Bank of America review: overdraft fees 59

I am a business owner banking with bank of america since 1994 and my personal accounts too. I am going to cancel all my accounts as of tomorrow and going to a new bank. I have a check-card that I only like to keep what I waste week by week in case it gets lost, used and then overdraw my account like it happened once to me. sometimes Ive used it knowing what I have in the account and they charge 29.00 monthly fee and Ive used the card right the same day that the monthly charge debits my account i notice the same day and i transfer money right away. and three days later i see a 35.00 overdrawn charge and when i call the bank they tell me i used the card to put gas and the monthly change came through at the same time and i was 5 dollars short so it overdrew my account and the charge cannot be waived.
and its like if they were monitoring closely to catch you to charge the fees. I cant believe knowing you are an old customer and that i have several accounts with the same bank.

I LAVANCE JOHNSON MY MORTAGE WAS HELD BY COUNTRYWIDE AND BROUGHT BY BANK OF AMERICA.TWO YEARS AGO I WAS DIGNOSED WITH PROSTATE CANCER, I CAN LONGER HOLD A FUL TIME JOB I AM ON DISAABILITY. I'VE BEEN TRYING TO WORK WITH BANK OF AMERICA WITH NO RESULTS.ACORDING TO THE TO THE GUIDE INES I QUALIFY FOR A LOAN MODIFICATION.EVEN THOU THEY KNOW I QUALIFY FOR THE MODIFICATION THEY REFUSE TO HELP ME.

I'd heard horror stories about other peoples experiences with Bank of America. I some how let them draw me in with a free $100.00 deposit for opening a checking account as a first time consumer. It's something that I wish I'd never done...ended up being a complete nightmare with them. They intentionally held pending debits on my account far beyond 5-7 business days only to charge me 35.00 per transaction as a result of funds being held. I've never seen or heard anything like this in my life. I'm surprises that this is legal. Write your local politicians ans submit as many complaints as you can...they need to be held accountable for ripping consumers off.

So I have overdraft protection set up such that if I overdraft on my checking account it automatically takes money from my BOA credit card.

When an overdraft occurs, not only do they take service charges on both the checking account and the credit card account, take interest on the amount transferred from the credit card as a cash advance, but get this, the service charge on the card is NOT flat, it's 3 or 4% (the account person Marcus and the supervisor Shaunda couldn't seem to be consistent on the issue). What a serious rip off.

I'll be seriously considering moving all my business to another bank.

/// Not necessarily. It's easy to say "not overdrawing = no overdraft fees" but in practice it doesn't always work this way. It should, but it doesn't always. Here's my story...

I got paid on a Friday and deposited half of my check into my checking account and the other half into savings. Paid a few bills, bought some groceries and gas. On Saturday afternoon I took a road trip out of state. During the trip, I paid for a hotel room and a few drinks at the hotel's bar. Sunday was the return trip. I filled up the tank and drove home.

I keep a written record of all my debits and after my last gas purchase my ledger showed that I still had $12.67 in my checking account. All of my bills were already paid and I still had half of my paycheck in Savings so I figured I was fine. I checked my account on Monday afternoon and everything was still A-OK.

Tuesday morning I stopped to get gas on my way to work. I knew from my written ledger that I had $12 in checking and since I was in a rush and didn't feel like stopping at an ATM to access my savings, I simply purchased $10 gas (enough to get to work and back). To my surprise, my card was declined. I checked my online account from my phone to find that at some point between Monday evening and Tuesday morning, I had been charged four $35 overdraft fees. I wondered how this could have happened when I kept such detailed records of my weekend charges and had not used the card since. This is where it gets stinky...

It seems that BoA not only held all of my weekend charges in a state of "Processing" even though the money had already been deducted from my account, they also held all of the authorizations ($100 for my hotel room, $1 at one gas station and $2 at 3 others, $1 for each of the 5 times I swiped my card at the hotel bar between Sat and Sun, $1 at the restaurant we ate dinner at on Sat night and $1 at the restaurant we had breakfast at on Sun morning - $114 total). The kicker, though, is that at some point on Monday, BoA finalized the largest charges (my hotel room, dinner and breakfast) but kept the state of the authorization charges as "processing". At this point, those charges were finalized, but because the authorizations were not removed simultaneously
(namely, the $100 hold from the hotel, I became overdrawn. Then, on Tuesday morning, the authorizations were released, but since I had already been assessed 3 overdraft fees of $35 each I was already way overdrawn when the remaining charges from the weekend were finalized. This resulted in four more overdraft fees of $35.

Of course, I immediately contacted BoA and was told that they "cannot control when authorizations are lifted or when transactions are finalized". Really?! So even though my charges were less than the amount of money in my account, BoA's clever way of "holding", "processing" and "rearranging" purchases is quite obviously designed to exponentially increase the likelihood that your account will become overdrawn. In my 5+ years of banking with BoA, I had never known them to finalize purchases without simultaneously removing the authorization "holds" related to them, but that is exactly what they did, resulting in $245 in overdraft fees. BoA did not deny that I was being charged for overdrawing, even though I did not spend more than I had. Instead, they informed me that this was the way their system works and there is nothing they could do about it.

Many people probably keep a healthy balance in their checking account and would, therefore, never run into a situation like this. I on the other hand, live check to check and only deposit enough into checking to pay my bills and other things that require a CC#. I firmly believe that this is a blatant predatory tactic used to exploit those who are most likely to come close to overdrawing... the working class. How else can you explain a finalized payment being processed on both ends, yet the authorization hold still showing as "processing" in my account?

Needless to say, I do not use my debit card for any purchases where it is not absolutely necessary and I try to keep $100 or so extra in there whenever I do. Unfortunately, keeping track of your spending and "not spending more money than you have" is not good enough to save you from ridiculous fees. I would expect that this "system" that BoA now has in place is one of their biggest revenue generators. If they can get me for $245 in two days when I spent LESS than I had, I can only imagine what they do to people who actually do find themselves a couple of bucks in the red. Too bad that they can always stand behind their BS claims that the way and order in which they process payments is out of their control. It is obvious that they have created a system that is intended to squeeze the maximum amount of $35 fees possible out of their clients.

This is the 3rd time in a year BOA has assessed 3 $35 overdraft fees at one time to my sons account when there were NO actual overdraft in the account. From everything Ive read the new law regarding fees started July 1.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/10/your-money/credit-and-debit-cards/10overdraft.html

However when I call the SOB's tell me it doesnt start until August.

Im thinking of picketing and filing a complaint with the BBB and Attorney General. Any other ideas?

email me @ tallylady71@yahoo.com

thanks. Kimberly

I urge that everyone who has ever been charged a Overdraft fee to Send $35.00 cash to the CEO of BOF
BRIAN T. MOYNIHAN
100 NORTH TROYN ST
CHARLOTTE, NC 28255

Also I have been told by a employee of BOA that the Alert system they have in place is not reliable at all and people should not depend on it to let customers know their balance.

I am happily mailing out an extra $35.00 to the CEO because its pretty obvious that he needs the money more then I do.

We are at the time where we get charged to use our own money...

Exactly...LOL!

'We are at the time where we get charged to use our own money...'
No...actually you are getting charged to use the banks money. Do you really think they would do away with every OD fee?!

why don't you take some responsibility? it is your fault for not making the deposit before 8 pm. who are you kidding? your one of them jokers who thinks its everyone else's fault but your own. no, its your fault. get yourself over to the bank before 8 pm you little cry baby. boo-hoo for you. be an adult and take responsibility for something that is your own fault numbnuts.

On May 2 11:59pm I had downloaded my account from BofA for my Microsoft Money program and received a message "The time period you have requested to download has no posted transactions “on top of the page. At 2:00am on the 3rd of May I received the same message. On the morning of May 3rd at 9:00am I logged in to my account to see if my paycheck has arrived, there was a post of a bank check I wrote from a few days back posted marked the 2nd that was not there at 2am, then all the debit card purchases I made prior when the money was there had been posted afterwards, making my account that much more in the red..I called BofA concerning the post and the fees that have occur on my account.
The rep told me that I would not see the posts and would not have access to that info at the time I requested the download. I asked her, " You mean on 5/2/2011 at 11:59pm PT, the page I'm downloading is marked 5/3/2011, all posts on the 2nd is incomplete?! She replied yes. Then I asked her what about at 2am on 5/3/2011? She gave me the same answer. I find this utterly profound. For the last 4yrs I would try to balance my money program to match the account from Bofa, constantly searching for errors with the final solution is to apply the adjustment. Then later find the error was Bofa. Plus the image of the back of the checks they posts is hard to read. I phoned BofA concerned of an ATM deposit still pending when transactions posted was dated later and was told the ATM I used for the deposit are not credited to my account for 2-3days, even when I can see the deposit pending posts online on my home computer, minutes after the transaction.
My Chase account doesn't have this problem. Bofa seems to change the account posting procedures to their preference. Next to the spending of gas, BofA fees ranks 2nd. I have reports from [protected]. Plus I have several backups of prior years that I had to abandon from the program due to the errors.

I am writing to empathize with all who have posted here before me about the ridiculous amount of money that BofA charges for overdraft fees and how they go about racking up fees to prey on those customers that sometimes 'forget'. We are are human and sometimes 'forgetting' just happens. I have never seen such abusive tactics by a bank in all of my adult life! My worst experience with overdraft fees was last summer when I had mistakenly gone over my limit on my balance with my debit card. Again . . . it was a mistake! I was unaware that i had overdrafted and had made a series of small purchases over a 5 day period before I caught my mistake. I had purchased about $180 during that 5 days in everyday purchases for things like a cup of coffee, lunch, small purchase at hardware store, gas, etc. All in all there were 27 transactions in that 5 day period. Well it was much to my shock when I checked my online account and had saw that I was charged $945 in overdraft fees for spending $180! I realize that we are all responsible for our own account balances but as I mentioned . . . it was a mistake! You can tell by my small purchases that it was not intentional! Why would I intentionally buy a $2.00 cup of coffee knowing that I would get slammed for $35 as an overdraft fee!? I wouldn't . . . because it was a mistake! I immediately went to my B of A branch and explained what had occurred. They gave me the typical canned answer that there was nothing that they could do about . . . and they were really sorry . . and that they truly value my business! What a load of crap! Well I got stuck paying all of those fees and it felt like I was robbed by my own bank! Tell me how that is just and reasonable! I have since opened a new account with a different bank that doesn't allow your debit card to ever go into an overdraft status. They just simply decline you. How easy is that!? I'll take a 'decline' for a cup of coffee any day as opposed to an 'overdraft'! What a bunch of crooks!

Bank of America has returned to their old practice of charging a $35 overdraft fee the NEXT day for ANY amount.
A year or two ago, BofA made many customers happy by enacting a new overdraft policy in response to numerous complaints: Any amount overdrawn under $10 would not get an overdraft fee until the 5th day. This made things so much easier for me and many others. I am so angry that they have gone back to the old practice that I'm seriously considering closing my 16-yr. old account and moving to a credit union. And they have the nerve to say, "we apologize for the inconvenience". GRRRR!

Overdraft fees can be frustrating, but I have to interject here. Bank of America is a business and it's not unreasonable for them to charge overdraft fees on any amount at any time they desire. After all, with any bank it's your responsibility to ensure you don't overdraw from your account. I personally see overdraft fees as a way to keep me on my toes, be my own accountant, and ensure I never overdraw from my accounts. I don't want to get hit with that fee, and I like saving my precious hard-earned funds. It's a great motivator.

So don't blame Bank of America here. Take responsibility and work hard not to overdraw from your account.

Here's a thought..don't spend money you don't have and you won't get charged a fee.

Bank of America is like every other bank. They are out to make as much money as they can, and if it is by capitalizing on their poorest customers, so be it. They know that it is easy to take advantage of people who have the least money and therefore, no power.

I overdrew my account by $2.12 by making an online payment on my credit card. I was hit with (2) separate $35.00 fees and the transaction was paid. B of A disclosed in writing that it did not charge overdraft fees on drafts under $5 AND I never opted-in to have overdraft items paid. When I complained to the bank via email that $ 70 was a bit excessive for an oversight of $2 they basically responded with a 3 page letter explaining how a checking account works, refused to waive any of the fees and said they appreciated my business. As for why they paid the item in question their response was unbelievably: "we sometimes pay these items" I have been a customer for 6 years and very rarely overdraw. The last time I did (paid rent twice by mistake) I didn't even bother to complain assuming it was my own fault. The $70 in fees they have charged constitutes a loan of $ 2.12 with an interest rate of 241, 206.15%. I want my fees back and I want the transaction reversed as I did not opt to have overdrawn items paid. Thank You

Same as all the rest here, this 'Bank' has apparantly resorted to theft to fix their economic woes. BofA hit me 6 times for almost $200.00 in fees in 2 days. I saw there were a couple small charges pending (NOT POSTED) the evening prior, so I online transferred $ to more than cover them. Got hit with (2) $25.00 fees on the next day anyway. Those 2 fees pulled my account down so 2 more went NSF. They then charged me $35.00 each for those 2. Total of $140.00 overnight. I called the 1-800 number and plead my case - got $60.00 refunded. I was still pissed, but at least I got some $ back. This gets better, though. Knowing that I had 2 new charges on the way, I immediately went to the local branch and deposited cash in that account and added more cash still to the account that covers overdrafts. The teller saw two more charges coming, and said nothing. Logged on today to find 2 more $35.00 charges for those 2. AND THE MONEY WAS THERE! They said 'those charges were from the day before, and the money you deposited wasn't there then, even though it didn't post until today'. WHAT?! I called 1-800 and lost it - got nowhere. I called back and tried with another rep - got nowhere again. Tried a third time, and viola, got my $70.00 back. Folks, just keep calling them until you get success. Also, call the business number for customer assistance, there is no cue line to wait in, and the business account reps will help you with your personal accounts if you have a business account. This is a total scam - We have absolutely no proof as to when a charge is going to be posted to our accounts from a check card. The bank is in total control as to when these hit, and and they 'claim' that they have no control over when the vendors submit the charges. When they see a situation where their pulling money to cover NSF fees will result in a chain reaction of NSF's and more fees, they do it. This is a recent thing - I used to transfer money online to cover these issues, and was never charged NSF's before as long as I transferred money to cover them while they showed PENDING. I see the reports just like mine coming from everywhere, and it looks ripe for a class-action lawsuit to me. Better yet, spread the word that BofA will steal your money to every friend and relative you have, close your accounts and move your money to a local bank that does not take government bailout money. And call Clark Howard! I just did, maybe if enough people call him, he'll air their dirty laundry NATIONWIDE. They deserve it.

You are a ###ing idiot. If you and every other customer learned how to do basic banking and keep track of all your charges and checks, odp fees wouldn't be billed to your account and if you would just listen to the CSR instead of yelling and being annoying then maybe you would learn a thing or two. ODP fees are controlled by the customers. Customers need to be more responsible over their own money the banks reps are not your own personal accountant. So F ing grow up, act like adults and manage your own damn accounts.