Time for another class-action lawsuit. This time, Bank of America and its affiliated banks are putting up $35 million to settle accusations of doing various naughty things to boost their revenues in the form of overdraft fees (AKA insufficient funds fees, bounced check fees, returned item fees).
For example, let’s say you have a bank balance of $500. You have debit card transactions of $15, $75, $200, and then $600. Allegedly, BofA would order the transactions posted from high-to-low, so that you’d have 4 separate overdraft fee charges, instead of just one.
According to the official settlement website, it looks like it may cover a lot of people. If you are eligible, you may be rewarded up to $78 depending on the number of claimants. You must submit a claim form either by mail or online by May 1, 2009. So who’s eligible?
You are a member of the Settlement Class and eligible for a payment if you resided in the United States at any time between the dates set forth below, had an account at a bank listed below, and meet all three of the following requirements:
- Your account was accessible through a debit card, check card, or any other bank
card used for debit purchases; AND- You paid at least one:
- insufficient funds fee, overdraft fee, returned item fee, or similar fee that was assessed to your account within five business days after a Bank of America debit card transaction either occurred or posted to your account; OR
- overlimit fee or similar fee that was assessed for an account cycle in which a Bank of America debit card transaction either occurred or posted to your account;
AND- The insufficient funds fee, overdraft fee, returned item fee, overlimit fee, or similar fee was paid between the following dates:
For customers of . . . From Through Bank of America 12/6/2000 12/31/2007 Fleet Bank, N.A. 4/1/2004 12/31/2007 U.S. Trust Company, N.A. 7/1/2007 12/31/2007 LaSalle Bank N.A. and LaSalle Bank Midwest N.A. 10/1/2007 12/31/2007
Update: The current case status appears to be that the judgement is still under appeal.
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It is about time that banks get called on this kind of behavior. You used the word “allegedly” in your blog post which is appropriate given the legal circumstances. I have actually seen this kind of thing in action in a situation. If the bank had processed the debits in the actual order received, the person would have been hit with only one overdraft fee. In reality the person was hit with fees on all transactions for the day. The bank’s excuse was that they consider the biggest transaction to be the most important. How do they know what is most important to the particular customer? If they are actually making value judgments, a reasonable person would push through as many transactions as would fit given the funds available and then bounce the rest. On balance, I have to say that order received is probably the best policy.
“In the order received” is the only defensible policy. Any time a bank reorders transactions, they are going to create problems for somebody. Much better for them to throw up their hands and say, “We don’t try to second-guess our customers. We just process transactions in the order they come in.”
Thanks for posting this! I don’t think I would have found out about it otherwise.
This has happened to both my boyfriend and myself several times. Every time it happened we would call the customer service line, and they would refund all or all but one of the overdraft fees. All you have to do is ask. This method might get you more than $78 in the lawsuit depending on how many times you have overdrawn.
WAMU was doing this in the Portland, OR area as recently as four or five years ago as well, not sure if they have stopped this practice.
Not only that I called because a large amount of money was missing from my account. I had received 4 extra debit cards that I had not ordered. I found it was internal tampering within the bank. When I called a women named Brenda laughed and said that is what you get you stupid b####! I could hear 2others on the line laughing also. I was shocked it was the 800 line and do not know them. Someone immediaty called me back amd said it shouldn’t have happened. But they gave her the case. And even after repeated tries from my main branch. I never got my money back. And when I asked anouther bank ba why they overdrafted my account intentially by holding back my deposit for 2 days, they said because they could. When I said they coud get sued he daid we have so many attorneys you would loose besides the amount they made would be more than they would have to pay. I have found no justice in class actin suits the attorneys get most and we emd up with 9.00. Or a coupon for the same medicine that made people I’ll like nexium did. Thank you for listening, tami
Y
Wells Fargo just did this to me when I used bill pay online. I think they have a lawsuit as well
I know for a fact WAMU was doing this a couple years ago, cost me well over $200 because they spaced over many few-dollar transactions so they would set me up to be penalized in the maximum manner (and not in the order which I actually made the purchases). I did cancel my WAMU account promptly thereafter as a result, but I never got my money back. I guess there’s not much hope of a lawsuit against WAMU now that they’ve gone bankrupt.
I guess it’s actually good i’m rather anal about keeping my documents for years. This will be the 3rd class action i’m part of this year already, and if one is filed against WAMU/JPMorgan for the same thing, i’ll be claiming that one too!
Of course i wouldn’t be surprised to see the banking fees going up soon with all these things hitting the banks at the same time. As more of the larger corporations file bankruptcy and are forced to liquidate, these banks are really going to be in the sh!ts from all the creditor defaults. And lucky us, our taxes dollars will be right there to keep them sucking more money from us!
Please add my account & against bank of America lawsuit class action thanks!
Sweeeeeeettttttttttt!!!!
I got into a fight with a BofA customare “care” operator and with a BofA branch employee because of this parctice. I had never overdrafted my account in 10 years and because a check was late getting cashed in I got hit with triple overdraft feees. Neither the operator nor the Bank employee wanted to refund my money…. I explained 1 million times that had they debited the account differently I would have only one overdraft. At the end of the day I moved all of my funds and my banking to a different financial institution.
I am GLAD to see that they now have to pay back!!! Justice is Sweet!
Justice is sweet but rarely to the end consumer.
I’ve been in several of these and never collect amounts worth getting excited about – certainly no where near my losses and about 1 or 2 cents per dollar of loss in cases of securities fraud.
But its good for the legal firm that brings the suit and gets the class action certified who’ll collect 40% of the announced settlement plus expenses, leaving peanuts for the masses.
Oh, the great American Legal system!
These charges have been all too common in New York City area as well.
I have sent complaint letters to NYS Banking Department a few times in the similar situations but somehow no reply have been received from the Department. I guess they are part of the whole conspiracy to transform the banking industry to more of the investment banking institutions, fattening the bottom line of the banking institutions and their executives at the expense of consumers. Basically speaking, once banks are much hungrier for easy profits-bank charges, they are becoming more away from its fundamental banking management style and as a result, needless to say the banking industry has been in deep financial problems currently.
These are another scam of Class Action Settlements. No one gets the money except lawyers. Have you ever gotten anything yet for signing up in April 2008 in reference to the http://www.ccfsettlement.com for the currency conversion fee antitrust litigation (MDL 1409)>?
April 2008 until now? Are you kidding me? These things take YEARS to settle and collect your pennies while the lawyers grab at least half (40% plus expenses are common).
I don’t understand this settlement… What will $78 do? Maybe I’m the only one in my boat… I’ve paid overdraft fees in the range of $2500-$4500 over the years I was a Bank of America customer. At one point, a phone representative directly told that I paid $1300 in overdraft fees for 2006. I would like to think we can sue so Bank of America pays all of these fees back… This settlement payout seems like a joke. $78?
Sounds like you were doubly screwed. You should have been given the option to “opt out” of the class action suit by a given date. That would have allowed you to bring your own suit against BOA for your damages. (Good luck there too.) But once the class action suit became certified, you were included unless you took that step.
Again, class action suits only benefit the lawyers (materially). Spend your $78 wisely!
Honestly what would you rather have bounce, your house payment or your online dating service. Bank of America is good about returning overdraft fee’s, and they, as well as most banks, do this as a curtisy. So that, in a situation where you forget your car payment is coming out automatically, and you just went on a shopping spree, the banks will clear your car payment first. So what if it cost you $35 per item, count your blessings you still have your car
FYI: even in light of this suit, they continue to practice the fine art of reorganizing your transactions. It just happened to me last week. (2/09)
I made a 117.00 purchase which should have overdrafted my account by almost 20 dollars. Instead the moved the 5 previous transactions of no more than 9 dollars each, after the 117 dollar transaction – in turn charging me 5 separate overdraft fees.
It’s nothing less than a scam.
I have recently had this overdraft problem with Bank of America. I found a number online and it was said to be the CEO’s office number. I didn’t believe it was true, then I actually called and I spoke with a Ms. Freska. The bank had not only posted my items in amount precedence, but when I had gone into the bank before the money was posted in my account I was charged 3 $25 each transactions stacked one right after the other! My receipt for the deposited money was mark the same day right before they took out the $75 from my account and then told me that I had came in the day AFTER and deposited the money!
Needless to say I was on the phone with Fresk for 45 minutes and explaining to her that not only did I attain her office number from a Google search, but that I also found and talked with two lawyers who have a lawsuit against Bank of America. My $75 was deposited back into my account with a 6 month wire transfer fee waiver.
Below is the number for one of Bank of America’s CEOs
704-386-5687~ Kenneth Lewis
Bank of america has been doing this kind of thing for years…rearranging transactions so the overdraft fees pile up..its ridiculous!!! i have cursed and argued with them on so many occasions its pathetic! the worst thing of all is the keep the change! i love that it puts money into your savings but if u end up overdrafting they take it out and charge u a ten dollar fee!! or if u take money out of your savings account three times in one month they charge u a sixty dollar fee!!! i think this is absurd considering the money belongs to me!! what are all the fees for?? they will only waive overdraft fees once or twice but it is good to call and discuss it with them if u have any u may get a nice rep that will b willing to help u out!
I just got the same thing done to me here in florida by bank of america. They have been charging me left and right. How do i take this to a lawyer?? please email me if anyone knows any good lawyers. vhvazquez77@yahoo.com…ty…vic
@Bekka
Will you please call them on my behalf? I’ve tried over and over to get them to refund fees like this and they ALWAYS argue with me saying it’s completely my fault.
This is still happening!!!! How do I get justice?
Finally someone went after them. I called customer and they told me they decided to run the highest debit first because they took a customer service survey and thats what we the customers asked for. What a bunch of crock! In this day and age banks should know people are busy and not everyone has time to sit and check their checkbooks. Also bank of America puts in transactions late say for one of numerous examples over the holidays etc and they don’t claim fault. What if we charged them for everyday our balance is wrong! It’s ok for them but not for us. Good I am glad someone took notice. And yes it happened to me today again.
ACTAULLY BOA HAS MADE IT WORST NOW. THEY CAN NOW OFFICIALLY CHARGE YOU TEN $35 OVERDRAFT FEES PLUS TEN INSUFFICIENT FUNDS FEES FOR A TOTAL OF 20 OVERDRAFT FEES ($700) FOR EACH ITEM THAT PLACES YOUR ACCOUNT IN THE NEGATIVE. READ YOU LAST DECEMBER- JANUARY STATEMENT’S FRONT PAGE!!!
Does anyone know whether BOA has discontinued its “pending transaction” overdraft, that was instated last year? Over the weekend my debit card was mistakenly charged twice for a large online order putting several small items in the red (approx. 6 2-5 dollar charges). So of course I expected to see 5 overdraft fees in my account on Tuesday morning, but it turned out I was only charged once for the only item that had actually posted overnight on Friday … but not charge for the pending amounts.
Has this happened to anyone else? Or has BOA reversed this policy?!
I wish to be includeed in thie classaction suit. I have had issues as recently as 2008 regarding overdraft fees.
I have weird feeling that BofA that they might changed the date of transactions.
Ex:
Day01: I have enough money and I used the credit.
Day02 I use the rest of my money until have 0 balance,
Day03: transaction day1 is charged and overdraft.
OK, that’s fine it’s my mistake. BUT….
Day10: I charge credit while 0 balance.
Day11: I put money to cover day10,
Day12: found out day10 transaction got charge dated day 10, with overdraft fee.
Hmm…? any body else experience this?
I am a San Francisco-based lawyer and I am pissed off; B of A has done this to me routinely, orver the yeears. This is calculated theft, akin to the credit card companies jamming you with exhorbidant interest rates even though the usury law makes high interest rates illegal. This great land we call America silently allows the credit card companies and the banks to rip you off, fee by little fee; “capitalism” should be defined as exploitation of the people through petty charges, fees and penalties. Please read the notice that you received with your monthly Bank of America statement (and you will need a magnifying glass), as it contains the information regarding “staying in” the class and being eligible for up to $78.00 (insulting), or “opting out” and proceeding with your own lawsuit. You must read the information and take affirmative acts or your rights will be lost. If you do nothing, you forever waive your claims against B of A. As I recall, my notice stated that I have until May 1, 2009 to opt out of the class and proceed with a lawsuit. B of A is going to pay $35 million as a “good” business decision; by that payment, it gets to keep all the rest of the ill-gotten gains and obtains immunity in the future from all similar types of claims, including punitive damages. Sort of like Ford Motor Co. and the gas tanks in Pintos (trade a small legal damage payoff for huge profits). It would be great if everyone opted out and got a lawyer and went after their own individual amount, but it is generally impracticable to spend $10,000 in lawyer fees to recover $1,000 in damages.
My 10-employee workplace has been banking with BofA since (brace yourself) 1967.
Just checked our records– they did this to us an unbelievable (and yet somehow unsurprising) seven times in just four years. That is: they charged three or more NSFs, in a 1- or 2-day period, on 7 different occasions. Most of the charges were reversed (at our irate request), but all I can say is: what the hell?! Why does a company this massive– they’re the largest bank in the country– need to operate in this manner?
And people wonder where the consumer confidence went?
Bank of America seems to get worse and worse. How can they be allowed to continue this practice of robbing the working class blind?!!!
I have been getting devoured by overdraft fees for over a month now to the amount of almost 2 weeks pay. Sorry, $78 just isn’t going to do it. What do $10 an hour workers like me do. The bank reps just give me the run of the mill answers that the charges are correct. I guess the date of transactions are less relevant than the amount. And how can a debit be pending if it is already gone from the available balance? I can’t afford a lawyer yet I abhor injustice! What can we do to stop this practice that MUST be illegal?
Bank of America is still doing the same thing. I just got hit with 4 NSF fees when just yesterday i deposited enought money to cover what i thought it would be only 1 nsf charge. I went to the branch location and they just made me feel like i was an idiot.
How do I start a class action suit in NJ against PNC?
So why don’t you guys just NOT pay the overdraft balance, which is clearly theft, and go to another bank? You benefit by getting your stuff paid and the bank has to suck it up.
I thought I was the only one who noticed this overdraft scam. It can’t be legal. I’ve had this issue with BofA, closed that account, and Chase does the exact same thing. How can I start one against Chase? Any tips will be greatly appreciated. The only way to get these banks to stop this practice is for us to fight. That is is the only way!
I am a BOA employee, very happy with my job. i work for the customer service line in this wonderful bank. I deal with people who dont know how to maintain their bank account and people who come out with excuses blaming the economy and what not. 85% of customers i get with overdrawn accounts don’t want to admit that their overdrawn or admit that its their fault. they know that they charge everything on their card not caring how much of a balance they have then they cry because they get charged overdraft fees. i dont bother returning any of these fees to any of these customers because they dont deserve too. i understand some people have financial hardship and need to overdraft the account to eat but thats only about 3% that do that. the rest of the customers dont acknowledge the fact that the account will close and be sent to collections and chexsystems after 120 days of being overdrawn. if any of you smart people would look at that, you would see that its a law, a requirement that ALL banks in the U.S. have to follow not just a BOA policy
and by the way BEING CHARGED OVERDRAFT FEE IS IS COMPLETELY LEGAL. IT IS A SERVICE YOU ARE PAYING FOR MAINTAINING A NEGATIVE ACCOUNT. IT IS IN THE PACKET OF PAPERS YOU GET AND SIGN WHEN YOU OPEN AN ACCOUNT WITH ANY BANK. IF YOU HAVE A NEGATIVE ACCOUNT YOU ARE A RISK TO THE BANK THUS RESULTING TO HAVING BAD ASSETS. SO PEOPLE WHO COMPLAIN ABOUT BANKS GETTING BAILOUTS, WE ARE GETTING THEM BECAUSE OF YOU PEOPLE NOT BEING ABLE TO PAY WHAT YOU TAKE ON CREDIT AND CANT PAY OFF BECAUSE YOU WANT TO BE LIKE THE JONES’
fine….. its a service. then why can’t a customer opt out of that service if they want to? if it’s simply a service then why did banks stop posting transactions as soon as they are made? why has it become policy to order the transactions of any given day from highest to lowest? what does the customer gain from that “service”?
For anyone saying “Bank of America is still re-ordering my checks/debits,” you have a misunderstanding of what this suit was about. This lawsuit was not about whether the practice of re-ordering transactions is illegal (which, for the most parts, Court’s and the OCC say it is not, with a few exepctions). This case is about BofA’s marketign and advertising that led people to believe that the on-line banking account statement is an accurtae and up-to-the minute accounting, which it is not. Now, the Bank makes statements like “Signing up for Online Banking means a more accurate idea of balances, not a completely sure fire idea of balances. Remember, some of those transactions you made today might not have posted when you go online to check your balance.”
So, the case did not change the practice, just the miselading ads. The morals to this story (a) elect officials who have yor rights as a consumer in mind, not those who will kowtow only to corporate interests or this is the type of treatement you shoudl come to expect and (b) keep better track of your purchases. if you ahve $1600 in OD’s in one year, you need to reel yourself in and keep a ledger.
This does not necessarily help people, because most people still think the on line accounting is accurate and will conitnue to incur fees.
reply to vigglesworth216 – It is a service you can opt out of, you have the right to have an account with whatever bank you like, but obviously with any account you have there are guidelines and rules you would have to adhere to. ALL BANKS POST THE TRANSACTIONS THE MINUTE THE VENDOR/MERCHANT DECIDE TO DEPOSIT THE MONEY INTO THEIR ACCOUNT. so for example, you shop at best buy on 04/03/2009 for the amount of “$500.00”. that $500 would be deducted off your AVAILABLE balance and show a pending order. Now if best buy decide to take that $500 out on 04/21/2009 then thats when the money gets taken off your account and not show as a PENDING TRANSACTION, but a POSTED TRANSACTION. OBVIOUSLY IT IS YOUR DUTY AS A CUSTOMER/CLIENT TO MANAGE YOUR ACCOUNT PROPERLY THAT WAY YOU WOULD AVOID BEING OVERDRAWN. ANY AND EVERY BANK HAS THE SYSTEM TO ORDER THE DEBITS/ TRANSACTIONS FROM HIGHEST TO LOWEST ON THE ACCOUNT. NOW ONCE IT BECOMES POSTED AND PAID FOR THEN THATS WHEN YOU SEE THE TRANSACTIONS GET SWITCHED AROUND. IT SHOWS THE ORDER IN WHICH THEY HAVE BEEN PAID. ITS A SHAME TO SEE YOU CUSTOMER HOW LACK THE ENERGY TO TAKE A PEN AND DO SIMPLE MATHEMATICS ON YOUR LEDGER BUT YOU RATHER NOT ADMIT THAT YOUR WRONG AND BLAME YOUR PROBLEMS ON COMPANIES WHO U THINK “STEAL YOUR MONEY”. MIND YOU IM ONLY 24 YEARS OLD AND I HAVE ACCOUNTS WITH 4 DIFFERENT BANKS NOT ONLY BOA. I HAVE NEVER BEEN OVERDRAWN OR WRITTEN ANY BAD CHECKS TO ANYBODY. IVE PROBABLY INCURRED 1 OR 2 MONTHLY MAINTENANCE FEES IN A SPAN OF 8 YEARS OF HAVING BANK ACCOUNTS. I FIND IT AMUSING THAT PEOPLE CAN AFFORD LAWYERS AND HAVE THE TIME TO SUE A BANK THAT THEY FEEL IS CHEATING THEM BUT THEN AGAIN CANT AFFORD PAYING 100 IN FEES OR WAIT UNTIL LAST MINUTE BEFORE ACCOUNT CLOSURE TO RESOLVE ISSUE.
ah yes…. I can opt out by going somewhere else. Truly great service. of course leave it to a 24 year old to think they know it all. “I” have 4 accounts. “I” never overdraw. “I” this, “I” that. If we are not just like you, we “Lack energy.” Or “we can’t admit we’re wrong”
Your a fairly smart kid. I sure you realize that many people live check to check. week to week. and in this economy those numbers are growing.
There are some that can’t just go to any bank and open an account anywhere. I’ve been denied at one point by 4 seperate banks before I found one that would let me have an acount. wouldn’t you know it…. they have a NSF policy I can’t opt out of. Hmmmm.
Nobody wants to write a bad check.
Most people want to take responsibility for their actions.
but if a bank is going to take one transaction and turn it into 4 overdrafts fees by rearranging the way transactions are posted…well that’s just unethical and ultimately bad customer relations thus bad business.
How about banks making money by making sound investments instead of trying to prey on those who are truly trying to pull themselves back up out of bad situations.
The really poor don’t bother with banks because they’d rather go to a check cashing facility. But they cant even insure a car if they don’t have a bank account. anyone who bothers with a bank account and actually pays these fees are trying to make life better for themselves.
but how does a person legitimize himself if he slips and finds 4 or 5 nsf fees waiting for him after the weekend.
you’re a kid at 24. I’m glad you’re responsible. but there are a lot of responsible people out there that don’t have the time to think about detail such as this and in fact expect that in this day in age with the technology that exists, our bank would use that technology to “serve” us better rather than find clever ways to penalize the very customers that put money into the banking system.
Hey kid. look at the stats. Billions are made on NSF every year at appoximately $35 each. when you do really grow up and see that life is not simply black and white, you’ll see that what BOA and PNC are doing is “preying” on those who are trying to make things right for them selves.
good luck to you. but it seems that you’ve got it all together and need no luck.
I understand totally what your saying vigglesworth… I know people go through financial hardship and its even tougher now. I understand that. But what im trying to explain is people wouldnt be complaining about any nsf charges if they’re account was positive. Whatever happen to keeping track of your spending. Isnt this why were in this financial mess anyway. I know people live paycheck to paycheck. I was one of those people especially as a college student. but what happened to saving money and leaving it for the future. Thats why were in this financial mess. All i see is people complaining about how BAD A SYSTEM IS and how BANKS ARE ROBBING US and ETC. But nobody is taking part in sayin well I dont have enough money to cover it so i shouldnt buy it. Ill wait until i get more money. CUSTOMERS HAVE TO SWIPE AND SWIPE AWAY UNTIL SOMEBODY TELLS YOU THAT YOUR DENIED FOR YOU TO REALIZE THAT YOU HAVE NO MORE MONEY. Last time i checked there is 24 hours in a day and its not a good enough excuse to tell me that you dont have time( not even 5 minutes) to check your account which is your responsibility to make sure whats going on. I am a responsible person with everything i do.. but i’m not comparing myself with the other millions of people in this country. I am myself and i account for my actions. The basis of my argument is It’ll be better FOR PEOPLE if they just took responsibility for their actions and admit that they’re wrong, easy as that.
what if someone makes an illegal claim to get his funds reimbursed?
what do you mean an illegal claim? if you make a fraud claim or dispute on an account. the team will investigate it and in the mean time while they investigate it they will credit you the amount you are disputing. Now in the case that they don’t approve the claim, that makes you responsible for the charge and they take back the credit that was issued for the amount. Possibly making you overdrawn
B of A are crooks. I ordered something from a company and the money was taken out of my account. The company even said they were paid. I didn’t like the item and I returned it and they sent me a refund check. Now B of A is saying that the company was never paid and that I owe them the money because they said they credited my account. They charged me the amount of the item plus overdrawn charges. They said they credited my account the amount of the item. But I didn’t see it in my account. I’m closing my account tomorrow. B of A is real scary. I’m not giving the crooks one red cent.
BOA is committing highway robbery – This past week I had $550 in my checking account – I went online & paid a phone bill which was not to post Monday 4/13 in amount of $221 – My car payment posted in amount of $400 – and also a check for $256 before I could transfer over money (forgot previous night to transfer – I have 5 kids so things are a bit crazy in my house) – I admit to the check for $256 posting and bouncing b/c balance was $150 – BUT there were TWO Overdfraft fees on my account. BOA Customer Service explained that when the check for $400 hit my account – I only had $300 IN MY ACCOUNT ?? It was explained that although the online payment in amount of $221 to phone company had not yet posted – it was “held” as a pending payment through the Bank so that it was covered – which BOUNCED my $400 car payment and subsequently the $256 check. By the way, NONE OF THIS BS shows up on the transactions when you go onto your online banking. They would not reverse either of the fees b/c the same thing happened 2 weeks ago which they did reverse 1 of the fees (similar story). I have been a BOA customer for 10 years… I am moving ALL My accounts next week after Easter Holiday – any suggestions on a bank ? I am open.
Finally someone admits fault doing something wrong. Humans make errors. I’m glad to see that u admitted something “Very Upset BOA”. 1st person i read about on this blog that takes the blame for some wrong doing.. I am happy for you. Hopefully you find the bank you are looking for. Try a local bank in your area or a credit union.
Well, the new thing is that they are charging overdraft fees base on debit card authorizations regardless if they hit your account or not…Is there a class action law suit against that?
Don’t mean to be a dick but to the people who paid 1000’s in fees, maybe you should just need track of your money. I mean, we all have it happen at one point but god.
You obviously did not read my note – BOA “held” a transaction that I had pending to another company that was not to post until Monday & did not even come through the bank statement online… It did not even show up! The transaction was to post days after I put the transaction through to another bill. BOA bounced 2 checks because of this – but my balance only showed a “below necessary” for one of those checks. I did transfer money well in advance of this other transaction to post. Warning: Do not “pre-pay” bills to other companies even if it asks you when you want them to post. DICK
All banks are playing games with bill payment so watch out.
I have been using Chase since the dark ages of the internet in 1994. I would issue instructions from MS Money to pay a bill and specify a pay date. It worked like a charm, the bill would be paid via check and the money deducted only when it cleared.
Suddenly, without notice a few years ago, I issue payment instructions, the money is deducted EIGHT days in advance and without regard to if and when the check is cashed.
I don’t mind (regretfully) playing by their rules but you have to know the rules first. I had to figure all this out by creating “dummy” payments to myself.
I suspect similar is going on at BoA with this thread. Deliberate Obscuration because the money is too good to give up, moral or not be damned.
PNC BANK Held $135 USD to pay 3 merchants, leaving my balance to $21 dollars. I then had 2 transactions that came in one 10 and the other 27. They charged me 2 overdraft fees for those., When it was time to pay the 3 merchants they held the money for in the first place, they charged me additional 3 overdraft fees in addition to the first 2 a total of 161 in fees.
i have not put any more money in there and I still owe them only -182 (this includes the 161 dollars in over draft fees. if i did not have the money to cover my transactions wouldn’t i owe them 300+. they are thiefs and I have recorded my phone calls to them…class action law suits come get these recordings because they are unbelievable.
Honestly, As CONSUMERS you have to EDUCATE yourselves on to what is going on with BANKS nowadays. YOU people can CRY lawsuit all you want, IT IS YOUR RIGHT as an american to sue anybody and any company. BUT IN REALITY NO ONE PUT A GUN TO YOUR HEAD AND FORCED YOU TO OPEN ACCOUNTS AND WRITE BAD CHECKS AND SWIPE CARDS WHEN THERE ARE NO FUNDS IN THE ACCOUNT. I can care less about how you spend your money. It doesn’t effect me or How i get paid. “RENEE” it’s FUNNY how you record Calls and want a lawsuit and i would like to see u present that as evidence. Obviously you dont know you common knowledge and its illegal to record any conversation especially without making the other person aware which i HIGHLY doubt you did, otherwise the conversation would have stopped there. Americans are so funny nowadays.. Its very true What MR. Obama said a few weeks ago. Americans are so arrogant and in DENIAL… Thats why im glad to be an American. lol
I would like you all to find a me a bank that will provide half the services BOA does. Regardless of the fact that you customers are the risk of banks because you don’t apply simple math and patience. You guys can cry all you want but you wont find any other bank in this lifetime that will do as much product services as BOA. You may think I’m crazy about BOA but when you do things right in life nothing bad ever happens, because you always prepare for the future not for the present.
“Uguysarefunny”, I read your comments and your last one is amazing. “..when you do things right in life nothing bad ever happens, because you always prepare for the future not for the present.” I don’t know what fantasy land you’re living in. You talk about simple math and patience, but when you’re going about a busy life, many small transactions throughout the day are a bit much to keep track of. That’s not even considering the misleading and deceptive nature of the online banking they provide. What kind of black and white explanation can you provide for BOFA approving transactions when you’re already in the red, leading to another overdraft fee?
Uguysarefunny,
You are truly a name i can’t say because the post is moderated. You work for a crappy bank with crappy customer service. The re-arranging of transaction so your account gets charged more fees is assinine. I can admit when I legitmately screw up and would gladly take one overdraft fee or multiple if they are legitmate and corolated with the time the transactions we’re made. Trust me I know where the link on the page to “available balance history” (next time you guys see an overdraft click this button. You will be outraged.) The last time my account had overdrafted what happened was… I had gotten food at 2 resturaunts which were placed in the “pending” category and deducted from my account… ok Im cool with that its pretty real time. Then i bought a few more items the next day and the last of which overdrew my account… the 2 food places were still pending and effecting my balance. That should have been one fee right? the pending charges that were subtracted from my balance and that caused the other item to overdraw end of story… WRONG BofA charged me one over draft fee while the food places were still “pending” so that took my account to negative before the food places posted. Then when the food places posted, because the overdraft fee (that was caused by those same food places being “pending” therefore subtracted from my account) had taken the place of the money that was held for those transactions, they charged me another OD fee for each of the food places (2 more) for a total of three.
If this was hard for anybody to understand please say so and I can try to lay it out better. I got a little upset towards the middle of the post thinking back to when that incident happened.
Also, If you tape the conversation so can we, and we also have the right to supina the tapes you record of the conversations from BofA in a court hearing.
Another thing, for 24 you are so jaded. I am 21 I live paycheck to paycheck. I am trying to get myself stable so I can save and invest but, it’s the bulls*** like my story that makes it hard. I would have paid the one fee, I f’ed up. I shouldn’t have made that last purchase that day. One fee would have been a legitimate charge. Back to you being jaded do you not understand that because something is technically legal doesn’t make it right and that it is only legal because somebody made a “donation” etc. to someone along the line. I have talked for long periods of time with some “brainwashed” (like yourself) and some non “brainwashed” BofA employees. You are all told that it is legal and that they are legitimate and that it is ok and that you just say no to any requests for a reversal that falls outside of the weak “stuff happens” first time OD fee. I used to like when even just 2 years ago BofA didn’t have pending/posted thing going on. Where if i did slide my card i could go in before the transaction posted and deposit whatever was negative and not get any fees and back when it was more personal when I could call in a sweet talk my way out of at least every other fee I got and that I can live without that. I just dislike what happened to me in regards to my story.
What i don’t understand is every single person here that is complaining is admitting they overdrew the account. Had you deposited the money on the day you overdrafted your account, before the cut off time, ALL FEE’S WOULD HAVE BEEN AVOIDED. if your spending money you don’t have at the time, you DESERVE an overdraft fee. And despite what everyone is whining about, BofA allows you to overdaraft and allows the highest transaction to post first as a CURTISY!!!
I’m 20 years old, and yes, I have overdrafted my account. but I, unlike all of the people complaining, can admitt i owe the bank. and if the bank HELPED by putting my car payment through as i went on a shopping spree, i should be calling them up to thank them for paying my car payment first, and take the loss on the overdraft fee’s.
And before you start telling me I’m ‘brainwashed’, we all live paycheck to paycheck, but some of the more mature people can admit that its OUR OWN fault. So please stop complaining, and own up to your own charges.
Hannah & Uguysarefunny –
I don’t think you are reading the explanations here. There are those fees several are “admitting” to & knowing they screwed up – that is human… unless you claim perfection – unless you are Christ, you are not perfect – everyone is happy that you keep your checkbook balanced – I don’t believe anyone here is claiming not to attempt that. ONCE AGAIN: I was overdrawn for a “pending” transaction that I placed on a bill for posting on 4/13 from the bill’s website. Bank of America said that “pending” transaction was held from my account ON THE 8TH OF THE MONTH (IT DID NOT SHOW UP ON MY ON-LINE STATEMENT). I transferred money well in advance of the pending withdrawal on the 13th – which by the way showed up on my account Wed 4/15 of this week – I was charged an overdraft from the EIGHTH OF APRIL for a transaction that did not POST UNTIL THE 13TH. If you believe this is an ethical business plan on behalf of BOA – then you must be forming an organization to drink Koolaid. Good luck to you & I am sure all others reading this will concur that you are wished nothing but success in your perfection, yet inability to read what everyone is actually writing here.
Hannah,
Did you not read my last post. I said I am fine paying as any overdraft fees as are legitimate but, BofA subtracted pending charges from my balance, making something overdraw, thats fine. The part that upsets me is they charged a fee the next day and later that day when the transactions that were pending (subtracted from my balance but, not “posted”) actually posted. They charged me fees on those transactions. When it was because of those transactions that i overdrew in the first place. It was because BofA set the money aside for those. Then their OD fee took the place of the money they were holding.
It comes down to. They will deduct pending charges imediattely and those will trigger OD fees on other things, but then they will charge you od fees on the VERY SAME ITEMS THEY WERE HOLDING MONEY FOR in the first place!
I have paid a good share of overdraft fees. I am not new to this. I am also not an idiot or in denial. BofA must never have got you like they got me. I have had a checking account since i was 16 years old. I have been dealing with shady shit like this since then. What happened to me and I am sure a few other people is the reason they decided to settle at 35 million.
Uguysarefunny, I forgot this. agian you are so jaded you believe what ever a company memo says or you hear from your boss or co workers about this lawsuit. this is from the settlement website about what this suit was about, and by settling they essentially admit guilt but, get the case dropped and if they thought they could win they would not have settled.
The lawsuit claims Bank of America encouraged its customers to use Bank of America debit cards and increased the number of fees charged to customers using Bank of America debit cards through the order in which such transactions are posted and the account balance information it provides. The lawsuit also claims that Bank of America authorizes debit card transactions that will result in overdraft fees; fails to warn customers that specific debit card transactions may result in overdrawn accounts; posts debit card and other transactions in high-to-low order; and provides account balance information to customers that is not current, accurate or as advertised. In addition, the lawsuit claims that Bank of America’s customer agreements are unconscionable, and that Bank of America does not provide customers with copies of account agreements until after they open their accounts. Bank of America denies these claims and contends that it has fully complied with federal law, any applicable state laws, and its customer agreements, and also contends that it has other defenses to the claims in the lawsuit. In agreeing to settle, Bank of America does not admit it did anything wrong. The Court has not decided the merits of the lawsuit or any of the defenses
Some of you really need to get off that high horse. People (generally speaking) do not purposely overdraw their account and then try to avoid paying fees. I’m sure that 95% of the time, it happens unknowingly. And I am so tired of hearing people justify bank of america’s foolishness as it pertains to them allowing transactions to go through for more money than whats available by saying “oh, well I’d sure like it if they approved my mortgage payment or my car payment and didn’t decline it.” Let’s be real. The majority of the times that a transaction causes an overdraft, that transaction is typically not as much as a mortgage payment or a car payment. These are normally purchases for less than $30. Bank of America has the technology to categorize transactions, so they know that a $3.50 transaction from “McDonalds” is not ranked up there on the list of ‘important transactions’ with a $1200 mortgage payment from another bank or lender. They can differentiate between these transactions.
No one is saying you purposely overdrew your account. but if you agree with all of the charges then you agree you deserve and OVERDRAFT fee. Beliveve me i overdraft on accident all of the time. its unfortunate, but i get over it.
And its not like there is a department at BofA that physically has people rearranging the items to purposely cause you fee’s. it is a computer system that does this to ALL major bank, not just BofA. And if you have been in a situation where your morgage payment/car/home payment was paid first you have beniited from this curtisy. if you dont see that, in this situation, as a curtisy, then i have nothing else to say. if you think this should be done in this situation, but not in other situations then you can keep whining for your $78, and switch to a small, hole in the wall bank. because, again, all major banks use this practice call SIGNature Debit. So please, go outside and enjoy your day, stop complaining, watch your account, keep a running balance and this overdrafting will not happen again.
You are correct. One overdraft fee I deserve. It becomes a problem when they approve transactions when your account is already in the red. Can you explain why they do this instead of just declining the transaction? And let’s leave this fake ‘courtesy’ situation alone, please. If it’s a courtesy, I should be able to opt out of a courtesy. In reality, it’s a slippery slope and a money-making tactic. It’s fixed up, dressed up, and pushed out to their employees and customers as a ‘courtesy’ to make it seem more acceptable than it really is. When you see two, three or four overdraft fees from bank of america back to back caused by transactions less than $5 AFTER you’re already in the red, and you have credit card payments to make from your checking account on top of other things, you will understand the outrage when you pay the bank $105-$140 just to get back to zero. Once you understand that, you will understand that we are not whining or complaining, but we are calling them out on the bad practices they do, (i.e. the ‘red transactions’ as i will call them) since many people just take whatever nonsense the bank pushes to them and does not think twice about it, and refusing to just sit quietly and allow them to financially rape us. I mean, if it’s legal and done by a large bank, then it’s gotta be okay to do, right? You just haven’t lived until you have logged into your banks online ‘banking’ that has a negative 3-digit number staring you in the face, of which 90% of the number is made up of asinine fees. It provides a rush of adrenaline like none other. And why should I have to keep a running tab of my transactions if bank of america provides online banking that shows my balance? Oh wait, I can’t because their online banking is misleading and deceptive and is basically rendered useless, although is implicitly promoted as being accurate. That’s way. And that’s acceptable right? I’m sure you see it as so, Hannah.
I have been reading all of these comments and just nodding my head. I have had an account with BofA, since my bank Security Pacific was taken over by them. I held onto it (and this is going to sound weird) because it was my late husband’s account. It would take me hours and hours to go back and see how much BofA has made off of me, in the thousands and thousands. Broke Mom of six here, never been good with the dollars and cents. Some CEO is living high off of me. I take full responsibility. BUTTTT, how is it possible to look at my statement on one day and see that Taco Bell has cleared the bank and on the next day, its BOUNCED!!!!! This happens all of the time. I think BofA made about $180 of my hard earned money this month because they took all of my little items and bounced them. Clearly one check actually bounced, but they paid that one even though I can see it came in last right before I got my paycheck. By the way, BofA customer service is one of the worst I have ever seen. Very apathetic, just like the person UGUYSARESOFUNNY. Basically, take your money elsewhere and as soon as I can find the TIME, I will. I’m done. Oh and by the way, I need to throw this one in. My daughter got a home loan from BofA. She has great credit. She got a conventional loan. They accidentally figured out her taxes wrong. At the end of the year, they told her that she owed them about $3000 for back taxes (she has an impound) and that her payment was going up another $500 a month permanently. She has been trying to get them to restructure for months now, has sent in all the necessary paperwork. Get that scam!! She is going to lose the house. Just thought all of you would like to know where your money is going that was sent to BofA so that we could bail them out. Right into their pockets. She has been getting the run around from BofA for months now. Down with BofA!!!!
Seriously, if BOA was such an upstanding bank…then why are WE taxpayers bailing them out???? Just wondering? Oh, I am a consumer who never overdrafts, pays all my bills on time and has an incredible credit score…but was screwed over by BOA, b/c they decided to lower my available credit so that according to them, “I wouldn’t get myself into trouble in these trying economic times”! Really!! Thanks a lot… I don’t get myself into trouble, so why are you deciding that I might get myself into trouble.. do you have a crystal ball? Do you know something about my financial future that I don’t? I wish I could have the insight of these BOA employees.
Elf heres my insight. i understand your one of the better customers on this blog. Since you’re an outstanding customer. Consider yourself on my good list. Obviously none of you read the actual facts in newspapers or in financial magazines to understand how this FEDERAL BAILOUT works. It all started when CUSTOMERS started to thrive on the BIGGER is BETTER concept in life. ALL U.S. BANKS RECEIVED BAILOUTS NOT JUST BOA. We received these bailouts due to customers In THIS COUNTRY HAVING DEBT THEY CANNOT PAY OFF. The bailout is not made for you to spend all your money in your account and go overdrawn and then the bank replacing it. It is meant for THE BANKS TO LEND MORE MONEY TO CUSTOMERS WHO DESERVE TO HAVE THESE LOANS GIVEN TO THEM. WE obviously had an economic downturn because people have debt that they cannot pay off. Where have you been in the past 12 months?? Were not the only bank who cut credit limits to our customers. Almost every bank is doing it to MEDIATE THE RISK (YOU). Lower the impact to the loss. We dont just decide one day and randomly pick your account to cut the limit. We do this by following similar trends on hundreds of thousands of accounts. And to be honest how often do you use that credit card? must not be often so why are you complaining about something you barely use. Now if you were a active user of that card then your limit would’ve never went down. think about how much money a company makes by you using your card than to you not using it.
Uguysarefunny – please explain (in dumb layman’s terms please) how you can justify a charge “held” from an account on the 8th of April that was not authorized / recorded through the vendor to “post” until the 13th of April. This “held” charge does not show up at all on statement – the amount does come out of account on the 13th which is when it was authorized to post. But there is an overdraft on teh 8th because of this hidden “held” charge FIVE DAYS before it was to hit. This is justified ? Then I suppose the bank can start “holding” amounts or back-dating checks for those people who mail checks & then make deposits to cover them. I believe everyone here in this blog is not wanting to here the BOA cheerleading squad any longer. Plain and simple, there are some unethical practices going on here. We are admitting that when an overdraft is justified, fine. Enjoy your Kool-aid.
Uguysarefunny,
If you knew much about how credit actually works, the amount of credit you have available to you raises your credit score and makes other lenders see that you can be responsible with credit. This is why Elf is concerned with his their limits being lowered because it in turn lowers their score. You are encouraged to have credit cards and to not use them because of the way the scoring system is set up.
upset boa customer,
when an amount is held, it is because A) the vendor/merchant hasn’t taken the money at the time of purchase. and they want to verify you have funds in the account. i.e. Gas stations..Some gas stations like SHELL or EXXON. charge a 1 dollar charge at the time your pumping gas jus to make sure your using a CARD with funds. B) The bank puts a hold on a check or preauthorized payment/ ACH DEBIT out of an account to make sure you have the funds to cover the amount that is paid. Thats why if there are no funds at the time to cover for a payment you either receive a Overdraft FEE if the amount has been paid by the bank or a NSF fee if you have a check or preauthorized payment/ ACH debit that was returned. For example.. I pay my school loan online with SALLIE MAE. i SCHEDULE A PAYMENT FOR APR 27TH. The moment i submit my payment the amount get on a PENDING STATUS. Until SALLIE MAE TAKES THE PAYMENT IN ON THE 27TH OF APRIL. Many of you ask why The larger amounts get processed before the smaller amounts. That is to make sure that your more important payment falls through to get paid i.e. Bill payments, emergencies. Thats why EVERY bank allows you to overdraw your account on purposed if you need to. What would you do if u were stranded somewhere with no cash and you needed gas but they didnt take credit/debit cards. Like most people go to the atm but only have 17.00 and knowing you can only take out only 20 dollar bills. What would you do?. I say if i was in that situation i would. Point of conversation is IF YOU CUSTOMERS WERE SO GREAT AND GLORIFIED LIKE YOU GUYS MAKE YOURSELVES SEEM WHEN YOU CALL AND WANT HELP FEES WHY ARE YOU HAVING NEGATIVE ACCOUNTS. I can accept the fact that BANKS MAKE ERRORS AND IF I WERE TO DO ONE I WOULD BE RESPONSIBLE AND TAKE ACTION. IF YOU GUYS WERE TO SPEED AND GET A FINE MOST OF YOU WOULD JUST PAY. IF YOU MISS A PHONE BILL PAYMENT AND YOU PAY YOUR BILL YOUR GOING TO PAY THE LATE FEE. IF YOU MAKE YOUR ACCOUNT NEGATIVE BY NOT MAKING SURE YOU HAVE MONEY TO COVER WHATEVER YOU BUY.. YOU DONT WANT TO PAY…I DONT SEE A DIFFERENCE. No matter if you buy a nickel worth of gum or buying a $100 pair of jeans. If you dont have the money dont spend it.
pwhite,
What you said in your blog is half true and half not. Your credit is determined what you earn as income against what you spend on a regular from that income. Credit limit has always been lowered for certain customers especially for those who earn less than the previous year. i.e. people who are unemployed and or take on pay cuts. It doesnt affect your credit score if your limit is lowered. You can attain the same credit score regardless if you have a 50k limit or a $500 limit. What you need to do is keep track of activity in your credit report.Companies always encourage you to use the cards because that results to more business for them and obviously have you spending more. As long as you dont have a ridiculous credit line of 25,000 and you dont end up paying for it, then you should be good
Uguysarefunny,
You completely ignored my post. Is it because you have no rebuttal? because you are just feeding us what your company feeds you? It is a load of bullshit… if you read my story in the prior post. also, i think it was you who said this lawsuit was about the way the account was advertised not about unethical practices. Go read the settlement web site and you will see that is exactly what its about.
I’m sorry you feel that its a load of b.s. I don’t know what else to tell you other than i can care less about the settlement because it doesn’t affect me at all. Having customers overdraft their account is whats giving me my job security. So in essence i want you to become overdrawn. But after reading how you guys cry and cry and cry for every little thing its embarrassing to have you as customers. You guys don’t read what you sign, (Every Detail is in the customer agreement form) let alone know how to manage an account that nobody forced you to open with a specific bank. I say just go back to the good old days and hide money under your bed and pay for everything with cash that way you wouldn’t have any issues. So you guys can settle for the 35million in the settlement, while we collect our 25 billion in the fees that we collect from you not “having enough time to look over the account” So i say this with a smile on my face. PLEASE KEEP SWIPING YOUR CARDS…EVEN WHEN THERE’S NO MONEY..PLEASE.. The more work you give me the better i feel. lol.. By the way if you need assistance with your overdrawn account with BOA.. CALL THIS NUMBER 1-866-901-9856. WE CAN ASSIST YOU WITH THAT.
What an asshole. It’s truly amazing. Hopefully with the President cracking down on the credit card companies (which bank of america is totally against and I’m sure you are too because they tell you to be), he will touch on the shady practices of BofA and the like. You will learn one day (or whenever bank of america decides to hold an ongoing training session to train their reps on compassion and independent thinking) that what you and your employer promotes is wrong. $25B in fees? $25B in fees that were obtained through what you call a courtesy? Sounds sketchy to me–but then again what’s NOT sketchy about Bank of America?
Uguysarefunny. HOW HEARTLESS TO SAY DURING A TIME WHEN PEOPLE ARE GOING THROUGH SO MUCH FINANCIAL HARDSHIP AND EVERY PENNY COUNTS. PEOPLE ARE TAKING THE LIVES OF THEMSELVES AND THEIR FAMILIES AND YOU HAVE THE AUDACITY TO SIT AND BE A JUDGE. COUNT YOURSELF BLESSED TO HAVE A JOB, BUT DON’T EXPECT TO LIVE A HAPPY LIFE WITH YOUR ATTITUDE. YOU HAVE A HIGHER POWER TO ANSWER TO AND TRUST AND BELIEVE YOU WILL HAVE TO ANSWER.
To all: Uguysarefunny will not work for BOA forever. He will not understand & comprehend what everyone here is saying until he is on the other side of things – which will happen sooner or later.
although i agree with Uguysarefunny on most issues, I completely disagree with his last comment. it is not an embarrassment to have you as customer, it is an honor.I have been working at BofA for a few years, and regardless of the complaints, you are ALL valued customers at BofA. and you have every right to complain about your bank but i know that any large bank will follow the same procedures. I am sorry if you are suffering for financial reasons. bank associate have also been affected. I also unfortunately overdraft my account, but I know that it is my fault, and I honestly believe that my employer is trying its hardest to do the right, and best thing for its customers. and no i have not been brain washed, but i understand in depth the reasons we follow these procedures. uguysarefunny does understand the policies of the bank. but is completely forgetting the motto of the bank and the primary reason we are in business… to do the right thing for the customer
Hi all..I just got off the phone with the ceo’s office and they were able to credit me most of my fees. Don’t even bother customer service..I think they get points or extra money for saving the bank money. Don’t give up..try a few times, try the online site customer service, try the regualary cs, and then if all else write a letter to the ceo’s office and say that you are planning to take your business elsewhere…persistence will pay off.
Hannah – A bank, ANY bank for that matter, which “holds” money for a transaction that is to occur from account DAYS later (and transaction does not / will not show up on online statement) – to a vendor who has indicated on their website that the amount WILL NOT POST until a certain date is Unethical & robbery. Many of us pay bills online set for FUTURE dates WHEN WE PLAN TO HAVE THE MONEY IN OUR ACCOUNT AS I DID – I TRANSFERRED PLENTY OF MONEY INTO MY ACCOUNT BEFORE THE AMOUNT WAS TO POST FOR THE BILL FROM ONLINE. So when you go online & find there are overdrafts for an account & 1 of those overdrafts is for something HELD – but your balance does not even go in the negative… Hmmmm… As I was saying in earlier post – WHAT’S NEXT ? BOA going back to the postmark on check envelopes for customers who say, mail their bills on payday VIA USPS and then deposit your payroll check in plenty of time for bills getting paid? It is the same principle. I am sure there are PLENTY of people paying bills online set for FUTURE DATES with plenty of advance time to get money in bank. Hard working citizens who keep their accounts balanced properly are paying for all the immoral, unethical screw-ups of our society who commit ID theft and take from others – If not, then why do we pay $$$$$$ big to banks for entire FRAUD DEPARTMENTS? This is what we are all paying for… and for the top executives to get their big bonuses.
This hurts my family in a big way. We have a daughter with special needs and we make a decent living HOWEVER the costs for providing her with the services she needs are pretty staggering.
The lawsuit is a good thing -however, I just got off the phone with a b of a rep who told me that the max number of overdraft fees per day has increased from 5 to 10! And, it used to be that if your pending charges were still pending you could make a deposit to get your account out of the red before you were charged overdraft fees. They changed that policy as well.
This is a heartless corporation praying on the little guy. Oops – forgot to make my point: Will this lawsuit do anything to keep b of a from practicing these underhanded techniques in the future? Cuz if it’s just a cash penalty – they’re probably happy – it was probably already in the budget.
Uguysarefunny….
You are an idiot. And a perfect example of why BofA needs their clocks cleaned. I could not have personally picked a better example of the irresponsible hiring practices allowed by the company either. Like the power? Yeah….. you likey. Enjoy it while it last. It never does…… and think of us when your life takes a turn. I was at first unsure whether the supporters of this fleecing from the banks was from intelligent, educated, fortunates…. or ignorant, screwed up individuals. Now I am quite sure.
PNC Bank is doing the same thing – I had a postive balance of 350.00 – There was no place it was negative – when I asked them to explain they said it was too difficult – I’m taking them to small claims court. It only costs 15.00, I can prove from my statement that the account was never in arrears, and since it’s “too difficult” to explain to me, it’s probably too difficult to explain to the judge.
i am done with boa. i made 5 debit purchases during last week that apparently didnt post until this week? at the time i made my purchases i had funds in my account, today i got paid went thru my account and had a check returned for non sufficent funds (that i paid back in march??) left me with 6 $35.00 nsf fees $216 in fees and they would not waive not one of them. isnt debit like using cash??? the rep told me that the merchant has 3-5 business days to submit the transaction for payment, so i get charged a fee because the merchant holds a debit transaction??? i can see if it was a credit, why did i bother entering a pin number???
Can I do 2 claims even though we have a joint account?
Did anyone else get the special notice on the changing policies? Fees are now 39 dollars!!!! but if you are overdrawn less then five (and the bank sees fit) they will only charge you 10 dollars per item. It’s sort of bitter sweet. I usually dont go over by more then five dollars but if i dont im getting boned harder now and also because of b of a’s shady practices dont be suprised if you see your account go over say 1 dollar because of a “held” transaction, then see another fee for 39 dollars when the “held” transaction posts.
Hi everyone – check out the following site – PLEASE MAKE SURE TO WRITE TO EACH OF THESE AGENCIES ABOUT YOUR COMPLAINT – IF LEGITIMATE. The more each of these agencies hear about the non-legitimate practices / unethical practices of BOA – the more they will be watched. Hope this helps!
http://www.fdic.gov/consumers/consumer/rights/
Here is another avenue – if complaint is legitimate – or you believe your account is being compromised –
http://www.helpwithmybank.gov/complaints/complaint.pdf
<i can see if it was a credit, why did i bother entering a pin number???
I don’t understand this either. Help me understand.
Why can’t I just have a debit card that has x amount of dollars on it and when that card goes to zero, I can’t use it anymore?
An old friend of mine in Germany had sent to me 100 Euros (two 50 Euro notes) as a recent April Birthday gift.
Thank God, a life saver. I was extremely low on available cash, urgently needed to buy food and drink in the Grocery Store across the street from B of A. in San Carlos, San Diego, CA.
I took my two 50 Euro notes to my nearby Bank of America (here a LONG TIME CUSTOMER / had PAID OFF various home loans, etc.)
and asking these two Euro notes to PLEASE BE EXCHANGED for urgently needed Dollars for above mentioned (survival) reasons.
The Bank Teller took my two 50 Euro notes, placed them behind and beyond my reach and without stating or asking started to apply MY European money against some alledged Overdraft Charges:
Request to STOP, RETURN MY PROPERTY my EURO Notes was refused.
Bank Check No 271 Amount: O N E Dollar, OD Fee: $35
Bank Check No 7235 Amount: TWO Dollars, OD Fee: $35
Bank Check No 9900 Amount: FIFTY Dollars, OD Fee: $35
These types of (DEREG.) Bank activities are illegal, MUST BE STOPPED
abusing the overdraft fees(robbing) their own customers during these economic hard times. wait until it is good. they will loose a lot of customers. For those of you who have been robbed, please make sure you close your account. Do something about it. For those siding with bank of america, your job is not stable. For Uguysarefunny, you are a mean jerk. wait until you have a mortgage, family, and unexpected things happen to you. See how smart you are. a few weeks ago, my husband got robbed of $500 dollars in overdraft fees(one time). He was only supposed to get 1 overdraft fee and got 15. Anyone with a life can make a honest mistake. He doesn’t mind paying for an overdraft fee that was his fault. The last time it happened to him was in 2005; when we owned a storefront, overhead was killing us. Business when from good to bad. He got hit with $150 of insufficient fees, that he took full responsibility for. This “i will put all the smaller check bills on hold so we can charge more overdraft fees” is wrong, heartless, and uncalled for. Well, if boa keeps doing that to their customers, they won’t have very many. Also, words do spread like wildfire.
Yes, I am interested in seeing if there can be a class action lawsuit started regarding TCF Bank. They are doing the same thing as Bank of America. I mean the exact same thing. If the attorneys or attorney or organization who started the one for BoA, could please contact me by email, so that I can give my account of what has been happening and is continuing to happen at TCF Bank. I am sure I am not the only person who has banked there that feels this way, or is going through this same issue.
What ever happened to balancing your check book so you don’t have any non-sufficient fund fees.
So many people don’t want to take responsibility for their actions.
Please own up to your mathematics mistakes or errors in judgement for spending too much and pay the fees that you owe.
I think Uguysarefunny is funny. Actually, I don’t bank w/BOA anymore, those days are long over. The attrition at a banking center, i.e., call center is really high. Uguysarefunny your day will come soon. It will be so funny for you to read these posts in few years. You are such a peon in that company and that you like people to receive overdraft fees, for job security? So sad. I was one of the lucky people who sued BOA many years ago over their practices (not fees other banking regulation issues) and am now enjoying the fruits of my labor. Your defense of BOA is so ridiculous, what a sheep. BOA has a long history of ripping of people, that is why they are still in business. One of the greatest sources of satisfaction to me was to watch their stock price plummet from almost $50 a share to under $6. I think I smiled that entire month. Actually, I’m still smiling because their share price still sucks@around 13 bucks.
they still doing business as usually; they just charged me $245 dollars. I have seven transactions- the 7th transaction put me negative and they go by the highst to the lowest. They online banking even admitted to me.
bank of america does these things to far to many people! they can just still your monry with out any just cause! my account had more than enough money in it and nothing pending but guess what 4 over draft fees and no one can help me! they will not take the blame for theyre own wrong doing! so please if you have half a mind do not bank with bank of america!!!!!
You people can complain all you want but guess what it isn’t going to solve the PROBLEM OF YOU BEING OVERDRAWN in your account. you may think i’m naive and not make mistakes and not end up in your shoes or what not. i can careless. I know how to manage my finances at the age i’m at and its a shame that most of you who are older and has been here longer than i have dont know how to manage your money. Simple fact is if you think a bank is performing bad business practices to “steal your money” thats your opinion. you may think its wrong because it doesnt work in your favor. but i bet that more than half of you wouldnt complain if a policeman caught you speeding and gave you a citation for $200 or $300. YOU MADE AN ERROR AND YOU MUST BE PENALIZED FOR AN ERROR. Thats how this world works. Now dont get me wrong. In some cases we may make errors and that something where we can take the fault in. These ridiculous customers like some people on this thread just complain for the sake of complaining and have nothing better to do.
Here’s the thing…Uguysarefunny…. please reread what some of the people are saying. Not everyone thinks the bank is out to get them, nor do they feel like they shouldn’t be punished for overdrafts. They just want the punishment to be fair. To use your own analogy: if you got pulled over for going 5 miles per hour over the speed limit, would it be fair for the police officer to give you a ticket for $200.00, when the fine for that infraction was actually only $50.00? No… and if that happened to you, you would contest it in court, just like your customers are doing. You really do have a lot to learn about life. And I know that you are going to say that life isn’t always fair, and you’re right, but it should be ethical. And the practices of BOA, at this time, aren’t ethical. I am not a person who ever overdraws, so I understand what you are saying about being responsible for your actions, but I also understand and feel for those people who have overdrawn and been slapped with fines that are unethical. It shouldn’t be happening.. not now, not ever!
in reply to Uguysarefunny about time to sue:
The reason people find the time to do this is because they know your practices are illegal and impractiable. People are sick of being taken advantage of and feel it is more practable to fight back then take off the gloves and sit back because you jerks feel you are above the law and everyone else. Don’t forget your roots, may the corporation fail!
BofA…. grrrrrrr…My husband and I will sue this bank, they charged us 12 overdraft fees.. I check my balance online at least 4 times a day because im scared to be charged for overdraft. I called them 4 times today, and they just blame me for not keeping track on my money. and the last rep that i talked to, she even told me that i will have 3 more overdraft fees tomorrow…which will be posted on my account…. this is unacceptable, I check my money first before i spend it. i am very very very mad. I even transfered $500 on my checking before it’s not showing up of any overdrafts. but they still took my money for overdrafts… i work hard for my6 money, and i can’t just let someone steal it for me…
I don’t know about the rest of you but it’s just simply good business stealing money on Bank of America’s side. What did make me decide not to bank with them was their $12,000 banking error error on their part that showed me overdrawn after cashing a substantial check, the 16 days it took for them to reverse their error and the 3 overdraft fees they tried to charge me stating that the overdraft bank error was my issue not theirs. Now correct me unless I am wrong, six similar banking errors in one year and being charged overdraft fees for accounts they lock up because of their error should be considered highway robbery and simple stupidity on the account representatives part. Simply don’t bank with them.
In the end of this mayhem its the the consumers fault. You made the decision to make that transaction, you set up that automatic payment that you forgot about, YOU spent your money. I never overdraft my account because I take care of my money. Its a very simple solution, balance your account. People are so quick to blame the bank for all your mistakes but a majority of the time they are not at fault. Though the bank has it faults just like any other bank in the end it is still your responsibility. The bank can only provide so many tools and resources but guess what? They dont know all your outstanding debits, only you do. You would think by the fees that banks impose you would feel it would deter this behavior but apparently people still don’t learn. Its not even being taken advantage of if YOU are the one putting yourself in that position. All I have to say is – Learn to balance your check book. Write every transaction down and I bet you would never overdraft again.
Just got hit with $175 in overdraft fees on 5 puchases amounting to $41. My mistake, but this is typical of BOA, charging an outrageous fee. I asked for a reduction but of course, no dice. It was like the customer service rep went on the computer, spinned the roulette wheel, but, sorry we can’t help you. That made the deciscion to find a new bank very easy. I’m done with BOA. I’m tired of being nickled and dimed to death by these crooks. I remember when you went to a bank to get a little interest on your deposits, now you go to a bank, open an account only to have the bank take, take, and take your money with these outrageous fees. Monthly maintenance fee is a joke! Why should I have to pay for them to maintain my account! Is it not their privilege to have me as a customer? They ask me if I wanted overdraft protection, which is opening a savings account to cover any overdrafts. By opening another account, that just gives them another stream of revenue so they can charge a monthly maintence fee.
Just a rip off. Couple of years ago I found them taking $20 a month out for services I never used. When I confronted them about this the guy had the nerve to say, “and you just noticed this?” This bank has cost me so much money over the years. Enough is enough.
I want to know why do most of you think its a rip off to complain about of a $35 charge..in some eyes it seems like a lot but BOA is not the ONLY bank that charges overdraft FEES.. I HAVE ABOUT 6 BANKS IN MY AREA OF MASSACHUSETTS where i have accounts. And i have a list of their fees Along with they charge you double for having returned checks.
sovereign bank = $37 overdraft fee
Hyde park savings(local) = $33 overdraft fee
Citi bank = $35 overdraft fee
Peoples Bank(local) = $40 overdraft fee
Citizens Bank = $37 overdraft fee
Mt washington bank(local) = $34 overdraft fee..
So does it matter what bank you go to because regardless of it if your overdrawn you will get charged overdraft fees on the account.. And to say the least for people who think is its a conspiracy I can guarantee that these banks change the order of the transactions to make you overdrawn. They all do the same process. And as for the Monthly Maintenance Fee.. You only get charged that when you are below the required monthly balance at the end of the month. All checking accounts have this monthly maintenance fees added when you are overdrawn and negative because OBVIOUSLY you have no money in the account. All of you are huffing and puffing about people taking advantage of you and “stealing your money”. Why dont you read the Agreement before you open the account. You can always ask about it before you do business with any BANK. You guys are not the smart consumers that you want to portray yourself to be. You guys dont invest the time in handling your money correctly but you have the time to blog to other people about how bad a bank is, I find it ridiculous.
uguysarefunny,
Just because banks are doing this across the board does not make RIGHT. You have a skewed sense of reality and what is fair. There is a ripe and ready market of those who are tired of being screwed over by large banks and their drone-like representatives who want FAIRNESS in banking.
Absolutely wrong. And I don’t know about the rest of you, but once you go into overdraft (depending on amount), it takes forever to get straight again, because you are in a continuous loop (and they know this). They are doing this to me every other week. I seriously pay about $800 in overdraft, because they screwed me so bad at first, I can’t get it caught up…I need my money ! My transactions sit pending for days until you go over your limit, then they push everything through. Plus..nothing is in order of the date purchased…ordered by large amount first.
this just happened to me today never having an overdraft fee ever on my account before and 3 years with BOA… litterally i’ve had my card declined and and can remember standing in the grocery store about a year ago and my card wouldnt work, delinced at a mcdonalds , delcined at other places… not proud, but i was getting declined. I do check my statememnts.. lost my job in december 08… went on unemployment , changed cities , didnt keep a balance of more than 50 bucks at a time in BOA… from Dec 08 till 2 weeks ago when i GOT A JOB (thank god) took the money off my Unemployment card for the final certification period went to BoA in my new town first time… made a depost … switched my car insurace back to my BOA bank account and off the Unemployment debit card. was to be posted and have confirmation from progressive it was posted 05/26/2009… opened my statement on BOA website 05/28/2009. available balace showed 148 and some change… with progresive showing . wanted to see the balance i have left to work with till i get first pay check june 5th… so i was planning seeing what was left.. BOA showed car insurance charge on statement and a balance of +$148.00 went out bought bag of socks and new belt :p, fueld the car twice over the weekend went out with some friends on 29th my bday.. saw a movie… i smoke so bought some smokes.. a little food hots dogs and mac :p etc… very conservative spending leaving myself about 50 doing the math in my head going into monday… knowing i had the 148 in account to start as posted on 05/28/2009…
06/01/2009
and what do you know… my progressive auto payment now shows a 05/28/2009 date? which left only 13 bucks in account before the clothes shoping, before the mac and cheese, before the smokes, before the movie, before the gas in my car …. 7 overdraft fees later (which by the way not one transaction over 8 bucks minus the 10 spot i put in my car) * 35 OD FEE my entire check on friday now will be going to pay that…. according to the wonderful representive i spoke with… I NEED TO BE MORE RESPONSIBLE WITH MY LEDGERS .. learn how to balance my books… my account may have been shwoing as positive in the am she tells me, but the actually posted time they took the progressive payment was on the eve of the 28th before closing… 2 days and exactly following 4 seperate transactions of positive account balance in the AM of 05/28/2009… after reading these blog its NOT AMAZING ANYMORE THIS HAPPENED!!!
my question is WHY CANT YOU JUST DECLINE MY CARD!!!! the rep says this has been policy for along time… VISA is responsible not the bank itself… for 2 almost 3 years I WAS BEING DECLINED WHEN USING THE CARD before!!! and its almost amusezing that many of these posts are coming from FEb 2009 and march 2009 the months i wasnt active and inable to use my card ilke regular… there has been a revision to the policy in regards to overdraft, BECAUSE I HAVE BEEN DECLINED not proud of it, but I KNOW IVE NOT BEEN ABLE TO USE THE CARD BEFORE at many dif times over the years due to NO FUNDS… this is the first time in my history with them that such a thing like this has happened… i haven’t changed my account details
the rep told me i can have text messages sent to my phone when the balance gets to low as a reminder … also there is no limit on the money you can overdraft for soo in reality right now i coudl go to the store and fill my cart with groverys drop another 200 bucks , fill my tank of gas to the brim, buy 12 cartons of cigs, fly to mexico and back.. swim with the dolphins see a baseball game… and i ahve unlimited amounts of credit :p just an extra 35 bucks added to that new diamond necklace my negative account balace i salready showing and am aware of,lol THATS INSANE….
JUST DECLINE THE CARD
PLEASE!!! DECLINE THE CARD… let me worry about if my car insurance is paid or how i can get my car fueld.. dont give me money i dont have then charge me extra then tell me i need to pay more attention… your giving me and unlimited credit line on money you already know i dont have.. cut your losses and dont let me go see that movie or get that pair of shoes that day.. DECLINE THE CARD let me wash dishes at that resturant my card declines at.. its my resposibility I GET IT!!! let it DECLINE… let my insurance company come after me if they didnt get my payment that month cause of no balance its not a favor or service to allow me to continue and purchase things when nothing is in the account :p
there has been a major revision to this policy this cant be a long standing program with BOA or i would OD’d many many times before… JUST DECLINE THE CARD
This still happens. How can they continue this practice after they just got sued?
Joanna,
You asked,
“This still happens. How can they continue this practice after they just got sued?”
Let’s do some simple math.
BOA must have several million customers but let’s say they “STICK” it to only 50,000 customers per month at an average of $150 in bogus overdraft fees. Yes I know some fees are actually legitimate.
50k X $150 = $7,500,000
$7.5 million dollars per month = $90 million per year
Now let’s do some more analysis
Let’s say it cost $20 million to defend themselves in court and they settle for $35 million to pay out to customers. Keep in mind they will not pay out all $35 million but we’ll say $55 million anyways.
Well, they don’t get class action lawsuits filed against them every every year so let’s figure every 3 years.
$270 – $55 = $215 million dollars
Hmm
Did I answer your question?
See they are not feeling enough pain for their misdeeds.
That 800 pound gorilla must pay.
Joanna, you asked : “This still happens. How can they continue this practice after they just got sued?” Tony’s answer is a valinat effort, but is not correct.
The reason they can still continue thsi parctice is because the settlement does not bar the practice, nor did the lawsuit seek to stop teh practice. In fact, the practice, heretofre, has been blessed by the OCC and most federal courts. The attack in the lawsuit was on the advertising and marketing of the on-line checking as an immediate and accurate representation of your account status, not an attack on the largest-to-smallest- check processing.
Here, the Bank got in troubel becaus ethey basically said “use our on-line or mobile banking apps to check your balance and as a guide to when you have sufficient funds in your account,” however, the software implementation was not as quick or accurate as the marketing team portrayed it to be, and people got dinged for NSF fees despite the mobil and on-line apps telling them they had money.
The practice itslef, which is what most people are angry about, has been repeatedly upheld by regulators and the courts as somethign banks may do so long as it is discolsed inthe account agreement (which it always is). That may change, but as of today, it is not a per se illegal practice.
i also wanted to post that i got in the mail 06/05/2009 my first notice in the mail that on 05/28/2009 i overdrafted my first transation :p
9 overdrafts later… lol
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3445/3366701239_a53cc6ce15_o.png
Well, Bof A has gotten smarter with what their customer service tells you now when you call to complain. But they are lying.
They now tell you that the order of transactions is because it is up to the merchant as to when they send in your transaction. Oh, come on. IF everywhere I went was a little mom and pop place, yea maybe. But in this day and age of instant transactions? I have been on my bank account and seen the pending transactions in the order I did them, but low and behold when they actually post to my account they are in a different order if they see my account getting low so that they can charge exhorbitant overdraft fees.
They just hit me for $200 in overdraft fees because I was over drawn by 10 cents !! This is highway robbery and it will never change, as soon as some one sues them for one thing, they think of another way to screw you.
The financial shape of our country is because big business is in the business to bleed their customers dry. Whatever happened to businesses “serving” their customers.
this is crazy! I recently got re-called and had no way of taking care of my account, but when let go for medical issues I tried to take care of it later and they told me that even though the issue was due to another company and even though they reimbursed me they could not because their computers didn’t reach back further than 90 days. If someone knows of a good class-action lawyer in Washington please let me know at esequiellopez@cox.net
This same thing happened to me. Admittedly, I overdrew my account, but I’m very upset with Bank of America for continuing to allow bank card charges after I was overdrawn. There is no way you can spin this besides the very obvious motivation of generating more and more $35.00 overdraft fees.
This happened to me while I was on vacation, so there was no chance for me to realize it and nip it in the bud. I would expect any reasonable bank to stop allowing charges at a certain point. At that point I would have switched to a credit card and avoided a lot of this pain. At the end of the vacation, I had overdrawn the account by a whopping $800 dollars, and I had $630 in overdraft fees! And one of those fees hit my account on a day where I never went in the negative. I got some cock-and-bull story that a transaction must have come in before a deposit, but of course if you look at my online statement it never went negative, so I’m not sure what magical time vortex Bank of America processes transactions in.
When I got back from vacation and found out, I immediately did an online transfer from my money market at another bank to cover the funds and then some. I printed the transfer confirmation and went to my local branch to get help. I ended up talking with the branch manager. She was very apologetic but acted like for the most part her hands were tied. Here’s the kicker: she ADMITTED that in essence the bank was issuing a short term loan at VERY high interest. Um, anyone know the defintion of usury?
She refunded me $119 on the spot, and offered $200 more, but I would have to wait a day. I told her no, that wasn’t good enough. So she said she’d have to call “someone” to see what else she could do. In the end she offered me another $100, so that came to $419, leaving me still eating $211. I decided to take the deal, though I still thought it was a bit much given the circumstances.
Then of course I see the next day 4 more charges hit my account (another $140), and the ultimate slap in the face: an extra $35.00 charge for “extended overdraft.” Yep, that’s right. If you are overdrawn for 5 days in a row, they can kick you in the nuts one more time.
Needless to say I spent Saturday opening accounts at my local credit union. My best advice to everyone here is to leave Bank of America and never look back. I’ve worked for smaller local banks, and they are much more customer-focused and willing to work with you. Bank of America is way to huge and corporate to care about personal accounts.
I am employed by said bank. There is a point where your card is automatically denied. The more you overdraft the less it becomes. Then every time you use it you are declined. The fact of the matter is that when someone authorizes money (instantly) and collects money are two entirely separate issues. It can actually take up to thirty days for a business to COLLECT, just like a check. The authorization is done by the business to see if you have money in your account and make sure you don’t spend it. It certainly doesn’t mean that they have transferred the cash or collected it from your bank. The whole illusion of money changing hands instantly and invisibly is completely FANTASY. Ask any stock trader and he’ll tell you it takes days for transactions to settle. “day-trading” and 100% turnover of a position in one day does not exist. Think about your accounts receivable department at work. Do they work instantly? A check card is like writing a check every time you use it. Hence the name check card. It is easier because you don’t have to write out a check. But it still doesn’t excuse you from keeping a transaction register. Online banking or not, you used your card, you spent the money regardless of dollar amount. If you wrote a check and it posts on Monday, and you used your debit card over the weekend. Now your check posts. How much money did you spend? Weekend purchases + Check = More Money than you had in your account when you wrote the check. You CAN NOT post date checks either. A check in the hand (debit card # given or swiped as well) IS NEGOTIABLE regardless of date. Post dating checks IS and always will be ILLEGAL. It is a practice called kiting. Bottom line, don’t spend money that hasn’t cleared the bank first.
“Uguysarefunny Says:
April 2nd, 2009 at 7:38 pm
I am a BOA employee, very happy with my job. i work for the customer service line in this wonderful bank. I deal with people who dont know how to maintain their bank account and people who come out with excuses blaming the economy and what not. 85% of customers i get with overdrawn accounts don’t want to admit that their overdrawn or admit that its their fault. they know that they charge everything on their card not caring how much of a balance they have then they cry because they get charged overdraft fees. i dont bother returning any of these fees to any of these customers because they dont deserve too. i understand some people have financial hardship and need to overdraft the account to eat but thats only about 3% that do that. the rest of the customers dont acknowledge the fact that the account will close and be sent to collections and chexsystems after 120 days of being overdrawn. if any of you smart people would look at that, you would see that its a law, a requirement that ALL banks in the U.S. have to follow not just a BOA policy”
I usually do not respond to posts but this really bothered me. As with all companies they have their strengths and weaknesses. Some have questionable practices and some are more ethical. But to you personally, I think you are in error, not because of what you believe concerning your company , but because of the very character of your conversation in this post. As a representative of BOA, and you are, at the moment you identify yourself as an employee, responsible to present yourself in a professional an respectful manner. Your conversation reflects YOUR opinion of those who may be arguementative concerning their less than responsible banking transactions. Your statement concerning the “smart customers” almost sounds condesending Also, if those are the “smart” customers, does that mean there are dumb ones? If I were a perspective costomer and I heard a customer service rep. converse like this concerning any customer, I would not feel secure with that company. I am a BOA customer and have made my own mistakes. BOA in turn have made theirs. I am still a customer. I would encourage you to read over your company policies concerning how and what you communicate. If you think this is acceptable, I would encourage you to run these posts by your your boss and see if they find them an acceptable form of communication, that is concidering you did get approval to communicate this to this many BOA customers and that this bank as a whole shares in your thought process and form of communication. Be careful.
im glad someone called out uguysaresofunny .. NOW if only he would admit what a tool he is; and understand he’s only a call center goon not worthy of posting on BOA’s behalf either… ( i admit; I myself work a call center in a seperate line of business.. and dealing with call after call after call of the same quesiton and topics can get you flustered or force you to become jaded and think EVERYONE IS A CROOK.. i know first hand … i see the history of my clients calls and I know that out of 20 times using our service if a person has called in 12 times to report a problem.. while the select few 3%-5% of calls have a history of over 177 -200+ times using our product and THIS IS THE FIRST , 2nd or maybe even 3rd time having a problem that needs to be resolved…
now with that said… uguysaresofunny needs to apologize on behalf of himself and his comapny.. because Anonymous Banker and Be more responsible above have replied in a very educated way and have presented some dignity on the BOA name they represent…
i’ve had a bout 2 weeks to cool and was able to get BOA to drop the 9 overdraft fees like i explained earlier.. i have signed up for alerts and have become more aware of my accounting… money was never a strong suit.. so maybe i was expecting too much in just having the bank think for me and decline the card :p
i also wanted to shed some light on why my card in the past was being declined and why this last time i overdrafted so many times with out a decline… (or at least a theory i have)
the previous company i worked for is the one who set me up with BOA because they did all there banking with them… in the time frame that i worked for that company i never ever expereinced any overdrafts and in fact recall being declined like stated in earlier message…
well currently my company works with CHASE… and i expereinced my first overdraft moment if you will and had the 9 described above… im wondering if my company does direct deposit and their banking with BOA are overdraft fees waived? or do they just not appear because the current employer is trusted and BOA basically assumes or gives the benift of the doubt that I’m going to get paid …
ive looked into other account seetings and noticed that just having a check direct deposited in my account waives the maitnence fees associated with my current account regardless of company banking with them or not…
what kind of other programs are availabe to help stop these mysterious fees.
if my company banks with BOA will i not overdraft? is that a fine print thing i may have overlooked.. because like mentioned before i would be declined in past.. and never had an overdraft fee ever till 2 weeks ago like explained before… if that is a guideline in getting out of overdraft fees… i might be leaving BOA and see what CHASE can do for me… not out of a bad expeirence per se with BOA, but more of a loop hole in the system if you will to help JUST DECLINE MY CARD in general to not exp this sort of thing… of course I’ve heard just as many if not more horror stories about chase.. uggg….
maybe ill go back to money in the matress :p
Just wanted to pipe in… So for the past 2 years I have had a theory about my bank changing the chronological order in which my debits were processed through my account… my girlfriend thought I was a loon so I just let it go…
I have just researched & come up with at least 2 more class actions agains US BANK in Oregon & Cali. that are just now getting underway for ALL of the issues listed above, including deceptive online postings that show higher balances than are actual.
Sure whish I had typed in “US Bank Overdraft Fraud” into google 2 years ago!
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE sign up if you are an account holder & have had one overdraft EVER. Because its so much easier for banks to cough up $20 mil every few years to settle, its obvious that WE the bent over “customers” have to fight our asses off to change things.
After a nice debate with both customer service over the phone and Cheryl at the Barbur Blvd Branch here in Portland Oregon, I managed to get… wait for it…. $17.50 of my $35 OD Fee returned. What a kick in the ding dong that is.
The worst part is that decision is left up to the discretion of the branch employee, well thats just F*#KED. So the bank employee that is having a bad day gets to say no to me on reversing charges while the gay teller who likes the cut of my jib may very well reverse it?
You screw with the chronological order in which my debits are made, then LIE straight to my face about how “policy” changed years ago so that big items like “mortgages” process first as a “courtesy” to me…
um… really?
Well uh, thanks I guess. It has nothing to do with the fact that the amount of OD fees you collected in 2004 was ballpark $20 billion and has since jumped to 80-something BILLION??
Dirty, stinky, smelly,crooked,corrupt,vial,rancid,bamboozle, beat, beguile, bilk, bleed, bunco, burn, caboodle, chisel, con, cozen, crib, cross, deceive, defraud, delude, diddle*, do a number on, double-cross, double-deal, dupe, fast talk, finagle, fleece, flimflam, fudge,give bum steer, gouge, gyp*, hoodwink, hose, jerk around, milk, mislead, pull one’s leg, ream, rip off*, rook*, rope in, sandbag, scam, screw, shaft, short, shuck, skin, snow, stiff, sucker, swindle, take, take for a ride, take in, take out, trick, trim, two-time, victimize
I am done with american society and the greed that breeds from it at this point.
I am going back to burrying my cash in a coffee can.
“justDECLINEmyCARD Says:
June 18th, 2009 at 9:28 pm
im glad someone called out uguysaresofunny .. NOW if only he would admit what a tool he is; and understand he’s only a call center goon not worthy of posting on BOA’s behalf either… ( i admit; I myself work a call center in a seperate line of business.. and dealing with call after call after call of the same quesiton and topics can get you flustered or force you to become jaded and think EVERYONE IS A CROOK.. i know ”
………actually I am in the medical field and have been for quite some time, never the banking business. However, I was recently in dispute over charges wrongfully attached to my account. The situation has been rectified and neither they nor myself had to resort to the use of grammer school terms such as “goon”. You stated that I was not “worthy of posting on behalf of BOA”. You seem to be a very judgemental person, read the post again, it was good advice to ANY person wishing to communicate to existing and perspective customers while representing their company. I posted against my better judgement knowing I might solicit a response from someone such as yourself. That is my lack of wisdom and a mistake I will not make again.
After having to bail out banks with my tax dollars from their irresponsible lending practices, I personally hold them responsible for this countries current situation. The banks continue to take money from the hard working people of this country by way of excessive fees.
I do not know if you are aware but when you have an accidental overdraft on your account, they pay the highest debit on the account first so that it creates a cascading effect on the account. This creates huge multiple overdrafts resulting in higher profit to the bank in overdraft fees because it leaves more transactions left uncovered by the remaining balance. In my case it was over $280.00 worth (8) 35.00 overdraft fees were assessed to my account 06/15/2009.
I had $69.05 in total debits including 2 unexpected, one for $20.00 on my daughter’s automatic reloading Starbucks card, and the other $15.00 from my gym membership auto debit 2 days earlier than scheduled. It was an honest mistake. The largest debit of $34.00 paid first, followed by the $20.00 debit overdrawing my account. With $48.93 available in my account, the chain reaction began. If they had started with the smallest debit first, I would have had enough money to cover all my debits including the unexpected ones, except for the $34.00 debit resulting in 1 overdraft fee of $35.00 due the bank. That would be fair.
I work very hard for my money and live paycheck to paycheck since moving to Georgia. I currently live with my sister, a disabled Veteran. When I explained that I require a minimum of $210.00 returned to my account so I may meet my obligations for the end of the month, Customer Service refused. I even tried to negotiate and offered to let them have $70.00 to go to 2 of the overdraft fees which I thought was more than fair. Still they refuse.
We have put legislation in place to put the credit card companies in their place to protect the consumer, so what can we do to stop this continued abuse of the American people by way of excessive and abusive bank fees. We help bail them out and we are still getting screwed which could be aptly named “bank customer robbery”.
Kenneth Lewis who is the President and CEO of Bank of America will make almost 10 million in total compensation this year as outlined below. Why does his bank need to take my $210.00 which helps me make my obligations as a consumer in a recession? I will not stop until it is refunded.
ANNUAL COMPENSATION*
Salary $1,500,000
Total Annual Compensation $1,500,000
STOCK OPTIONS*
Restricted Stock Awards $4,255,012
All Other Compensation $275,125
Exercisable Options 900,000
Unexercisable Options 1,158,333
Total Number of Options 2,058,333
TOTAL COMPENSATION*
Total Annual Cash Compensation $1,500,000
Total Short Term Compensation $1,500,000
Other Long Term Compensation $4,530,137
Total Calculated Compensation $9,959,076
Mr. Lewis is a graduate of Georgia State University where he earned his Bachelors Degree. Bank of America’s code of ethics says “Trust, one of the core values on which our company is built, is also the foundation on which we build strong relationships with our customers, shareholders, communities and one another. Another of our core values is “doing the right thing.”
I will leave contact info for Mr. Lewis and his bank below for other customers dealing with the abuse of today’s banking system. I would also appreciate any help in spearheading legislation to protect the consumer from this banking practice of maximizing profit by manipulation of debit transactions. This is financially devastating to a consumer living paycheck to paycheck. I encourage you to check on the following link to see more about the practices of Bank of America. Any word on another class action after the May 1st cutoff?
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/finance/bofa.html
EXECUTIVE PROFILE*
Kenneth D. Lewis
Ken.d.lewis@bankofamerica.com
CORPORATE HEADQUARTERS*
100 North Tryon Street
Charlotte, North Carolina 28255
Phone: 704-386-5681
Fax: 704-386-6699
Contact the Board of Directors
Corporate Secretary at Bank of America Corporation
101 South Tryon Street, NC1-002-29-01
Charlotte, NC 28255
Ken Lewis was recently subpoenaed by the Supreme Court for documents involving the acquisition of Merrill Lynch. He was forced into accepting TARP money and its red tape of government intervention. Not to mention Acts such as the Community Reinvestment Act (which assures lending in higher income areas does not surpass lending in lower income areas) and government agencies such as HUD and FHA (who in most cases only require 3% downpayment) and lenders such as Fannie, Freddie and the like are encouraged by the government lend to those who cannot afford them. Banks are penalized by the government for not making enough of these loans each year. The government encouraged banks and lenders to lend to people who cannot afford them as a ploy to increase national homeownership. This serves two purposes 1. affording housing to people who by credit and income standards would normally be renters 2. Increased Personal Property TAX revenue. Don’t blame the banks when the politicians are just as crooked. Not to mention the government spurned this recession with its horrible spending and lending practices of its own. $1.6 trillion debt? It’s very easy for the government to be seen as a hero here and “bailout” banks, but when it was the government that pushed these financial institutions to the brink. It doesn’t really seem like a bailout after all, more like a take-over attempt.
bemore responsible.. it was a comment for uguysaresofunny…
i did mis-read and thought you were an employee of BOA calling him out for poting on BOA’s behave. it was actually a THANK YOU to an extent for telling him to shut up :p and not speak for BOA because urguysrsofunny is just a call center rep not you,lol…
I also in next part of message said the following…..
“now with that said… uguysaresofunny needs to apologize on behalf of himself and his comapny.. because Anonymous Banker and Be more responsible above have replied in a very educated way and have presented some dignity on the BOA name they represent…”
I THOUGHT I WAS ..insane? clueless? un-educated? stupid?
For the past year, I have been hit 50+ times with a $35 dollar charge. I admit some of the charges were correct. But the majority of the ODfees was maniputive in all ways. The charges were made when the balance was in the positive with PLENTY TO SPARE. B of A commited bank roberry on me and as I read all of comments, I just had to cry… I’m a single father with a 5 year old son and living paycheck to paycheck… The B of A intrapment has put me in this never-ending loop. I just had 10 charges for $35 hit me on 6-15-09..
Get this, most of the charges were way below $35.. and funds were avaialble and also all of charges were taken out immidiatly when I used my ATM… and had a signaficant balance to spare…UNTIL THE NEXT DAY..you all know what happened… I cant pay my rent on time this month, my auto insurance for the amount of $305 is unavailable..the problems are increasing as checks have bounced because my money is in some secret bank vault. Stress is a killer and I’m afraid it may kill me. Chest pains, left arm stiffness, excessive sweat, etc.. these are symptoms I get regularly… B of A is killing me… I resort to taking 2-3 aspirins when I get these symtems. Heart-Attack? I’m forty years old and always have been healty..Also in the past year my blood pressure has gone up from the normal numbers of 128/82 to 140+/90+. What do I do now? I would welcome some advice from anyone. Actually, I need help with all of this fiasco….my email (amuradyan@dsrg.com) (cell..714-757-1627)
Simple solution to all of your problems. Carry cash. Stop using your debit card. You aren’t keeping track of your balance. B of A or any other bank is not creating these charges out of thin air. You had to swipe your card in order to get them. Now if you don’t understand how authorizations, pending transactions, and the like work, don’t use one. If you were sitting at my desk, I’d tell you the same thing. Some people just cannnot use debit cards.
Anonymous Banker: Simple solution for banks – use ethical practices for customers that “pre-post” bills online – example: Paying an electric bill online to post for the 13th of the month – Bank of America “HOLDING THOSE FEES” on the 8th of the month & then telling the customer “when you hit the button on the payment authorization for a vendor- even though it is Pre-posted, the bank holds the fees” if that is the case then SHOW THOSE PENDING FEES THAT THE BANK IS STEALING FIVE DAYS EARLY ON YOUR ONLINE STATEMENT – So let’s make it even more ethical – let’s overdraw our customer’s account even though the customer makes a deposit on the 11th to cover the UPCOMING DOCUMENTED 13th withdrawal – SHOW THIS MYSTERIOUS PENDING TRANSACTION ON YOUR ONLINE STATEMENT (again)- when you pull up your online statement – see an NSF charge but do NOT SEE YOUR ACCOUNT EVER BEING OVERDRAWN. Do you get this ? The disclosure from the FPL site cleary states that the bank account will not be withdrawn from until the date stated. There is no way on God’s green Earth you can say this is ethical. This would be the same as mailing a check – the check posts on the 13th – but the bank goes back to the date of the postmark (that would be when the check was mailed) & there was actually money in your account on the day the check came through – but the bank posts an NSF to your account b/c the day you MAILED your check you did not have available funds. Enjoy your Kool-aid – you are obviously at perfection in your life.
Armen Muradyan, what you need to do is be resilient to the cause like others like you and write your Congressman, Senator, and the President. I will not rest and will seek out any form of voice available to me including emailing my story to all I know and those that will listen or not. It is becoming quite a following. I am currently looking for an attorney to begin another Class Action Lawsuit. I will continue a search for a bank that processes debits in the order of smallest to largest and will post thier name when found for anyone that wants to move their accounts. Until then, email the news and add links to the other complaint boards like I have below about the practices of B of A. Like you, I have no problem taking responsibility for my mistake, but not in the shorts excessively by way of manipulation of my debits to maximize overdrafts. Anonymous Banker, you should be ashamed for condoning this miss-use of public trust. Your right, we should carry cash. Everyone should make a run on the bank, get their cash out and put you all out of business. Remember that’s our money, not yours. We just give you the privilege to hold on to it, don’t forget that when you cash your next paycheck. Bank of America’s contact info again below.
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/finance/bofa.html
EXECUTIVE PROFILE*
Kenneth D. Lewis
Ken.d.lewis@bankofamerica.com
CORPORATE HEADQUARTERS*
100 North Tryon Street
Charlotte, North Carolina 28255
Phone: 704-386-5681
Fax: 704-386-6699
Contact the Board of Directors
Corporate Secretary at Bank of America Corporation
101 South Tryon Street, NC1-002-29-01
Charlotte, NC 28255
There is no misuse of public trust. Every single bank does this. This is a Generally Accepted Accounting Principal (wiki it). If it was so wrong, why does every single bank do it? It is from an accounting standpoint. It only makes sense that the largest item comes out first. Otherwise the bank is on the hook for a loan to you for the largest dollar item. So spend your $10 gas, $5 latte, $4 mcdonalds, $1 red box, $1 gum and then write a check for your mortgage on the same BUSINESS DAY (Friday after 2pm Saturday and Monday before 2 PM are processed on Monday’s business, which means if you deposit a check during that time frame, the earliest you would see your cash is Tuesday) continue to not understand why you are being hit with overdraft fees. You cannot swipe your card, plan an online bill, and write a check all in the same day, then go to the bank to deposit. It all goes by total $$ spent not the order you made them. Checking account are not loans. If you need a loan get a credit card or overdraft protection. But since you continually overdraft your account, you probably can not get a credit card or any other credit for that matter. Not to mention, every single one of you acknowledged that you were planning to overdraft your account even if by one transaction, YOU ARE PLANNING ON OVERDRAFTING THE ACCOUNT, DO NOT DO SO UNLESS YOU HAVE OVERDRAFT PROTECTION. It is going to mess up your credit big time.
MY 18 YEAR OLD DAUGHTER HAS ONLY HAD BANK OF AMERICA FOR 3 MONTH THEY CHARGED HER $35 FOR A $6 PURCHASE WHY DO THE
BANK LET A PURCHASE HAPPEN WHEN THERE IS NO MONEY IN THE ACCOUNT. NOW THEY SAY SHE OWES $95 SO SHE HAS GONE BACK TO PAYING FOR THING IN CASH
Unfortunately I was unaware of this class-action settlement and just now found it. Bank of America didn’t learn a thing from this because as of yesterday I was charged a total of $210 in overdraft fees for an overdraft of $10.26. Yes, $10.26. They are STILL deducting the largest amount first in order to cause smaller items to overdraft the account. So, 2 separate purchases of a Bojangles biscuit ($2.58 and $2.78, respectively) effectively cost us $75.44. Wait, there’s more … today I received an ealert (funny I did not receive one when my husband accidently used the wrong checkcard to purchase gas for $30.04 in Missouri while traveling) stating that as of today, 6/26, I will be charged yet another $35 for an “extended overdrawn fee.” Never heard of that one, and the “extended” condition was because the Bank deducted ALL of its egregious fees first, and payday was not until yesterday (6/25) which is why the balance was low in the first place. I have had this account since 1972 and the Bank no longer extends ANY customer courtesy credits as of March 2009 – so I am in the process of moving to another bank. Bank of America is a shining example of greed and what got all of us into this economic mess. You see, when they make a mistake and are billions of dollars in the hole, good ol government lends them the money – our money – to bail them out. But when a 30-year customer is -$10.26 in the account, they charge $210 and threaten $35 more for the mistake. Something needs to be done to STOP this lawful theft of customers’ money.
After wading through a mire of politics and faxing my complaint filed with the BBB. I was able to get a refund of the charges but it did take some effort. The old addage still holds true, “the sqeeky wheel gets the grease”. I received a call from the Executive Level at Bank of America (Fax: 704-386-6699) on Friday, the woman was very understanding and explained that customer service has policies to follow and escalating beyond that dept was the right thing to do. She were very pleasent and understanding. Good luck to the rest of you and keep escalating. Keep your cool and be nice but firm, and I’m confident they will help you.
I did not find out about class action suit until today, a friend who knew what bank of america have done to my business, called me to let me know that there was a suit against bank of america for what they have put me through. I opened a small business account with banked with Bank of America, since 2000, about four weeks ago bank of america closed my account and accused me of fraud, because I wrote a checked from my wamu account in the amount of $5,000.00. Wamu returned the checked stating that my account was overdrawn. They made a mistake and posted the remaining balance of plus, not minus $22,000.00 showing. All of the banks are posting the largest amount first to cause an overdraft so they can steal $35.00 for each transaction. How can I get help with what both banks have done? Bank of america did not only charged for overdraft fees, they also charged for interest, and penalty and what ever fees they could charge. Now wamu have caused eight of my checks to return when enough founds in the account to cover each that was returned. What should I do?
I have been a customer with BOA from 4 yrs, and it happened to me last week. Like everyone is saying they charged the high amount first and small amounts later. If they had run the transactions properly I would have saved 2 * $35 over draft fess. Called the customer care, they say I am not eligible for a refund. I asked them what makes an eligibility because this happened to me first time. They have no answer, they just say they can’t refund the money back. I wish I can take a Million dollars out and get charged for $35. Would BOA allow that transaction to go through. Would they call it CURTSY. Jerks. So many time they charged some stupid rewards fee which I never enrolled for. I had to call and cancel them. Some times they charged the same transaction twice and I had to call and reverse them. They just say We apologize and reverse the money Back. I wish I have the power to charge them when they take my money out like that, in that case I am ready to pay if i go over draft. Not just they can charge me but I can not. Does anyone have a clue some other BANK which is better than BOA?
UGUYSRFUNNY, supporting the Bank and ur logic is not wrong but calling people not responsible or not wise shows ur stupidity. Wait till ur finances tumble.
Honestly… our entire system is built around “buyer beware.” If you don’t understand something – ask. If you don’t like the answer you get – don’t go through with it. Let me give some free knowledge… banks are charging fees on “authorized” charges because you already received the good or service (the transaction is over) which means the money is rightfully the merchants and not yours… hence the fee. Also for people who don’t want understand why Banks pay the largest charge first… let’s say you go out and buy a starbucks, mcdonalds, and Pizza Hut and then you forgot your mortgage had to be paid or your car or your insurance and that comes through at the end of the night. Would you rather have a payment returned from mcdonalds or be late on your mortgage and not only pay a $35 returned item fee but then pay the 6% late fee on your mortgage payment? Oh and now you have a late payment on your mortgage on your credit report… you better make sure those car payments are on time because no way are you getting a new car now. If you have any questions I suggest you go ask your closest banker not some $6.75 call center rep who’s probably been in the position 3 weeks.
Also the interest charged on business accounts is due to the fact that the money has not been collected by the other bank…. Basically the bank is giving you money out of their vaults that could be earning them interest so they charge you the interest instead of putting a hold on your money and charging you $35 for each transaction… once again… don’t just pout and cry about it… ask some questions
Becky… if I overdrew my account my mother would have smacked me all the way to the bank to apologize for using money that wasn’t mine… Do people not understand this concept at all? IT’S NOT YOUR MONEY THEY CAN CHARGE WHATEVER THEY WANT AS LONG AS THEY DISCLOSE IT.
So get a clue…
I had the branch manager look me dead in the eye and offer up the same exact line of crap you just did… ” this is a courtesy” to make sure your largest bills are paid first…
Really.
A courtesy for me is to reorganize the order in which I authorized ANY payments to MY account?
How about paying them in the ORDER IN WHICH I TELL YOU TO. It is after all still MY MONEY is it not????
My answer to her…
Well, I do not have a mortgage. I paid my house off 3 years ago. So lets please just be honest with each other and call a spade a spade.
Banks are criminally run. PERIOD. There are no if ands or buts about it. And why would the government give a hoot, they are getting their end.
Here’s one for all of you on the right side of this issue…
“Moebs Services, which provides data to the federal government, estimates overdraft revenue will reach $38.5 billion this year.”
That is a real number. And yes, it is BILLION. That number is up from something goofy like $10 Billion in 2001
Geez… I wonder why banks are manipulating their “customers” accounts.
Those are frigging BILLIONS.
The nerve to call out Buyer Beware. PLEASE. But we, the people, will continue to be screwed because of good ol’ american’t capitalism. Nothing will change. Its easier to settle a class action for a few Mil than it is to end the BILLIONS of dollars landing in the greedy hands of the stockholders.
Stop playing god with my money. Do what I TELL YOU TO DO WITH MY MONEY AND STOP STEALING IT.
Oh.. I almost forgot GetAClue, to continue to dismantle your buyer beware theory…
When I asked the manager to show me the clause where it specified that as a courtesy to me the banks system would decide in which order to pay out debits.
You should have seen the retarded look on that corporate zombies face.
No Answer. No means to tow the company line. NOTHING.
So I called the regional.
3 weeks and still waiting for a return call. Great customer service US BANK, just great.
And ” Mr.Anonymous Banker ” are you serously using the “everybody else is doing it so that makes it ok ” theory???? You can not be serious. :0) What are we, 7 ?
Here’s my battle cry to all those interested:
Over the course of the next weeks, I plan to develope a website dedicated to exposing these criminal acts of the banks.
Well thats great, a website you think… how is that going to even get around?
It will get the word out in the form of a stamp.
I intend to withdraw $500 weekly from my pay. I will take this cash in $1’s and stamp each and every one with the website address… you know, something along the lines of “YOURbankSTEALSyourMONEY.Com”
Look for one as change at a 7-11 near you!!
I completely agree with OutAnother$35. They need to do as we tell them to do not what they feel is right.
So get a clue according to ur argument, i was charged $35 twice once for $5 and $6. I would be happy to have the card declined rather than paying your so called interest. Where on the earth would someone earn a interest of $35 for $5 in one day. Please guide me, i would be happy to deposit my money there.
Lot of times Bank charged duplicate transactions, I had to call and cancel them. Did I get any thing back from Bank for the mistake from their part. I got a piece of S*** i.e their Apology.
We agree that all the Banks are doing it, it doesn’t make it a right thing to do.
People does not exist because of Banks, Banks exist because of People.
On July 3, 2009. I answered a call in the morning from the Offices of the CEO & Chairman. A customer advocate from the office gave me $350 as a courtesy. Since June 16th, I have been credited $70,$70,$35,$35,$35 and $350. Total $595.00 I worked day and night in reaching that total. I’m semi happy. On paper, BoA had me twice over but they will not be considered a ethical company..and a question that still lingers is ‘WHY THE ONLINE BANKING SYSTEM IS NOT FIXED TO DISPLAY A TRUE BALANCE WHEN I CLICK AND VIEW MY ACCOUNT. IT SAIS A BALANCE BUT OOO FREEEKIN NO NO NO…THERE IS A ANOTHER THING YOU MUST CLICK TO GET A TRUE BALANCE…AND IF YOU HOLD A TRANACTION THEN PLEASE TAKE THE MONEY OUT..MAYBE IT MAY WORK TO HELP US UNDERSTAND YOUR SYSTEM! IT ENGINEERING OR WHOEVER MADE YOUR PROGRAM SHOULD SIT HIS ASSSS DOWN AND SUCK A POPSICLE…COMPLET JOKE
BIG THANKS TO ..SCREWED ONCE BEFORE.. I took your advice and mailed, emailed, faxed letter to the CEO. Also copies of the letter to 4 US Senators, 3 Congressman, The President, FDIC, OCC, Bernanke, Exec. Assist to the CEO of BofA. Also hand delivered a copy of the letter to 10 different BofA branches…and more, I copied and pasted the same letter to Customer Service by email and live chat. I’m just getting started… I have more ways to get my voice heard… I must confess to all of you…I’m a quiet person, I always agree .. AND NOW BOA HAS WAKEN ME… ITS MY MOVE FROM TODAY ON..GOD BLESS
I stopped using banks (including BoA) all together several years ago, also SICK of their usuary fees and customer “NO-service”, which ranged from lost deposits (“not OUR fault), to deposits placed in the WRONG accounts (“not OUR fault, either”). The icing on the cake came when BoA refused to accept a partial deposit of my paycheck:
BoA: “You’ll have to deposit the entire check, or we can’t
accept it”.
Me: “Why? What’s wrong with my account?”
BoA: “Your account is in good standing”.
Me: “I don’t understand. If my account is in good standing,
then why won’t you accept a partial deposit?”
BoA: “Your account has been flagged due to an overdraft
which occurred EIGHT months ago”.
Me: “Excuse me?” (I couldn’t BELIEVE what I was hearing).
“You’ve been cashing my checks since then and I’ve
not overdrawn my account. Why won’t you
cash it now?”
BoA: “Take it to the bank it was drawn on”. (hands it back
to me, not bothering answer my question or offer any
further explanation).
Not only did I take the check down the street and cash it at another bank, but I went straight home afterwards and closed my account.
Cashing my paychecks has since been a breeze. I pay my bills with cash or money orders and know where every CENT of my hard-earned money goes.
Too bad it isn’t going to BoA.
Jerks.
Ok, BOA got me too.
Yesterday I bought a coke at 7/11, a burger at Mickey’D’s, a snack at the Caf … etc etc just doing the usual living my life thinking all was good.
Didn’t know I was overdrawn mainly cuz I haven’t been for 15 years.
Every 2 dollar coke or bag of chips they assessed me $35 fee for each one.
So what I didn’t know was unlike a credit card they won’t decline my debit card after it’s overdrawn. Instead they charged me $350.
And this is a courtesy? I would consider it a courtesy if they let me know I overdrew – then I’d just skip the coke. No bag of chips in the world is worth $350.
Verizon once charged me $1500 for local calls. I told them reverse the charge or forego all business with me for the next 50 years.
This time I’m good for the lawsuit.
Sorry, $350 for a bag of chips is a crime.
So in other words, you used your debit card frivolously without knowing how much money you had.
Its amazing AnonymousBanker, how you suits keep diverting the attention away from the fact that:
…BANKS SYSTEMATICALLY CHANGE THE CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER OF DEBITS TO CREATE THE MOST AMOUNT OF OVERDRAFTS AS POSSIBLE.
Why don’t you pipe up in regards to that AMERICAN FRAUD instead of sticking your tongue out and saying “well you spent more than you had”
No shit Sherlock. It happens. Why does the bank not take care of the “customer” and decline any charges that can not be covered?
Oh, wait, you know why. Because then you can not report the $41 BILLION dollar annual balance sheet to the corporate thieves you call “board members” from that years OVERDRAFTS.
Billions of dollars. With a B. Billions. This is how much the banks are generating in OVERDRAFTS ALONE on an annual basis. Really? You think that kind of number is going to go unoticed much longer?
Enjoy it chief. Just like Madoff, your industry has it coming. We the people are just about done with the corporate greed that this country has produced. And as you sit profiting off the naive-ness & dumbness of the population, and as the government keeps its little blinders on, intelligent, un-fearful citizens like myself are mounting up and making noise, and noise is heard… eventually.
But keep alluding to the “you spent more than you had” vs. facing the real argument in this forum of the deception & outright THIEVING that is going on.
Troll away.
This BOA Fraud is still going on. I never got word of the April sign-up deadline. I have been devastated by BOA’s scam, I live on a disabilty check of about $700.00 per month and basically had no money to live on through April and it will take months to put things back on an even keel. I haven’t bounced a check in several years but now my credit score is threatened. I guess that’s why the perpetrators of these nefarious actions get those multimillion dollar yearly bonuses. We may have a new Czar to oversee and regulate those bonuses, but Citigroup has already publically announced it has a plan to defeat the Czar’s actions in their executive compensation plans. This is an example of pure evil. I quess they want us to wait til we die before we get our private island and 17 virgin yaughts while they get their rewards today (and argue “trickle down.”)
Hmmm… I got hit today with a $35 overdraft fee for a FOUR-CENT math error on my part.
I had some OD charges from an emergency overdraft the previous month that I HAD to make for an acute yet potentially life-threatening illness, or else I was going to the hospital. I had to see a doctor “right now”, and get meds to treat my condition (turned out to be bronchial pneumonia). I had “some” money in the account, and I had thought it was just enough to cover the medical and Rx costs– but I had momentarily forgotten about an electronic withdrawal that was coming due– in fact, it had been pulled that very same day (a few days early). Thus, I was already in the hole for the cost of the doctor visit and meds, plus an additional $couple hundred for various associated OD fees which BoA stacked up.
So now I was behind. I was down about $295.06. I made a $577 deposit, got $300 available immediately which should have covered the outstanding amount and have me at a balance of + $4.94, with an additional $277 pending. However, I thought it was $4.98– I miscalculated by 4 cents when I made a small purchase. I OD’ed again, to the tune of $35.00. My balance was now -$35.04… four cents overdrawn plus the $35 fee… EVEN THOUGH BoA was (is) holding almost $282 of my $577 deposit from several hours earlier!
I called BofA and raised Cain with them about this petty and asinine practice, and was told that there was nothing that they could (or would) do about it. I replied with, “Well, maybe you… ahem, ‘CAN’T’ do anything about this but I can. I can– and will– remove my money from your bank and I can and will stop doing business with you. I have a choice, and so do you: fix this, or lose me as a customer.” They adjusted the OD charge so now I’m 4 cents overdrawn until the rest of my deposit drops.
Funny how deposits don’t get full credit at the time of deposit, and the bank can hold your money and not make it available to you for up to several days, yet they immediately assess OD or NSF fees if you are less than a nickel “overdrawn” as a result of these deposit holds.
That’s not just wrong. It’s fraud.
Any banker who is telling the American people how to save and watch their money is full of crap. Let’s face it, the reason these policies changed was that fact they hedged their bets on crap mortgages and overvalued acquisitions and lost. So they need cash — and fast. The majority of banks have gone under — but BofA is TOO BIG TO FAIL — so they get to screw hard working people out of money.
If every single account holder went in tomorrow and withdrew their money — BofA couldn’t even pay out. But they can tell us that we need to be more responsible.
If their fees were more reasonable, when people get caught in bad situation or make a miscalculation, they could climb out of it by the next pay cycle. But with these ridiculous fees, which may be legal but certainly not ethical, people get stuck in an overdraft cycle, which is exactly what the banks want. The only way to make money on a free checking account is to charge fees. Large accounts are used by the banks as investment capital, while smaller accounts are used as fee catchers.
I say we take the power back and let them know the consumer is supposed to be in charge — not getting charged! Everyone on this blog, go to your bank, withdraw your money and keep it out of the system!
Yeah because making a run on the banks only hurts banks. Get real. Did you ever study history of the great depression?
What I’m saying is to blow up the traditional banking system — obviously you haven’t studied your history.
The main point is that banks say one thing, do another and collect fees on all of it. And when they are overdrawn, they punish their customers and get more fees and bailouts.
The need for traditional big banks as a vehicle of savings and investment is over. There are way better systems we could roll out and help close the gap between rich and poor.
07/16/2009 NSF: RETURNED ITEM FEE -$35.00 -$384.39
07/15/2009 NSF: RETURNED ITEM FEE -$35.00 -$349.39
07/14/2009 SPEEDY CASHCOM 9 DES:P
AYMENT ID:7971274 I… $100.00 -$314.39
07/13/2009 NSF: RETURNED ITEM FEE -$35.00 -$414.39
07/13/2009 NSF: RETURNED ITEM FEE -$35.00 -$379.39
07/13/2009 NSF: RETURNED ITEM FEE -$35.00 -$344.39
07/13/2009 NSF: RETURNED ITEM FEE -$35.00 -$309.39
07/13/2009 NSF: RETURNED ITEM FEE -$35.00 -$274.39
07/13/2009 NSF: RETURNED ITEM FEE -$35.00 -$239.39
07/13/2009 NSF: RETURNED ITEM FEE -$35.00 -$204.39
07/13/2009 NSF: RETURNED ITEM FEE -$35.00 -$169.39
07/13/2009 NSF: RETURNED ITEM FEE -$35.00 -$134.39
07/13/2009 NSF: RETURNED ITEM FEE -$35.00 -$99.39
07/10/2009 OVERDRAFT ITEM FEE -$35.00 -$64.39
07/09/2009 BKOFAMERICA ATM WITHDR
WL 07-09 #006636 CU… -$100.00 -$29.39
07/09/2009 NSF: RETURNED ITEM FEE -$35.00 $70.61
07/09/2009 PDLLoanCenter 09 DES:P
DL ID:0-Funding IND… $300.00 $105.61
07/03/2009 NSF: RETURNED ITEM FEE -$35.00 -$194.39
07/03/2009 OVERDRAFT FEE REFUND
FDES NNC 0541600 NB… $350.00 -$159.39
07/02/2009 NSF: RETURNED ITEM FEE -$35.00 -$509.39
07/02/2009 NSF: RETURNED ITEM FEE -$35.00 -$474.39
07/02/2009 NSF: RETURNED ITEM FEE -$35.00 -$439.39
07/02/2009 NSF: RETURNED ITEM FEE -$35.00 -$404.39
07/02/2009 NSF: RETURNED ITEM FEE -$35.00 -$369.39
07/02/2009 NSF: RETURNED ITEM FEE -$35.00 -$334.39
07/02/2009 NSF: RETURNED ITEM FEE -$35.00 -$299.39
07/01/2009 NSF: RETURNED ITEM FEE -$35.00 -$264.39
JULY IS F———–ED.. B OF A REFUSES TO CLOSE MY ACCOUNT! BOOOOO HOOOOO!
Has anyone heard when this settlement might be final. i thought i saw a date of june 18th. anyone know anything else?
i had an check clear my account (saw it clear online) then the next day BoA turned around and returned it so they could charge me more fees. I closed my account over a year ago but every penny i get from their suit will be a blessing. Greedy b@stards!
Another lawsuit needs to be brought against Bank of America. I did not know about the first one but am here to say they seem not be affected by the first!
My 18 year old son just got slammed with $150 in over draft fees for 72 CENTS! That is correct 72 Cents
1st he over drawn 72 cents they assessed a $10.00 fee I put $60 dollars into his account. 7 days later they assessed a $35 fee for the overdrawn $10 fee and it all snowballed from there. This is INSANE!
This just happened to me last week, and I have argued with them that they are wrong…..THIS SUIT did nothing for ME…..because the lady and her supervisor explained they STILL use the biggest amount first, and I have lost $180 in bankl fees because of their wicked ways….WHAT DO I DO NOW?????
Frustrated beyond belief.
Good evening all,
I have just finished reading numerous posts concerning BofA. I like many others who have commented am suffering from a significant number of overdraft fees assessed by BofA.
I have spent a significant amount of time trying to understand how these fees are triggered and have stumbled across a recurring issue which the bank has yet to address.
I have spent the past 10 years employed by financial institutions such as JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs making numbers look good. They dump data on my desk and I create charts, graphs and tables to convey the information effectively. This has given me the background knowledge to use my own accounts as a test and research the events leading to and after an unexpected overdraft item fee.
Before I am blasted by someone stating I need to monitor my accounts closely and not spend what I don’t have let me make it absolutely clear that I have kept detailed spreadsheets outlining my income, budget items, bill payment, etc. I make adjustments to the spreadsheet real time, keeping a secondary record of what’s really going on with my money. I am also well studied on how a banks posting process works and familiar with BofAs customer agreements, fee schedule and account maintenance required. I’m a bit OCD about it.
I am currently a BofA customer with an Access Advantage relationship and currently hold 4 accounts. 1 basic checking, 1 money market savings, and 1 money market checking (which was recently renamed to something i can’t remember) I also maintain a HELOC with BofA on my primary residence. I am NOT wealthy, barely middle class. I also do not keep credit cards. I operate on a cash only basis and keep an emergency stash. It is my opinion as long as you have good insurance no ’emergency’ will cost you more than your highest deductible and 1 week of living expenses. I hadn’t always operated that way but it serves me very well now. I plan ahead for major purchases.
I reconcile my ‘excel checkbook’ against my statements and what I have found is quite disturbing. The fact is that month after month my deposits exceed my debits but I am randomly assessed overdraft fees on accounts which have more than enough money in them to cover the charge(s) which triggered the fees. The same frustration some of you have expressed watching a .99 iTunes purchase trigger an overdraft item fee of $35 and then the snowball effect.
I will give you the basic tools to research your own fees, if you know you don’t spend more than you have to spend this should help you. My situation gets a little confusing as I hold multiple accounts.
The 3 accounts I have were all linked so if I did make an error, i’d be protected. The money market savings and money market checking are funded by direct deposit. 20% of each of my paychecks is automatically put into savings the remainder into the money market checking. I am paid on the 15th and last business day of the month. I pay my bills on the same day I am paid taking the total payment amount and transferring that from my money market checking into my basic checking, leaving the difference between my bills, and whatever is left from my paycheck, usually not too much anywhere from $200-$500. I pay all of my bills except the lawn man and housekeeper online using the vendor websites and one using BofA bill pay. I had NO problems with fees until I relocated and the teller said it would be in my best interest to transfer my accounts from the state they originated in to the state I currently resided in, I saw no harm in doing so and they set the accounts back up. I have had mysterious overdraft charges ever since that change was made. Since February I have incurred $1200 in overdraft item fees, and $120 in account maintenance fees. I didn’t catch the account maintenance fees, just assumed I was losing my mind. When I did find them it was $20 on each checking account and $10 on savings each month. I went to my banking center and they kindly removed $100 in maintenance fees but stated they were unable to remove the fees prior to that but I could call customer service to have the remainder removed. They explained my account had been set up incorrectly, weren’t linked properly and my advantage relationship wasn’t applied causing the maintenance fees. They stated the accounts were corrected and I shouldn’t see those fees again. I promptly called customer service and proceeded to spend 4 hours explaining over and over, yes. I realize it took me 6 months to notice the maintenance fees, but that doesn’t absolve you of your duty to correct a charge assessed in error by your organization. Just because it took me that long to catch it doesn’t mean it didn’t occur. I had to escalate to some department where a woman begrudgingly had me list fee dates and amounts which she verified, then removed. I said thank you and her final statement was we will not do this again, as in she did me some favor. You can’t not refund fees assessed due to a bank error, you can try not to but at the end of the day I know my rights as a consumer and BofAs small print and responsibilities. It is NOT a courtesy as they would have you believe.
In addition to the surprise fees in February my basic checking account was hit with an overdraft fee of $35, due solely to the unplanned for $20 account maintenance fee. I really only put the amount necessary into that account to cover bill payment. I tried to get them to remove the fee triggered by the maintenance fee and they wouldn’t and I was too tired to fight…it was ‘only $35’ lesson learned. In March I added an additional $100 to my bill amount just in case I got another surprise, and to my surprise ended up with $95 in overdraft item fees. Please note, ALL of my accounts are supposedly linked, leaving me with double back up. I called customer service and was rudely informed, you can’t link this one account, it wasn’t linked I stated the bank rep at my branch stated they were linked. Thank you informing me but that’s really not right. I was assessed $150.00 total fees in April, $170.00 in May, $180.00 in June and July is at $585.00.
Now before I get blasted by the don’t spend more than you have folks, let me give you my actual deposits versus debits for each month.
February was $240, March was $95, April was $540, May was $195, June was $310 and I am so confused over July I’m not quite sure but it SHOULD of been about $230.
In April I began keeping my online banking screen open on the daily account balance summary to watch what was going on with the accounts and like many of you have stated watched as AUTH and Debits occurred and how that influenced my daily balance with and without holds. What I have realized is that in every single instance where an overdraft fee was assessed the event that triggered it for whatever reason, the HOLD didn’t seem to roll off properly. Instead of say a $10 debit charge the vendor swiped on 7/12 placed a HOLD and reduced my available balance by $10. Fine, I spent the money, I knew I spent the money and I had the money to cover the expense, on 7/13 I watched that $10 AUTH on the 7/12 $10 charge MOVE around in order as other payment items AUTH and posted around it but noticed instead of that $10 AUTH reducing my daily available balance by $10, it was actually $20. It had rolled off from the previous day making my beginning balance correct, when it re-submitted for the AUTH it SAID $10 but the variance to my daily balance w/ holds was definitely $20. On 7/13 the $10 AUTH appears AGAIN and I watch it bounce around as usual and my daily available balance is reduced $30, 7/14 the 7/12 $10 charge finally turns into a debit and then it gets stranger, I watched my available balance somewhat reconcile, but by that time the damage had been done an overdraft fee was posted on 7/15 for the action on 7/14 from a charge which first presented as an AUTH on 7/12, what I realized is that no matter what the amount, my daily balance was reduced during the business day by item amount times number of days between date AUTH appeared and post or debit date.
…here is the trick to helping yourself. Enter the date, exact name of transaction, amount of transaction, average daily balance with holds, average daily balance w/o holds and leave a column free for a variance calculation each time an overdraft is triggered. The account reconciles to a point at the of business day. BofA swears authorizations roll off at midnight, they may but what happens during the day with serious reductions in available balance.
You can take the spreadsheet you create to your banking center and they will see you haven’t lost your mind, until they look at the starting daily balance. I am still stumped as to how they get it back to somewhat correct but the BofA employee did state, I see your problem, I am writing a request to have this looked into but I can’t submit it until I see a screen shot showing the AUTH/Debit cycle and amounts moving around within the business day. I thought. No problem. Unfortunately because all items had cleared and I hadn’t spent any additional money NOTHING is moving and I am unwilling to give BofA one more cent.
With that said and done. For some individuals who are certain they have deposits which exceed debits everyday and can prove it do me a favor and take screen shots of your daily balance history throughout the day on each of your accounts. You’ll catch them red handed. If enough of us catch them, maybe they’ll take a closer look at their deceptive practices. I like BofA and the services they provide but i can no longer afford to bank there I am looking for a good credit union with a somewhat convenient location.
I know I have written a novel. bofasucks post on 4.18 is correct, you are assessed overdraft charges based on AUTH holds affecting your daily balance with holds. I used $10 for 3 days as my example, imagine what happens when you pay approximately $2500 in bills/charges at once and this occurs, YOU ARE SCREWED and B of A will make you prove it before even thinking of removing the charges. I have caught them, and I am hoping if others who have been caught by these practices can take the time to create spreadsheets and screenshots outlining the issue and enough branch managers are then forced to escalate research requests resulting in fee reversals, slowly but surely someone is going to take a closer look at what the heck is going on.
Best of luck.
This time we are going for 45 Billion with a B!
Let’ litterally break the bank!
45 Million is nothing compared to the multi Billion dollar scam of processing transactions out of order to manipulate extra overdraft charges. If clowns like Barney Frank and Chris Dodd are impeached over this, by taking money to turn their heads and keep quiet,
SO BE IT!
Nobody or nothing is too big to fail, except GOD!
We will sue this time to close the crooked institute down completely.
If you care to be on the petition for the biggest ever Class Action Law Suit against BofA and all other Banks using this extortionist practices and robbery of its own customers, please contact parties after public announcement.
We will broadcast on television and radio.
Don’t be afraid to fight for what is right!
I have a consultation with a lawyer to start a class action against them for bad practices, if anyone wants in, let me know at the link above.
OK… this is getting kind of ridiculous now… how come all i read about is lawsuit this and lawsuit that for the banks re-ordering transactions. I had a very long talk with my banker and it took about 30 minutes to realize the problem is not the banks… (i was not brainwashed) … its called AUTHORIZATIONS!!!! the bank posts transaction per the merchants billing cycle – there is not a wild conspiracy going on where the banks are re-ordering transactions to force overdrafts or cause overdrafts to post…
BANKS POST TRANSACTION IN THE ORDER THE MERCHANT bills… not in the order the transactions were authorized! nothing is instant… it is a convenience to have a debit/check card and you have to be aware of how your spending the capitol. on Monday if you authorize a sale for 30.00 bucks and you have it.. but the merchant doesn’t collect till Friday and you don’t have the funds guess what you just Over drafted even if the money was there last Monday.
here is a few examples of what may occur.
Anytime you swipe your debit card the transaction is authorized up front depending on the amount of the transaction and the merchant themselves…
say for instance you get gas in your car…. if you go into the store and say I want 20 dollars worth of gas.. the transaction will be authorized for 20.00 and you get the gas. This transaction will appear most likely for a 3-5 day period on your pending transaction and clear when the merchant collects.
However if you go to a gas pump and “pay at the pump” gas stations only authorize 1.00 and you can start pumping…. WHY IS THIS? because if your paying at the pump the pump has no idea how much gas your going to pump into the car so the MERCHANT WILL authorize the transaction up front for 1 dollar for your convenience and collect the total amount latter once it goes through their BILLING CYCLE!
another example… did you know when your at a restaurant and you pay with a debit card the restaurant authorizes the transaction for 25% higher then the bill your about to pay is for?
do you know why?…. becuase they are accounting for a TIP to be included and added to the bill… if you ever get rejected at a resturant or they say your card wont work … but you know you can cover the bill.. advise “authorize the transaction for the bill amount, we will be paying tip in cash” voila the card clears.
when you use a debit/check card all transactions are authorized up front and await the merchant billing cycle – this is the case for even failed transactions have you ever rented a redbox dvd and the disc did not vend, but you go home and see the 1.00 +tax appearing on your billing statement… well if you call the redbox and say
“hey i was charged a 1.00 for a movie i didnt get”.. they will look in the system and advise…
“i do see a failed transaction and the disc did not vend, but please note your card was only authorized for 1.00 and in 3 – 5 business days it will fall off the billing statement we do not bill for failed transactions.”
anytime a card is authorized for a failed transaction the bank will keep it noted on the statement from 3 – 7 business days awaiting the merchants billing cycle… upon no collection or failed transactions the bank closes it and the money is released off “hold” and put back to the account and falls off the statement.
my car insurance was a perfect example… it was due on 05/26/2009
it was authorized and i received a receipt from progressive that they had collected my payment… however (after reading the fine print on progressives website) they even note a transaction can take 24/48 hours after post to be collected… well my first and only overdraft moment and being stupid and not understanding the system 100% made me go OMG THEY ARE REARRANGING MY TRANSACTIONS!!! and forced me to OD…. cause the progressive payment cleared before close of business on the 28th in may… so on the morning of the 28th i was positive according to my records which i was 112 dollars didnt clear yet!.
people are missing the point of this blog in general – nothing on here is about the banks re-arranging transactions and forcing over drafts…
this blog was started as a response to a lawsuit that said “online banking statements where not accurate and reflecting a 100% accurate picture of account statements while their advertising was telling the public it was 100% accurate”
it had nothing to do with re-ordering the account details. It was for false advertising leading the public to believe online banking was reflective of your true statement.
Bank of America has been charging and I have been paying all along an insurance premium. This insurance premium is to be used if I lose my job. I lost my job in January, and didn’t think about using this insurance until a friend reminded me that I have been paying it. Bank of America has been fighting me on this for two months now. I have given them all the documents they have requested, save one. They want my ex-employeer to fill out a section stating what hours I worked. That should not matter since I was a salaried worker. I was fired because of irreconcilable differences. I explained to Bank of america that he would not cooperate and signed, but they are still fighting me on it. If there are any others out there who are having this problem, I think we should get together and start a class action lawsuit of our own.
It’s not a matter of over drafting and not being responsible. If I have $600 friday and withdraw $50 friday night, get gas and lunch saturday afternoon, buy some cigarettes saturday night, get breakfast sunday morning, buy toilet paper sunday afternoon, and a slurpee sunday evening…and then I have a monthly recurring payment of $500 that got taken out at 2am monday morning…BoA reorders the transactions so that the monday morning $500 withdrawal gets ordered first. Then they say on the phone that well…their system doesn’t keep track over the weekend…even though the website and the atm machines are updated instantly. I get nailed for 7 overdrafts when in fact…there was money in my account at the time of the withdrawals. No argument or policy by the BoA employees on this site can justify this. Chronological deductions is the only acceptable order to be used. To penalize and chastise people for taking money that IS there and saying how WE need to be more responsible is idiotic and close minded. The policy is wrong…and should be illegal if it isn’t already.
Keep saying how we should be more responsible. It doesn’t make you any more right. When the whole system updates instantly and we are taking out money that exists in our account….that is a scam. Don’t tell me you can’t track it over the weekend if every other system can. Nail me for the last withdrawal on monday morning…that is a legitimate overdraft. But don’t reorder the transaction. It’s not right no matter how you try and explain it out of the corner of your mouth.
And according to the BoA customer service rep…it has nothing to do with when the transaction was processed. They have all told me the same thing. THEY PUT THE LARGEST TRANSACTION FIRST. Right from the horses mouth. Its a ploy to make more money at our expense. Its not our responsibility to know when every vendor will run the transaction. Debit card is suppose to be like cash. When its swiped…its out of my account. Its updated. Its taken from my account according to the atm..and the website…thats what we have to go by. Taht should be the bottom line.
They still haven’t learn from the lawsuit..
Hi,
BofA continues to do ALL of the things they settled for in the Class Action Lawsuit. On August 27, 2009, I deposited a B of A check from a local Auto Dealer for two thousand dollars. I was told by the B of A teller that they could not make the deposit for me due to the status of the Auto Dealer’s account (that is, the Auto Dealer had made a deposit on the previous Friday and they knew it would not post until Tuesday. The teller told me the funds WOULD be available on the 28th. I made the ATM deposit, checked my account on Tuesday and the funds appeared as available. I went to lunch for $22.00. , two checks were debited to my account, I made two merchant purchases using my B of A ATM visa card on the 28th, the Visa purchases were all processed, then on the 29th I made four more Visa purchases, including an Airline Ticket for $149.00 to Burbank, California. Most of these transactions were logged as Pending (except the checks), when I checked my account there were “8” overdraft fees and an available balance of $1,700.00. There was a HOLD until the “29th at 5 PM noted on my account. This was a $280.00 overdraft charge on my account with an available balance of $1,700.00…!
I went to the bank to speak with the teller who told me the funds would be available on the 28th. He checked the merchant account (the issuer) and determined that their funds were available on the “27th”). He did not understand why my funds were put on “hold” until the 29th. I was then directed to speak with someone on the floor. She took me to an office and made a “phone call” to customer service within B of A…so, get this…a “B of A” check…a “B of A” employee calling “B of A” customer service at the B of A Bank, and she had to speak with FIVE people it took 30 minutes, and their best question “when was this customers account opened (because they give themselves the right to put a hold on any check when you are a new customer) and the answer … 4 years (no luck with that one), she had to explain to FIVE people…then…the fees were reversed…$280.00!!! put back into my account…I then get a strange note in the mail…because you did not know when these funds were taken out and did not have an opportunity to respond, please contact your local B of A to reverse the charges (this was already completed), then two days later, I get another card stating that I have overdraft charges for 8X35.00 which have already been reversed…and yes, they continue to change the status of pending in different orders…yesterday, I deposited a check for $630.00 before 8 PM and according to their written note over the ATM it should of been posted by 8:00 PM, still not posted. I also had a Rental Car pending for $287.00 two days ago, and then the next day it was gone from my account all together, I went back to the bank, the floor manager could find that amount and said because it was pending it was removed from my account and the money was debited back to my account and once it cleared it would reappear…Is this creative thinking on your feet? It is impossible to track you purchases and money with this type of system…IMPOSSIBLE, if you are close to the line it is REALLY unfair…you go by your available balance and IT CAN CHANGE in BIG WAYS back and forth all day long and be totally different the next day…as in a lot less and then a lot more. You think that everything has been paid and then it turns out it has not.
You have an obligation to be responsible but the bank has an obligation to report your transactions openly and they are not doing this! If you do not check your account online, you are more vulnerable to being exploited…you have to print your daily statements to actually figure out what they are doing and have proof of the funny-money games. If I had not checked it would be very difficult to recreate and they count on this, I believe.
$280.00 from 3 million customers is a LOT OF EXTRA MONEY!
To Armen, or anyone who can help.
I’ve just got nailed with about $1000 in Overdraft Fees. I’ve called CC and spoke with Manager of CC, they only returned $163. I wanted to write letters to CEO office and board of Directors. Question I’ve is:
Do you include your account information in the letter or just give a phone number so they can call you back?
Thanks
hey i didn’t even know about this, i’ve fallen victim aswell for about $650. according to this site i would have had to responded by may of this year, that’s already past. what can i do to get some help? please email with any help. 🙂 thanks
Honestly, I though I was loosing my mind about the overdraft fees! I keep explaining to the customer service reps of BOA the sequence of deposites and debits were not in order and they talk around the answer and get this, they said if a transaction comes in that is a duplicate (well once they find out its a duplicate) I still get charged a overdraft fee even if its not paid, its called securing funds for the transaction (that never takes place). I seriously gave up and tried to close the account after paying close to $3000.00 of overdraft fees and only getting 2 refunded, but the rep at the bank convinced me their policies were changing and so I kept it open, sure enough 2 months later, $350.00 of overdraft fees. I have had it and am so frustrated with this damn bank. What should I do?
I just got hit with over $200 of overdraft fee’s from BofA for the same re-ordering of charges… And this is about the 4th time in five years they have done this to me. After spending over an hour on the phone with customer service, and managers, and not getting a single charge removed…
I feel the only way to get my money’s worth out of BofA is to take them to small claims court. If I do this, and each of you do this, we may or may not get our cash back, but it will tie up the time of their lawyers or managers time to show up and fight each small claim. This is the only satisfaction I can see, as it is more lucrative for them to pay off a class action suit than get tied up with thousands of minor claims. We have to make it more expensive to BofA to follow this policy than not, or they will continue to do it.
Does anyone know what is going on with the lawsuit? I haven’t heard anything and I wanted to know when I was going to be getting my $78..
Bank of America just hit us for over $420.00
My name is Sean McGrew, and I’m a Legal Assistant to attorney Deanna Dailey, with the law offices of Sprenger + Lang. We are conducting an investigation of Bank of America’s practice of inappropriately applying service fees to customer checking accounts. In the past, persons have posted on this blog regarding their issues with Bank of America. If you would be interested in assisting with our investigation, please contact us at boainvestigation@sprengerlang.com. Thank you.
heres a tip from Ralph Nader, Im gonna do this for SURE
Hi Guys,
I had the same over draft problem 2 months ago ans called customer service and reached Bank of America office but none could help me out even though it was my first time. The charge was for $105. Yesterday I tried again by sending an email to Ken.d.lewis@bankofamerica.com as given by someone in these comments. Some one from BOA called a while ago and told me they are refunding me the fee back and I check my account now, the refund is in my account. I couldn’t believe it. You guys might want to give it a shot. You are not going to loose anything.
Good Luck
P.S: I still hate BOA
I just need to quote this right here:
“MY 18 YEAR OLD DAUGHTER HAS ONLY HAD BANK OF AMERICA FOR 3 MONTH THEY CHARGED HER $35 FOR A $6 PURCHASE WHY DO THE
BANK LET A PURCHASE HAPPEN WHEN THERE IS NO MONEY IN THE ACCOUNT. NOW THEY SAY SHE OWES $95 SO SHE HAS GONE BACK TO PAYING FOR THING IN CASH”
Here’s the deal. Teach your children how to manage their money and this would not happen. The bank allows you to make purchases with insufficient funds because you have the ability to transfer funds into the account before the purchase posts, and not incur a fee.
Silly people.
If this lawsuit began last year, why is the bank still allowed to do this. I was recently charged 5 overdraft fees for the same situation. It wiped out my entire unemployment comp payment.
Hannah must work for BofA. THEY ARE CROOKS. We would go to jail for exercising the kinds of practices BofA holds dear.
Here’s a new one. Toxic Titles! A new practice of BofA whereby they walk away from properties (mostly in depressed urban areas) they have forclosed on (and evicted the owners) they deem as not cost effective to sell through REO or auction. The resulting consequences? The evicted owners are still on the title, they are subject to tax lien assessements, municple charges for debri removal/mowing etc., further lawsuits and even criminal prosecution.
Moreover, the neighborhoods that these abandoned properties are located in suffer as a result of the blight caused which in turn hurts innoceent surrounding homeowners property values.
In short BofA AGAIN gets away with their continued ruthlessness, disregard for their customers and lust for the almighty dollar.
Way to go BofA. You’re a real American Institution. BULL!
In response to Jenn,
”
Does anyone know what is going on with the lawsuit? I haven’t heard anything and I wanted to know when I was going to be getting my $78..
”
I want to know the same thing! I actually just recently closed my BofA accounts, and switched to Wamu before they changed to chase, and I wonder how I`m going to get my $78 now, and WHEN???
Has anybody heard anything on this?
Well B.O.A. is at it again. You may not know as I didn’t that they have changed their over draft fee process. First you receive a $10.00 charge the day after the overdraft, then 5 business days later if you have not covered overdrawn amt and the initial overdraft fee you get additional $35.00. On the 14th a Friday my checking acct went neg. by $2.13
on the 17th a $10.00 overdraft fee. Not realizing I had only 5 business
days to correct the neg. $12.13 I deposited $100.00 on the 21st.
Low and behold on the 24th when checking online there was an additional $35.00 fee. on the 25th I received a mail notice of the $10.00 charge and in the fine print it explains you have 5 business days FROM the date of overdraft. Since my event occur on Friday the 14th I counted 5 business days FROM not INCLUDING the 14th which would be Friday the 21st. Sorry they actually count THE Day of overdraft. This change occurred in June, as a B.O.A. customer you think they would inform us of changes transparently so all would be fully informed as in the past I would receive a mail notice, going paperless I have gotten email notices but I do not believe B.O.A. has transparently inform the public and will take advantage of potentially millions of customers for millions of dollars. JUST MORE CORPORATE CRIME.
All I know they getting all my money and I don’t know how to stop it!
It’s simple Larry, stop using your debit card and use a transaction register.
You people must not have a brain, seriously. How can you have 2 DOLLARS in your checking account, and not know it? Do you not keep track of your money AT ALL?
Clearly, if you have 2 dollars in your bank account and are making purchases with your debit card, you have much larger money (and buying) issues to address than worrying about overdraft fees.
I posted my information on a website for something and the company charged me for something else that I did not authorize. The BOA says it’s not fraud because I gave them the information. The bank did not pay this company but charged me overdraft fee which in turn cause 4 other small transactions to bounce and now I have lost almost $300 thanks to extended overdraft fees. I can’t believe there’s nothing I can do! Oh and by the way, when I call customer service–“there’s nothing they can do”.
Does anyone have a name of attorney in Chicago that I can contact. I want to sue BOA because they held a cashiers check for 7 days and then proceeded to charge me $175 in overdraft fees.
Because of fraud and fake checks, not even cashiers checks are guaranteed anymore.
Just stopping with Bank of America, seriously, who wants to bank there in a state of economy like this. Close your account and move your money somewhere else. Bank of America is a corporate Mc Donalds look-alike. Their job is to sell and make money, they are required to. When you sign their dumb document when starting new services with them, it reads in fine print they have the right to charge fees, re-arrange transactions for your convenience, and charge overdraft fees. Most banks are doing that but not as bad as Bank of America. This bank is getting too big and soon the government is going to regulate them because they know this bank is getting huge. They are close to being a monopoly, and as the FTC chairman and FDIC agent describe, banks work better when their small.
Its funny to see the people(customers) complaining and writing bad comments…u show how bad bank of america is…just because you got hit y feed because of your own mistakes?
I have been a boa customer for 10 years and never ever hd any problem, because i know how to manage my transcation register, etc and also have services like ODP, etc…lots of ways to avoid a fee, i am not rich but i spend of how much i have in my accounts..
i also overdrew my account and faced the high to low structure…i got 3 fees intead of one, BUT I WAS HAPPY, they paid ny $1500.00 loan payment first, which is good, if this check would have bounced, i would have to pay double the amount of overdrfat as a late paymnet to my loan bank, plus interest plus what not and wats more affecting my credit for a bad check i v written…so wat if I paid $105.00 in fees??? IT HAPPENED FOR A GOOD…it has a reason and trust me the overdraft facility that bank allows is amazing….
I have had my friend whose daughter was in hospital and was in urgent need of money…she was wise, what she did?
she went to a BofA ATM, took $1000.00 from the ATM, overdrew her account and paid only one fee…this is how bank helped in the time of need….and u just have to pay one fee for this small loan, no interest, nothing..
As we all have been hit by these hard economic times, I can understand that the fee are pricey, however, its our responsibility to understand how our bank works and policies…(its ur choice to open the account there), manage your accounts accoirdingly and avoid the fees and get excellent services.
Now about customer service there, did u try chatting there, its amazing, people are so polite and nice…24*7, no wait, wonderful!!!
All i want to say is that if you are given overdraft facilty by the bank, use it judiciosly, if you dont have funds, take from atm a large amount and pay your transactions by cash…wats the harm? nothing and i m not sure if u all know as when the card is declined and paid?
There is a limit alloted to each account to which bank pays your trs, its a dollar limit, if yoiur tr amount is less than or equal to it, it is paid or else the tr is declined or returned, logic is simple, this dollar limit you can use in your times of need to get a $500.00 check get paid and pay $35.00 or be a crook to keep using your card for smaller trsanctions and paying fees..
All you need it to be a little smart and understand how things work and save yourself!!!
Ohh…that was long..
in response to dave,
I actually always know how much money is in my account, but I earn a LOT of money and I spend a lot too.. so what happened in my case, was I went away on holiday and spend a LOT of money at a lot of different places.. I didnt keep track of all my debit card transactions, because I expected that it will be deducted from my account..
however, 2 months later, a $300 thing I bought on my holiday all of a sudden got posted, and I didnt even realise it.. it was a day before payday, and I just happen to have bought some things with the last money in my account the day before and got posted the same day!
thats why I had 2 over draft fees! not because I dont know how ot manage my money, but because someone fucked up! if I had that $300 charge off my account, I wouldnt have spend more money earlier that month!!
anyway, I switched banks and closed my BofA accounts.. I`m still waiting for my $78!!
for Badass… i agree what happened to u was bad…u know what just keep a simple rule any tr that you have scheduled…juts keep that spent…they can chuck u nytime they want u know…why not on a safer side
I was just recently hit with $400.00 in overdraft fees! And I am one who is diligent about my account and spending. BoA rearranged my transactions and caused me to have 9 overdraft fees. When in actuality it should have been one. Also the one charge that came out later than it was made, posted as pending against my account (which I was told by BoA those funds are held against your available balance) so when I made my purchases I had the funds in my account to cover all of them. and when I made my last ATM withdrawal I purposely left a balance to leave for the gas transactions I made because those don’t show against your account.
Then a day later I go to check my account and see 400 in overdraft fees! I called to find out what the hell happened and no one could explain it to me! One person told me eventually the balance I see online, mobile and ATM is not the real balance! How the hell are we supposed to know our balance if we are using all the tools provided by BoA, but they are not showing our true balances! I found this outrageous. Of course nobody could do anything about the charges. it’s funny how BoA can do courtesy transactions to overdraft your account but they can’t give courtesy refunds.
I had BoA put a tracker on my account, which of course did not result in anything. But this is what the tracker told me when I proceeded to ask him questions on why this happened. I asked him why was it that I am never showed my true balance? He told me that I can see the 2nd balance when I incur an overdraft fee, there is a link attached to the overdraft fee to see it. I then asked him why do I have to incur an overdraft fee in order for me to that balance? He wouldn’t answer me at all, he went all around the question. I think the business practices of BoA are outrageous, and the fact that they get away with this is crazy!
I am a single mom with a disabled child, that I have to provide services for. I do not receive support from my daughters father, and I don’t have any other sources of income. My paycheck is it. I do everything on my own. And for a bank to come along and take more than half my check is disgusting. They are taking the services my daughter needs and other everyday living expenses away from my daughter. And the government wonders why there are so many people milking the system. You either have to be the poorest of the poor to get help or you have to be the richest of the rich to be able not to have to worry about a thing. But if you are in the middle you get screwed for everything! And good luck trying to get help because there isn’t anything out there for the middle class.
If there is anyone who can guide me on what to do, to get my hard earned money back, please let me know.
Thanks
Reply to:BOAVICTIM
hey dear, write an executive complaint to boa…ken.d.lewis@bankofamerica.com…rest lemme know what happens!!
My wife recently opened a BOA account about a month and a half ago and had the same thing happened to her. She had a bunch of small debit transactions and they got her for 16 overdraft fees in just a matter of days ($560.00) for about $60 total in debit card transactions. The funny thing is that when you look at the online statement there was money in the account for each transaction, THEY CHARGED THE OVERDRAFT FEES BEFORE THEY PUT THROUGH THE DEBIT TRANSACTION CAUSING A DOMINO EFFECT OF FEES. The government is just as much to blame because not only did the US goverment bail them out with our tax money, they stand by and let them steal from the American people and look the other way. I have already hired an attorney to file a civil and/or class action lawsuit against BOA. A website is in the works and should be online in a matter of days, with lawsuit information, actual BOA statements that prove their fraudelent activity and more. Please check back soon as I will posting the website for all to see.
Just about every bank in this country practices this policy. B of A once hit me up so hard for more that three hundred dollars by using this practice. From the largest debit to the smallest. but this thing was that I was only overdrawn about $1, I had direct deposit as well and they chose to register my deposit after they made sure to get overdraft fees. They hit me with about 6 or seven fees and told me that my job did not deposit the funds on time! go figure.
TADA! Same Crap Differant Day. Over the last few years this has happened to me MULTIPLE times. And EVERY TIME I complained to no avail. Just today I found out I was hit with 8 total overdraft fees, and they will not refund ANY because they had refunded some in the last 3 months.
I even checked my account online before making a deposit on 9/9/09 and the last 6 small transactions for 40 dollars hit last and were all showing PENDING. So I made the deposit and then when to go get gas and a Rockstar (2 more transactions) that were added on after the 6 overdraft fees. Their excuse for all of this happening this way to me is that the Website is not always current.
I wanted to drive my car through the bank. I’m still shaking because I’m so pissed off.
On a side note, my friends bank account he had at Citi wouldn’t charge overdrafts AT ALL, they would Finance any overdrafts like a credit card. So if he overdrafted 40 dollars it would cost like… 3.2 dollars a day until it was paid back.
In today’s economy, I don’t see why this behavior by the banks is tolerated AT ALL. I wish there was more we could do as a consumer to make this GO AWAY.
In Reply to banker123:
I sat on hold for 25 minutes today when i called in about my overdrafts (called on my office phone and WATCHED the time go by on the call timer…). And both the original Customer Service Representive AND the so-called “Manager” (who had to ask permission to submit a request to reverse the overdrafts) that I spoke with were COMPLETELY rude to me, and I was calm and collected through out the entire call.
Just because YOU haven’t had a problem … Doesn’t mean EVERY ONE I KNOW hasn’t. I can’t recall EVER hearing someone Oh so Satisfied with BofA. There are 3 people JUST in my office that have problems with them.
Yes, Every-Single-One of the people that have had problems with BofA didn’t manage their bank account correctly. But the ENTIRE point is that they Re-Arrange the charges. One overdraft turns into Tons. And really you proved your point … you got hit with 3 instead of 1. Three x 35, or One x 35. I’m sure 70 Dollars is worth something to you. You’re better off than I am that’s for sure. 1000/month for rent/mortgage would break me. Even if you made 70 dollars an hour, is an HOUR of your time not worth anything?
I do Collections for a Living, and even I don’t hit people THAT HARD. Homeowners in Associations that are Hundreds of dollars behind in their Association dues get a COURTESY LETTER before they get any fees. And unless there is legal assistance needed to collect the HOA dues, the fees are small (as in FULL foreclosure, small claims court).
Go ahead, Stay with BofA, you’ll get yours from them one day. You’ll be out swiping your card through-out a weekend and Sunday night something will go wrong, you’ll put a bunch of money on the card, and all the little crap you bought through the weekend will catch up to you. Cigarettes cost you 42 dollars, that Fiji water bottle is now 40, and so on. Getting charged 35 Dollars on 30 cents (yes they do this) should be a crime.
BANK OF AMERICA HELD THE DEPOSIT OF A CHECK THAT WAS SUBMITTED BY UNEMPLOYMENT TO GO IN ON THE 8TH AND COST ME TEN OVER DRAFT FEES. THEY AGREED TO REVERSE 3 WHICH TOTALED $105. I ASKED THE SUPERVISOR HOW I WAS SUPPOSE TO BUY MY CHILDREN GROCERIES THIS WEEK AFTER THEY TOOK OUT $245 FOR BOGUS BANK OPERATIONS- HE TOLD ME THAT $105 WAS MORE THAN ENOUGH TO BUY GROCERIES AND GAS FOR THE WEEK. NICE! I HOPE THESE BANK OF AMERICA WHORES LOSE THEIR JOBS AND GET THE SWINE FLU!
Hi All,
I learned that if you make a check deposit at the ATM and a hold is placed on that check and then you incur overdraft charges BofA will reverse those charges once the check has cleared. I was told that you have to call the customer service number and request this to happen as early as the first day of the release of the hold. The customer service representative told me that it is a “service” and not a “policy” and that it is case by case…and he did not know when it went into effect. I don’t know if this helps you.
j.
i agree with joann, it is policy and dey are supposed to refund u all the fees………
I’m one who always kept an eye how how much money I spend. So when I rearranged a BOA credit card payment to a later date so that I would have sufficient funds to pay other important bills, I thought I was good. Until BOA conveniently “forgot” to make the change. So not only did the original payment go through but so did my other transactions causing overdraft fees in excess of $175. On top of that, the payment I had scheduled for the later date went through as well although I was told by another customer service agent no change was made. For five days straight I tried to get a manager on the phone to correct the problem, and yet that must have been the week where they were granted multiple late lunches and meetings because not one even attempted to call me back. Oh yeah and they got me for extended overdraft fees as well. Needless to say that was the very last time I used BOA.
Between our personal and business acct, we were hit with 13 overdraft charges today. We balanced our spending so that we thought we would only be hit with 1 overdraft fee, but BOA did the “classic” of posting the higher items and then suddenly moved the “pending” items to clear all in the same day in fact. Such crap!
We are not floating in cash, we do live a very budgeted life and figured we could handle one fee on each account, but not 13!!! Explain to me how I use my check card, BOA takes the funds from the ledger so the balance obviously drops, then all of a sudden a large check comes in and “poof” the money goes back in, covers the check, and oh by the way, now you don’t have the money for the rest of the transactions you made. WTF?!?!
I’m closing my acct and switching backs. This is absurd!
I wish I knew about this a long time ago. Bank of America did that to my husband and I last year. They charged us so many fees that it totalled about $600. We are still paying them back. WTF?
Uguysrfunny and any other person who agrees with a bank has to be ashamed of themselves. U who work for the bank or has a job that can afford you to pay on time and keep money in the bank may not always have that good job or good health that will afford you to keep that position, so you should not be so insensitive to others who are in the position. Our American economy is in bad shape because the GIANT companies are becoming theives. God does not like it and these companies will be punished eventually. They will come down eventually or cause some global reaction like AIG. The government is in with these companies. If it were not so, why wasnt all the Money siezed by Madoff, 826 million returned to the people it was taken from? Somehow, I do not really believe Madoff is going to do any real “in prison” time. He is going to be relocated to somewhere he will be well taken care of. Government hoax to get money. A long time ago I remember old people did not trust the banks and kept their money under the mattress. When I was 18 and acquired my first checking account, if the account went into overdraft you would not owe more than the amount of the check that bounced, a twenty dollar fee, and the account was put on hold so there would be no further activity. Now the banks are set up to make money off of you. You deposit your money and they pay your debts out of order and suggest that they did you a favor by paying debts and charging you 35 to pay it into overdraft and 35 for the overdraft. Total 70. The banks are robbing people. The banks encouraged the bulk of the world to let them watch your money with the idea of “Managing your funds for you.” This is the exact term they use. Just like the old people suspected, they are managing to rob us. We may be safer hiding our money in a wall or under a mattress. Those TV shows of the American economy and civilization reaching disaster somehow are predictions. Not only Madoff is an indication of our crooked government, but the bailout of AIG still makes no sense to me if Health Care Reform is so important. Why bailout AIG? AIG should have fallen in the ground and it would have forced immediate Health Care Reform. So Uguysarefunny and anyone who agrees with him, if the crookes deserve a bail out, then honest hard working people who make occasional mistakes and have unexpected hardships deserve a bail out too. No one is picking on Uguysrfunny, because some of us were in your shoes once upon a time when we were fresh out of high school and college with no children and no illness and perceived out lives as perfect. Its called NAIVE. The day comes when even the RICH begin to have big financial problems- if it were not so, they would not STEAL from the POOR.
I too have been hit hard by BoA in the past few months. I typically keep pretty good track of what we spend, although sometimes, there are some nasty surprises…
Example: My wife went to the ATM to pull some money for doctors’ appointments. Unfortunately, she pulled more than what we had available according to the online banking site, but the receipt from the ATM reflected a totally different balance. Long story short, we got nailed for seven overdraft fees of $35 each.
When I called BoA to point out the incorrect information, they hid behind their typical statement of “online banking and ATM information may not be accurate.” Excuse me? If it’s not accurate, then why should I be using it? Furthermore, why on God’s green Earth would an ATM allow someone to withdraw more money than they had available?
They also openly cited the “current economic environment” for their refusal to refund any of the fees, despite their inaccurate information. When I protested further, they disconnected the call.
Today, I received an email alert saying that I was at risk for an additional overdraft fee. Just checked the account, and I’ve got a deposit pending, and several debits – all in PENDING status. At no point thus far, according to the POSTED transactions, has my account gone into the red – so why the alert saying I was about to get back on this merry-go-round of theft and stupidity again? By their own words in my many discussions with them, pending transactions “do not count” for certain until they actually post… so now, are they going to start charging fees for transactions that MIGHT overdraft?
I have filed an FTC complaint regarding this behavior, but I really don’t expect much help from that corner, either. I honestly don’t expect any help from any corporations these days – they’re too busy throwing parties for their executives at private retreats to realize that their behavior is going to cause them to fail.
Here’s a love note for you, BoA: Hate you, hate your fees, hate your unethical practices, taking my money and joining a credit union.
I’ve had constant problems with BofA.
I call and complain and they return part of what they purloin.
I filed a complaint with the better business bureau and The Office of the Comptroller of Currency. below are their web sites where you file a complaint electronically. I also found this organization and filed a complaint with my congressman.
everyone here should do the same.
http://www.bbb.org/us/Find-Business-Reviews/
http://www.helpwithmybank.gov/complaints/index.html
http://www.affil.org/
To: sdScott
I have had the same problem and I keep at least six thousand dollars in my checking account. I also have a Credit Union account. But, what I wanted to add is that … you have to check the side box that says something like “available balance history” and there is the information regarding your overdraft trigger (it says 435.00 overdraft trigger), that is in RED, and that is where you have to go to argue with them…print out both the daily “available balance history” and your daily account balance… and then go at it.
okay,
joann
sdScott
correction…(it says $35.00 overdraft trigger)
“Uguysarefunny”……in regards to your comment on, where you said it was illegal to record someone on the phone, if the other person is not aware of it, is unfortunately, not true. In the US, the law clearly states that a phone conversation CAN BE LEGALLY recorded, as long as (1) person is aware of it. Don’t believe me? Look it up….
Wells Fargo Customer,
Sorry but you are wrong about that, in the state of California both people have to be made aware of a recording.
I’m pretty sure that more states have similar laws.
The nice thing about that is if you file a suit against me using illegally obtained audio I can turn around and counter sue and win the lawsuit, the laws will go by the state in which I reside.
But this also goes the other way they can sue us also for a projected loss of business and trust me they can project a lot.
Steve
San Diego, CA
The settlement is out of the state court for only $78, but the underline issue (Re-ordering Transactions to Maximize Overdraft Fees) has effected many nation wide.
It is time to join actions in federal courts, and to list all banks once for all.
The attorneys in lead are not hard to find. Google them if you like.
Seven class-action cases centered on bank overdraft fees have been consolidated in Miami:
– Melanie Garcia v. Wachovia Bank (Sept. 4, 2008), Miami
– Celia Spears-Haymond v. Wachovia (Oct. 3, 2008), San Francisco
– Ryan Phillip Pena v. Wachovia Bank (Oct. 27, 2008), New Jersey
– Mike Amrhein v. Citibank (Nov. 7, 2008), New Jersey
– Ralph Tornes v. Bank of America (Dec. 1, 2008), Miami
– Ken Vollmer v. Wachovia (March 2, 2009), Atlanta
– Steve Yorke and Kristin Richards v. Bank of America (July 15, 2009), San Francisco
http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202432536214
I WILL SUE THE TCF BANK IN CHICAGO.
Has anyone has any problems with Chase???
This overdraft fee problem still is occurring with Wamu/Chase. Are you aware of any similar class-action lawsuits against them? There would be a huge group to join this lawsuit in California.
The big problem is that the class action is not enough to deter the Banks. A 35 million class action suit is peanuts to BAC. The average gross revenus is 120 billion. That means it is less than 0.35% of the Bank’s revenue. Just a minor hiccup in the road and by no means a detterent to this kind of behavior
Ok Everyone:
I HEARD THIS MORNING ON NPR BROADCAST NEWS & THEN WENT ONLINE TO FIND:
” Starting October 19th, Bank of America said it will no longer charge overdraft fees when a customer’s account is overdrawn by less than $10 in one day. A $35 fee will still be levied IF the account isn’t brought into balance within 5 days. ”
The Charlotte-based bank will LIMIT TO FOUR THE NUMBER OF TIMES AN OVERDRAFT FEE CAN BE CHARGED ON AN ACCOUNT PER DAY.”
NPR said that lawyers were fed up with these practices of taking people’s money when they need it so badly.
I didn’t know about the lawsuits that started at the beginning of this year . . . BofA has ODF’d me atleast $375 in the past couple weeks; and it all started when a few online companies
were debiting my account for something I already paid for . . .
I am glad there is an Class Action law suit, but I am going to get my money back through Customer Service by telephone conversation, or I will sue them personally.
MY VIEW:
BANKS, INSURANCE CO’s, PHARMACEUTICAL CO’s, OIL CO’s, WALL STREET, etc … NEED TO BE REGULATED. CAPITALISM DOESN’T WORK WITHOUT STRICT REGULATION BECAUSE THESE EXECUTIVES ARE CORRUPT WITH GREED AND POWER. THEY HAVE KNOWN FOR 20 OR SO YEARS THAT THEY ARE ABOVE THE LAW.
THEY ARE CRIMINALS and SHOULD BE IN JAIL. Their work ethics and practice have put us in the overall hell we live in today.
EX: how is it physically possible that 1 bottle of 30 pills cost $500 – 700 dollars ???
I am grateful I found this site this morning – I have the ammo to call BofA and intimidate them to the best of my ability to get most of my money back.
I hope everyone who posted their situation with BofA keeps doing the same.
I’ve had constant problems with BofA.
I call and complain and they return part of what they purloin.
I filed a complaint with the better business bureau and The Office of the Comptroller of Currency. below are their web sites where you file a complaint electronically. I also found this organization and filed a complaint with my congressman.
everyone here should do the same.
http://www.bbb.org/us/Find-Business-Reviews/
http://www.helpwithmybank.gov/complaints/index.html
http://www.affil.org/
Uguysrfunny –
your an idiot and if i ever saw you i would knock your teeth out and leave you crying on the ground. i work for a telecom company and i understand both sides of this to an extent. yes we screw people over with ungodly overage rates and activation fees etc etc. i dont and will never claim that this is fair in any way. nevertheless i do love my job and i am honest with my customers and try to steer them in the best direction – because i want them to be loyal to me and come back to me. you think you are smart because you understand the ins and outs of BofA because it is part of your ongoing training and that it is REQUIRED that you know all of the small print. everyone on here is trying to tell you that they dont have time to do their job take care of their family AND do your job too – retard. i could talk for days about cell phones and internet solutions and i DONT expect people to have half of the knowledge that i have, and yes it makes them 10 times more vulnerable and easier to manipulate because of the basic fact that no one else has the time to do my job as well as their own. try to keep up with what i do – i get 100’s of emails every day with updates, promotions, etc. the only reason i can keep up is because it is my job. i dont expect customers to be able to so i do my best to educate them. i have several friends that i went to college with that are bankers now – and GUESS WHAT ? they all have great credit and perfect bank account history and no overdraft fees. yayy for them too
because they were forced to learn these things by dealing with other’s
misfortunes.
all you are is ignorant – and you will get whats coming
…and if you want to get into the nitty gritty –
i have noticed on 3 separate occasions my debits being reordered. i know this for a FACT. for example: i live in close perimeter to a grocery store, gas station, and several restaurants, all of which i visit regularly. i have monitored my online account and watched these debits clear the exact same day as the transaction. on 9/20 i visited the same gas station, grocery store, and a nearby burger king all before heading to Arlington to see the opening night of the Cowboys vs Giants (for which i payed a ridiculous amount of money to attend). now that day my online bank account showed upwards of $800 before purchasing the tickets from another BofA customer whom i transfered the funds to via online transfer. and sure enough, as expected the transfer went to pending, one of the other debits cleared the next day and the other 2(burger king and grocery store), both in amounts less than $10, didnt decide to pop up until 3 days later. 2 overdraft fees later i am in the negative. this can also be defined as ROBBERY. now two hits for $35 each isnt quite enough for me to ‘cry’ over – but i have lost MUCH more on other occasions to this SCAM.
and in my line of work i see things like this happen all the time and they never get resolved because honestly there isnt any oversight. there is no one monitoring these banks and especially not the 3rd party collections agencies, and you dont have to watch dateline to know this. so no im not going to hire an attorney over something considerably less than the fees he would inevitably charge.
but there is something a co-worker recently mentioned to me that i found interesting and useful.
when your bank account gets down to around $2-300, you can buy a visa or mastercard gift card – they are usually hanging there on display while you’re waiting in the grocery line and your gf is reading about the newest reality tv crap. get one or two for a 100 bucks and use them only until your account is replenished. voila – you cannot incur overdraft fees on a gift card. if anyone else has tried this i would love to hear your method.
This is a past from above; it’s actually what happened to me too !!
Rick Says:
February 9th, 2009 at 7:12 am
It is about time that banks get called on this kind of behavior. You used the word “allegedly” in your blog post which is appropriate given the legal circumstances. I have actually seen this kind of thing in action in a situation. If the bank had processed the debits in the actual order received, the person would have been hit with only one overdraft fee. In reality the person was hit with fees on all transactions for the day. The bank’s excuse was that they consider the biggest transaction to be the most important. How do they know what is most important to the particular customer? If they are actually making value judgments, a reasonable person would push through as many transactions as would fit given the funds available and then bounce the rest. On balance, I have to say that order received is probably the best policy.
And for Uguysarefunny, she must have been trained by the same team that trains the customer service folks on the phone; she defends the bank’s action just as they do.
Recently I commented to the bank that “they were crooks”, and I was told they would suspend my account if I continue to use profanity, I said what profanity I just said “crooks”, this rep didn’t like that and get upset. Oh well, there is actual guilt there and they are sensitive about it.
Their crooks !!!!!!! Plan and simple
u ppl will spend ur life writing blogs and bad about the bank but still most of u who have posted here still remain with boa?
y?
coz u all r afraid of small and other bank’s going bankrupt?????
pooor people
I just had BOA rob me of $200. The cash machine deducted it from my account and did not give me money. The cash machine stated there was an error so it was logged. I went up to the teller and she told me they don’t service the machines and I would need to call customer service. To add insult to injury, I tried to withdraw the $200 again from the teller but since I just had my birthday my license just expired a few days before. She would not let me withdraw any funds from my account at all. This despite knowing and seeing I am who I am with my photo ID drivers license. Even the DMV gives you a 30 day grace period before you renew your license. So now they have $200 of my money that they will determine in 45 days if I am even allowed to have the money they stole from me. I am on a fixed income of only $700 a month and that is a lot of money for me. I will not be able to afford medications or groceries this month because of this. If I quit taking my medications abruptly I can die, it is very dangerous. The machine logged the error and at the end of the day when the machines are serviced they should be able to know if the machine had $200 extra in it. So I can’t withdraw any funds from that bank now and they are holding my money hostage. Money that they will determine if I even get to keep which belongs to me. There is a daily limit on how much you can withdraw from an ATM and I can’t go in person to withdraw because they will not accept my ID. So they basically have all $700 of my monthly Social Security check and are holding it hostage. I did nothing wrong, I didn’t even write a bad check or anything. All I did was try to get money out of the machine so I could go buy medications and groceries for this month.
I can’t even go to another bank, because I can’t even withdraw the minimum amount of MY MONEY to go to another bank and open another account, so I can start proceedings with moving my auto deposits into the new account. When I explained how dire this situation is, they just didn’t care. They know they have my money, of which they may just outright steal from me when all is said and done. If I survive the 45 days, it will be a miracle.
I can’t think of any reason why anyone would put his or her money in Bank of America? For God’s sake, people. Vote with your feet. In these matters it’s the only vote you get. Smaller bank = smaller crooks.
Good point BOA Says.
Why would all of us stay with criminal enterprises such as BOA & US BANK?
What would it take but maybe a20% loss of such grossly stolen profit (aka: “us poor people”) to damage these governemnt backed pyramids.
Research other options!!
Best option I can suggest is if you have ANY family member currently or retired from any branch of the military, look into a USAA account.
I am former Coast Guard, and did not even realize until 2 months ago that I was eligible to hold a USAA account. You may notice that I have not posted since then!
USAA does not charge any overdraft fees, and does not screw with your account. Not only that, but get this… THEY ACTUALLY REFUND A CERTAIN AMOUNT OF ATM FEES!!! Imagine that, they actually don’t steal every penny they can!!
Stand up people.
Venting online is great, but until we the people show these sharks whats up, thats all you will do is vent. $50 & 2 hours time to file with small claims court, seems a TON cheaper than letting them continue!
Be the change you wish to see.
I want these bastards to pay for their scams. I want restitution
BOA is still charging overdraft fees on check cards. They are still allowing you to charge against your account even if you don’t have funds just so they can charge multiple overdraft fees. I just signed up for alerts because this whole time I thought my account was well funded but it wasn’t and I just got screwed by BOA. I can’t believe I messed up on my balance but BOA shouldn’t allow charges to go thru if there are no funds just so they can charge fees – that’s disgusting.
I never signed up for BOA. I banked with LaSalle and they were so much easier to work with. BOA doesn’t even try – they seem to have this attitude problem. I just don’t understand a company that treats its customers this badly. I hate BOA and miss LaSalle.
I just found out today that you can now opt out of overdraft services, the culprit inso many of our stories. Just call them and tell them that you wish to opt out of overdrafdt services and that will stop the approval of transactions that cause you to overdraw. Finally a step in the right direction.
Hi Diana,
Not to put too fine a point on it, but since you can’t go back to LaSalle, it’s time to look elsewhere. Staying with BOA is rewarding their behavior, like giving your dog a treat when he bites. They already got our TARP money: isn’t that enough?
Here is how you can file a complaint against the overdraft fees:
http://www.bank-overdraft.com/
What happened to my last law suit? Sart another one and still no money from the first 1?
What banks out there don’t follow this same robbery pattern?? Oh yeah..they all do . What are we to do?
What ever happened to banks making money off of loans and interest?
Gone are the good old days.
We lose, they win.
I love the comments from the people that say “use a transaction register” to keep track of my money. Guess what? I did that…funny thing is, I track my purchases IN THE ORDER THAT I MADE THEM! Guess a transaction register is pretty useless when the bank doesn’t take the money out the same way, huh? I’m going to a credit union tomorrow. Another question…if it’s a “law” that banks have to take money out from largest to smallest, as I saw posted on here, then why don’t credit unions? I also looked at something on BofA’s website regarding how they process things…can’t remember what it was officially called…and from what I read, they can pretty much do whatever they want, whenever they want. This one really made me laugh…if I close my account, and a few days later a charge comes in, they apparently have the “right” to re-open my account, pay the charge, then charge me $35 for being negative, since there is no money in the account! Um…wouldn’t the right thing to do be to just refuse to pay the money to the company? Oh wait…sorry…we’re talking about BofA…
Hi Jimb,
“What banks out there don’t follow this same robbery pattern?? Oh yeah..they all do.”
No, they don’t all do it with the same ruthlessness. There are degrees of contempt for the consumer. My local bank does NOT play these games.
Submit claim by May 1, 2009 ?????
May receive up to $78.00 ?????
I hadn’t bounced a check for years. As soon as Obama told kenny lewis to come up with $33.9B in NEW money, to shore up BOA if another downturn occurred in our economy, I was fleeced out of hundreds of dollars from my BOA checking and credit accounts. And it made no difference to them that I had no savings and my sole income was less than $700.00/MO from SSDI. BOA continues to commit larceny on it’s customers and our government continues to let them get away with it. I even called the FBI. They told me that they weren’t interested in what I claimed and told me that I had to work it out with BOA. I felt like the guy who escaped from Jeffery Dahmer but was caught by city police and returned to Dahmer who then chopped him up and ate him. Like bovine being cattle prodded to stand up to pass inspection, I guess I’m just another gullible American citizen who stands to get tazzered if I holler “foul play” about either the cops or the robbers.
Why are so many people complaining and nothing is being done!
I just got scamed by B of A too. Let’s get back on the bangwagon!
THESE PEOPLE ARE CRIMINALS!!
BOFA needs to be hit again with another class action suit. This time they give you the opt out but still charge you over draft fees!!! Something needs to be done to shut thins institution down!!!
hey we got enough evidence and enough people lets take bank of america to the court! they can’t keep doing this to hard working folks!
any body wanna form a support group against boa?
First Tennessee is another bank that does this. I have called and complained on many ocassions and got no where.
Its about time for another lawsuit against BOA, i will take the information from the previous suites and file a suit on my behave on Monday in the Circuit Court Of Prince William County , VA.
I have the OPT OUt but its a joke just like the highest to lowest…
As for the comment that all banks do this, that does not make it right.
At what point do people stop overdrafting their account. When the fee is $70 per, $100 per. $250 per?
Anonymus Banker is obiously an idiot.
It is not only the outragious percentage of the fees, but the stategicly manipulation of fees. These are especial taken advantage of poor and unemployed. Most of them should be fired and disallowed in the banking industry.
I would like to participate/start a class action lawsuit against Chase Bank. Who can I join or who is with me? Please email me at babytigz@aol.com
Oh woo hoo, a max of $78.
They stole over $500 from me by posting a large check first and then RETROACTIVELY bouncing my atm txns from the wkend before. THE TOP THREE BANKS HAVE MADE WELL OVER $38 BILLION FROM THESE FEES! (Google it!)
Sure, allow $35 million to pay back and keep us quiet…that is less than ONE TENTH. I want every penny back that B of A took out PLUS INTEREST. I’m supposed to be thankful for the $78? Who agreed to the $35 million??? Let’s get it into the billions…come on you political and wall street ripoff artists!
I was a B of A customer for over 20 years and when I discovered that they posted the check before the atm txns rather than chronologically, I fought every manager, branch manager, customer retention and service person I could. No one could do anything…they explained that their policy changed around five years ago. Of course my argument was: I have been a customer for 20 years, you sent me nothing in writing notifying me of this change! So put the money back in, I need to pay my mortgage!
Of course it fell on the deaf ears of the typically faceless B of A organization, so I hung up saying that they will see my name next in a class action lawsuit when some attorney sees the obvious opportunity!
I’m all for a class action lawsuit against any and all banks. The “re-ordering” of debits is rediculous, and only benfits the bank. It isn’t like they’re entering these by hand. Also, the online banking is a joke as well. I just had two OD’s because of eroneous information on my online statement (which the agent at Bof A$$’s confirmed with a teller’s printout). I asked them – if you provide a service of online banking and account resolution, how can you in good faith hit me with OD’s when the bank provides bad info? response (and in broken engrish) – “Sowwy…” The best thing that could have happened would have been to let these banks suffer the wrath of their own conduct, and let them fail. BofA get’s about $40B a year in OD’s, and still needed a bailout? Maybe due to the number of accounts they give out without any ID…but that’s another story.
I wonder how long it would take to cause a shutdown if everyone went to an ATM (or even online), and started moving money back and forth between accounts? Just withdraw $20, then redeposit it back to the same account. Would be interesting….
It looks like Bank of America has recently changed some of their overdraft fee practices in an effort to be “proactive” before they are forced to by the potential/pending regulation changes. If your balance goes negative less than $10.00, they don’t automatically charge you an overdraft fee, but they will send you an alert letting you know that you have 5 days to bring your balance positive otherwise they will charge you a $35.00 fee. On another note, did anyone check their Dec 09 BOA Credit Card statement? Did you get a “Finance Chrge Err Correctiont” posted? What’s that all about?
Obviously all banks are doing it. I just got ripped by PNC. I am so pissed I want to go and s..t in their lobby.
Before anyone says anything about running a register etc – I do it every day and know what I have on my account and what I can afford and not. Things happen – there is no guarantee it won’t happen to you one day….
I cannot believe that there is no laws actually governing OD charges etc.
EVIDENTLY THIS CLASS ACTION SUIT FELL ON DEAF EARS…..I KEEP A ‘REGISTER’ AND PRINT OUT EVERY OTHER DAY THE STATUS OF MY CHECKING WITH bank of america………I HAD 3 DEBITS ON THE 14TH DEC PENDING AND IT REFLECTED I HAD ENOUGH FUNDS FOR THESE DEDUCTIONS….UNFORTUNATELY I HAD ANOTHER DEBIT THAT CAME IN BEFORE MY CHECK WAS DEPOSITED………..I WENT ONLINE ON THE 19TH TO CHECK TO SEE IF MY CHECK WAS DEPOSITED AND HAD BEEN CHARGED $35 x 4 FOR OVERDRAFTS……3 OF THEM WAS FROM THE ONES THAT STATED THAT I HAD FUNDS….INSTEAD THEY TOOK THE LAST ONE WHICH WAS THE HIGHEST AND CHARGED THAT FIRST… WHICH MADE THE PREVIOUS THREE IN ARREARS…SO THEY SLAPPED ME WITH 4 OVERDRAFTS…..I PRINTED THAT SHEET OUT AND WENT TO THE BANK WITH THE PREVIOUS SHEET FROM THE 14TH AND INQUIRED….THE WOMAN SAID ‘OK…YEAH..(ABOUT THE 3 GOOD ONES) MEANS THAT THEY HOLD THAT MONEY BACK LIKE IT WAS DEDUCTED…..AND” THEN SHE CAUGHT HERSELF……AND ASKED “DO YOU KEEP A REGISTER?” I SAID YES AND THE PRINT-OUTS…WELL SHE SAID ‘THEN YOU SHOULD BE OK” I SAID WELL ISNT THE BANK TAKING ADVANTAGE OF MY SITUATION BY DOING THOSE PRACTICES WHEN I HAD FUNDS HERE ON THE 14TH AND IT REFLECTED THAT THEY WERE ‘PENDING’ AND YOU JUST STATED THAT IT MEANT THEY DEDUCT THE FUNDS FOR ALL PURPOSES?? SHE GOT FLUSTERED AND DID NOT KNOW WHAT TO SAY…I SAID I CAN UNDERSTAND 1 OVERCHARGE BUT NOT 4……..SHE WOULD NOT REPLY……….STUPID ARSE WOMAN….I TOLD HER I WAS ON A FIXED INCOME AND THIS BEING CHRISTMAS I NEEDED THAT EXTRA MONEY $135 FOR THE 3 OVERCHARGES THAT THEY CONVENIENTLY HELD BACK.SHE CAME BACK QUICKLY WITH’ ARENT WE ALL’ I TOLD HER DONT PATRONIZE ME WITH THAT CRAP YOU AND I ARE NOT THE SAME HERE IN THIS SITUATION………SHE WOULD NOT BUDGE………THIS IS A BUNCH OF CRAP TO THE PEOPLE WHO FUND THIS BANK……….EVEN WITH THE TAX PAYERS BAIL-OUT……..I TOLD THE WOMAN I AM EXPECTING A SETTLEMENT SOON AND THAT SHE COULD COUNT ON ME WITHDRAWING ALL THAT MONEY AND CHANGING TO MY CREDIT UNION.
I ADMIT MY BANKING HAS NOT BEEN STELLAR THIS PAST YEAR BUT THIS IS PLAIN AND SIMPLE GOUGHING BY BANK OF AMERICA…..WHAT ELSE CAN WE DO AS AMERICAN CITIZENS TO PUT A STOP TO THIS ROBBING THE PEOPLE WHO PUT THEIR MONEY IN THE BANK??
I called B of A today about them rearranging my debit posts by up to almost a week. He told me he’s SEEN charges can post as late as six months after the initial transaction. He says it’s Visa’s fault because the bank has to wait for receipts to come from wherever you purchased from. I say manure. They know EXACTLY when and how much something is charged because they want to know how much money they can make off you. It’s a sad state when you can’t trust the people who claim to be trustworthy enough to hold your money. That just makes it easier for them to make it THEIR money.
Henry i just had the SAME THING. 2 charges were pending from the 16th. On the 21st i had a gas charge come in and it overdrew me. My direct deposit was late but that is okay. I will take a hit on the 1 gas charge. NO they charged for 3 fees rearranging my debits from highest to lowest to charge fees. My deposit came in, i transfered the money i had available to my husbands bank of america account. I then went to the bank the next morning to put $120 to cover the 105 in fees i was assessed. That night I got an email notification that my account was overdawrn again by $19. WELL i logged on and saw 3 MORE fees. They charged me 3 fees for transfering MY OWN MONEY when it was available. so i called! Spoke with Elizabeth who told me that I did NOT have the money available when i transfered it. I SAID WAIT – IF I CAN TRANSFER MONEY I DON’T HAVE LET ME TRANSFER A FEW MILLION RIGHT NOW!!!!! They arrange things to go about making more fees for customers instead of doing it the right way. How in the WORLD can you charge me for transfering money I HAD AVAILABLE! So i went to the banking center who pushed me to their phone to call the 800 number back. I spoke with Jamie a manager who said since i took the money before the fees were assessed, i didnt plan my account correctly so they charged me for NOT having the money there for the fees. Isn’t that why people get fees, b/c there is NO MONEY available? This is OUTRAGEOUS and I AM contacting the district manager about this and if that does not WORK i am contacting my local NEWS station – I AM SICK over this and now my rent cannot get paid. $240 in fees for ONE item!!! INSANITY annd ROBBERY!!! I hope you ALL get justice and this lawsuit is a JOKE. $78 IS NOTHING and the lawyers eat it all up!!!
There needs to be laws passed and I was at PNC bank the other day and the branch manager told me they are passing laws to stop this from happening and that is why the banks are trying to get what they can NOW b/c they won’;t be able to do this in the near future! I told him i don’t believe that and i rather keep my money under my mattress and send out money orders than to bank with ANY AMERICAN BANK EVER AGAIN!!! It seems the credit unions are the only trusting banks. I NEVER had an issue with them
I have proof that have been stealing from my acc for years i just need someone to help me. i have all the print outs from where they take the higher amount of cash out before the lower amount that was in my acc first HELP
I can’t believe I am just receiving this. I never got a letter in the mail for this class action lawsuit and to Opt-in.
I just recently put in a complaint with the better business bureau about this same exact experience I had with them.
Multiple representative said over the phone that they post the highest items first and I argued that, that is not a legal practice because it should post in accordance to time of debit. If a $15 transaction posts first and a $500 transaction post last they should not reverse the order. I got multiple overdraft fees because of them reversing the order of the posting transactions to where the highest denomination posted first then it caused a snowball effect and overdrafted everything that should have posted before the one big item.
They are the most crooked bank ever and they put down customers, fight, accuse and say horrible things over the phone.
I had a representative tell me that I am doing illegal things but writing checks if I haven’t checked the balance of my account, he said it’s called “floating checks”
I have never overdrafted my account in the 7 years that I have been banking with them it’s amazing to me how they can treat customer once something like this occurs.
The reps don’t admit the error just so they won’t reverse fees that are their fault!
I hate this bank
I had an account through B of A for many years–since their startup. Since losing my job in 2006, I have had an unbelievable amount of problems with overdraft fees, some my own fault but rare. In the last two years, suddenly I was racking up overdraft fees nearly daily. As a result, I closed my account. I also began receiving unemployment fees through another bank, and found the account is set up to simply not pay insufficient funds with the debit card, which has saved me copious amounts of money in overdraft fees. Obviously the technology is there to prevent mistakes without all those fees, so why are the banks allowing people to overdraw their accounts? To rake in all those fees!
My personal story involved a sudden family death. I was suddenly cut off financially due to this and so I had no choice but to overdraw my checking account for awhile just to make ends meet.
Now admittedly I could have handled this better… I overdrew my BoA account with the ATM repeatedly in order to pay rent, storage, etc. My mistake was to overdraw smaller amounts over and over again, instead of just over-drafting one big amount once — but I was trying to be good & not to have to overdraw so much, so I didn’t withdraw too much at a time! Anyway, the result was me owing about $1000 in overdraft fees and only $700 in actual overdraft amounts…
Despite my being a good BoA customer for 5 years previous, they would not allow me to waive even ANY of these fees. The branch’s manager even told me “well, honestly we do make a lot of money on overdraft fees”
I had to pay back $1700, mostly in fees, to avoid being sent to collections. Despite my great record for 5 years before the problems, BoA corporate wouldn’t even reverse ONE overdraft fee. In Oregon where I live, there is a legal limit on the interest rates that financial institutional are aloud to charge. But just because BoA called it “overdraft FEES,” they were aloud to charge me massive fees legally.
The major commercial banks are using this loophole to profit over the weakest, poorest members of society.
Switch to a credit union!
I deposited two checks worth 1900, Band of America put a hold on 1800 of the funds and continued to pay any transactions that came to my account, and today I look at the transaction, I am being charged 8 $35 NSF. I feel this
is not really good business because I had money at the time.
B of A has a quasi-policy that works effectively this way:
If you deposited the checks through the ATM system, then, you did not have proper notice of the hold and therefore they will refund ALL of the overdraft fees…but, you have to call customer service and request this based on this quasi-policy. This happened to me with a B of A check deposited in at B of A ATM, after being told by the bank teller that the funds would not be available until the following day and this would be the appropriate method for deposit. They continued to accept my debits but charged me, although the company issuing my check already had their deposits cleared. Call, they will reverse the charges.
j.g.
The dates for the class action lawsuit appear to be prior to 2007- what about the current overdraft fees being charged? We never signed up for overdraft…never knew there was an opt out…and they just reversed the order and did not deduct an online bill payment from the balance which led the account to be short. The branch manager explained they do not charge ODF for under $10 charges but once he realized they had charged 4x$35 in ODF all for charges less than $10 changed his story to ohhh well an accumulation of $10…if there wasn’t funds available to make an online bill payment whey does the system allow you to do so? So they can charge you $140 in fees for the 4 x$5 charges at starbucks!!!! RIDICULOUS! Is there a NEW Class action lawsuit? The manager said he would reverse them- but only reversed ONE….LIARS! Back to a pen and paper- the computer is not a reliable source as they claim….we all need to get our registers out and track by hand like we used to…SAD when they CLAIM to tell you your balance but instead it’s their way of TRICKING you into paying fee after fee after fee! I think the local loan shark has better rates!
so dissapointed
Well I didn’t get caugh up in the last class action against BoA that they lost in 2009. I understand that is under apeal by BoA now.
Here in Florida they do hit you for overdrats of $35.00 for as little as 50 cents. But the way they started to stack transactions in Dec. 2009 then charging you fees should be illegal, I was just told by a customer sevice specialist @ BoA she could not give me the forms for electronic fraud against my account, because I am accusing the bank and not a store. Fraud is Fraud… no matter who does it. When asked to provide me who over sees the banks not working for BoA she didn’t know, and never heard of a bank commission of any kind.
So they have restacked and hit me for $140.00 so far I can tell you this you have 5 days to pay them before they start hitting you for overdraft fees on overdraft fees. and they create them!
Let do it folks another Class Action suite Where do I sign up, What Law firm is working on this years?
Bank of America released a debit out of my account to FDES NNC from my account what is this? No phone number, no address–nothing. No answers, it caused overdraft fees. A debit requires a pin entry. The bank will not help me. I am done with every bank. The bank is like a huge human machine that lives like a diseased parasite. You just have to machete your way out of their mess. The president doesn’t run the country the banks do.
Fifth Third needs to be called out on this practice. I had money in my account in December to cover my shopping for the day. I then deposited more than enough that day to cover my rent, and then paid my rent after 5pm (which is considered next day). I ended up with about $500 + in fees. They will take pending transactions out the day before you make them from that balance, then take out your posted transactions. Then you’ll get an overdraft fee on every transaction for the day, regardless if it was covered or not. Then there’s a daily overdraft fee of $8. They will call you and tell you that your account is in the positive, when in reality it isn’t. I’ve been complaining to the Ohio Bank Board for weeks now, and nobody is able to do anything.
The only way they’ll even work with you is by removing one overdraft fee, and then trying to make you pay on a payment plan, which is interest based. Do not go with 5/3, they make BoA look like the most ethical bank in the world. I left BoA to go right back to them after that crap.
What about when the bank makes a mistake?
My son’s in college and the bank just mistakenly debited his rent check twice leaving him with a negative balance along with assorted fees. When he called, they said it would take one or two days to refund the transaction and longer to refund the fees. What’s he supposed to live on while they’re crunching imaginary numbers?
I think consumers should start charging banks fees for their dumb-ass mistakes.
I was overdrafted 7 times in a row and probably more coming.
I didnt get it and I called the BOfA Customer service.
This lady was explaining that because I didnt have enough available balance (with pending transactions deducted from my available balance) my check which was 399.00 dollars was over charged and everything after that was over charged.
I understood that and I admit why I am over charged.
BUT. few days later on 2/8 I was OVERCHARGED with transactions that were deducted and made my check to overcharged.
So if the transaction is pending, and the company hasn’t takent out th money, why does it deduct my current CURRENT available balance?
which lead to over charged and later on those pending transactions were over charged again and again and again and have over 200 dollars of over charged fee. although I DEPOSITED money before PENDING transactions were authorized.
The customer service keep saying that our conversation is going no where and she would like to stop and told me to go to near location and hear the explanation there.
I was amazed how she could say that although she is a representative of customer service.
I would’ve been happy if she’d take out few over charged fee that I SHOULDNT have charged with. (that means 6 of them out of 7)
but oh well… I guess i gotta go argue with the representatives from the near location.
they said i was overdrawn when i had over a $1000+ in my account and that it went negative when i had not even used it in a week.
I have another story or complaint against BOA. I recently overdrew my account and since then all my deposits get put on a lengthy hold. So the story is I deposited $6000 in an atm to find out that it would take nearly 2 weeks (12 days including a weekend) to clear. Unacceptable as I was late paying my bills and could not wait that long. So I had my boss stop payment on my check for $3000 and he wrote me a new one which I cashed at his bank and thus cashed into my BOA account to get out of the red. The next part of my story is how it gets interesting.
BOA puts a hold on that $6000 deposit. First the amount is added and then subtracted from my account. Then they deduct $3000 from the stopped check from my account even though that was part of the $6000 deposit that is on hold. Since then I’ve had a half dozen overdraft $35 dollar charges. I went into three different branches and their excuse was that its my fault because I stopped payment on the check and that I’m more or less too stupid understand the nuances of bank regulations.
Finally they gave me back four of the overdraft charges but it took asking for the police to throw me out to get some reversed charges. I said to them that they are not prepared for the bad PR they will get when they have to arrest a doctor who is an upstanding member of the community.
Its still raining overdraft charges and really want to sue them at this point because they have illegally withdrawn $3000 out of my account. I hate this back to its core. I hate their marketing and business practices. May they fail and come down hard…
Need to find out where a new class action lawsuit for 2010 has started
regarding the overdraft fees by the bank.
Looks like current activity still… sounds hopeful!
My question: if I didn’t apply to be part of the class-action suit, am I outta luck? All I want is to be *reimbursed* for whatever amout was deemed excessive… my gripe is about getting dinged $35 or whatever amout it was, when I used the debit card for a $5 purchase… whatta ripoff…
We need to boycott BOA!!! They did the same to me and when I made a deposit in the morning and pay bills they would post my check in the evening and hit me with late fees…. How can this be stopped and get the money back to the people it belongs too.
All of 2009, I just added my fee’s up. Total $1,645.00 in overdraft fees. The amount I overdrafted my account by: $363.00 all year long. Thats 46 total, of $1.00-$5.00 transactions here and there. I understand that this is my fault to begin with, but come on…seriously? $1600 on $300? Thats like somewhere in the 400-450% range…. On top of bills and what not, sometimes it happens, then once it happens, you live paycheck to paycheck each week just barely getting by. Then overdraw a few bucks and you get hit again. I seem to remember my F*CKING TAX DOLLARS bailed those F*CKS out and this is what I/we (and everyone elses tax dollars) get in return?
Then they re-arrange the transactions to make the largest one first pushing the balance on your account down faster so they can rape you on a bunch of little transactions. Whether they “reserver the right” to do that or not in their paperwork, this is fraud, and WRONG.
The guy that bulldozed his house because the bank wouldn’t work out a deal with him to attempt to pey his mortgage…props to him.
Story can be found here if you haven’t heard about it yet.
http://www.wlwt.com/news/22600154/detail.html
The way Toyota is getting grilled right now for these recalls and what not, the banks and wall street should be getting grilled for their bullsh*t.
There is only one way this bank will listen…
…But first, let me point out:
If a corporation is punished a million dollars for ten million dollars in unethical and illegal activity then, where is the incentive to be an honest corporation?
Especially if your profits on your illegal activities make more than enough to pay off any government agency, judge or jury and still have a huge excess to provide an executive bonus program to help those enslaved finance grad managers and up to wash the blood of their brothers and sisters off their hands.
Proposal & Plan:
First: Open a new account – choose a small local bank or credit union that wants to EARN your money.
Second: Do Not Pay A Fine – leave the corporation with its illegal activities intact. The burden of proof of debt lies on them and how will they explain in court that the debt owed to them sprung from an illegal activity.
Third: Ignore said corrupt corporation
If enough sheeple could wake themselves from the media hypnosis and become confidant people again, we would not be afraid of doing what I suggest. From what I see, this bank needs to go on a diet. The withholding of $$ is the ONLY thing they will listen to.
I for one plan on doing this and I hope that others will follow. I will post my online ledger when the deed is done as proof that a revolution has started.
A friend of mine recently deposited money (cash) into my checking account in the AM. When I called the automated system for a balance it quoted what was available which included the funds he just deposited. I proceeded to use my Debit card for purchases knowing the money was there. To my surprise, when I checked my account today………….it says the funds were never posted leaving me with several overdraft fees!!!! What a scam…………!!!!!! I’m sickened by this. I’m sick over the fact that they are able to get away with this. I will be moving my account to another bank.
I am starting a Class Action Suit against B of A and needs contact names , address, phone & email of anyone who has been taken advantage of by the bank primarily in charging excess overdraft fees. The bank uses various tactics & strategies for the sole purpose of generating profit for the bank. Please send info to nutritionman@comcast.net so that we can put an end to these unprofessional & unethical practices and put something into law so banks cannot perform these actions ever again.
well people im sorry to say this is only the start . if you think the banks are going to t
let thier cash cow go ,think again. boa has gotten me for 357.00 for an 11. over draft ,from a product they sold out of thier bank. the system is setup so we dont win ever.they dont even have to show thier books to goverment audits,know of any other bussines who gets away with that. the best thing the only thing we can do is take your stuff and go somewhere eles,close your morgage, accounts,money whats left , take it away from them , this law suit is a joke they stole 40 billion in fees and are going to to pay back 35 million.do the math the money is too good and the punishment is a joke . its sad but mabey a goverment run bank wuoldnt be so bad,not the shams we have now.
Interesting statistic I saw on CNBC.com: 93% of all overdraft fees arise from only 14% of banking customers. So you select few “habitual overdrafters” are going to ruin it for the other 86%. As of July 1, the new legislation will no longer allow you to overdraft your account with a debit card. So guess what, if you don’t have any money, it’s gonna bounce. No emergencies, no exceptions. So remember that when you’re at the grocery store with a cart full of groceries and no money. This administration wants to mess up health care for the 90% who ARE insured, much the same as they are doing with overdrafts. Also, no overdrafts equals the end of free checking. I guarantee that as of July 1 this year, everyone will have a monthly maintenance fee, a balance requirement, or direct deposit requirement. So the 86% who had FREE checking, will no longer because of “habitual overdrafters”
Well my recent overdraft fees aren’t from BOA but hey most of them are the same so this might as well be towards BOA too. I used to bank with them not anymore. I’m with BB&T now and they suck as much.
My husband charged two transactions overseas and I saw these pending and figured they posted amongst the other many debit transactions I have. Well not knowing that much about authorization holds, the merchant finally acted on it a month later — what convenience…it’s my fault I rely on internet banking too so lesson learned, internet banking crap.
Anyway prior to these transactions posting, I had enough money for two transactions I had made. And of course bb&t held the funds for them which decreased my available balance. Well next day, my husband’s old transactions posted out of nowhere and I’m wondering why the heck it’s just now posting when I thought it already posted. Made my account negative, got charged two overdraft fees.
Well remember my transactions I made…they were still pending. Note bb&t already held the funds for it. Well when they finally posted, bb&t charged me two more overdraft fees because my account was negative. And they stated that they had paid for these transactions. WRONG! I paid for them. They used my money that they held onto when the charge was made — to pay for the transactions so why the heck are they charging me od fee? They didn’t pay a lick on those transactions. And if they released that hold on my funds to pay on my husband’s transactions — why the heck do i have four overdraft fees?? So if bb&t said they paid for all of these transactions — where the heck is my $400 bucks in this? I did the math, if they really paid for all of these and charged me 4 od fees, my negative balance would be much higher! How can they charge me overdraft fees on funds they held of mine, that was enough to cover — what the fudge?!
bb&t sucks just as much as boa
I have had accounts at both Bank of America and BB&T. They are both crooked as hell. However, BOA is a “national” bank and one can complain to the Comptroller of the Currency against them. BB&T is not classified as a “national” bank; therefore, any complaints against them should be filed with the Commissioner of Banks in your state.
shouldn’t bank of america have to be on chexsystems since they cant balance their books and cant the taxpayer charge them an overdraft fee and a fee for taking to long to pay the taxpayers back and an interest fee and a insufficient funds fee and a not balancing their books fee and a fee for going over their budget fee and prob a million others that would take to long to write . but funny how thet can charge you a fee when we bailed them out of their mismanagement
we baied out bank of america call your senator
I just called the CEO office 1-704-386-5687 and spoke to a very helpful person Denise. She was able to refund me all my overdraft fees from the past 60 days that is all they can do. A $ 105.00 thats a little better than $78 if you match those guidelines for it. But you have to get them to say it because they dont upfront. and choose opt out of overdraft! Good Luck
So, what is someone’s recourse if they are still doing this? I am so done of BOFA high ups making money off oh me!
I absolutely take responsibility for overdrafting my own account. I can’t blame BofA for that. But, there comes a point where the IDIOSYNCRATIC (I’m being gracious with that word) ways of doing business become absurd, and the fees become more than excessive. I’ve probably paid them HUNDREDS in overdraft fees in the last year because of their asinine “largest to smallest” way of processing transactions; it’s clearly to suck money out of people, screw ANY other explanation they try to offer. Sadly, it’s those of us that work hard but still live paycheck to paycheck that get raped the most by them…
So they used to process the fees TEN at a time. Then, they decided to reduce that to three at a time (how nice), but they’ll charge you an “extended overdrawn balance” fee of $35 if your account is overdrawn for more than three days (after all, I get paid every three days — don’t you?). Now, I understand that come August of 2010, NO ONE with BofA will be able to overdraft on their account… That’s per a BofA rep that I spoke with several days ago. I’ve already opted out. I’d rather be surprised that I have NO money than be surprised that I have -91863308894123987 dollars in my account. I can’t wait until another class action lawsuit is filed. It’s time.
If it walks like a piggy, talks like a piggy, by golly it’s a PIGGY!
BofA and it’s CEO Brian Moynihan reminds me of that song by John Lennon and George Harrison titled “Piggies” I invite you to listen to this song on youtube and see if it appropriately fits. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIopI2isIKc&feature=related</P
Have you seen the little piggies
Crawling in the dirt
And for all the little piggies
Life is getting worse
Always having dirt to play around in.
Have you seen the bigger piggies
In their starched white shirts
You will find the bigger piggies
Stirring up the dirt
Always have clean shirts to play around in.
In their ties with all their backing
They don’t care what goes on around
In their eyes there’s something lacking
What they need’s a damn good whacking.
Everywhere there’s lots of piggies
Living piggy lives
You can see them out for dinner
With their piggy wives
Clutching forks and knives to eat their bacon.
Wright vs. Bank of America Lawsuit at: http://news.yahoo.com/s/prweb/20100323/bs_prweb/prweb3766544_1
When I filed my lawsuit against Bank of America, myself and United Law Group thought of the many others out there in the same situation. It was then that we decided to educate the public on what these piggy banks are doing, as well as unite us all together as one voice. Please help me turn this David vs. Goliath modification process, into a Goliath vs. Goliath.
Please stand with me and United Law Group and send an email to Bank of America that states that we will no longer tolerate their potentially illegal, fraudulent, irregular and abusive business methods.
Divided we might have fell America, but united we must stand!
Please send your email directly to Bank of America and include the following:
1. Your name
2. Your complaint concerning your experience with Bank of America.
3. Please end your email “I support John Wright vs. BofA Lawsuit!”
4. Please send a copy of your email to johns-wright@hotmail.com
5. Please send your email to both BofA link below and the CEO email
BofA Linked Email:
https://www3.bankofamerica.com/contact/?lob=general&contact_returnto=&state=VA
CEO Brian Moynihan:
brian.t.moynihan@bankofamerica.com
i just came back here to say… I AM SO SORRY…. I didnt’ know what I was saying…. BANK OF AMERICA WAS NEVER A GOOD ORGANIZATION, IT WAS NEVER A GOOD COMPANY, IT SHOULD BE TOOK DOWN AT ONCE…. now more than ever, they are MISTREATING and ABUSING their employees, the ones who they RELY on to do BUSINESS with their customers!! I can’t believe I said such foolish things….. I AM SO SORRY! Just know that, no matter what, karma WILL bite you if you are uncompassionate, or cruel…. it bit me. PEACE TO YOU ALL.
Join the lawsuit:
bank-overdraft.com
This is my issue with Bank of America – Holding cash deposits in a pending status then process debits through your account before the deposit collecting NSF fees when all the time your deposit is pending. I would like to know if this is happening to anyone. They also have two different screens depending on the explanation they want to give you and you will never be right. I thought keeping two sets of books was illegal because this appears to be what is happening.
Where is the Class action lawsuit against GS for packaging bad mortgages with good ones and misleading the credit agencies. This is what caused the crisis, as I have heard and read multiple times.
Who is up for it?
I am upside down in my house because of them.
I am not mad I just was to get even.
Gloria *YES!!!* that happened to me more timess than i will say on a public forum comment.
I went to the web site tried of the bs posted http://www.bank-overdraft.com and it looks like there is a class action lawsuit going on again. I AM JOINING IT.
I will also send the emails to bofa ceo and john wright- thank you for posting that.
Bottom line ppl, you may not agree with bank’s policies but when you sign up for an account, you are agreeing to them. If you don’t like it, move on, it would make it easier for BofA.
TCF Bank should also be included in a class action lawsuit. Bank’s should not be allowed to charge 35.00 NSF fee’s on pending transactions. Period. If you have a pending transaction (many merchants sometimes run your card stating they are usuing it to ensure validity such as Car Rentals, and, you are usually not charged until after the service but, when they run your card, they have to get an authorization usually they are 1.00. ) well, according to how BoA and TCF Bank work, you could very well be charged an NSF fee on that pending transaction if it causes your available balance to show zero even though, it hasn’t even posted to your account.
NSF Fees should NEVER EVER be allowed to be charged on pending transactions. They should only be charged vased on transactions that have posted.
Every month my pension is deposited into mt BoA account. Yes, I am always -$450.00 but that is cleared up when the deposit is made. The problem is when I buy my money order to pay my rent. I have over $1200.00 in my account but I am told insufficient funds or access denied.
How can this be when the money is already in the account. So I go to another post office to purchase my m.o. The transaction goes through. I watch my online account like a hawk. Two weeks straight the transaction is pending. It doesn’t take two weeks for anything to pend. Someone at BoA is playing a very dangerous game. It keeps me late paying my bills, and I always have to go into the negative every month.
Chase is the same way. They closed my account and didn’t even tell me. I had approximately $517.00 in my account which they refuse to return to me. Taking them to court does nothing. I lost days at work, sitting in court waiting for the judge to tell me that it was out of his hands. Do I have to shoot up the place to get my money back? Since they robbed me, maybe they deserve the same in return.
I pay the fees regardless because I borrow against what I have (or don’t have). Why is it I have to wait two weeks for something to pend? The money order is in my hands from a government institution. My rent was paid. However BoA waited two weeks to post the transaction. M O R O N S. I hope you all lose your jobs.
Stacking
Bank of America is bye for the most common banking enity to use stacking. An deserves to be sued out of business.
Folks,
This debacle has been ongoing for at least the last five years. Where is the $78.00 we all were supposed to be getting? If BofA had indeed reached a “settlement” with the lawyers, how can they turn around and hold up a settlement agreement they had agreed to? Why would they? I’m beginning to believe that, as usual, the only people getting anything out of this so-called “settlement” is the damn lawyers. They have probably got paid off by BofA. That’s why they don’t want any of us to contact BofA directly. I think we’ve been had people.
It’s not an issue of overdrawn fees, it’s an issue with contradiction. I don’t understand how we have touch screen cell phones, vehicles powered by batteries, automated operators that ACTUALLY talk back to you, BUT it takes up to two days for an online deposit to post to your account…It’s ironic how our banks can assess an overdraft/returned item fee within a few hours, but a basic online transfer deposit takes up to two days. We have clap on clap off lights that respond faster than banks and banks are ran by people…clap on clap off lights are only sensored…I just don’t understand…
How about when you have a joint account with someone and the bank transfers the money to the other persons overdrafted account with no notice,I can understand needing that money to bring the other account to a zero but not notifying me so that I over draft, I think I deserve those fees back. I wouldn’t have spent money if they would’ve told me they were going to debit the account, The other two accounts have nothing to do with me, I think it’s Bull shit when I have 30,000 in the bank and they call me every EFFIN day to come open a money market account when I’m in the middle of purchasing a house but they couldn’t call me ar send me a letter saying they were going to debit my accout I have 280.00 in fees alone I hope they eat shit and die! Those over drafts were not my fault, I should still have 70.00 in my account So if you bank bastards can sit there and say I just refuse to return the funds because people won’t admit it’s their fault is ridiculous, I understand sometimes we do make a mistake in the books and some of those fees are our faults, and we should have to pay, but you make money off us banking with you, with out us customers you would be nothing so throws us a bone once in a while!
After reading this blog, I stayed up until 3am and reviewed all my B of A bank record. We have lost an astounding $4,541 to overdraft fees. The overdrafts started in April, 2005. This is 1.5 years after my cancer and 3 months after my husband’s major heart attack. I have not had the energy before this to try to tackle this problem. Next, I am going to find out how much we have been paying on late fees for bills. Why do the banks need $35 for a bounced check? Or $29 for a late fee? How much does it cost them anyway? We are still struggling to get back on our feet and the charges are oppressive and have been the source of much anxiety.
We are a law firm based in White Plains NY and are exploring the possibility of a class action suit against BOA on their overdraft practice of reordering customers’ transactions, thereby resulting in multiple overdraft fees. If u, a friend or a relative have been affected by this practice in the last six months, contact us: http://www.casefileandco.com for consultation.
Yes I too have had the same problems with Bank of America. They have basically stolen thousands of dollars in undeserved overdraft fees. They manipulate not only the transactions by highest to lowest, but they also manipulate the dates of transactions. For example, sometimes it will take up to 5 days for a debit card transaction to go through, and other times it will be the same day, depending on what is more convenient for them. I am a small time contractor in NJ and it is disgusting the practices that BofA uses to steal money from it’s customers. There were times that I deposited money and they said it would be cleared and available in 14 days which is ridiculous in the first place the money wasn’t available till almost 25 days later which resulted in $1000 worth of overdraft fees in 1 month. Looking at other statements there weren’t even times that my account went in the negative and I have several unexplained overdraft fees. To make things even worse I like the last page in your bank statements that shows you how to balance your bank account statement, you would need a highly sophisticated computer program to decipher the way Bank of America records your transactions. Bank of America is by far the worst bank in the USA. I doubt it will ever get any better and would simply advise to not use them at all. THEY ARE ABSOLUTELY HORRIBLE.
What I did not see on here and what I wish would have been said to youguysaresofunny is what if the VENDOR putting holds on your account screws up? This has happened to me, it has happened to my daughter. This was from a Wachovia lawsuit but could easily happen at BOA: At the end of Oct. 24 last year, Fulton County, Ga., resident Ken Vollmer had $229.01 in his Wachovia bank account, according to his online statement.
Three days later — after weekend expenditures totaling $297.56 and an $85.56 refund — Vollmer’s bank account should have had a balance of $17.01.
Instead, Wachovia had penalized him for six overdrafts, charging his account $210, or $35 per overdraft, and throwing it nearly $200 in the red, according to a suit filed in federal court in Atlanta earlier this month. See he had enough money to cover the ACTUAL debits taken out of his account because of the credit of $85.56 but they don’t wait until the money actually comes out of your account, they bounce everything the first time a company puts more ON HOLD than you have in your account. A merchant could run a trasaction through twice or for the wrong amount or you could have a credit that would later never bring your account into the red but they just start charging overdraft fees on the first one that puts that much money “on hold”. They have not lost anything to put money “on hold”. They have charged me many many times when the actual debits would not have brought my account into the red, they just have that one charge on hold and it won’t drop off for 5 business days and they can bounce stuff all over the place in the meantime and then they don’t give you that money back! It’s criminal!
Vollmer was soon caught in a spiral of mounting debt exacerbated by the burgeoning fees. In four days, Wachovia posted 24 debits to Vollmer’s bank account that generated 22 overdraft charges totaling $770 — leaving Vollmer with a balance of -$811.49, even though, according to his lawyer, his account had sufficient funds to cover most of those transactions.
All I want to know, after waiting for the past 5 years on this so-called “settlement” is this: where is the paltry $78.00 we all are supposed to be receiving? If this Closson Settlement is legitimate, why have they shut down the 800 number? Folks, I’m afraid we’ve been had. The only people that are going to benefit from this so-called “class action” lawsuit will be the lousy lawyers. If anyone either has received a dime or knows anyone who has received a dime, please post it.
When I finally looked at my accounts, I noticed a lot of overdraft fees on transactions while the account had a positive balance. The total in fees was over $1500.00 dollars for the year and a half I had the account and the records to audit.
What if Bank of America did this to me recently? Can I and should I pursue them?
This is pretty cool thanks for the post, Bank of America sounds a bit shady, my experience with them hadn’t been so pleasant 🙁
I had to change my credit card number because BOA found transactions I had not made.
I thought this great but I had my credit cards made through on line bill pay and the acct number and everything is in there.
I was paying my Discover card bill and since the account numbers did not match up to what was on file, the payment was returned (this is set up automatically to pay on certain day each month)
So, then my payment was tagged as late payment fee and since I get paper statements I did not know it until the next month.
I was livid ! Discover and others credited my account and took off the late payment fee and I asked for a letter from them stating what happened.
Discover did so, saying I paid the bill as soon as I found out telephonically and I had been a good customer.
Well, BOA states they don’t do such letters and I don’t have to worry about it as it takes ninety days of late payment before the credit companies report and I would not effect my credit score.
I live i mile from my BOA branch that I know the Bank Manager whom is wonderful and know the staff and they have credited my account when my sons “Student account privileges were extended pas 23 as he was still going to school”.
My deceased Mother in her later years sent me a check for 600.00 t0 pay for Airline Tickets I bought for her and I deposited it.
I did not have on line banking then to check my account daily so I did not realize I was overdrawn (I had overdraft protection) and when I got my paper bank statement, I had enormous amount of overdraft fees.
When I went into the bank to find out what was the problem was as I knew my Mother had the money in her account and she told me so when I called her, She had written a check on an account that had been closed from an old bank. My Mother had been getting symptoms of dementia at that time and this just hit me so hard emotionally plus financially draining to me as I was buying these airplane tickets to take her to visit my Sisters whom I did not want to go to my Sisters but I was going to pay my way and go.
I was sitting in that glass office at one of my lowest point and the tears just started flowing and I was telling this stranger my family problems, how I was scared of losing my Mother who was beginning to get dementia, I was going to school at night, driving six hours to help care for my MoM and work, I was in the military reserves and concerned about that and being there for my MoM.
This lady, handed me the box of Klennex, and said, Just don’t worry about this and called someone and got permission to get the ALL the fees removed and then I had to worry about getting my Dad to pay me back.
She walked me out of the building and made sure I was okay to drive. She has been my bank manager since then and I am lucky that she moved to the branch close to us.
The staff at this branch is like her also and I have no problem with them. I always go in and as for Shandra and if she is not there, the person will say, I can help you and they see me hesitate but sure nuff, they do.
They know my name and I am a small change customer. I live in a area surrounded by Dellionaires (people who made millions when Micheal Dell
built here and they sold their stock but am treated like I am a millionaire.
They have taken off the fees put on my on line banking as maintaince fee but as an advantage member I am not supposed to be charged for it and she made sure my account was credited went back through past months to do so.
I think all banks have their problems and it is important to get to know the staff at your branch you bank at and talk to the manager about your situation and what program benefits you, not vica versa. So, for now, we are going to stick with BOA as I hate changing to another bank, thinking it will be a better one, and then that bank has problems.
I received my letter on this class action suit but I remember something about if you signed up for it there was something that would change with boa, does anyone remember.
I don’t know if it is worth signing up for the class action suit and the estimate is 78 dollars but I remember another product I signed up for a product I had a problem with and was listed with and I got 1.56
Just a note, I think it ironic one person that posts states the government, President is horrible for giving this bank stimulus money and another edifies her President for cutting down on the credit card companies.
Now which is he ? Give that terrible BOA and other banks Money OR the Savior that is going to get those credit card companies as the other poster wrote ?
Makes one wonder all the time and is frustrating.
After trying to work with BOA in trying to avoid the fees, I left them.
I was unaware of the BOA overdraft lawsuit but wis I had known about it. I was an accounthold at Bank of america and had my transactions “reoorganized” or “reconsidered’ repeatedly in order to obtain more overdraft fees causing me many problems financially and at times making it impossible for me to obtain my medications because my money was eaten alive by conjured overdraft fees due to the “reconsidering”. I also had deposits held without being notified at the time that there would be a hold on them that was not the typical action and with notification except a written one in the mail which I received ten days or so later after overdraft fees had accumulated for transactions I though were covered because no one told me the deposted check would be on a hold. The response to this when I talked to them about it was that they have a right to put a hold on any item and it is in the checking agreement. They seemed to think it was okay to not use holds and then out of the blue slap one on and not advising you this check would be on hold at the time you deposit it. I have probably built 4 or 5 BOA brances with my overdraft fees and finally fled to another bank. When I would go into BOA to complain I accused them of changing the order of transactions in order to obtain more overdraft fees in order to get more money out of me and they became defensive and pulled the line about honoring the larger checks first as a courtesy and violently denied doing it to get funds for themself. The officer were defensive, nasty and would not work with you. I belied like in many corporations, they got bonuses for the amount of funds they raked in and this should be investigated too. I am a 67 year old with severe respiratory problems and at times had to go without medications because of this and I continue to work like everyone to make ends meet. I am one of those folks who fell behind on house payments too and could have easily made them up if these “Thefts” had not taken place. Now that I have changed banks I am slowly crawling out of the hole but I am hoping more is done to BOA than a class action suit that gives the victims dollars apiece or something. They should be made accountable for the fact that they callously found ways to take money from people in ways that were not regulated by law apparently and leaving the victims twisting in the wind. Callous greed and not moral conscience in the way a business creates ways to confiscate money from people who cannot afford it. Someone who does this does not qualify as a human being and a government that allows this to take place is sadly not being responsible it this area as well as the subprime mortgage area and big changes and penalties on the bank. I personally think BOA should fall completely and disappear. With the level of greed and conniving they have used and the grief they have been allowed to cause people they should be gone. There are no words strong enough to describe the lack of caring, consideration or just plain moral and ethical treatments of its customers just line pockets even more. And I was really disturbed to hear they were one of our balout banks. What did they do with all that money they connived from their customers? And I have to wonder how those officers we all had to deal with sleep at night. We really need to hear that the government is going to create legislation to prevent this abuse. God knows, they get into everything else.
I had multiple of incidents with BofA in 2008 and 2009, i just never did anything about it. I thought it was normal. I can’t believe i just read this now, 2 years too late.
This lawsuit was settled a few years back and BOA lost. They were going to appeal this verdict and NO OPNE HAS HEARD AA THING SINCE> Not even the Cloissn people will talk. I WANT MY REFUND ( it is now April 2011 where is my sttlement money (plus I want interest!!)
I just went to open an account with a bank & was denied by them because of a BOA account I had in 2006. BOA charged me over $1200. in fee’s. They kept charging me over-draft fee’s everytime they put the last over-draft fee on my account, this is outragious! anybody know what I can do about this rip off??
I have had a business account with B of A for over 3 years, I keep my ledger up to date and compare it to my online and paper statement regularly- I also have my daily balance emailed to me. But despite all of this, I received $175 in overdraft fees in one day, and the thing that makes it so clearly fraudulant on the part of B of A is that if you look at my account with all of the “final” posting dates, I never did actually overdraft, but when they took POSTED *not pending, not processing* transactions from days previous, changed the dates and piled them all on top of PENDING transactions, one charge and one deposit -(they conveniently counted the pending transaction against me immediately but of course not the deposit) they deliberately caused 5 overdrafts. And I have proof they changed my totals because of the daily balance that was emailed to me which shows that the charges were originally taken out on a Thursday and Friday, then switched to Monday. Also I went online Friday to balance my checkbook and marked all of the charges that posted. So I have already talked to their customer service drones a few times, on the phone and in person, but have never been given a straight answer or satisfactory explanation, they don’t even listen to what I am telling them but they refuse to refund my $175. Which is a lot of money! The way that I see it and what I tried to explain to them was this- if it’s the “final” date that they decide to post things that counts, well then according to the “final” dates on my account I never overdrafted (those Monday transactions officially cleared Tuesday and showed a positive balance) But if they want to argue that the money is removed as soon as it is submitted, which is the only way they could justify immediately counting the pending purchase I made against my balance on Monday (but not the deposit I also made) then they can’t also say that balances that show as cleared on Friday actually don’t count against my account right away. Does that make sense? I suspect that their banking system is actually wired so that when someone has a low balance threshold, their account is manipulated. Which would be completely criminal. But who are we to challenge these huge megaliths of greed? They know most of us can’t afford to sue them. So I am going to do two things- go in the bank one more time and record all of the bs they tell me on tape, then write my local paper- seems a timely subect considering the legislation that is going through in July I believe which is going to make these sorts of overdraft fees illegal. And then I will close my account and GO TO A CREDIT UNION! My personal account is at a local credit union, they are fabulous! I highly recommend that everyone close their accounts with these manipulative corporate swine and join a local credit union, find one that participates in the network which allows you to withdraw/deposit freely in ATM’s all over the country. And their fees are much more reasonable!
I’m crying Foul,
In 2006-2008 I lost everything. I was living paycheck to paycheck. If there was any discrepancy I would not be able to pay rent. It was hard times. On more times than I can remember a credit card transaction would come through a week or two late this would cause me to be overdrawn. One time I had $300 in fees because of a $10 shortage. They treated me like I was the criminal. After I begged and pleaded with them to reverse the charges I thanked them!?# for reducing some of the fees. Then I thought I had the solution. Two checking accounts. One for Debit and one for checks. It was working until recently. They learned that many people were doing the same thing. So they created a delay in transfers between accounts. From 2011 I started getting nailed again with fees. I had no idea they opted me in. I think I know when this happened. It was when the supposedly was “upgrading” their website. That is the only time I clicked Agree about anything. Two weeks ago I went to an ATM and transferred funds to my debit card. Then I made purchases. When I went online I saw my account was negative. I then moved more funds into my debit from online account. Online was instant but the ATM has a 24 hour delay. What a ripoff. They still stuck me with $90 in fees. If I get money from the ATM it is real time instantly removed from my account. But if I move money from one account to another there is a delay. FOUL! I use HSBC in Asia never have any problems like these. . Go figure? ASB is owned by HECO. Hawaiians are getting it coming and going! When I go to the states I am going to open an HSBC account because I’m just not feeling the Aloha.
Well I sent a request to ASB to opt out. this is their reply:
“as you requested, today your two business checking accounts have been changed so that ATM/debit card transactions will not be authorized or paid if you have insufficient funds.
(in the same letter)
Also, please refer to the attached letter advising you that American Savings Bank will be closing the xxxxxxxxxxxx accounts on June 20th for excessive overdrafts. We hope you will take this time to establish & start using an account at another financial institution.”
WOW! It’s all about the fees and nothing else. Feel the Aloha!!!!!!!
I WANT A LAWYER!
Yesterday 07/12/2011 i received a card from court-ordered legal notice that said: Bank of america class action settlement to customer that paid overdraft fees between January1 2001 and May 24, 2011. a $410 000 000 millions settlement funds that Bank of America has agreed to establish because Customers WERE CHARGED ONE OR MORE OVERDRAFT FEES AS A RESULT OF BANK OF AMERICA’S PRACTICE OF POSTING DEBIT CARD TRANSACTION FROM HIGHEST TO LOWEST DOLLAR AMOUNT ) to collect more money from customer
Wachovia Bank now is Well Fargo and they charged to my account two overdraft fees with the same proccess used by Bank of America
(they are posting debit card transaction from highest to lowest dollar amount to collect more fees ). I think that is not neccesary to wait 10 years to file a Wachovia class action settlement for overdraft Fess……
Now with many having to pay over hundresdes close to thousandes of dollars in Overdraft fees, ARE YOU STILL WITH THIS BANK, It would not take anytime to find another one, FIND A NEW BANK, WHY WOULD YOU STAY WITH A BANK THAT STEALS FROM YOU….I WOULD NEVER LET THEM SEE ANOTHER DIME, THEN NO MATTER HOW LONG YOU BEEN WITH THEM, ITS EVEN HARD TO GET A SMALL LOAN…BYE BYE BANK OF AMERICA
LMAO!!! I KNEW I WAS NOT CRAZY–BANK OF AMERICA WOULD DO THIS TOO ME ALL THE DANG TIME. I USED CALL CUSTOMER SERVICE AND ASK WHY TRANSACTION ARE NOT POSTED IN THE ORDER RECEIVED? THE EMPLOYEE WOULD SAY THAY DON’T DO THAT.. I USED TO GET ABOUT 3 TO 4 OVERDRAFT FEES AT ONE..WHEN I WAS ONLY EXPECTING ONE. I HAD TO BEG TO GET ATLEAST ONE FEE CREDITED TO MY ACCOUNT–SO..I KNOW BANK OF AMERICA OWE ME ATLEAST 1,000.00..
EVERYBODY!!! LEAVE BANK OF AMERICA!!!! AND LET SEE WHO CRYING OR LET SEE HOW FAST BOA STARTING PAYING US BACK..
I am trying to find out about who is handling this class action suit. I had this same issue with Wachovia. Years ago and did not get anywhere with it. One need to be filed against them as well;. When I spoke with the bank concerning this exact same matter I was todl that because customers who held loans from there bank got upset about the way their morgage payments where processed so they changed the process. I am on this class action suit with BOA but somebody need to get on the ball with Wachovia now Wells Fargo..
I would really like to know who is handling lthis matter so they can look into place the same suit against Wachovia.. Because they owe me money back and not just $78.
I don’t care about placing my no. in this post so please have someone contact me if you know how to get me n the right direction of assistance. 8033195918.
Thank you,
I have always been living from paycheck to paycheck all my life and one thing is certain, I have always lived within my own means. I get up in the morning and make sure I have enough money in my account before making any plans. It’s all simple math. What the banks are doing is not right but lets face it, the fact that some of us don’t bother to take 30 seconds to balance your account and know what you have available is shameful.
Hi “be ethical” maybe there is a part of this you aren’t aware of? Bank of America prior to december of 2010 used to deduct checks, EFTs, and charges from debit cards etc not in the order received but by the largest amount first.
that can wreak havoc with an account quickly, especially if you have automatic payments being pulled from a checking account not via b of a’s bill pay but from another company (which i will never do again)
There are many reasons why these things can cause an account to go massively in the negative without it being a matter of balancing an account & knowing what is in it.
i’m sure you’ll have something equally judgmental to come back with so I doubt I’ll respond again.
I no longer bank with B of A, and will never do so ever again. i think that organization is absolutely detestable.
I am so happy some can live paycheck to paycheck and not get any fees.. But truth speaks tha tis does nto happen or everybody. I would understand if it was was abused and take care or those who abuse the system. There are some exceptions to the rules that can help people who are in need.. So to think back on the issue I don’t feell shameful it was a need.. Don’t judge others sistuation that is God’s job!!!
This has been happening to me for years. Have been on SSDi since brain surgery. Have noticed since then that money seems to disappear and cannot be accounted for. recently I looked at my account on line. At 1am I had $400+ in the bank, by 9am I had $200. At 1am everything was posted. When I called BOA I was told that everything was probably posted but not calculated but no where was the original balance from 1am. Now all of a sudden I am incurring fees for low balance $35 and susequently $35 for NSF fees and more low balance fees Also, when I started using BOA so long as money was electronically deposited there would be no monthly fee, well at some point this was changed with no notification
I changed banks after 30 years…wish I would’ve done it sooner – it would’ve saved me thousands of dollars. I was 8 cents overdrawn and they took out 5 overdraft fees. Ridiculous – $175.00. That was the last time they stole from me. I don’t think people should all get the same amt. back. I think they should have to pay back the exact amount they stole from each person’s account!
This one beats all of BOAs flub-ups. I opened a new acc. in oct. 09. I recived a debit card,didn’t order checks. I ran a transitional house,one of my tennants found my blank couner checks, forged my signature,and cashed 4 checks totaling 3500.00 from my acct. Two of the checks cashed were not endorsed, the address was incorrect, the signature looked nothing like mine. I really feel ripped off by BOA. Is there someone out there who can help
This issue first started getting widespread publicity back in 2009. Now, in 2011, I see some people still think this is simply a matter of personal accountability. Do people really think multi-million dollar settlements would be continually handed out if this was simply an issue of “OMG DONT SPEND MONEE U DONT HAV!! LOOK AT UR CHEKBUK ONZE INA WILE!!1!!1”
Balancing your checkbook and living within your means is good advice. It’s also a complete non sequitur to most of the arguments here and the settlements that are arising. Stop using that tired retort, which was undermined over 2 years ago – it just makes you look stupid.
I want to sue bank of America.. How do I go about that? They really abuse their policy on overdraft charges and I will not accept that.
BOA has a little thing that they do every month I have noticed. When you make a purchase or payment with your debit card the online statement shows you the transaction and the debited amount (always pending for a week). Even if you meticulously keep track of your spending you are double charged for all transactions. I had 1400.00 in my account, I paid my rent, bought groceries and paid my phone and wifi and bought a Metro card, all totaling $1072.00.
I was left with $328.00 in my account. Seeing how the balance was accurate and I had a decent amount left I bought some computer software which cost $160.00 and more groceries which came to $75.00. My balance was $93.00 which I had not planned to touch.
A week later I had incurred two overdraft fees for $35.00 each and my account was negative $398.00.
When i tried to explain to the bank representative I was told that it was my fault. Now as I said I keep meticulous files. There is no way I made a mistake or over spent. The online statement showed that they withdrew the $1072.00 but the last two debits were take twice but only showed up once.
This happens every month. I don’t need anyone telling me when I can or cannot use my card for purchases. Its my money. But they hold the money for days and screw with your account then make you feel as if you are wrong all the time. Not just Bank of America, Chase, Wamu, Wachovia and CitiBank are all guilty of this heinous practice. $78.00? I think they owe us much more than that.
Great Job. Crooks deserve to lose.
They haven’t lost.
They’re being forced to pay back a one time penalty of 35 million of their 17.5 trillion anual overdraft profits with a maximum payback of $78 per person.
Stop using Bank of america we have a choice.
BoA has stuck me pretty good over the years and while my account is still open, I very rarely use it in favor of USAA. Of all the garbage they pull from reordering transactions to charging fees that cause overdraft fees in the first place, my all time disgust with them came (about 6 months ago) when I deposited $800 CASH in person to my checking account. I was given the receipt showing my current balance at just over a grand. I then drove home and dropped off my rent check ($700) to the landlord. A few days later I check online to see if my landlord had cashed the check and to my surprise I’d been charged several overdraft fees. Though my landlord’s check cleared 2 days after my deposit that was made in person before I even wrote the check, BoA held my deposit and charged me overdraft fees when my rent check cleared and my “available balance” was only $220. By the time they sorted it all out I was in the hole $35 instead of having the $300 in my account I should have had. After a week and 6 calls to customer service they finally admitted fault and reversed the charges. Now mind you that whole week my $300 was tied up in phantom overdraft fees and I was left broke until they sorted it out.
No matter what pro-bankers say there is no doubt in my mind screwing customers out of any nickle and dime they can is all of these big banks ultimate goal. I have no doubts they sit in board rooms just dreaming up new ways to screw people and hide it.
As a former BOA customer, I’m glad they are doing horrible.
78 dollars is a joke! i have been charged thousands over the past ten plus years, many thousands, it should be figured on an individual basis, that should keep more people employed there for a while. I want all the fees back, 78.00 is an insult, like leaving a penny tip to a waitress!
ABC: you obviously don’t know what you are talking about. It is not that we are spending money we don’t have, it is that BOA is charging fees they shouldn’t. I have been charged $35 ADAY for low balance, as a result sure there are bounced checks. I call, speak to someone in India who says that BOA doesn’t charge unless balance is too low (when I opened the account this was not a policy, especially because I have automatic deposit, no monthly fees were to be charged). I have gotten to the point where I hired an auditor and YES, ABC, it was the fault of the bank not me
Pat: Please reread what I originally wrote. I am siding against the bank, not with them. I said that multimillion dollar settlements would not be continually handed out if this was merely a matter of personal accountability.
LAwsuit is not over not finalized until November 7. 2011 go to this website or call this number to request information and packet
http://www.bofaoverdraftsettlement.com
1-800-372-2390
This is not about this lawsuit but interesting. I recently got rid of my bank of archases with it and some cash advances. well as you know they charge alot more interst for cash advances than puchases this i understood and had no prolbem with. my problem was when i mad payments non of the money went towards paying off the high interest cash advances it took me a while to chatch on to this trick. Costing me hundredsn in interst fees. I feel they should have applied my payments to my depts a they where accrude in chronilogical order but noooooo. Talking to custer service was a total waiste of time.
So do we need to create another litigation on the attorneys involved in the suit to get our money that is rightfully ours back? or is this another government scam? I have read all of your previous posts and I have yet received a dime from the suit. I was on the list because i received the post card informing me about the litigation and informing me of the opt out, if this is just another government scam I would rather opt out so The corrupted attorneys don’t hold my money in courts. Sick of these Sons O’Bitches!
BofA charged me over $ 1600 dollars in overdraft fees-or-late fees whatever!! I would like to know if i’m going to get that money back-over $1600 is alot of money to me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i have read that we get $78 dollars if that is the case that is BS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i want my $1600 dollars back damn it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Is the $78 settlement still ongoing or is there something new? Date listed is in 2007. Have serious short term memory issues and after 1-2 paragraph can’t remember what is said. $78 will not begin to help correct the messes they have created. Been hit by 2 separate accounts as my mortgage was with them too:(
I am not sure where the $78 is coming from? Did someone do the math? I read the whole deposition on this lawsuit and did not read anything about $78. Whoever posted that please let us know where you go your info so we know.
Ronald Wilhite Says:
August 24th, 2011 at 8:47 am
Great Job. Crooks deserve to lose.
Is this a variation of the surname Wilhoite?
the $78.00 is from another case.read people ,9% or .45cents on a dollar.
Just got my check for 17 smackers woo hoo. Almost a case of beer. Well I could by Miller High Life baby.
bank America paid off the judge- $410million is a joke b of a got to me for over $5.000 in over draft fees in 10 years it just shows me that b of a is gitting away with it and getting to keep most of the money they took from us.
Lucky me Bank of America keeps charging me overdraft fees for loans that I did not make yet they keep appearing on my statement. I had to close my savings account and was told to just re-open a new one. Fine, that is until when I did I was told I would have to make a deposit of at least $250.00 which I did not have. All of my money was stolen from me but I’m the one being penalized. I hope BoA gets sued so bad that they close. I am afraid to put my money into a bank now. Not just BoA is dealing out fraud but TD, Chase and Citi Banks are no better. You deposit money, they take it the same day. Thieves!
What I’d like to know is how can there be another one of these so-called “settlements” when the first of these; the one that was supposed to give everyone $78.00 has NEVER materialized. This first scam was supposedly “settled” a couple of YEARS ago. To date I haven’t seen a dime. This is just another scam and even if it’s not the only people who will get paid are the greedy lawyers.
this suit is for way to little. if everyone else was inconvenienced as much as i was it should be about 300 if you look at the people who go from paycheck to paycheck and don’t have funds to cover overdraft fees. this kind of thing can throw a monkey wrench into your whole life, creating a chain reaction of late fees ,panic, stress, debt that could spiral out of control. then when i asked for the overdraft fees to be removed being made to feel bad over the phone, when half my pay check is gone after deposit.i asked for the over draft feature to be taken off and it still wasn’t for 3 other incidents.
This is another Bank of America scheme is playing, and Chase has a similar, if not the same, game going.
Let’s say you have a $10,000 LEDGER balance at the bank, and this ledger balance is also your AVAILABLE balance. (ledger balance is reduced by “holds” on deposits, etc, giving you your available balance, which is your balance available to clear checks, withdraw funds, etc)
Then you go to the bank and you make a deposit that includes $5500.00 worth of checks. For various reasons there are “HOLDS” placed on these deposited checks. This is to be expected, this is ok.
Now, Your available balance, at an honest bank, should continue to be your original $10,000. The ledger balance will read $15,500 but only $10,000 would be AVAILABLE. Because $5500 is on hold.
What Bank of America is doing is reducing the AVAILABLE balance by the deposit you made, of $5500.00. The Available balance the day after the deposit of $5500.00 becomes $4500.00 (10,000 less $5500 = $4500)
So, now you have a ledger balance of $15,500, and funds AVAILABLE of $4500.00. Calling the bank results in the reason of these funds being on a “Float”. So, the same deposit of $5500 that will be on HOLD for well over a week and unavailable, has also reduced your original balance of $10,000, via their process of “FLOAT”. If you pay the bank fees via your average available balance, the fees you pay the bank just increased. Also, now you have only $4500 as opposed to $10,000. Any checks you had written that are going to reduce your balance below $4500 are going to bounce.
I know that this is long after the fact but can someone tell me why some people received a check from the class action suit with b of a and some didn’t?
My friend and I both got checks and postcards. Her sister and nephew got postcards, confirmation numbers but no check….
I know that the class action suit is over but we were just wondering how the courts figured all of that out. Especially in view of the fact that B of A was bailed out and had the money