
By -

I wrote the following to Bank of America today. I didn't feel the need to be more specific; they have heard all of the complaints before. Just Google "Bank of America" and "Unethical" and see all the results it produces. They have developed a devious system of policies, practices, fees and holds that assure that they will take as much as they possibly can from their customers. It is confusing enough to assure that even the cleverest customer won't be able to make sense of it all and inconsistent enough to keep us all guessing. Just a few examples of ways that they stick it to their customers:

Make a deposit and funds will be held anywhere from 0 to 12 business days before they become available. I have talked to several representatives now in an attempt to gain an understanding of what determines how long the hold will be and not a single one has been able to lay out the criteria for me. The gentleman with whom I spoke today told me there isn't a rule at all. "It just depends," he said.

Make a deposit in an ATM and you receive immediate credit for the first $100 of your deposit. The rest becomes available later. Make a deposit at the counter and all of your funds are held; none of it becomes available until later. If you're me. If you're my boyfriend, apparently, the results are different, but please don't ask anyone to explain why that is or what criteria are used to determine who gets credit for what when, I have tried, and no one knows. "It just depends," they say.

Say your available checking account balance is $300 and you have $100 in funds pending until, you know, whenever they feel like making it available (It depends). On Monday, you slide your debit card seven times. Each purchase is for $5, so your purchases total $35. These appear on your account as "Pending," the funds don't immediately debit. On Tuesday, you slide your debit card again, for $300.

This too appears as pending but now, Bank of America "As a courtesy," changes the order of the transactions to assure that the largest of your purchases clears first. Your $300 purchase clears the account and for each of the remaining seven you are charged a $35 overdraft fee. You are charged a total of $245 in overdraft fees rather than just $35, even though only one of your purchases was made when you had insufficient funds.

Never mind that additional $100 that was in the account; those funds were pending, so they weren't really yours. And they're all gone now anyway, and your account is still negative by $170 when the funds do become available, thanks to the fees they charged. I find all of this beyond disgusting.

Add me to the ranks of customers who have been dissatisfied with Bank of America's practices. Add me to the ranks of customers whose financial struggles during this economically challenging period in history have been compounded by the fees, holds and inconsistencies that are the Hallmark of Bank of America's policies. Add me to the ranks of customers who have no illusions; we know that Bank of America, in response to the impact that the country's economic downturn has had on financial institutions, is attempting to regain some ground by passing the expense to its customers.

Bank of America, ever attempting to grow black mountains from red valleys on the graphed landscapes of profit and loss, worsening our country's state of depression by depleting the limited resources of the people who make up its population in every way conceivable. Bank of America, a rapacious pecuniary beast, alarmingly short-sighted in its predatory approach, seeing red and opportunistically devouring any unsuspecting capital in its path; no regard for the impact of its actions on the economy as a whole, no regard for the individuals it abuses, no regard for the implications of its actions.

Bank of America, hoisting the common man by his ankles to shake, and shake, and shake until his pockets are turned inside-out and every last cent has clattered to rest atop a heap that is never tall enough to quell such a gluttonous appetite. How apropos, then, to be dubbed Bank of America, as it is indeed just that; a bank, a heap, composed of the laboriously obtained earnings of common Americans.

Then, wild eyes aflame, the creature climbs atop its ill-gotten mountain of dollars and dimes and roars a mighty roar, the subtext of which rings clearly in the ears of its customers: “Every man for himself; let the weak perish.” (Although some of us hear only two short words, the first of which is most certainly not “Luck”). Add me to the ranks of Bank of America customers who can only slide our hands into our empty pockets, shake our heads and say “For shame.”€

Replies
$500 A Month For A Checking Account!!!
By -

NEW YORK, NEW YORK -- Short and sweet. I've switched banks twice in three years due to overdraft charges. Citibank, Chase and now Bank of America have bilked me out of thousands of dollars because of their creative accounting and their ability to post debit charges whenever they feel like it. All banks are taking advantage of the "21" legislation that eliminates the "float" time for clearing checks, and applies it also to debit card transactions. I am in chexsystems because I refused to pay $300 in overdraft charges at Chase.

They were charging me overdraft charges on overdraft charges! I try to avoid overdrafts by using my card when I have money in my account. The bank puts the debit in pending status and even though the money was there, somehow the system is set up to incur a charge. $175 last week, $105 this week. I am going to gather all of my statements and submit them to my local congresswoman to show her this disgusting practice. They are taking this money out of UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE checks. How dare them!!!

They know that Wednesday the check is direct deposited and sure enough they manage to take any and all of the weekend debits and post them from highest to lowest always incurring the maximum overdraft charges. Two three and four charges of $35 hit my account. This is disgusting. When I call them to complain they blame me for not knowing how to balance my checkbook. I've had checking accounts my entire adult life and NEVER have I incurred so many charges. It seems that since many people have wised up and stopped using high interest credit cards, they are now hitting us with fees on our debit cards which we use as an alternative to incurring debt.

The penalties though are far worse. It does help, however, that when you use your card as a debit, not a charge, that the amount is then directly debited not placed in a long "pending status" that allows them to post the charge whenever they wish. This whole economic mess is because of banking greed. They have hurt thousands of people because of their ridiculous interest rates, mortgage practices. They then have the nerve to call hard-working people who live on practically nothing deadbeats!!!

The government is bailing them out, Bank of America and Citibank are both candidates the government should know what they are doing to their customers. Their working class customers who live paycheck to paycheck. The rich are not affected because they always have a "cushion" of money in their accounts. But I have a lousy $405 deposited once per week and the bank takes almost half of that as penalty charges.

I am going to make sure that my local government does something about this. Many people are upset. In the meanwhile, I will stop using my card unless absolutely necessary. It's cash for me all the way. Bet you then they'll start to devise a way to charge fees for excessive ATM withdrawals. (They already charge too much). Now I know why I've found it so hard to make ends meet the past few years. I am losing a large chunk of my income to pay banks!!!

Replies
Top of Page | Next Page >

Bank of America Checking Accounts Rating:
Star Empty star Empty star Empty star Empty star
1.0 out of 5, based on 6 ratings and
121 reviews & complaints.
Contact Information:
Bank of America
100 North Tryon Street, 18th Floor
Charlotte, NC 28255
888-279-3457 (ph)
704-386-4578 (fax)
www.bankofamerica.com
Product/Services
Compare Banks