Bank of America Overdraft Rip Off
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Bank of America US I've been ripped off by Bank of America charging my checking account overdraft fees several times. It is terrible how they can get away with charging these fees with no recourse from the consumer. My most recent story goes like this: My daughter, who was out of town, deposited $400.00 cash into my Bank of America Checking Account at a Bank of America branch office inside at a teller station. She did this so I could withdrawal the money to pay her car payment since she was out of town. When she deposited the cash the teller assured her that the cash would be immediately available for withdrawal. My daughter deposited the cash on a Thursday, and so after being assured by the teller that the money was available; I withdrew the cash and paid my daughters car payment. I also used my ATM card to make 2 other transactions from my checking account that night. On Friday evening I checked my account status online, and noticed that the cash withdrawal and the 2 ATM card transactions that had been done AFTER the $400.00 cash DEPOSIT transaction had occurred, were debited from my checking account but the cash deposit had a "Counter Credit Hold" placed on it, so conveniently the bank had manipulated my daughter;s cash deposit and my withdrawal activity so that the cash deposit that was placed on hold put my checking account in a negative balance, hence the 3 overdraft fees. I went to my local bank office in person on Saturday to inquire about these charges and after I explained my issue, the bank employee did refund one of the charges out of the goodness of her heart. I am thankful for that refund. However, the bank representatives advised me that the reason I was charged these fees in the first place was because my overdraft protection was not listed as being active on my checking account. I had never cancelled this overdraft protection. I have had my credit card account linked to my checking account providing overdraft protection for over 10 years and the protection has been utilized by Bank of America in other incidents. I am still being charged 2 $35.00 fees. I have written 3 emails to their "customer service" and I have been told that they will not refund these 2 remaining charges. It's a big racket with this bank and their fees. Too bad the answer couldn't be to switch bamks, they pretty much all are crooks with poor service and unreasonable bank fees From: Message Author (click here to email author)Date: Wednesday, 31-Oct-07 22:26:45 CDT Business: Reply Online Consumer: Comment On This Comment On ThisI just wanted express my personal opinion to everyone on this particular bank. I feel that it's one of the worst banks you could possibly do business with. I've been a customer with them for 5 years, and they recently charged me over $700 in overdraft fees in one day. Apparently I had "pending" transactions that went though which over-drafted my account. On the day this happened, I was using my debit card all day in the subway ($2 a pop) with no knowledge I was over-drafted, and they were letting the transactions go through. They charged ($35) every time I used the card, which at the end of the day, for about 40$ in transactions, they charged me over $700 in overdraft fees. Now, mind you, I had plenty of money in my savings account and credit card to cover the overdrafts, but they made no effort to cover me, or alert me that I was over-drafting. When I called to ask about at least getting some of it refunded, they treated me like sh*t and said there was nothing they could do. Now, $700 isn't a crazy amount of money, but the fact of the matter is, they're scam artists. What other company do you know of that is allowed to charge roughly 170.5% interest on borrowing money ($700 they charged % $40 I borrowed.) There are laws against this kind of thing, but apparently there is no law governing how much a bank can charge in overdraft fees. This is like someone coming up behind you and jacking your wallet, except since you have your money in their hands already, it makes it that much easier. I feel as though there should be more laws written on banking practices. I take the blame for not balancing my checkbook as well as I should have, but I'm outraged at the penalties banks charge people for this, it's a legal form of robbery. It seems all I can do now is spread the word, do yourself a favor, DO NOT BANK WITH THIS COMPANY! PEACE! TJ From: Message Author (click here to email author) Date: Friday, 20-Jun-08 20:53:16 CDT Business: Reply Online Consumer: Comment On This |
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