Bank of America
Reviews and Complaints

Bank of America used Northstar Location services to collect on a bad debt for a customer who had the same name as my husband and lived in the same state. After they called my 72 yr old mother-in-law and told her she was stupid, I called them to put a stop to it. They told me that I was a bad mother and needed to get off the phone, leave my dead beat husband, and take care of my kids. They then called my husband who left work to handle it in person with the only BOA branch he has ever dealt with. The branch manager called the collection office to tell them they had the wrong man, but things continued to spiral out of control within the next few weeks.
We pulled my husband's credit reports and found a lot of cross reporting with this other man. BOA was the only bank that the man and my husband both did business with. We disputed all the incorrect information. Yet, BOA sent us letters saying they had been notified of our bankruptcy by Transunion (we have NEVER filed for bankruptcy, and when I immediately requested a copy of my husband's Transunion credit report, everything was fine). However, once BOA mixed their information of my husband and the other man, suddenly, my mortgage company and the company we had our truck loan through contacted us about our supposed bankruptcy. Many hours were spent proving our identity with all three credit bureaus, and everyone we did and did not have credit through. We put freezes on everyone's credit in the house, disputed all inaccuracies with the bureaus, and we closed our savings and checking accounts and our credit card with Bank of America. The last credit reports we pulled were totally correct.
That was almost two years ago. Recently, we wanted to refinance our house and lifted the freezes on our credit to do so. Immediately, my mother-in-law was called by BOA, and though our credit reports were great with scores of the upper 700s and lower 800s, my loan officer asked me about a "judgment pending" on my mortgage. She could see no reason why there had been such a thing and needed to get my mortgage company and BANK OF AMERICA on the phone. I hit the roof. Why would we ever need to talk to Bank of America? My mortgage company says they have no idea what is going on, and BOA says the same. What the heck is going on? I pulled all 6 credit reports before we lifted the credit freezes, and they were completely correct. BOA needs to be smacked with a class action lawsuit!

God. Bank of america sucks. They are awful... I was charged four fees, totaling $35 each, which are still processing, and they claim they cannot reverse until tomorrow, to see what my "relationship" is with the bank. (I have been a "client" since 1992!) I am going to my credit union this friday to open up an account there.

Bofa has uniformly been awful. The customer service has always sucked, they hire kids who could not care less, and who no doubt have no problemo working for such a corrupt company. Everyone who has accounts here should do the same as myself - go to your neighborhood bank and open a new account!
Do not give your money away to these crooks any longer...

The law firm of Salehi & Associates was recently retained by a client who, upon opening a Bank of America account, received a letter from Smart-Step Protector Insurance claiming that he had enrolled in one of Smart-Step's insurance policies. Salehi & Associates is investigating allegations that Bank of America improperly divulged personal information to third parties and/or that Smart-Step improperly obtained said information. We are currently looking into this matter, and are interested in any information or assistance that other Bank of America account holders would be able to provide. Please visit our site at www.salehiclassaction.com for further details on how to contact us. Thank you very much for your time and attention.

A Bank of America branch closed one of my checking accounts without notice, because a few of my customers bounced checks in a recession. Suddenly, my own checks began to bounce, because BoA withheld the $229, 912.37 that had been in the account. I could have stopped writing checks had I been informed immediately – but I first learned of the closing in a letter that arrived several days after.
Bank of America then closed two more of my checking accounts, calling me a “bad risk” – though my credit rating is quite good. Again, I was informed late, my checks were labeled NSF, and I was charged fees, while the bank withheld about $270, 000.00 from these accounts.
To date, Bank of America has returned only less than half of the monies it withheld. For several weeks before, BoA denied me information about my accounts by telephone, cancelled my online banking access, and repeatedly refused to say when I could get my money back.
Were the fees charged for the bounced checks not enough? Did Bank of America have to damage my credit report by labeling my checks NSF, while withholding my money and profiting from it, to my company’s impairment? That is dishonest business, based on a lie told about my finances.
This is more than inconvenience and expense to a business: it is a major disruption to its cash flow, and costs it accounting and managerial time. It is needless punishment, damaging a business under a vindictive cloud of secrecy – a cloud under which Bank of America has unethically, and hypocritically, profited.
How can Bank of America be so inconsiderate of the precarious state of American business, on which banks depend? The government has bailed out the banks, even though they had used their accountholders’ money to buy the political influence to secure the deregulation that allowed them to invest in subprime mortgages. The banks reaped heavy short-term revenues, and the doomed loans left the taxpayer, the investor, and the small businessperson to pay when they defaulted.
Arrogantly, BoA is now attacking customers like me to make more short-term profits, as that same paid-for deregulation allows banks to impose destructive fees and penalties on their accountholders. Despite all the bad press and public animosity earned in the last year, banks will go on abusing us so long as they are permitted free rein by government and banking authorities – and by the press.

Bank of America did not protect me and my account. Unfortunately I was a victim of fraud and fell for the online Receptionist scam. I did a few tasks as required, and even looked up and contacted the bank that the cashiers check was from. They told me that they could not verify funds but that it was a guarantee the check had funds if it was from their bank and in cashier check form.
Now I have been with Bank of America since i was 16. I am now 23 and have ALWAYS had my account in good standings. Assuming Bank of America's teller's are trained to recognize fraud and or the process to protect "one" from fraud, I was confident that they would protect my security. When I went to the bank, the young lady placed no hold (which is what usually happens when I deposit or cash any checks with them) on the check and believe it or not cashed it and handed me the money right there and then. I was kind of shocked due to the amount of the check and guessed that she was familiar with that bank. Either way I figured $2500 is a lot of money and questioned the security of the check and if it was possible that this could come back to me for not placing a hold to verify funds? She told me it was not necessary. So like a fool I sent the money away to some other state and was totally scammed. About five days later I went to take out some money and the teller assisting me tells me that my bank account is overdrawn and I had a negative balance due to the check coming back as fraud. Immediately I spoke the manager and she went on to tell me i was like the 5th person this had happened to that week.
So not only did they not protect me they totally screwed me. Manager gave me some phone number to call in regards to "paying" the balance. When I called to explain what had happened it was totally irrelevant and if I did not pay the balance in full within 20 days, they were going to close my account and I would not be able to open an account anywhere for 10 years! This horrible incident may have been my fault for falling for the scam, but I was very upset with the lack of protection I got from B of A. I feel they are to protect me and the didn't. I called the police, filled a report, reported to the FBI because this guy sent me another check. I wanted them to pursue contact with him and try to catch him and or do whatever they could and they told me "hopefully you learned your lesson and won't fall for it again, unfortunately we can't help you".

Example: My father fell for something similar and took a check to B of A, Santa Rosa location (next town over where he lived) and right away the teller that was assisting him told him the check was fraud. Did I get the poorly trained teller or what? I'm so confused as to how the bank allowed this to happen. If anyone has any advice as to how I can help myself your emails are totally welcome. And please no negative comments. I already realize how idiotic I was to even fall for such a thing.. [protected]@yahoo.com

Walter S Westberry no longer even uses this FIA card and is being billed 24.99% interest monthly and charged interest on balance transfers, cash advances that are not even being used. $214.99 interest on balance transfers and $12.04 for cash advances.
We are paying more than the minimum payment each month but with $229.44 monthly interest, we may never get it paid off. I think someone should do something about this high interest rate we are being charged and not even using the card at all, just trying to pay it off. It is not fair to have worked all our lives and then being saddled with enormous interest rates that they absolutely REFUSE to reduce. What can be done? I have already complained to my senator in SC and also lodged a complaint online about this. Tell me what can be done, and DO NOT tell me to go to credit counseling.

On June28 I accidently sent $1, 736.00 to the gas compay via Bill Pay instead of $17.36. The gas company recongized it as an error and immediantly sent it back. BOA sent it again. The gas company sent it back again. The bank charged me 5, yes 5 NSF charges of $35.00 each and a $10. returned fee. Totaling $175.00 in fees. I was declined my request for waiver of partial charges without an explaination or notification of denial and had to spend over 20 minutes on the phone just to find out the outcome.

I received notice in March that my loan had been assumed by BAC. I did not receive a statement from them in April so I called and was told that the loan was paid off. Obviously a computer error. The next time I called to try and make a payment I was told that I could not make a payment as the house was in foreclosure for non-payment for 14mo. After many phone calls, I was told that my previous lender had filed bancrupcy and that it was not BAC's fault that the government had not released the records. I finally got them to accept bank statements as proof of payment. In the meantime, I gave them the equivalent of 3 months of payments while they figured out what I exactly owed. In the meantime, I started the modification process. Today I received requests for additional documents for the modification and taped to my door was the notice for sheriff's sale. They won't ley me make payments! They won't tell me what I even owe! How is this all legally possible? Who governs them? Who can I talk to? I can't afford an attorney and still risk losing my home!

They are simply cruel & unusual. They are also disrespectful and impractical (they hurt their own business with their foolish ways). Why any company would just shut down people's credit card accounts on grounds they are overspending is silly as they are hurting their own dividends from finance charges. Obviously, if ones credit report shows 100% success with paying off loans and balances over time they should leave that customers' credit card alone! This is why their performance as a company is lackluster. If I were the CEO of this company I would really figure out which manager in that FIA card services is telling the employees' there to be some kind of "credit hero" where they close all accounts if the customers revolve debt. Um..hello? Customers' who revolve debt and successfully pay them off over time are the people who generate the banks' income FOOL! Do not do business with them if you want a reliable credit card that won't give you hassle. They are all hassle and they will also demean you as well as HURT YOUR CREDIT RATING if you try to defend yourself. FIA Card services managers are filthy, ignorant swine and should be fired for being so stupid.

In March of 2010, I was paying my bills on time, I was struggling to do this and often borrowing from my adult daughters to get me through the months but I was doing it. Then I decided to see if I am eligible for Make Homes Affordable Loan Modifcation Program (HAMP) that the President has pumped money into banks laps so they can do this to help people like me. It turns out, I am eligible. I turned in all of the required paperwork on time. Everything is going like plan. I am "in Review" still. It is almost July. The problem? Other than the ridiculous wait? As soon as they took my application they established an escrow account for my property taxes (that were not delinquent..I never approved the escrow account outside of the loan modification and I wasn't even notified it was going to be done). So this significantly RAISED my house payment. For April, and May, and June and now July. I needed it lowered. I was barely making my bills before I called. Raising my house payment was the straw that broke the camel's back. Bank of America told me I had to pay the full amount...my original payment and teh escrow payment or I would be pulled from the Make Homes Affordable program.

Even my daughters couldn't bail me out of this financial mess, so I missed credit card payments. They charged late charges, added penalty interest rates, doubled payments...now there is no way I can pay them. I called Consumer Credit Counseling and they say the only option considering my housing expense is so high is to go bankrupt. I just can't believe this is happening. I called Bank of America for help. The website says "the sooner you call - the sooner we can help" and at the time I was still treading water and doing okay. Bills were paid. I was eating and able to buy all off my prescription meds. Now, four months later, even though I am eligible for the loan modification - I have a higher house payment, my credit cards aren't paid, I have to pick and choose which prescriptios I buy because I can't afford them all. I feel like I am in the Twighlight Zone. Where's Rod Sterling when you need him? I want him to come out so this episode of bizzare events will end.

This is what American banks have done to America...in President Obama's name. I doubt he would be happy.

I have been trying to complete a short sale with Bank of America for a year and a half quite unsuccessfully. Bank of America has repetedly lost correspondence and information that my real estate agent and myself have submitted. Neither their short sale department, forclosure department or their collections department are in communication with eachother and have had to deal with all three departments. At no time was information in collections retained for further calls and I recieve on average 5 calls per day beginning at 7:00 a.m. and ending around 9:00 p.m. I spoke with a membe3r of the modification department earlier today and this man was incredibly rude and condescending and refused to give me his name on several requests. The only time we were close to closing, Bank of America put the wrong names on the paperwork and 3 1/2 weeks later have still not corrected the matter. During this time, they insisted I resend the original letter of hardship and wanted to completely restart the process because they had passed over some time period restraint. This situation has not yet been resolved.

Bank of America holds my mortgage. I inquired about the mortgage modification program on Bank of America's website in October 2009. I heard nothing until January 2010 when I received a FedEx package requesting information. It gave me only a few days to send the information back, and since I didn't have the time to collect the infomation, I decided not to persue it any further. Two weeks later I received another package similar to the first one asking for information. This time I collected the information and FedEx'd it back to Bank of America. I heard nothing for the next 6 weeks. In the meantime, I continued to get FedEx packages from Bank of America asking for the same information I already sent them. Then, my husband receives a call from Bank of America asking if we are going to pursue the Mortgage Modification Process. He told him no since they obviously don't know what they are doing. Finally, in April, I find out that not only am I in a trial period for the Mortgage Modification Program (and had been since February), they had me as past due since the trial period amount was MORE than my monthly mortgage payment. I called Bank of America and told them that my husband spoke with someone and told them we were not going forward with the process, especially when they kept sending us the same request for information that we already sent them back in January. I was told I needed to send a letter opting out of the program. Once I did that, everything would be fixed. I sent the letter on April 30. I called Bank of America on May 4 and they confirmed receipt of the letter and told me I would be removed from the program within 10-15 day. As of today (June 24), I am still in the program. I have even gone so far as to go into one of their local branches to have an actual person that I can see help me. Even these poor employees seem to be getting nowhere with the Mortgage Modification Department. I am afraid that my perfect credit score is ruined because of this mess. My next step is to file a complaint with the Illinois Attorney General regarding this. I will never, ever do business again with Bank of America once this fiasco is over. I wish I never heard about the Mortgage Modification Program.

I have over 30 months experience with the inhuman(s) that work in the B of A and formerly Countrywide loan modification and home retention programs.. Where to start...? The most henous sequence of events was around Sept. 2009... After almost 18 months of constant phone calls, paperwork, mis information, lies and downright fraud, these geniuses finally approved an acceptable loan modification for me. 3.75% for five years (no principal reduction) for five years then reset to market rates... Not great, , but workable, so I go to a BANK OF AMERICA to get it notarized and I let the BANK OF AMERICA loan officer put the notarized doucments into the prepaid FEDEX package they had provided...3 months and 24 phone calls later (they never acknoledged reciept of the documents nor did they modify the loan) I was told that the paperwork was never returned to them and therfore they were going to foreclose, so they promptly set a sale date. Many many many more phone calls, paperwork etc etc (during which time I was mistakenly told that they did find the tracking number for the documents and they did in fact find the documents) and now three last minute nail biting "postponements of the sale date later" I am told (AFTER being promised that my income to debt ratio prequalified me for a loan modification) that I don't qualify and that there is nothing they can do... I have heard this before at least 3 times so in the remaining 5 days till this next sale date I am gong to fight these idiots with eveything I have. The bottom line is that they are fraudulent, criminal I am sure and just plain emotionally abusive... I cannot wait for this class action lawsuit which will certainly happen in time... I will update the next chapter next week...

Five years ago, I was the victim of bank account fraud. I worked with Bank of America to resolve the situation and correct my accounts. Now, five years later they decided to close my accounts based only on this fraud incident and charge me a $50 fee to do so.

In 2005, my Bank of America checking account was breached. I live in Seattle, WA and discovered a withdrawal from my account in Alabama. I immediately contacted Bank of America that told me my mailing address was changed in their system to an Alabama address. Apparently, someone was able to contact Bank of America, convince them that they were me, change the address on the account and issue a new debit card to the new address. We worked with Bank of America to close the account and issue a new checking account. The bank credited the account for the lost money and everything seemed resolved.

I have always been a very good Bank of America Customer. I conduct most banking electronically and do not run overdrafts. I own a premium Bank of America credit card and owned a savings CD. Earlier this year, in 2010 I opened a new business account and credit card. Everything was going well with the account until we received a letter regarding our new business accounts.

The letter we received said that Bank of America “has elected to close your account in accordance with the provisions of our Deposit Agreement and disclosures provided”. It then stated that Bank of America “may report the account to Chex Systems, Inc., an account verification service. This may adversely impact your ability to open an account at another financial institution for up to five years.” While the letter included a phone number for the Risk Identification Center, it provided no explanation for the account closure.

The only accounts affected were the new business checking and savings accounts. Instead of calling the number, I decided to go to my bank branch and speak with the manager that set up my recent accounts. She mentioned that everything appeared fine with all of our accounts and did not have any information why the new business accounts would have been closed. The manager called the Bank of America Risk Identification Center and the gentleman stated that the reason the accounts were closed was due to a 2005 incident involving “electronic transfers”. He did not know any details and said that “any time an account is closed by the Risk Identification department, the customer can no longer conduct business with Bank of America.”

Instead of calling the phone number, I decided to go into my local bank branch. The banking center manager told me there was nothing wrong with any of my accounts and did not know why the new business account would have been closed. The manager contacted the Bank of America Risk Identification Center and was told that the reason for the closure was due to a 2005 incident involving “electronic transfers”. They had no more information except to say that “any time an account is closed by the Risk Identification department, the customer can no longer conduct business with Bank of America.”

I explained the event to him and he proceeded to tell the bank branch manager that she could try speaking with bank management. Two days later I received a voice message from the branch manager apologizing for the policy, but that they could not reinstate the accounts. I went to the branch and visited with the manager again.

The manager told me that the Risk Identification department was formed only two years ago and was not in existence when the incident happened. She told me that if I had information from 2005 to show what happened, they could review it and possibly reopen my accounts. I told her that the bank investigated this back in 2005 and should have all of the information already. It’s apparent that the bank has very little information from five years ago wants me to provide it again. Bank of America handled the matter in 2005 and did not provide me with any follow up correspondence as to the details after. She mentioned that there was no risk to any of my personal accounts (the accounts I re-established in 2005).

I called the Risk Identification department again to ensure that there were no other reasons for closing a perfectly good account. The woman on the phone reassured me that the reason for the closure was only the event to my personal account in 2005 and it is their policy to close all customer accounts that for whatever reason, were closed by their Risk department. I told her that in 2005 I worked with Bank of America to close the account and reopen a new account. Again, she had no details about my specific event and indicated that the details did not matter. Obviously this department was not around in 2005 and they are creating blanket policies that affect all past customers with banking incidents.

The Risk department representative also had no idea about my current personal accounts (created in 2005 after closing the breached account). She was not even aware that I had other accounts. When I told her, she looked my personal account up by account number and stated that this account is probably in the stages of closure as well.

Bank of America is passing the blame to their customers. When criminals breach Bank of America security protocols and they decide to close an affected customer account, they will not allow you to conduct business again with Bank of America and will post a notice on the Chex system for all banks to see. The details of the events leading to closure do not matter and they may not even have any past records of the event. They essentially pass the buck to the fraud victim and even charge $50 to seal the deal.

Oct. 27 2009 I called in to get a payoff letting BOA know that quicken loans just approved me to get out of my 7.7% mortgage to a new fixed rate at 5.1/8%. The rep from BOA said he also had a program to lower payments. After answering his questions he said I was approved for a lower payment. Two days later a letter arrived from fedex and said make this new payment. After 2 months my credit score dropped to below 600 and it took 6 months to reverse this. Today I'm still trying to refi with them Boa and now there are stalling. They did this for greed of goverment money and to get my old Countrywide loan off there books so it can be sold as a government backed security.

In November 2009, Bank of America moved my mortgage from one BofA subsidiary to another BofA subsidiary. Since this date, Bank of America has started overcharging me interest. Bank of America acknowledges that their "software has changed" when loans were moved to the new subsidiary. And that their new software calculates interest on a daily basis. Prior to November 2009, any additional principal and/or monthly payments made before the 15th of the month, used to be treated as if they were made on the first of the month.

Thus, now if a payment is made on any day other than the first of the month, additional interest is charged upto the date the payment is made. In the past, only a late fee was to be charged, if the monthly payment was made after the 15th of the month.

Several representatives at Bank of America customer service acknowledge that an error seems to have been made. Going back at the loan history, they also agree that the method used to compute interest has changed. They also acknoledged that my loan is not a simple interest loan, but one where the interest should be computed monthly. One representative also mentioned that other customers had similar complains about overcharged interest. However, Bank of America refuses to fix the overcharges, indicating that this is how their new system works. And now their new software gives customers a breakdown of the principle and interest for each payment. In this new process, the system charges additional daily interest to each customer.

Note that I have not refinanced, or done any sort of modification to my loan. Nor have I ever been late on a payment. Just want to make folks aware that Bank of America maybe overcharging them as well. Folks need to look at their mortgage statement and calculate the principle and interest charged, and complain if they have been overcharged.

My son and I have a joint bank account with BOA. The reason for this is because my son is overseas. The Bank of America branch in Grapevine, Texas refused to let me deposit my sons Income Tax return. They asked all kinds of questions about who's check it was and etc. The manager was some mexican guy that hid behind a curtain out of full view and he was the one who wouldn't deposit the check...a government check! I wonder how many illegal aliens he asked whose SS# they had stolen and were illegally working under. I'll bet you not a one. Bank of America is the sorriest bank in the entire country. If you are searching for a bank that takes care of it's customers, stay away from Bank of America. I don't know if my son will loose his return, by the time he gets home the check will probably be void.