Bank of America Overdraft Rip Off

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

Comment On This

I just had an ordeal with Bank Of America. I filed a complaint with the OCC. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, a US Gov Dept. People need to make more complaints to have them change there ways. I had a Bill pay item delivered early and it cleared earlier than expected, it caused 7 items to have NSF, instead of charging only 1 fee on the early bill pay they charged me 7 because they ordered the items fromhigh to low to maximize there fee income. As a result over the next several days while tring to recover I had several more NSFs totalling over $400. Had the bill pay been delivered on time there would not have been an issue. I filed my complaint and got all but 1 fee back which I agreed to pay because rightfully that is all I should have, even though the bill pay delivered early. When receiving my fees back I got a copy of the disclosures, a much thicker copy than was given at the time I opened my account and it does state that they may determine at there discretion the order of processing items ( YEAH what ever makes them MORE MONEY) and it also states that the high to low processing order may result in more insufficient fund items and more fees than may have resulted if we had used another posting order. (yes it actually says this, how can they get away with this, it is wrong) File your complaint and stop them once and for all.

Comment On This

WATCH OUT - I know this is Bank of America, but I am sure they will follow suit. Wells Fargo has been posting items according to the time of day now. Several months they started juggling dates, posting withdrawals first then a day later posting deposits racking up multiple overdraft fees. I got that under control, and now even when I have a positive ending balance at the end of the day I get overdraft notices. I called them and they said at 11:57 am my account was overdrafted and they sent the notice as a courtesy to let me know. There was no fee, but it is only a matter of time ... so to speak.

Comment On This

I too am in a very similar situaion, except I have 8 children. I have been charged 15 over draft fees in the last month! 3 of the latest fees are due to the banks fees. Every time you call you get treated like you don't realize that you are on the brink of poverty. I want to boycott Bank of America. There should be a limit on how many fees they can assess to your account in one day, further more there should be a minumum of like $25 before they can charge you a fee. Switch banks, get out now. One less headache.

Comment On This

banks are destroying america since the average person with credit card propally has 10,000 dollars in debt we had about 13,000 when we tried to join a debt consolidation on 13,000 dollars in debt the credit card companies will make a person pay about 700 dollars a month on 13,000 wich comes to about 8,400 dollars a year wich keeps a person in debt they raise rates the lose your payment they charge 39 and 39 one new example of what is wrong in my mind applied bank dropped I think a 39 dollars yearly charge and know charge all of its credit card recepitants or at least the one they sent letters to a 15 dollar monthly charge banks lose your statements or the mail my guess is the banks or one of the two won't send your payment and all of the banks we delt with seemed to start out with a 12 or 13 percent and as soon as you get a small balance there it is 25 to 29 percent and if the goverment or the banks or pumping our tax dollars into the stock market it doesn't seem to be creating jobs may be keeping us from losing jobs I would like to know where the stock market money is coming from it has on my part seemed like it has gotton worse since the goverment gave the banks a deadline

Comment On This

Hi

I am on a fixed income. My little girl rec's support and she is permanently and terribly disabled, both mentally and physically. Because of this I have to stay at home to care for her, and to be available for her at a moment's notice.

I get direct deposit twice a month.

BofA charged me on a positive balance , a 35.00 OD fee on a chazge they let through that was OD less than 1.80.

they charged me another same day on a charge that was less than five dollars OD. Another 35.00

This has gone on more times than I can count. It has also happened that they have charged me OD fees on my account that putting through their own service charges caused me to OD...usually less than 5 dollars.

I contacted B of A and talked with Brian, a supervisor. He didn't care. I tried to explain to him that if he would look he would see the direct deposit history of my account. I told him I thought it was wholly dishonest for them to charge my ATM account over SEVENTY dollars for OD that amounted to less than 7 dollars ...

He said and I quote, "Sorry that is our policy. It is your responsibility, I cannot help you" I was stunned.

I am sick.....this has to stop.

Comment On This

I worked in the banking industry for 15 years. All of the major banks and credit card companies falsely charge fees and modify policies. They set up fake organizations (subsidiaries) in each state, but have payments funneled thru PO Boxes in obscure locations. This is to prevent you suing/serving them properly. BoA, RBC, USAA, Wells all do this. HSBC and Discover card are famous for their scams.

Problem is that none of agencies enforce the laws. A state says, it's a federal complaint (national company). The feds don't do anything most of the time because they receive 100,000 complaints per week and are overwhelmed. I was in this industry. The way to fix the problem is fire middle managers and prosecute. The top exec might be a jerk, but they aren't causing the problem. It's the VP in Phoenix, Minneapolis or Atlanta that oversees 20 employees. These people are compensated for generating revenue and they do that with fraud. Plain and simple. Loan files are modified. Credit card accounts don't ever document your phone comments and the net. Banks love the net as it allows your comments to be filtered thru foreign unregulated data centers. Don't like the email....delete. I know as I did this when told by boss. I eventually refused and was fired.

The system is doomed. Too big for management by people (a society) that doesn't care or is just greedy. When I see a bank robbery, I no longer have any feelings for those employees. 9 out of 10 are crooked. Always write letters and send return receipt to corporate offices.

Comment On This

I know how you feel, my account had a positive balance of 30.31 - I was charged 35 for an over draft that caused me to be -4.69 for an additional $35 over draft fee. How you be charged for an over draft on a positive balance??

Comment On This

I too am getting those ridiculous overdraft/overlimit fees, except on my credit cards, i keep them just below minimum and to me it seems like they adjust that finance charge to exceed my limit just so they can charge me the overdraft/overlimit fee...3 months in a row now @ $35 each fee thats $105 that just got stolen from me...complete and utter B.S.

Should i just bend over now or do you want the shirt of my back Bank of america

Hope this B.S. comes to an end

Comment On This

There is a law firm who is investigating Bank of America's practices in regards to overdraft fees for a potential class action lawsuit. I would suggest everyone on this page filling out the information form on this website and providing this firm with evidence to prosecute these butt holes.

http://www.lieffcabraser.com/consumer/bankofamerica.htm

Godspeed,

Fellow "PENDING" charge overdraft victim

Comment On This

This just happened to me. We were conned into opening an account so we could get a notary signature, "It will only take five minutes..." 40 minutes later we had the signature and a new account I thought I could use to store pocket change for my teen age son. I gave my son the debit card, he ran it over for 1.37 at BP, 9.03 at a Dairy Queen, I deposited money and saw a positive balance but then the next time I look I am -126.72!! Turns out there were five small transactions in that day! THAT's 175 dollars in overdraft! THIS account is getting closed and I am going to transfer my credit card to another lender and tell everyone I know not to bank at Bank of America. I may even picket their local branch on my lunch hours.

Comment On This

Yeah, NOW they charge $35 for PENDING ITEMS!!!! NOT JUST POSTED.. so, if you go to a hotel and they put a hold on your debit card and happen to go under then guess what! CHARGE! I am switching BANKS today after 11 years with these AHOLES

Comment On This

This has happened to us MANY times with this bank. Bank of America is the worst bank ever! First of all, we tend to look at our accounts online more and more these days, and do not rely on the old school way of keeping track of our transactions, via pen and paper! I have recently decided to print my transaction page from the online banking system at least 3 times a day because I have looked at it at one time and it said I had money in there, then made another transaction just to find out that a transaction that normally would show up and be taken out immedietly, had not been taken out. Then, they move transactions around to suit them so as to make it look like you had no money in your account to cover the transaction! What a rip off. Last month it happend and my husband went into the bank to dispute it and everyone said there was nothing they could do, until he used the word "fraud", boy did we get action! They reversed almost 200 $ in overdraft fees. Now this month we are going through the same thing again! Something needs to be brought to the attention of the correct authorities! They are doing this to everyone! We live paycheck to paycheck,(like many) and cannot afford these rediculous charges most of which are fraud on the part of Bank of America!

Comment On This

There's not much time. I'm posting this everywhere I can and suggest you do the same. Read the article and then click on the link to voice your opinion to the Feds about ridiculous overdraft fees.

http://www.walletpop.com/banking/article/_a/bbdp/purchases-trigger-overdraft-fees-before/119924?icid=100214839x1207284281x1200377188

The article was in USA today. You can also do a search on Google for the article. Be sure to click on the link and voice your comments so that banks are required to change thier policy about paying the largest item first. Thanks!

Comment On This

I 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