Bank of America Consumer Reviews

MIAMI -- I opened a bank account online and I put money on it. 5 days after the account was locked. The bank didn't even notice me of anything. I called BA, a representative told me that I had to go to an agency during the pandemic to show my ID. When I got there a representative told me that my account was actually canceled and they issued me a check with my funds, that I will receive in about 5 business days. It's not what the representative told me on the phone before.

I noticed that I also registered "my new bank account'' to receive the money from the IRS. I said that to the representative at the bank, he really didn't care. He just told me that I could open a new bank account with them and let me understood that otherwise, I could leave right away. As he was impolite and rude, I said no and I left. As a result, all my money was on hold during the pandemic, just when I lost my job. About 6 business days after, the check was not in my mailbox.

I called BA, one more time, to talk to a supervisor. I explained to her all the situation, especially that I needed my money asap. She just said ''you have to wait. It is our process''. "The check will be sent back to us in case there was a problem with the post office." She didn't even say sorry neither tried to find any solutions. She was like a robot reading some lines. I noticed, that I mentioned to all the employees that I lost my job during the pandemic, but it didn't matter to them. Today, I have to wait to receive my money, I can't pay my insurance and my rent this month. I don't even know if I will get my money one day. It is the worst experience I ever had with a bank in the US. Usually, representatives are professional and try to find solutions.

WESTFIELD, FLORIDA -- I've been a long time Bank of America customer for over three decades. That's a very long time. They used to be excellent but have slipped to being less than shoddy, if that's possible. They are now very third rate, especially compared to banks such as Chase which I rate the highest. This is mostly because of Bank of America's IT department which is incredibly poor. Or, perhaps they were directed to do insane things by their management. In any case, their destructive actions (both to me and my relationship with them and their general reputation) falls on the institution as a whole.
Here are two specific cases:
1. Last year they had a reorganization of their website. They called it an upgrade. During the process they erased all payment information including automatic payments, payment accounts and any payments that were scheduled at the time!!!! Are you kidding me!? This was not a mistake. Just before they committed this atrocity, they announced that scheduled payments would be cancelled and that automatic payment plans would be cancelled and would need to be recreated. They didn't make this easy as any non-Bank of America payment account also had to be reestablished. I pay my credit card accounts with my Chase checking account. And I have automatic minimum payment setup for every online account I have so just in case I miss a payment, at least the minimum payment will be made and I won't be hit with a missed payment charge and even worse, a hit to my credit score.

It is upgrade procedures 101 that when upgrading a system, you leave the customer's exsiting accounts, payment plans, etc. intact!! Bank of America's action in this case is the only violation of this very basic rule that I have ever encountered.
Next, just recently Bank of America did a similar thing. The cancelled an online checking account that had a zero balance. They had had a type of checking account called echecking. There were no fees associated with it. It appears they no longer have that type of account. Guess they're looking for more fees. So, without prior warning they notified me that they had cancelled the account and that once again all scheduled payments, automatic payment plans and external payment accounts had been dropped. Notice that at the time of their notice they had already cancelled the checking account and cancelled all payment methods!!!! Once again, are you kiddind me!? Either they are idiots, are intentionally trying to upset customers (and so also idiots) or think they will get more late payment fees this way (once again upsetting customers who can and will go elsewhere). Maybe that's what they want in the end. They want low profit customers to go elsewhere. Short sighted thinking as in my case they may not have been getting fees for the echecking account, but were making plenty on credit cards. I can assure you that they make plenty of income just from credit card charges that I make. So chasing [pun] me to another bank, such as Chase, is incredibly stupid. In fact, so much so that I would sell any stock in Bank of America as I don't see a good financial future for them in retail banking.
To their credit, I have found Bank of America's telephone support reps to be helpful, or at least try to be. They can't alter the fact that scheduled payments have been cancelled arbitrarily and without prior notice (what a totally insane thing for any business to do, let alone a major bank!) and that payment accounts information has been erased and that automatic payment plans have been intentionally destroyed. Each of these actions are absolutely destructive to both the bank and customer. CSRs can't really do much to correct the situation.
Bottom line, I would stay away from Bank of America for retail banking. There are much better alternatives out there, especially if you are a veteran. For example, Chase banking is FREE for veterans. I had been a Chase customer for years before I found out about that. Bank of America has no such accommodation for veterans. Just query "Bank of America plans for veterans". They have nothing except compliance with federal law regarding active duty military, something every bank must do. Chase goes way beyond mere compliance regarding active duty military to help veterans. There is also USAA and the Navy Federal Credit Union. Both of these banks provide outstanding, no fee, banking services to veterans.

I went to my local B of A Branch to make a $40 withdrawal from my checking account on the way to a school fundraiser with my kids. I online bank religiously, so I knew my available balance was around $3,800 available cash. The ATM gave me a message that it couldn't process the transaction, so I went inside. After first telling me that there was no checking account associated with my debit card (talk about giving me a heart attack!), the teller went on to discover that my account had been frozen, but couldn't tell me why. The manager brought me to one of the desks they use for mortgage opening or other meetings and proceeded to call the 800 number that the issue message gave her. While it was only around 4:50 pm Pacific and the call center she was trying was supposed to be open until 5:00, their "closed for the day" recording was the only thing we were able to access. She tried another number, where, without apologizing once, each of the next three people I spoke with told me there was nothing they could do but recommend I call the other call center the next day. Keep in mind, all of my money is in the account that is frozen... I couldn't buy groceries with cash or pay a doctor's co-pay if I had to (yes, I have credit cards, but we only use them for true emergencies). Each person repeatedly said that this other unit, which I came to learn is the Anti-Money Laundering Unit, had been trying to reach me and had had no response. I verified my phone number, email and address, all of which were correct in their system and none of which have received any contact (other than solicitation letters, wanting me to apply for one of their credit cards). There is no flag on my online account and my available balance shows $3,791.50 as currently available. The last manager I spoke with on the phone hung up on me. Did I share that I have had this account with B of A since 1989???? This is how they treat a customer of 31 years, and I guess I won't find out why until I call back tomorrow at 8:00 am Eastern. And then I'll be closing all of my accounts. If I could give them zero stars, I would.

SPRING, TEXAS -- Around the dates of February to March, as well as May, August, and September I have dealt with multiple frauds claims with Bank of America. It started in February where $18,945.00 was taken fraudulently out of my checking account from multiple locations across the U.S and even in other countries. It totaled over 250+ transactions. Even when I called Bank of America customer service fraud department at the very same time we were on the phone and I was explaining the panic I was in and frustration of what I was seeing on my account there were still transactions being made. I have filed a police report with my local police department and Bank of America has closed my claim over three times. Every time they closed it they stated “the transaction were made with verification” . I am furious because the money came from a lawsuit of something very traumatic that happened to me, similar to the Me Too Movement. I trusted Bank of America with all of my funds and they guaranteed me that money is insured when it comes to fraud. Not only that but according to equifax my social security and all of my information was breached and that lead to the compromising of my bank account. Even after my first fraud claim with Bank of America I moved all my money into a separate private account with them and replaced my debit card and I STILL AM CONTINUING TO HAVE MONEY TAKEN FRAUDULENTLY OUT OF MY ACCOUNT! In may I was constantly having money taken out of my account from the PlayStation Network which I do not own anything affiliated with PlayStation. In August through September I have multiple transactions from PayPal taken off my account totaling over 2k+ . This is ridiculous I have had over 8 debit cards from Bank of America this entire year ! I still have not received my money back from first fraud claim and Bank of America is doing nothing to help me as one of their “Platinum Honor Client”.

NORTH CAROLINA -- On September 21,2018, I electronically transferred $800.00 from Capital One to my Bank of America checking account using Bank of America's website. The transaction was scheduled as a one-day transaction. Therefore, the money should have been in my Bank of America checking account by the end of the business day. However, this was not the case.

When I noticed that the transaction was not settled, I called Bank of America. They transferred me from person to person. I spoke to over fifteen Associates. Even though I had the confirmation number for the transaction, they could not settle the issue. They saw that the money was debited from my Capital One account on September 24. Finally, after speaking to someone at the Executive Customer Service Level, I was informed that the $800.00 transaction would be settled by October 4th. Needless to say, it was not settled. Executive customer service did explain that there was a technology error, which is not my problem. My money was taken out of my Capital One and disappeared into thin air. Bank of America owes me $800.00 of my own money. It has been two weeks and no one at Bank of America has helped to retrieve my money. Consequently, I filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau as I need to obtain my money.

Bank of America does not care about the financial sustainability of customers. Thankfully, I am fortunate enough to be able to pay my bills, but what about those individuals who rely on their money immediately for living expenses? Would Bank of America stand by and watch someone be evicted from their apartment or lose a home due to foreclosure? Does Bank of America care if someone has food on the table? It seems to me that Bank of America is very uncompassionate towards customers. This is a key problem in our society. Everything seems to be about corporations making money as opposed to the well being of our fellow human beings. I strongly advise all individuals who bank at Bank of America to close their accounts and move to a trustworthy bank. It is unfortunate that in today's day and age, corporations cannot be trusted. Do not wait until this happens to you.

PLAINVIEW, NEW YORK -- I have had more business with Bank of America and they are horrible. I still have a home equity line of credit. I make many payments different ways to pay down the loan online by transferring into account principal only. Directly at the teller. Also use Chase Bank bill pay which mails Bank of America paper bank checks. I use the same system each time with the exact proper account # and PRINCIPAL ONLY printed on the check, same exact proper address because payments have been processed before here.

Their system is slow, delayed as it seems the department receiving checks don't do their job. Currently I have over $33,000 in 2 checks that should have been received by them and they don't know anything, unaccountable for anything. Call customer service which is answered by unhelpful morons. BoA doesn't care about customers at all.

DO NOT BANK HERE for credit cards, loans, personal or business accounts. I called customer service. Asked specifically about each check amount, do you have these. I got every answer about nothing but the question I asked. This was on my second call.

The first call was also unhelpful. Claimed we don't have the check to transfer me to bill pay which is not a department anything to do with this, actually transferred me back to the same system again. Provide my account # and last 4 social to be on hold and finally get picked up to a person asking all the same questions again, account #, last 4, property address, wasting time again to still be unhelpful or concerned why their system doesn't apply mailed in bank checks promptly and accurately.

How would they ever fix any issue if they don't train service to listen to customers about the issue. This bank is the worst. Stay away from them. I guess I wait uncomfortably while over $33,000 in 2 bank checks float around. Btw: This is a history of this all the time with this stupid bank.

CHIRROTTE, NORTH CAROLINA -- I recently came to United States for masters degree with millions of dreams, I was suggested by my friends to open an account in Bank of America. I had my semester fee due so I had my friend transfer me 1500$, he asked for my phone number and I gave him(He is also Bank of America Customer) there was a small mistake with the phone number. My phone number is XXXX186740 but the money was transferred to XXXX186470.
I wonder how unsecured the Bank is to transfer the money with just a single phone number without any form of second verification this is insane. my friend called the customer support immediately as soon as he realized that it was sent to a different phone number and they simply said that they can't assure that I can get my money back but they would start a research and provided me with the claim number XXXXXX00304 and said it might take 15 days and its already been 15 days when called no proper response. Now we are being asked to wait 45 business days. I wouldn't recommend Bofa to any of my friends. This is just a human error. Being such a big financial company how could the Bank of America not Anticipate this situation might come to any new customers. When sending a little bigger amount why would it not ask for anything like my first name or last name. just with a phone number?. seriously? have anyone ever thought of the consequences? no alternative? other than just telling the customer that "sorry we can't do anything, its your mistake of sending the wrong number". Have you not thought of new customers? people make mistakes when they are new. no cross verification. Isn't this so insecure. I am gonna let the other people know in social media that what if this might happen to them. Bank of America is not safe. During opening a new account, bank promises to give every single help but when the situation comes they step back and say " oh! sorry we can't help you, We can't promise you would get the money" damn insane, frustrating all the feelings in my head such a bad experience with this bank. thank you so much for not helping the common customer. But don't worry every common Customer is gonna face this situation. keep answering to them "sorry we can't help, its your mistake" well done.
regards
vivek(Nimesha's friend)
8148127622

STATEN ISLAND, NEW YORK -- It started 3 years ago, my husband died and the mortgage was in his name but the deed in both of ours. I gave them everything they asked for and wouldn't put mortgage in my name. I paid every month and then hurricane Irene happened. My house got destroyed. I put all my husband's life insurance into my home so we can live there. I became behind on my mortgage but was waiting on the insurance check and then I'd be current.

Well, hurricane Sandy came and I don't have a house anymore. My 4 year old and I just moved back a month before to be evacuated again. All this time BOA will not talk to me cause I'm not on the mortgage but insurance on the house is in my name. February 2013 happens and I have $44,000 in checks for Irene and about $100,000 for Sandy. The bank refused the checks and said the house was gone so they definitely couldn't accept Irenes checks cause they couldn't inspect the work. I have have receipts they don't care.

Now, I find out they served a residence I lived 10 years earlier foreclosure papers, that they said were delivered to me. Never happened, I didn't get them. We have been fighting back and forth so BOA decided to sell my mortgage to Nationstar as of June 1, 2013. I just found out on March 24th 2013 BOA got my insurance checks reissued to them (needs a dual endorsement) and cashed them through Wells Fargo bank without my signature - and I didn't even know about it. They didn't inform me, my lawyer found out.

So they got almost $100,000.00 and they didn't even own my mortgage anymore. Wouldn't take the checks so I would've been current but made me struggle all year. I couldn't even get help from the city cause I wasn't current… what can I do??? Finally they handed the money over to Nationstar but they're saying they didn't have to tell me and they don't have to put it in escrow or have my name on it? What the hell, am I in the twilight zone... I paid years for that insurance to help me and I'm getting screwed.

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS -- Hi there, my name is **. We have a nightmare to relate about Bank Of America deposits being "lost". It all started about a month ago when I decided to sign my $2500 loan check out to my husband's bank account. We deposited the money in the ATM and thought nothing more of it. We had done this same transaction dozens of times with no problem.

Then came the note in his account that, "Payee not on account". Thinking that it was a simple mistake, we went to the bank branch to work it out. There, we found out that they claimed to have already mailed the check back. Only they didn't know if they had mailed it back to us, or to the issuer. So we had to wait to receive the check, which wasn't going to be easy to stop or to reissue.

The check never arrived at either destination. Fortunately, we had contacted the issuer, paid the stop-payment fee, and paid to be reissued the check. (not to mention paying on a bounced money transfer to India!) They asked us to mail them the cancelled check should we ever receive it. We never did. So we changed the account to reflect my name as well as my husband's. We were assured that this could never happen again.

Three weeks later I deposited my daughter's Social Security check. It was to be paid in my name. I was clearly the payee. So I signed the check, and deposited it in the ATM. Four days after that, we again received the same note, "payee not on account". Hoping to God that they didn't send this check out, I called the bank, only to receive a callous note that my name on the account had been erroneously put as ** instead of **, and that screwup meant that the check in the name of ** was rejected. OK, so the check would again be sent to us, and we would simply re-deposit it, right?

WRONG. Not only did the check never arrive, but according to Social Security, it had been cashed in another state outside Illinois. The bank refused to take responsibility, and white SS will issue another check, I don't know what I will do about the one which was cashed. I did, after all, sign it! Thinking that it was going to be deposited into OUR account, I never thought that the Bank of America would LOSE it and that someone, possibly an employee of that same bank (after all, if it had been "lost in the mail", wouldn't it have been cashed here in IL??) might actually steal the deposit outright.

After speaking numerous times with officials at the office of the CEO of Bank of America, we have still never received any satisfaction. Nobody is admitting to any wrongdoing, and I may have to pay that money back to social security. I am really upset about this, as it is the second time in less than 30 days that it has happened. Obviously, something bad is going on at Bank Of America!

The contact information is this: I first talked to the manager at Bank of America IL1-111-01-01, 963 W Belmont Ave., Chicago, IL 60657. (773) 244-3093. Then after getting a pretty snotty response, I called: ** (pronounced **) ** at CEO of BOA (813) 882-1142. Then spoke to Leilani Southern, same CEO of BOA at (704) 386-5687.

** reimbursed us for the many fees we encountered after the $2500 fiasco. But he refuses to acknowledge BOA's fault in losing and/or stealing our social security check. Leilani Southern was very obliging, and she said she would get back to me. She never did. And that's where things stand. The scary part is that I wonder how many other customers have lost deposits to BOA?

Don't even look at BoA for any kind of account unless you are very rich. They treat hardworking people like trash. They charge fees for everything they possibly can, and use sneaky tactics like lining up your purchases, largest to smallest with the hopes that you might forget the $1.45 cup of coffee you had and go over your checking limit so they can hit you with outrageous overdraft fees. Now, I take responsibility if I go over my limit and will pay the overdraft fee, fine - but using their system of largest to smallest transactions, instead of one fee, I could get as many as 5 of them… all for a cup of coffee.

Seriously, their online banking system is the worst. Your balance is never correct. In fact, it tends to be more than you actually have. One of the reasons online banking has been marketed as being convenient is because it was supposed to free people from having to write checks and carry around a registry.

I have always successfully tracked all my debit transactions in my checking account online at other banks. That's because they listed charges as they got them, in real time. And if a charge was pending, it would still be subtracted from the total balance leaving me with a correct total amount. Everyday, I check my balance, noting the purchases I made and how much I have left. That is the registry. The real time account list IS YOUR REGISTRY.

Now here comes Bank of America, who I couldn't avoid because my older bank was acquired. Most people who do a lot of online banking use the system just as a registry - in fact, all three banks I've had before (all large banks) had the same system and it worked correctly, so why shouldn't BoA's system work any differently? With BoA, transactions I would make would "appear" on my online banking statement in real time, the day I made them. That was great. However, the next day maybe one or two of the transactions that had appeared (and were pending) the day before, have now disappeared. This temporarily makes your balance more than it should be.

Now, if you use the online system for what it's intended for (as a registry of transactions you have made), it's very easy to forget a purchase you made because it isn't listed anymore. It might be a day or a week before that transaction magically comes back and is deducted from your balance. By then, you've probably used up more money than you had because you thought you had more, and they stick you with overdraft fees. That's how they make their money. I have NEVER had this problem on any other online banking system. EVER. Smells like a scam to me.

Another thought about online registry versus paper - in this day and age, with debit cards taking over the concept of a check, with electronic bill pay services and with online account access why would it be convenient to track transactions on a separate piece of paper? I mean, isn't the whole point of having online "banking" is to give you a place where you can write electronic checks and have transactions recorded for you? So you have everything in one place?

I remember hearing somewhere that BoA was confronted with this issue and said something like "customers should not use online banking to keep track of transactions." That's a lot of bull. They are saying that to cover their tracks about their horrible business practices. Like I said before, all three banks I've dealt with before had correct, real time, online transaction tracking. With all of its power, size, and "up to date" technology, you'd think that BoA would have the most accurate online technology that I was using 5 years ago at a different bank.

Point blank, your online statement should accurately reflect what amount you have available and what transactions you have made. Even if you track your money the old fashioned way on a piece of paper. Don't you deserve accuracy as a customer? Take that along with listing transactions from largest to smallest and you are just swimming in fees. Don't go here. Do yourself a favor and find a credit union or community bank that will treat you with the respect that you deserve.