Bank of America Consumer Reviews - Page 7

SILVER SPRING, MARYLAND -- Timeline: 2/9/09 - I make an electronic payment of $700 to be paid on 2/17. 2/10/09 - I realize that another payment I had made earlier in the past week was going to post on the same day. In fear that I will overdraw my account I called BoA and asked to stop payment on the $700. She said "No problem! It looks like it hasn't processed yet so it shouldn't be a problem!" As of 2/20/09 - Avail Balance was $500.73.

Fast forward to today 2/21/09 - I drive up to the ATM to withdraw some cash and my balance is -$125.14 with pending transactions so it will most likely be -$300+. I rush home to check my account to find that the $700 did in fact go through. How could this be? No. 205. 10 Regulation of E states that a financial institution must honor a stop payment on an electronic payments pre-authorized if the request (orally or written) is made at least three business days in advance of the date the payment is due.

So I call BoA. Explained my problem. The representative originally states that there is a record of my call on 2/10 and stop payment request and puts me on hold to see what he can do about removing the overdraft fees which by now amount to over $300 worth. The representative informs me that he can only remove half of the overdraft fees and that's all he can do. WTF? I ask to speak with a manager. The manager claims that there is no guarantee on stop payments, which is stated in the terms of service of BoA.

I ask him why I had not been told this, and for all the advertising of the "stop payment" option why there is no mention that this is guaranteed? He continues to repeat that it isn't guaranteed and that he cannot verify what the representative on 2/10 said or didn't say, ultimately going on to argue that this is not a "bank error". I explained to him what federal law requires of BoA to do and how is it that their terms and conditions somehow contradicts their obligations in this case. He hangs up. I called back and the call center had closed at that point. How convenient.

I researched BoA terms and conditions and FAQ, and I've learned that even if my stop payment is unsuccessful I am supposed to receive notification of such at which point I will be held responsible for the overdraft fees. I've also learned that Bank of America is pretty clear in its service agreement about canceling payments. OK... So it's clear I'm supposed to get my money back right? Or is there something I'm missing?

I am deeply upset and frustrated by this situation and I'm not sure what I should do, because I feel as if whatever they told me today will be recorded on my account so I'm not going to have much luck with anyone else at BoA. As a full time student I cannot afford this, and this in my opinion is greatly unjust. This should not be tolerated.

NEW YORK -- I am writing to warn everyone to steer clear from Bank of America. I have dealt with many banks and this one appears to be taking full advantage of the economic crisis. A year ago, I applied for a loan. The representative from Bank of America talked me into getting a line of credit instead of a conventional loan on the premise that as I pay down my balance, my line of credit would become available for use when I needed it. I agreed and applied for the line of credit. Upon receiving the line, I notice the loan amount was greater than we agreed upon on the telephone. Also the pay back terms were for 90 months.

When I called to change the terms, they claimed I could not change the terms until I made good faith payments for 6 months. They claim the extra funds included fees. I called back 6 months later, they told me I would have to make good faith payments for a year. So here I am paying back a line of credit for the amount of $39,500.00 at 15% interest. I was very upset because I am paying over $400.00 in finance charges.

To make matter worse, I am on a school teachers salary. As the economy began to tank and the cost of living went up, as gas prices increased, I like many Americans began to struggle. However, I was never late on my payments and in fact, I was paying more than the minimum payment monthly ($718.00). I still noticed that the balance was not budging because my payments were not being applied to the principle.

Here is when the story goes wrong. After paying for over a year, I wanted to access available funds to free up some cash. I called Bank of America asking that they deposit some available funds into my account. The unprofessional representative informed me that I would not be able to access my available funds unless I had a cosigner. I was calling from a Bank of America branch so I explained I would have to call when I got home. I was confused and upset and did not want to make a scene at the bank. I was confused, I had been paying as agreed and now I needed the funds.

As I previously noted, I was sold on the premise that this loan would come in handy when I was short on cash. I also had blank checks that I had just received in the mail from Bank of America. The checks were good until December 31st and they clearly stated access checks for your line of credit account. After calling back, another representative told me that it was explained in the previous conversation that the credit line had been dropped from $39.5000.00 to $34,500.00 due to my outstanding debt.

I told the representative no, that is inaccurate, that I was never informed of that. I explained how I had access checks and perhaps if I never would have called (obviously trying to do the right thing), I would have had my funds deposited with no questions asked. This representative insisted that I was informed on Dec 17th of the decrease in my credit and there was nothing left to discuss. I preceded to plead the facts and asked to speak to a supervisor and the representative hung up on me.

I called back and asked for a supervisor. This supervisor was just as unprofessional as the representative and even refused to give me his name and the person's name whom I conversed with on December 17th. They insisted they had hefty notes on my account from that December 17 conversation, so I asked them to give me the reps name.

They refused so I hung up and called back and requested another Supervisor. This time I explained that I would be contacting my councilman to inform him of what appeared to be fraudulent business practice. I also stated I would be contacting their corporate branch and shareholders and required a corporate address. This supervisor did provide his name but explained he did not know the corporate address.

He also conceded that the line of credit was not dropped prior to my call (as the second representative indicated) but in fact, after my initial phone call on December 17th. He informed me that my phone call prompted them to run a credit check on me and based on that report they reduced my available credit. I asked how could they do that without informing me in writing and how could they do that if I have been paying as agreed.

I have never defaulted or paid late. Yes, it is true my debt has increased this year (many Americans are feeling the pinch). It was my contention that if I am paying as agreed that they should honor their obligation. I further stated that I belong to a Credit monitoring service and my credit score is 716.

So although my debt had increased, ALL of my accounts have been paid as agreed - no late payments, no defaults, no judgments and definitely no bankruptcy. Although this supervisor was respectful and explained things more clearly, he was not helpful in overturning the decrease in my line. In fact, his position was that there was nothing I could do about it. That the Bank can do as they feel.

I believe this bank is part of the problem with the economy today. They practice predatory lending by charging ridiculous fees, ridiculous interest, and longer payback durations and loaning additional money so they can earn a commission and then do not follow through with their end of the obligation. After speaking to the supervisor, I asked since they changed the terms without notification and since now I have no access to funds and since they reduced my line, could I change the payback terms to a shorter duration so the interest would be less and I could pay it off faster.

You don't need me to tell you the answer. They claimed, if I wanted to change my payback terms on the lower line of $34.5 I would have to restart my loan as if it were day one ( accruing more fees). They even stated “well, why don't you pay it in full” and then quoted me a payoff amount. Bank of America is changing the rules in the middle of the game. They want the banking customer to follow through with their contractual obligation but they are changing the terms as they see fit.

I will be following up with my Congressman, with Consumer Affairs and if need be the Senate, since they are the ones bailing out the banks and giving them the power to do as they will to hardworking Americans. In my opinion, bailout funds should be revoked from this bank and this bank should be audited!.

I am a New York City School Teacher and I will be sure to warn members of the UFT, members of the Dept of Education, colleagues and anyone else who will listen… PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, BEWARE OF BANK OF AMERICA. They are ripping off hardworking Americans to line their greedy pockets. If anyone knows of anyone else I can contact or perhaps a class action suit against this bank, please let me know. This is a fight I will not back down from. I will write President Obama if I have to. Our hard earned money and credit ratings should not be at the mercy of any bank establishment.

FT. LAUDERDALE, FLORIDA -- I am registering this as a very strong complaint about Bank of America and it's policies in regard to accepting checks for deposit. I made a deposit on 1/9/09 in the amount of $5,270.93. Part of this deposit was a check from a company called Lynx Air International, Inc. The amount of their check was $1707.76. The amount was credited to my account at midnight of that night and showed on my account as available on Monday the 12th when I came in to work and checked the bank account. I proceeded to write checks and make payments based on the fact that Bank of America said that these funds were available and at my disposal.

On Wednesday 1/14/09 I checked my bank account online again as usual and saw that the amount of $1707.76 was going to be deducted from my account at midnight. I immediately assumed that the customer's check had been returned as NSF and called him and told him that his check was bad. He contacted his bank who said that Wachovia had already paid the check and the funds had been deducted from the customer's account and sent him a copy of the cancelled check. I assumed that there had been a mistake and contacted customer service on the phone.

They told me that "Risk Management" had decided to put a hold on the check that was deposited until 1/19/09. I asked why as the amount, according to Wachovia had already been paid to Bank of America. The representative I was speaking to said "because we are allowed to." I asked why and he said "because we are allowed to." I replied that "that was no answer" and asked to speak to a representative.

He put me on hold for 30 minutes and still no one answered the phone. I went to my branch bank and basically got the same response from the bank representative. I went to another branch and got the same response except that this representative said that the bank had not finished collecting the money from Wachovia even though Wachovia showed that they had already paid Bank of America.

In this day and age all transactions and transfer of funds is done electronically and instantaneously. Now if you told me that the rider and his horse had to stop for food or that the horse that was carrying the satchel of money from one bank to the other had broken his leg then that would have been a different story. In other words, I find your reasons totally absurd and ridiculous and slanted to help Bank of America only.

First in allowing you to use the money for free for seven more days and second to possibly allow my account to go into overdraft based on checks that I had written on an amount that Bank of America told me was in my account and available. I guess you people Love to collect overdraft fees. At $35.00 per overdraft that can add up to quite a good little bonus to someone there at the bank.

Probably the top executives as I am sure the regular tellers never see any of the windfall that you collect in overdraft fees. I am sure you feel very gleeful about this situation and find it very funny. Well I can tell you from experience that the small business owner does not find it funny at all and all you are doing is hurting the little guy to help the Bigger guys. And by that I mean Management at Bank of America.

The final result is that I am being held hostage to the arbitrary whims of Bank of America about a deposit I made on 1/9/09. The bank said the amount was good and credited my account and let me use that money for three days and then took it away from my account. This is very poor conduct on the part of Bank of America. If the funds were going to be put on hold then I should have been told that at the time of the deposit.

Not three days after I had already been writing checks based on these fund being shown as available in my account. I wonder if a class action lawsuit may be in order. I will check with an attorney and see if I can cause a little pain to you, the big guys, like you do to us, the little guys.

I have been a long time member of Bank of America. I opened my account with them in 1997 and until the past 12 months had been happy. Last year I opened an account for my underage child so that he could begin to learn how bank accounts work before adulthood. He was working and earning about $70.00 per week. I showed him how to balance his account manually as well as via telephone and the intranet. On at least 6 occasions BofA held transactions he made using his VISA/debit card for more than 8 days and compressed all charges into one day which caused significant overdraft charges.

Initially I thought it was his mistake and I told him to address it with the bank so he could learn from his error. I listened to him pleading with the bank that was charging him over $100.00 in fees ($35.00 per item - bear in mind the items were for $3.00 burritos, etc.) that he only earned $70.00 per week and couldn't afford the fees. The heartless bank did nothing to help. As this problem occurred on MANY occasions I took a look at it myself and had to agree that the charges were being compressed which seemed deliberate. I called the bank myself asking for a reversal and was denied. They actually lectured me on how checking accounts work.

Bear in mind I had been with them for over 11 years and deposit an average of $10K per month with the institution and they were unwilling to reverse anything. Yesterday I made two transfers from my savings to my checking to pay bills. The first went through while the second never showed up. I waited until today and noticed that the funds never showed up so I called the bank and they told me I had actually transferred the funds to my credit account and not the checking so I'd have to speak with the credit department.

When I spoke with the credit department they told me they can't help until the payment is actually posted to the account and to call back tomorrow. Still needing to pay the bills I thought I would just transfer the money again and get the other monies credited back tomorrow per their instruction. Here's the interesting thing, there is no link between my savings account and my credit account on my mobile banking. If that is the case then how could the error occur? At this point I was pretty angry so I went to the branch personally. I waited in the long teller line only to be told that someone in new accounts should assist me.

I waited again for over 15 minutes and finally gave up and walked out. I've NEVER been so mistreated by a company before. Bank of America has declined to the point of embarrassment and has NO CUSTOMER SERVICE CONCERNS WHATSOEVER. Now I realize that tomorrow I must begin this battle again to get the monies transferred back to my checking.

Honestly I think they did it intentionally to charge me the overdraft fees. Let's face it they know exactly when (time of the month) you typically pay bills, etc. and it's the holidays. Most likely they were just trying to take a few more dollars out of my family's pocket. SHAME ON BANK OF AMERICA.

SEATTLE, WASHINGTON -- Bank of America recently increased my APR to 28.99 % - After I called them they say it's because they received my payment late. I don't remember paying the bill late and asked how is it that they got it late. They said it's because they need to get the payment by 3:30 eastern time, however I was late by couple hours. It came to me as a huge surprise because as I pay my bills online, the confirmation page shows when the payment will be processed, and when I was paying it showed up on my screen that it will be processed by the 28th which was the due date. I read another person's review here and basically same thing happened to him. Very strange.

Read this: The above complaint is nothing compared to what happened to me few years back when I had a checking account with that Bank. One day my purchase was being declined--I checked my online Banking and everything was fine. I called the Bank to see why they are declining my transactions and they told me that they have flagged my account for suspicious activities. They asked me if I purchased a plane ticket to Thailand. I said "no!" It was not my transaction and I asked them not to process it. They said that they have to process it since the charge was submitted, even though it didn't post to my account yet (hmmmm)...

Anyway... They said if I dispute that transaction they will reimburse me for that. 3 days later they charged me $980 for the ticket and reimbursed me the next day. They also sent me the paperwork to fill out. I basically had to state and sign the transaction was fraudulent. I did that and then after next 3 weeks I received the letter from them saying that they have investigated that charge and found no error, so they will charge me again the $980. I immediately called them to ask how did they found no error, and I learned that it's because it was secured transaction done through Verified by Visa. I didn't understand what it meant but they weren't able to explain it to me.

I kept calling them until one of their representative was educated enough and told me that secured by visa is a security. I set up a password on my account and if I make online purchases, "Verified by Visa" verifies that password. It was very strange because I didn't remember setting up any passwords. I started researching this online and called the Verified by Visa people to see when the password was set up and guess what--it never was. They told me they didn't have an account opened for me. I asked them to fax me a paper confirming that so I can take it to the Bank of America. The lady on the phone said she will have to transfer me to her manager for that.

When I was on the phone with that manager I explained my situation to her and thank goodness for her. She set up a 3-way conference call with me and the fraud department of Bank of America and told them that they better refund me the money. So after all I was not charged for that plane ticket I never bought, but still I think this is absolutely outrageous how the fraud department handled my case. They made up a bogus reason to deny my claim. They are very dishonest Bank and if you are still banking with them, I recommend you take your business elsewhere!

Months ago, I called BOA for advice in dealing with a shady mechanic. After discussing it, their representative said I should just pay with a check, pick up the boat and then stop payment on the check. She never mentioned laws or complications, just spoke to it being as easy as a charge back with CCs. Seemed simple enough so my wife and I chose to move down that path. We paid, got our boat out of hostage, and then stopped payment.

I was shocked a month later to learn an arrest warrant had been issued for stopping payment on the check. Due to the amount the charge was a FELONY as well, which meant I was going to have to turn myself in. Having never broken a law I hired an attorney and he helped me turn myself in, BUT due to it being a felony, I had to spend a night in prison - a night that consisted of 10 other guys in a 7x7 with an overflowing toilet and sewage kicking up from the pipes outside the cell door.

So roughly $10,000 later in legal fees and expenses I get the criminal matter taken care of and stop by the local BOA to start a conversation. I talk with a BOA manager **. He is mortified as I tell him the story and he quickly agrees that the representative should have never given me the legal advice. Just learning I spent a night in jail, I would think he is wanting to get more info and such to follow up. NOPE. Shakes my hand and says "wow I will talk to someone about this" and shows me the door... no name or account info exchanged.

I call the customer service center and after telling the story several times, finally get to speak to a Kevin who assures me that BOA wants to keep me as a customer and they will make this right. After a week or so, he escalates this to the CEO's office due to the severity. Ken Lewis' gatekeeper calls to inform me that there will be no actions on their part, no apology (mind you even Kelli and Kevin have apologized at this point), no financial restitution for the expenses out of my pocket, nothing for my time or troubles.

Here is the kicker... they have taken the time to interview the young lady that actually stopped the payment, BUT they conveniently cannot locate who I had the conversation with about my options - YUP the young lady who told me to take this action that landed me in prison is nowhere to be found. They claim since that conversation was just talk and no actions that there would not be any record of who took that call. My wife has worked call centers for 15 years and there is a way to track every inbound call and where it ends up based on the account number entered, but BOA amazingly has no way to confirm the story.

To top it off, Norma had this to say - consider this a paraphrase as I did not record the call - "I could not imagine our representative giving legal advice as we do not train them to do so. I am not sure of the conversation but it's unlikely they would have done so." I follow up asking "are you saying your representative have never said things they were not supposed to?" She of course suggests that in any call center environment a representative sometimes says the wrong thing, but she could not see it happening here and that they don't have a way of knowing who it is so there is no way to find out.

So it's a shame that it takes media embarrassment, complaints to the Fed Reserve, the BBB and a lawsuit in order to get a bank to do the right thing. Shame on Bank of America... no wonder the gov't is having to bail you guys out!

WINSTON-SALEM, NORTH CAROLINA -- I've had a BOA card for just over 2 years now. When I signed up for it, I transferred some other debt being this BOA card gave me 0% for 6 months on balance transfers, then they told me after that it would be a fixed rate of 7.9%. I've never had an issue with them until now.

Over the last year I kept getting these letters/emails telling me about how my limit has been increased, and in the last 2 years it went up at least $3,000 from the original amount I was approved for. I've never been late on any payments, and have perfect credit. I actually pulled my credit to do a follow-up on my report and scores and my exact score is a 740 which all in all, isn't that bad compared to some.

Monday I pulled up my account to see when my next payment is due, and I noticed my minimum payment due was over double than my normal payment. Keep in mind, I'm about $3,000 away from even reaching my max limit on the card. After reviewing my online statement, it showed me my interest rate was now 21.5%!! I immediately got on the phone and first spoke with an account manager. She acted concerned, and stated “I'm not sure why. Let's call a credit risk analyst to see.”

I'm on eternal hold and the guy comes on the line stating BOA's credit analyst perform random reviews, and depending on credit scores and debt to income ratios they make the decision to up the interest rate. I explained I just got through pulling my credit, and everything is fine other than some basic debt and this card, not to mention my credit score is not bad! He began to see if I could qualify for some other plan they could try and put me on. After giving him our income information, he immediately said we make too much and will not qualify!!

He did not take a count in what my bills are, what I owe, what our mortgage payment is like. All he cared about is what my gross income was and that was it. He then said “Yes, it looks like judging by your income that you make well enough to make your new monthly payment, and if you go beyond 30days on your payment then you can call us and we can work out a payment plan!”

Can you believe this guy?? I mean you take a long time, on-time paying customer and just try to screw them to the wall with me having no say so. He then said let me see what else I can do, then comes back and says "Sir what I can do for you is lower your rate, and I can get you down to 19% from the 21.5%. How's that sound?" I just said “This is a joke and even at that rate it's over triple than what my SUPPOSED to be fixed rate has been.”

Now I'm going to have to go through the hassle of trying to go through my bank to work on a consolidation loan, and/or a home equity, or find another credit card offer to xfer the balance which for me it's just a pain. I shouldn't have to worry with this. I mean I realize BOA has reported losses and are trying to make money, but to screw a loyal on-time paying customer? It's beyond me. And knowing I can't afford it and are going to have to xfer the balance elsewhere, you'd think they'd rather get 7.9% rather than 0% but evidently not.

TEXAS -- My husband and I, a couple of semi-retired old people, have a 10,000.00 CD at Bank of America. It matured on 8-18-08, and my husband went to the bank branch, withdrew the interest and asked to move the principle to a 3.7% CD. He was told we were not eligible for that rate, as we did not have "the correct type of account" for that rate.

I called the CD Customer Service number, which I got from the website and asked how we could receive this rate, which is advertised online. I was told "We will switch the CD for you to that rate." Two days later, I again called, as I did not see that rate applied and was told "Wait a few days for the higher rate to take effect. I have looked and the change order is in our computer".

On 8-25, I wrote to BofA Customer Service, through their website with an e-mail, thanking them for doing this for us and complaining that the local branch could tell us how to do this, and asking when I would see the change. I requested that any correspondence be sent to my e-mail account.

Now, over Labor Day weekend, I went on to their website to check my savings account balance. The ten day period in which we could move the money has expired as of 08-28. There is a small spot on their customer service page where there is a note that I have e-mail from their Customer Service people. I opened that link and found a note stating that 'you are screwed' and will not get the higher interest rate, as its 'only available online to new accounts.'

I had asked on my first and second calls "Do I need to do a transaction online to cancel the CD then move the money into another account, then open the CD online?" I was told "We will take care of that, for you and you will receive the higher rate on your new CD."

After it is too late to cancel the CD transaction, having been told twice that we would receive the higher rate, I was told by a person from their CD department "Sorry, you didn't open the CD online, so you can't have that rate." I followed instructions, as provided by the bank's customer service representative "Don't worry, we'll take care of all of that for you".

So, now I have filed a complaint with the SEC and the state banking regulators, and I will take the afternoon off from work on Tuesday to close my checking and savings accounts at Bank of America, will have to open at another bank and notify my direct depositors that I have changed banks.

Bank of America has just told me how much my accounts mean to them: Nothing. The trust that must be inherent in any banking institution is missing. They have become a greedy mega business with no interest in their customers, except to see how many lies they can tell, in order to grab what amounts to 40.00 from my husband and me. While that's a small amount of money, it is enough, if done often enough to pay some big bonuses to them.

BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS -- I had been a satisfied customer of BoA for over 6 years, until this last month. One Saturday in April, I went to deposit $380 in cash at an ATM that I frequently use. Got the deposit receipt, kept it as usual to make sure that the deposit is posted online, got my card back, waited until the ATM was completely done and left.

Now, you may call me an idiot but I had been successfully depositing cash into ATM machines for at least 4 years now without a single problem. YES, that does NOT mean that something can ever go wrong, but my problem with BoA does not center around the actual deposit, so read on before you criticize (I've read some posters on this website that jump on complainers' throats, so I'm just preemptively covering my own @$$ here).

So, the deposit NEVER posted on the online banking website, which I check at least once a day. I immediately called and filed a claim with the Electronic Claims (EC) department. Simple machine malfunction, I understand, it happens. No one's 100% perfect all the time, and BoA is a huge company with thousands of ATMs to manage. They even gave me a temporary credit so that I could write my rent check that month, and in a month, I got a formal letter from the EC dept saying that they ruled in my favor and thus made the temporary credit permanent. I was honestly very pleased with their relatively quick service.

However, fast forward a month, they reversed that “permanent” credit for $380 without any kind of notice. Fortunately I had enough money in my account, or I would have had to go through that whole NSF charges hell. However, little did I know that was pretty much the last time I'd see that money. I called the EC dept to complain and they said that it is their ATM department that took out that money for reasons unknown to the EC dept?

Okay, I kind of understand that. BoA is a HUGE company and different departments can sometimes have miscommunications. So I filed another formal claim with the EC dept, got a temporary credit, which obviously was reversed second time because this was a “duplicate claim” although the second claim pertains to the REVERSAL of credit without any kind of notice, NOT the ATM deposit. Their own “investigators” took a whole MONTH to investigate that ATM deposit and deemed it legitimate.

Well, now, apparently the other department can only see that I was credited twice but NOT the fact that I was debited twice? I can put in $380.00 in the search window on my internet banking website and get that information in about 5 seconds, but okay, fine. I've since talked to about 20 different EC dept agents and THIS is where my problem with BoA is. I have my phone records showing phone calls to the EC dept direct line lasting 20-30 minutes, placed almost every other day.

Almost every agent I have talked to seemed understanding and although not very knowledgeable about what's going on, and EVERY SINGLE agent I have talked to have assured me that they are taking meticulous notes while I explain my case over and over again from start to end, and two of them even told me that they put this “escalade” status on my claim that makes the process go faster. Well, don't you know it, the case never got resolved and it never got ANYWHERE. THE THING IS, every time I talk to someone, they have NO IDEA what I am talking about.

They all claim that the agent who talked to me previously did not take notes or take proper actions (the agent I talked to today placed a “service call” whatever that means? Probably was lying, anyway). THAT MEANS, all that time I was talking to these agents explaining every single detail about my case over and over again, THINKING that they were listening and taking notes on it because they were going to help me, they were probably just yawning and zoning out. Or maybe laughing at me for fussing over just $380. ALSO, WHAT ABOUT ALL THOSE ACTIONS THAT THEY ASSURED ME THAT THEY WERE TAKING?

Every single one of those agents have promised me something - “Oh, I just talked to someone over at that department and they are going to take care of it.” “Oh, this is just a simple misunderstanding. We're going to look into it right away.” Yea right. Every single one of those agents have told me that this “will be resolved in 10 days.” That was over a month ago.

They're obviously just telling me that to shut me up for 10 days, but obviously I keep calling back and what do you know, they'll make me explain the whole thing all over again because no action was taken that I would have to wait 10 days for. They are clearly just taking my calls and not doing anything about it, since when I talked to another EC dept agent today, there were no notes or actions taken on this and she “doesn't know why.” Same crap, different day. Sure, theoretically I could have put in an empty envelope for $380 as they told me that a lot of people do - I probably lost at least a year of life being frustrated over this, and countless wireless minutes.

Lastly, I apologize to anyone reading this who may be offended because I am, after all, sitting here writing about “only” $380. From reading some of the other stories posted on here, I really AM lucky, I guess and I really feel sorry for anyone on this forum who were not as lucky. Everyone I've talked has told me to consider this “a $380 lesson” and move on, and be thankful that it did not involve a bigger sum of money and that is what I am planning on doing.

I am opening a new bank account next week with another bank account next week, and moving all my money out of BoA's reach. I have simply lost my trust in BoA, and do NOT want them anywhere near my hard-earned money, no matter how little it may seem to other people.

The thing that kills me most is that if it were ME who owed them $380, heck even if it were only $0.01, whether it was a legitimate charge or not, they would be dragging my good credit through mud as soon as they can file a report, and doing everything they could to make my list as miserable as possible. Or maybe things would be different if I were a big business pulling in a lot of money for them - maybe then they would be more willing to help and actually give a hoot. What can the little guy do against the corporate America?

HOUSTON, TEXAS -- Hello, my name is Evelyn ** and I was writing you because I saw your article online. Here is my situation. About a week to two weeks ago, my husband and I received an economic stimulus check and we both endorsed the check and then deposited it via an ATM. The check cleared and we began spending it on necessities and a few other things that we had been wanting.

Today, I looked online to see how much extra money I had (according to my records I should have had around 700.00), only to find that my account was overdrawn by $204.00. I looked at my transaction history to see that today, June 2nd my deposit of $900 was reversed. I could not believe this (nor could I begin to fathom why this would occur), so I called "Customer Service".

This phone call was a big disappointment as I was only told, "I am sorry for the inconvenience. Due to the large number of people stealing from each other, we are forced to do occasional audits on ATM deposits. If a check has a name that is not on the account, then the funds are removed from the account and a duplicate certified check is sent to the customer. You should wait for the check to come, and then take your husband into the nearest B of A with your IDs and re-deposit the funds."

I was completely flabbergasted as my husband has made bi-weekly deposits into my account (with his company check) for the past year via to the ATM. The justification seems sketchy at best. When I asked them what I was supposed to do to pay for my 4-month old child's formula or gas to go to work, the bank said that they don't have that answer.

They also informed me that they did not know when I would receive the check. They said it was dependent on the United States Postal Service, which tells me that they didn't even send the check certified so it could very easily get lost in the mail. To further my frustration, I am being charged a total of eight overdraft fees ($35 a piece) for transactions that posted after they took the money out of my account.

Again, I am shocked because it is due to their mishandling that I did not have the money in my account. Is this legal? What are my options? Can they be required to compensate me for the fact that I cannot feed my children, put gas in my car or anything else for that matter?

This isn't the first time something strange has happened. Deposits totaling more than $800 in the past year have randomly disappeared from my account. When confronted, their statement is simply the deposits were never made. When I had my employee go to the bank with receipts, they "apologized for the inconvenience" and issued the credits. What is going on? What can I do besides file a complaint with the BBB (already done)?