New Forum Helps Consumers Fight Back Againts Bank of America

Best of luck to those of you who also had their credit cards taken over by BofA. Two years ago my three credit cards all became BofA when they merged with MBNA. I had no trouble with years of MBNA , but my credit has been ruined since BofA took over. As some of you have reported, the records are OK one month, completely messed up the next, OK the next, etc. The latest is, all of my cards have been closed, no warning, no reason! The service rep says in a snotty tone "We can decide anything we want to". I have no lates, no over limits! I told her I might change banks, she said "Oh, I wish you would! That would really be good."
Can I switch balances when they have closed my accounts? I feel like I'm in a vise!

DO NOT BANK WITH BofA they do that often.
By the time you realize it, they have taken the little money you have!

As a person who work in the Bank of America Banking Center (Financial Officer) to be exact, it goes without saying to everyone on here it helps to be more proactive in terms of monitoring your money on your account(s) to prevent overdraft fees from occuring. First off, its not just Bank of America that has the "biggest to smallest check policy". This is also practiced by i.e., Wachovia, Washington Mutual, Citigroup, Suntrust, Compass Bank, etc. Its just that because Bank Of America is the largest retail bank, it takes the majority of the flak which I think can be understanable.

How the "biggest to smallest check" clearance policy works is this. Everytime a purchase is made on your Visa debt/credit card, it gets "temporarily" removed from your account until the merchant settles the transaction permantely which is then deducted from your account. On some purchases, you may not see a transaction debeted from your account for even a couple of days. That is because the Merchant (more times than likely) fails to verify with the Merchant Services Divions the clearance of the transaction to the account. What alot of people seem to miss (espically the majority on this message board) is that it is NOT Bank Of America's responsibility to determine which checks clear first regardless of the size of the transaction. It is the MERCHANT'S responsibility to settle the transaction with the bank. Some merchants i.e. Gas Stations take between 2-8 business days to review each debt/credit transaction before finally settling the transaction with the bank. And other merchants settle the transactions the same day. That's NOT a process Bank Of America makes up or decides no matter what your financial and/or credit status is.

I recommend to all of you to practice getting into the habit of using Online Banking on a daily basis, espically if you use auto-pay for your bills. Some things fall throught the crack and may cause you to get a NSF charge that shouldnt have happen.

how can I get ahold of the Headquarters of Bank of America to complain? I was told my their associates that I could make an emergency deposit and I could pull out funds as long as it's under $100 dollars and so I did that about 4 times. Happened to be a weekend....they charged me 4 overdraft fees because in their eyes those deposits didn't post until the next day..but I pulled out cash the night of...so it's my fault? That's not right, and when you tell the customer service supervisor "who handles ALL the complaints above supervisors" which I knew was a lie, and asked him if his reps have to be accountable for the inconsistent info they gave out, he said they do not! and I said how can someone retaliate against that type of poor customer service which lead to hurting me financially? he said there isn't, go ahead and try to find a way to get negotiation but you won't and sort of taunted me. I felt really demeaned.

Bank of America has charged me over $200 in overdraft fees within the span of 2 weeks. I noticed I had pending charges that would cause me to go negative in my account. Desperately trying to avoid theese fees, I called thier customer service line and asked for advise on how to avoid it. They assured me that if I deposited the amount to cover the pending transactions, that the bank fees would be avoided. LIARS! I did just that, and STILL got hit with the fees ($35 X 5). When I called them back to tell them my situation, they only refunded 2 of the 5 fees, because they considered it not to be bank error. I don't make a lot of money and it is extremely frustrating when your money goes to BS BANK FEES.

in response to banker girl, balancing a checkbook is very important, i agree with you, and no doubt that many of these situations could be avoided, but i do find it very strange that Bank of America holds deposits longer than any other bank i have dealt with. Jennifer raises a good point too, the practice of charging transactions largest to samllest is uncommon and a problem. small transactions, like a cup of coffee, get processed after the larger ones, which are just more likely to put you into the negative. If they were processed in the order in your checkbook, then NSF fees would be fewer in number.

i have had 1million dollars stolen from my checking acct on 8/10/08 traced to a computer terminal at the n.c. headquaters..thier story of being HACKED is not the whole truth employees are involved and my attorney has proof the public needs to know what is going on at B.O A. in central mass

I closed my BOA accounts after 20 years of doing business with them. I have since gone to a smaller bank. The online banking doesn't have all of BOA's bells and whistles, but serves its purpose.

Dispute EVERY charge triggering your NSF fees ... do it quickly ... the debit was NOT AUTHORIZED - it came in a day too early or a day too late, whatever - even if they are ligit debits, they are NOT LIGIT under the circumstances that BofA presents them. Dispute the charge and the NSF ... CLOG THEIR DISPUTE DEPARTMENT with demands they stop this theft.

I have been successful in having 80% of my fees reversed, they are threatening me now as I've had so many disputes, but I found that there is no way they can stop me from disputing a charge - it is my right and they must adhere to the laws around this behavior - so, DISPUTE ALL DEBITS CAUSING your fees and dispute the fees ... they will not stop this until we demand they do. You can write me directly at remembering@gmail.com

CLASS ACTION AGAINST BofA.

As I read all the whining above and work for a financial institution, it is clear that all of you dont know how to maintain a bank account. LEARN HOW TO BANK!!!!!! Educate yourself on policies, it clearly states if you will have a hold, and if your transaction posts next business day!!!!!!!

Have you Guys ever heard of electronic transfers by internet?
I check my accounts daily to make sure no problems such as ID theft are occuring. This can be done in the comfort of your home and you will avoid plenty of problems with your bank.
You can put payments in for the date you choose months in advance, just make sure that you payments are marked to be paid at least 3 working days before they are due.
Happy banking.

1 million stolen from your account?????? Get real buddy, you are so full of it. First off all banks protect against fraud, second you need to come up with a better story then what you put on this site. Get a life, job and another hobby. stop whinning!!!!!!!!!!

Hey jo, I have some info for you. Start tracking your spending, stop enrolling in internet programs that say "Free" yet ask for your debit card number, and stop letting your insignificant other use your debit card. All your NSF fee's will stop when you stop overdrafting your account. Or enroll in an overdraft protection.

Obviously something is very wrong with the way Bank of America does business. If they were correct, then why are millions of customers complaining. BoA has IT people working the net to answer all blogs and complaints, trying to kill threads. Bad news BoA employees, you will be losing your jobs soon enough!
As the stock begins to tumble even further, they will start laying off more and more of you guys. I myself have been with these idiots for 6 years plus. Over that 6 years they have stolen about $24K. They have even gone so far as to hold deposited checks that draw on BoA, these should clear instantly. They also hold checks that clear one of my customers accounts in 48 hours, everytime, for 5-7 days. I have to physically go to the branch and make them call the drawing bank to verify the funds have cleared, then they release the hold. They sure act like it's some kind of chore though don't they! When they huff and puff, I simply tell them, "Hey, you work for me. Isn't that what a customer is?" I currently filter over $100k a year through my BoA accounts, and they have been getting about 5%/year. Now they are charging me for pending transactions, that were mistakes by the merchant, and were voided. Needless to say, I am leaving BoA, I am only going to leave one account open to cash my BoA drawing checks on. Other than that, they can go fuck themselves! Justice will come!

Another uneducated moron about BOA and stock prices and losing jobs and blah blah blah!!!!! Millions of customer unhappy? Well lets start with BOA is the largest financial institution in the US. BOA has a customer base in the consumer market that is 10 times larger then any other consumer bank. Now if we do the math and you say millions are unhappy, thats only about 1% of the population. Now 2nd, BOA will never go under, and in fact BOA is continuing to deliver strong financial results quarter after quarter? So why is that? Because BOA is making smart decisions, do they hold checks? Yep! But based on your relationship with the bank (no OD/NSF fee's) the bank will make funds avaliable faster. Now the biggest killer to a company is loss. People who cannot manage their account correctly creates loss and creates debt for the bank. Now if your so smart you would keep in mind that the bank if a business, exists to make money..... bottom line! More then 70% of the US working person makes an average of $30,000 (statistic from the us Govt. Social Security Admin) so that leaves a big gap for people that do not manage their money correctly while living expenses are through the roof. Now I will say this, I do not work for BOA, I am a consumer fianacial analyst for a large financial institution, BOA is a admired company and I will tell you this, they are making decisions to stregthen the US financial standing around the credit crisis. With a aquistion of country wide, BOA will rewrite over $50 Billion in ARM to keep families in their homes that where victims of sub prime lending. Now that is something NO COMPANY IN THE WORLD CAN DO!!!!!!

This just can't be happening to me. I had an agreement to make a payment to BOA by 06/30/08 2pm w/ BOA, and I did - and they charged off my account anyway. I contacted them, and they replied 'sorry for the inconvenience'.
can you believe it??? So, I asked about the pmt I made, and they said it was returned to your bank...NOT. NOW an attorney's office said I have to pay $4k by noon tomorrow, or they will garnishment wages, freeze my accounts. This is how BOA acts when I fulfilled my commitment??

Amen! I thought I was the only one having problems with this bank. I can't tell you how many times they ripped me off by charging
me overdraft fees and late charges. They try to be slick by reporting charges and deposits late so that they can make it appear that your account
was short when in reality their fraudulent late reporting of account activities allows them to charge you. In one instance they charged me four overdraft fees in a row due to their negligence.
They are arrogant enough to believe that they have the power to do as they please. They probably have lobbyists working for them in Washington. I've done some reading on BOA and they've been sue quite a few times for job discrimination and failure to properly promote people of color. They also have a website exclusive dedicated to prostesting this bank which is giving loans to immigrants who are not legal U.S. citizens. There's not an honest bone in
the body of this bank. They are consumer exploiters and thieves. They were supposed to close my account and I had it confirmed that it was closed. However, they continued to keep it open charging me charges while stealing my income tax rebate. This is two to three months after I requested and confirmed the account to be closed.
What happened when I contacted the NJ Dept. of Taxiation? The cowards did nothing. All they did was tell about what they couldn't do. That's the State of NJ for you. Stay far, far away from this bank. They are a bunch of criminals. When are they going to be investigated? I can't tell you how much money they stole from me.