Updated. Although I originally wrote this post a few years ago, it (unfortunately) still gets regular traffic. Bank reforms instituted in 2010 made overdraft “protection” only applicable on an opt-in basis on ATM/debit card usage. Despite this fact, U.S. banks still collected over $6 billion dollars in overdraft fees in 2015.
The advice below on how to get a BofA overdraft fee refunded still works, as many positive e-mails and comments will attest. But you should also ask to turn OFF your overdraft protection as many people are confused on the actual meaning of the service. If you opt-out of overdraft protection and try to use your debit card with an insufficient balance, you will simply get denied with no fee. If you opt-in to overdraft protection and try to use your debit card with an insufficient balance, your purchase will go through but you will get charged a fee of roughly $35 on each instance. Now you know why I put quotation marks around “protection”.
Just Ask!
I was hit with an overdraft fee from Bank of America when I was trying to close out an account. Luckily, I was able to get it refunded to me. The answer is always no if you don’t ask, so don’t give up the opportunity to save hundreds of dollars with a 10-minute phone call! A few tips:
- Be nice but firm. Customer service reps are people. This is not the time to outline all the reasons why their overdraft system is unfair. The employee is never going to be able to admit “Yes, they are unfair!”, and you’re only going to put them on the defensive.
- Admit you made a mistake, and include your personal story. Perhaps you and your spouse had a miscommunication and lost track of the bank balance. Your contractor finally cashed a check from 8 months ago that you forgot about. A spokesperson from Bank of America said they “may waive unemployed consumers’ fees on a case-by-case basis.”
- Help them find a reason to help you. Are you a first-time offender? Are you a long-time customer? Do you have other accounts with Bank of America? Credit card, loans, or business accounts? Show them you are a profitable customer worth keeping.
- Try different communication avenues. I used to visit my local branch a lot, and have had some good success with going directly there. Your mileage my vary, but also try any combination of Live Chat, E-mail, and Telephone.
“Hi, I was recently charged an overdraft fee when an old check got cashed. I totally forgot about it and it was my fault. However, I’ve been with BofA for X years, and this is my first overdraft fee. I am calling to see if I am able to get this waived.”
Denied? Escalate!
If you’re not satisfied with your response, it has paid off for many customers to escalate your request to the “Executive Customer Relations” division of Bank of America. Read the many relieved comments below.
Call Executive Customer Relations:
Executive Customer Relations general line: 704-386-5687
E-mail a Bank of America Customer Advocate:
Melissa Russell
Customer Advocate
Office of the Chairman
800-669-2443 Ext 2809
melissa.d.russell@bankofamerica.com
Crystal R. Peterson
Customer Advocate
Office of the CEO and President
336-805-3126
crystal.peterson@bankofamerica.com
A sample success story:
Emailed the office of the chairman 2 weeks ago and received a call today from that office. They credited back $440 in overdraft fees. Issue was my fault since i made the purchases but the merchant submitted all transactions for 3 months on one day. Pretty happy with the result.
Write a snail-mail letter to the CEO:
Brian Thomas Moynihan
100 N. Tryon Street
Mail Code NC-1-007-18-01
Charlotte, NC 28255
Another success story:
Thank you, thank you, thank you. After reading the post about the BoA customer who got $280 in NSF fees refunded, I wrote BoA myself. They had charged me 7 NSF fees in succession (which sucked ass) and was my fault. […] So I wrote a formal letter of complaint to Kenneth Lewis. This past Saturday, they refunded all of the fees – even though it was my fault. I can’t believe it. That rocks. People do have the power.
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Made error in online billpay once. “34,47” instead of “34.47” was treated as “3447”. Interesting that bank processed this without a blink, setting account “-1xxx”. At that point I wished to get denied charge (took utility company forever to write me check back). Anyway. It happened 2 days before direct deposit, manager in BoA office refunded overdraft fee after short discussion.
I recently got my direct deposit and forgot I had an automatic transaction set for pay day, so I transferred the money over to my savings myself. Then when I check on my account later the balalnce for my checking is -$xxx amount and I was baffoed. I called and they said the money would be returned to me the next day. that happened today and I’m terrified at the thought of me losing that money. i can’t even sleep because I keep checking back to see if its there.
It works. They refunded my insufficient fund fee.
Does this still work?
I tried calling today about two overdraft fees. I accidentally paid my credit card bill with the wrong account, overdrafting my account by 1 cent, and I also bought a hot chocolate. Both of these transactions posted on the same day, and less than $3 overdrafted gave me $70 in fees.
I called about it and was given a straight “No, we won’t refund it.”
I have had bank fees refunded as well. It always helps to ask! I have multiple accounts with BofA. They are supposed to be linked so that their combined balances avoid fees. last August I started getting fees assessed to one account at 10 bucks a month. I didn’t notice it for 6 months!!! I called BofA. The first customer rep told me NO. I called back. The second customer rep refunded all fees. I then went into a banking center to fill out the appropriate paperwork and cancel low use accounts so that this would not happen again. It happened again in June! I called the bank, got an awesome customer rep who refunded the fees and put a permanent fee waiver on the account. Yes!!!
I used to work for BofA as a customer service rep, 5 years ago. We were trained to never reverse fees if it was the customer’s fault. If they absolutely demanded it, 50% of the first OD charge and 100% of the rest for that day would be refunded. I bet you that has changed since their new rules – 10 OD charges a day = $350 and they’ve instituted an OD balance $35 fee if you’re negative for more than 5 days.
BofA also has another dirty OD trick – getting you to link your credit card as “Overdraft Protection”. While this may sound like a good idea, they make fantastic interest rates when customers take cash advances. The way they had it structured, purchases would be paid off first at a lower interest rate, and the cash advances would pay off last at a higher rate.
Bounce Protection can be removed upon request depending on your financial institution. I moved to a credit union recently that has this ability. This means if I use my debit card for $10 and I only have $5 in the account the card is denied instead of automatically processing, as BofA would do.
Can BofA charge an overdraft fee the same day the overdraft happens and then 5 days later charge an additional $35. extended fee?
Yes, they did that exact thing too me.
Won’t refund it.
No they can’t. They just settled a huge class action suit, over illegal extended overdraft fees.
Oddly, I had an error where a credit card company (Citi) pulled a five-figure sum out of my bank account that I didn’t owe them. It would have been nice if I could have charged them an overdraft fee! As it is, two weeks later they refunded the money but wouldn’t make any other concessions. I was fortunate that I had the funds sitting in my bank account to cover it or all kinds of confusion would have ensued.
Most establishment will give you at least one “courtesy” fee refund,”
sometimes even two per year. I even done this when missing payments and had a late fee reverse. At the same time, I rarely have over draft or miss payments.
It works. Just did it with HSBC. 5 minutes on the phone and got my $35 OD fee reversed as a courtesy. Don’t give up people!
It’s too bad that companies still waive these fees… It raises the costs for regular customers like me who actually pay their bills on time!
Oh shut up. my fees are for taking out MY MONEY abroad. why should I get charged 12 to 14 dollars just to take out 250 or 300? I keep a positive balance but that is not good enough,.if it is only a few 100 you get maintenance fees…
Really my bills were paid on time got overdraft fees for something that gave no wArning of posting plus i had money in act and expected a deposit to cover the 4 dollar difference but no I get 2 overdraft. Fees for 75 dollars with a promise of more and cant get a hold of them tomorrow because. Of the holiday o and. I had money in my savings to cover it as well so no every fee isn’t deserved
Since when
It does not! I went inside a bank of America due to a problem with my debit card. While waiting for my new card, the banker helping me just showed me my account balance and it was $150.00 more than what it was before I got there. I asked how that happened and he told me he waived any fees he saw on my account. I DIDN’T EVEN ASK!!! I told him he didn’t have to do that. His reply was that it was just an act of kind will and didn’t take anything for him to do it. People will help you if they choose to help! My advice to anyone else, customer service sucks. Go inside of the bank. They always help.
Your a genius, a skilled amazing genius who should be worshipped for paying his bills on time. And we haven’t been worshipping you and I can see that has been bothering you so much you resorted to posting twice on here about your financial brilliance and its comparison to everyone else’s financial stupidity. In the future we’ll make sure to praise you, the most highly disciplined, moral value driven man who ever existed. Put your bag all over it Massingill!!
Works like a charm!!! Called the executive customer relations office and for $ 70 OD, after the bank manager of BOFA said no.
All it takes it 5mins
Didn’t work for me today. Tried Customer Service, went to the branch AND called the relations line
I’ve had good luck with this in the past with Wells Fargo. I think there’s a set number per year they’ll allow as a courtesy.
This has worked for me in the past.
Allan,
Geez, people make mistakes. ONE Time, I had an overdraft from HSBC. I had thousands in savings and usually nothing in the checking as I rarely used the checking. One of the few times a year I use the checking is for R.E. Taxes. I wrote the check for the taxes but forgot to transfer the funds to checking. My mistake, my fault, but it was a mistake. I called, transferred the funds, received refund of the overdraft fee. I asked if they can link the checking to savings so that if I ever again lapse from my usually perfect self they could automatically cover it. They said no. I now have opened an account at Alliant that will do that.
Hope that your perfection exists in all areas of your life so that any mistake you make is only as minor as this.
There is no reason for anyone to use Bank of America, period. They have the most ridiculous overdraft fees of any bank, and it is near impossible to get a refund. Instead of teaching people how to beg for a refund, you should be telling them to switch banks.
The most common reason I hear why someone uses B of A is that they have many ATMs and so they can conveniently withdraw cash. What you should do is find a bank that refunds ATM fees, then you’ll have every ATM in your network.
Problem is, nobody does that anymore.
Yes they do. My wife works at charles scwab…. And she gets all atm fee refunded, they do that cause there isn’t really a place to go and withdraw money in person.
It would be nice if our industries were interested in increasing human welfare over the long term, rather than maximizing profit in the short term. Everybody ends up better off.
A bank can gouge a low-income customer with fees or sneaky credit card payment terms all the way into bankrupcy. The bank makes money, but it’s not sustainable.
On the other hand, if they engaged in practices that help that customer get out of debt and stabilze his or her finances, they build a lot of loyalty and give themselves the opportunity to sell products that produce profits over the long-term, like home mortgages and brokerage services.
Crazy, I know.
“It’s too bad that companies still waive these fees… It raises the costs for regular customers like me who actually pay their bills on time!”
It’s called Customer Service. Raise what cost to you?
Due to the fact that BofA and other banks had to take into account these “courtesy customer service” acts, they have cannot provide the best rates (savings, CD) or the lowest costs (mortgages, loans, etc).
They have to price it into their products (for example, 2% of the customer base will “forget” to pay their billl and will plead and beg for a waiver of fee). If they don’t waive the fees, then the banks will look like the devil or worst, a company that is too greedy to look after their customers.
In summary, their costs of business increases due to these waivers and thereby, reduces the benefit that a customer that always pay on time.
I know a lot of you guys think this is hogwash, but their actuary dept does take into account these types of issues.
This is nonsense. From an executive herself, you speak with no information..you can be elitist on your own but to understand most of our charges are negligent or technologically off, you would have to be behind the scenes. You have obviously been misinformed as a consumer/customer. I work at BOFA and bank at Chase.
Mia,
Why don’t you shed more light as to how BofA’s charges are ‘negligent or technologically off’? I am sure some people would benefit from such knowledge, especially if they want to get the bank to take said charges off the account.
It doesn’t cost them anything , the 35 they got for free as a penalty so it’s not like they are losing the 35 dollars
It would be absurd to price any product offerings based on the number of projected fees the bank expects to charge their customers. Most of the time, all the bank does to earn these fees is simply deny paying a transaction. The transaction was processed by a computer in a fraction of a second. So how does that even cost them anything?
From the bank’s point of view, they get to make money for nothing. And most consumers will never question the fees. The cost of dealing with the customers that do call in, regardless if they are credited back or not, is minimal. In other words, the fees pay for themselves. The bank is not losing a dime.
Exactly
Allen, the fact that B of A just paid out On class action suits over deceptive overdraft practices (https://topclassactions.com/lawsuit-settlements/money/fees/929861-bank-of-america-overdraft-fees-class-action-settlement/
https://topclassactions.com/lawsuit-settlements/closed-settlements/836707-bank-america-overdraft-fees-class-action-settlement-2/),
doesn’t make a, hundreds of billions of $ in profits, company, the one who is wrong, now does it? I suppose to you, it just makes them smart, to find a loophole to make more money.
Well, I guess B of A realised that in the court of law, a judge was going to see it differently, cause they decepted their customers, us, regular, hard working Americans, out of Millions if dollars. So YES IT IS B OF A’S FAULT, NOT OURS!!!!!
some measure success by how often they get out of fees. i measure success by how rarely fees are levied. i can’t remember my last such fee. over a decade ago perhaps.
It must be wonderful being you!
Omg thank you for the laugh…your response to the comment is the BEST!!
Who cares?
Allan,
perhaps the rediculously high OD charges help cover the costs due to increased customer service calls and price discrimination.
I agree with Randy. This practice punishes the ignorant and lowest income groups, leaving them with a sense of distrust and helplessness at their inability to improve their situation.
To me, it is most interesting that we feel like we are winning by getting fees reversed, when really we are only breaking even at best.
I’ve had some luck with US bank’s overdraft protection when I check my account and its negative and I quickly make a deposit the same day, it seems to allow me to have a negative balance for part of the day, as long as I end up in the black. Maybe other banks are similar. Either way, I rely on OD protection, I guess because I’m lazy
I’m going through a situation with Wachovia (Walk-all-over-ya) right now. I was hit with a $5.00 fee on an account that had been dormant for some time. Their fee sent my account negative which subsequently got closed and sent to their collections department because it was negative for too long (60 or 90 days). This action brought on another fee of $40 (charge-off fee). Now they want me to pay them $44.11 in fees on an account that I didn’t over draw…I just let it sit dormant with 89 cents in it for too long. I might take the blame for letting the account stay negative for too long, but In what world would I pay anyone $44.11 for letting them hold $0.89 for me. Silly banks. I called customer relations but still haven’t heard back. I think I’ll start drafting a letter now.
@Allan
I think you’re right, but backwards. When the bank is setting that fee in the first place, I’m sure they look at the likely rate of fee waivers. And if a $30 fee minus any refunds isn’t going to be sufficient, then they bump it to $35.
Those waivers are built into the bank’s costs, like you say, but the people bearing that cost are the overdrawn consumers who don’t ask for refunds, not so much the CD investor or savings account holder.
Just talked to BoA about getting my fees taken off. I called the CEO’s office directly and complained that my billpay was charged twice, which was my fault, and she removed the fees.
She said I had no history of overdrafts, which isn’t entirely true, but she removed the fees as a “courtesy” and said she wouldn’t be able to do it again.
Allan wrote: “Due to the fact that BofA and other banks had to take into account these courtesy customer service acts, they have cannot provide the best rates (savings, CD) or the lowest costs (mortgages, loans, etc).”
I understand that there is no free lunch, and refunds/customer service do need to be factored into costs. However, don’t assume that just because a bank does not give refunds automatically means that money benefits the customers. It’s more likely just going into their profits.
Why does my credit union not have these exorbitant fees, and still beats B of A in interest rates? Probably because they make less profit. Have you seen B of A interest rates? I can’t find a bank with lower rates.
I had a billpay at Bank of America go through twice (at 9:06 and 9:07) resulting in my account being overdrawn. Huge amount of overdraft fees and now they want to report me to ChexSystems so I can’t open an account anywhere. I have talked to numerous people and was finally told “In this environment the bank is not refunding fees.” Nice. Still fighting. I just emailed the CEO, hopefully this works!
I need to write a letter. I get hit with a 35.00 overdraft fee for 1.50.. That’s correct a 1.50. They said that they sent me a notice I didn’t receive, so the account went -36.50 for 5 days and they hit me with 35.00 more dollars.. I called they said nothing that they can do.
BofA put a hold, without informing me, on my business checking account, an account I’ve had for 2 years and never had a returned check-they held over $10,000 in funds that I depended on to run my business. Of course, they then charged me over $400 in fees for returned & overdrawn checks-even though the money was there, they just were “holding” it. I was told that fees are only reversed by submitting a request through the bank employee’s computer, and if it is denied, tough luck. When I worked at BofA over 5 years ago, I had the authority to reverse nearly any amount of fees to keep a customer happy. Now, they make no secret of not caring one whit about keeping customers, in the branches the attitude is-“nothing we can do, not our decision” so why are they there?
I agree, there is NO reason to use Bank Of America, they have turned into a bunch of crooks-taking a bailout of MY tax money and then charging me up the you-know-what in fees. Absolutely ridiculous.
I’m closing all my accounts and taking them somewhere else, but I’m sure they couldn’t care less. Sixteen year customer, with 3 mortgages, business accounts, and numerous credit cards. Yeah, they really CARE.
Disgusting.
On, and BTW, it costs the bank nearly nothing to return items, so that $35 fee is just about all revenue for them, as are the ATM fees and most other account fees. So, Mr High and Mighty can rest assured that us delinquents aren’t costing him anything. We’re paying, in spades. Must be nice, though.
Oh, and I also heard some BofA employees chatting about how easy it was to make their quarterly “bonus”, all they have to do is find a lot of ways to charge customers and they’re all set. I guess that’s what we’re paying for with those fees.
I admit I goofed, bigtime, but charging $315 in fees for 9 items under $25 is unjust. They are profiting on others’ misfortune. When they needed a bailout from the taxpayers, they got $20 billion. That didn’t stop them from raising their fees to outrageous levels on their customers. They were shown mercy, but in return they show no mercy.
Thank you so much for this. I made the rare accident of overdrawing but honestly I can’t afford 7 overdraft charges of $35 each! First I called the regular BOA customer service line and expressed my frustration of the shitty interface of trying to understand my account balance. The lady on the other end was no help and gave me a lecture as if I didn’t know basic math, which just pissed me off in the end.
I looked up this site and used Executive Customer Relations line, told the rep that I made a mistake. he went over my bank account history and informed me of the exact criteria for when overdrafts happen (something the lower service rep didn’t tell me at all) and said that he would take away the fees. Thanks so much!
Thanks…sooo Much… I am a mother of 4 children and they have just went back to school… Needless to say I over spent by $1.83 this charge was on hold and was charged $35 NSF, than with out knowing I was charged I had made another deposite and another 4 charges came through which overdrew my account all because of the original overspending fee of 1.83…. Well I called these folks who discussed my account with me and refunded me $140.00 in NSF fee’s which was all of the NSF fees charged to my account ….I am going to pay the now negative balance of 15.00 and close this account…. I do not like their practices… it looks like they posted the debits prior to the credits which causes the fees….
But THanks a million I still have school supplies to buy!
I forgot about $30 worth of misc. charges on a Sunday. On monday I was notified of this and I made a deposit to bring it positive + $150. Tuesday I got 6 overdraft fees which wiped out all my money again. Tuesday afternoon I “spoke” with an online rep who pretty much told me it was all my fault and that was that.
Today I googled “get bank of america fees reversed” and low and behold – found similiar sites to this.
At 1:02pm I called 704-386-5687, very nice lady answered at the CEO/Chairman’s office…i remained calm. She asked how she could help me so I told her (calmly) that is was an honest mistake and I don’t know how it happened. She asked me how I normally keep track of my charges and I told her a check register and online. Her response, “Well _____ I am going to reverse those over draft charges this one time. We do thank you for keeping track of your purchases that way, not many people do. But mistakes happen.” We then talked about misc. stuff while she was crediting it.
Thank god for google! lol
Just wanted to say it does pay to ask. Take responsibility and be kind. I called the executive offices today and was refunded 280 of the 350 in overdraft fees.
Could you please give me the number of the executive office? I got back from holliday and I see that I got 600$ in overdraft fees… I’m going insane 🙁
>Just wanted to say it does pay to ask. Take responsibility and be kind. >I called the executive offices today and was refunded 280 of the 350 in >overdraft fees.
It is ridiculous that I have to grovel and pretend like i’ve learned some kind of lesson. I mean come on now. I have 50k+ in various accounts at bank of america. I go negative on a daily-spending accoutn for less than 24 hours and they want to zap me for $200 in fees? F–k that. I mean really….. some minimum wage person on the other line wants to lecture me on how to handle my check register. I shouldn’t have to grovel but on the other hand I like my money 🙂
3 weeks ago BOA made a mistake and charged me for 3 over drafts $105.00 after 2 and a half hours refusing to take no as an answer on an online chat I got the fees reversed. IT WAS A WORKOUT! Today I noticed 3 charges again. This time it was me. Three pending charges totaling $23.00 but I thought if I tranfered money in the same day (30 mins later) from my other BOA account my account would good…wrong! They charge you even if you deposit cleared funds 3o seconds after your card has been swiped. Anyway, now my account is minus $70 due to the $105 in charges and they show 5 items in red (again little charges that they money was there for until they posted these charges today). So now I am looking at another 5 overdraft fees for a grand total of 8 = $280 I logged on to online chat with them to get this sorted out. Instead of reversing the fees after an hour and a half on line they put the 5 additional charges through on my account! While I was waiting for a supervisor I started googling BOA fees and found this site, while being told no the fee’s stand, too bad so sad I called the number above on my cell and within 5 mins had all fees reversed and told the online chat my account had been taken care of and thanks for the help. I am sure they are still sitting there 4 hours later tryong o figure out how that happened 🙂
Thanks so much for the info on the office of the BOA CEO/Chairman.
After a LONG, DRAGGED OUT, 20 minute conversation with a customer service rep at BOA 800 number, she FINALLY offered to refund 2 of my 4 overdrafts. This was acceptable for a customer service agent to offer this to me and I did appreciate it, but I figured why not try to call the CEO office and get the other 2 taken care of. Sure enough, I called and was connected to someone almost immediately. She reversed the other 2 charges and then gave me a little talk about how to not get those in the future…thank you so much, I don’t know if I would have gotten my $140 back if it wasn’t for finding this info on this website…
Exactly my situation right now!! I got 2 out of my 4 overdrafts refunded. I am really hoping I will be able to reverse the other two by calling the CEO’s office like everyone are talking about.
I am so thankful I found this website. I sent an email to the address listed above for Ken Lewis. I got an automated reply telling that a customer advocate would contact me within 5 business days. I got a call about 6 days later from an advocate in the chairman’s office. The lady was extremely nice. I was honest and admitted my mistake, but I did explain that I have been unemployed for several months. The customer advocate refunded 10 overdrafts at $35 each. That was awesome!
I have been a customer of BOA for 19 years so I am not sure if that made a difference.
I mentioned to the advocate that I was also having trouble working out a modification on my mortgage with BOA. She transferred me to a rep in mortgage area of the chairman’s office. The rep has helped me tremendously. What a blessing. I have changed my view of BOA and I will probably continue to do business with them.
I am so distressed – this worked for everyone but me. I admitted fault asked for liency and even asked for Executive Customer Service at Bank of America and was denied transfer or a phone. Of the $140 mistake that I made only 2 hours prior to my paycheck coming in, I only recieved $35 in returned fees from BoA. The manager actually made me cry on the phone.
A rep at the executive number happily gave me a credit for my many overdraft fees. I am so glad I found this, thank you so much for sharing!
So glad I found this post with the contact info above, a representative at the executive customer service number was extremely courteous and refunded all but one of my overdraft fees, which had continued to pile up daily despite my adding all available funds to my account. VERY relieved to be out of the cascading fee cycle, thanks for providing this info!
Within 2 days I aquired $455 worth of overdraft fees from BoA. I talked to the manager at the bank, and he said there was nothing he could do. He gave me no hope stating that anyone I called would use the “refund request” system he did. I called the Executive Customer Relations number and recieved 6 of the 13 overdraft fees back. I was afraid if I bothered the lady for more she wouldn’t give me anything. I think I will try emailing the customer advocate.
I spoke to Quinn at the executive phone number and with a lot of patience on both our parts I was able to explain why I incurred $210 in overdraft fees consecutively. After a discussion on the importance of keeping a check register and being put on hold multiple times to “review my account” she offered to split the fees with me. I went ahead and settled for that because I felt I was reaching the point of diminishing returns. $105 is better than $210 but it still hurts. I think I may be checking out a credit union after this. Having to talk to 4 different people and having them all be very unwilling to help me out I don’t think I want to be part of their machine. One of them actually told me that there were no concessions available to them to retain customers. So in the customer service center they don’t care about the customer at all. It’s all about how quickly the can say no and get you off the phone! Good luck to the next person that finds this site!
I’ve just spoken to Robert from the executive customer relations. He is very helpful and informative, he waived 3 out of 4 OD charges after 2 customer service reps and supervisor had said “NO”. My paycheck is less than $300 a week, so you guys can imagine how glad I’m to be returned $105.
Keep track of your account and set up alerts which you could find in Online Banking
Thanks for your post guys!!!
My husband and I rack up NSF fees way too much due to a tight budget and regular miscommunications. I was at my wits end trying to make it to the end of this month and called the number above. I was polite and told them the last round of fees was totally our fault and that that it would just really help me out to make it until the end of the month if I could get them refunded. We have been customers since 1994! I was skeptical that this would work but it did! Thanks for this website!!
Wow, this was very helpful, I had 13 overdraft fees and was unable to get the help I needed with customer service. They offered to waive 3 fees, however I had taken money from another account to transfer to the affected account 24 hours later, so I only felt I should have to pay 3 since I still would have had a negative balance. I called the number up, 10 minutes later I had 10 fees waived, saving $350.00, very very awesome. He did ask where I had found the phone number from though, I had said family friends have some accounts with high balances in them, so I got the number from them, so he seemed to buy the excuse.
I don’t know why people are pointing the fingers at the financial institutions when they should be pointing the fingers at themselves. Financial Institutions are not your own personal account managers, if you manage your money right, you wouldn’t be in the sticky situation to begin with.
Update: B of A and several other large banks are limiting overdraft charges to 4 per day and not charging for overdrafts of less than $10.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/bottomline/detail?entry_id=48208&tsp=1
While this is an improvement, they’re only doing it out of fear of government regulation. And I bet they’re still doing the selective processing where they process the largest drafts first to maximize the overdraft charges.
Read the comments in that blog, pretty interesting.
Jay D: “I don’t know why people are pointing the fingers at the financial institutions when they should be pointing the fingers at themselves.”
You are right to a degree. But there also needs to be reasonable business practices too. For example, would you think it is fair to issue a $10,000 ticket for driving 66 mph in a 65 mph zone? Would you tell that person that it was their fault for accidentally going over the speed limit? Or do you think the fine should be more reasonable to fit the deed?
Now I will go ahead and blame consumers for sticking with B of A. I think the biggest problem is that people don’t like to leave a large balance in their checking account because it bears no interest. Do yourself a favor and get an online checking acct somewhere that pays decent interest with low minimum balance. That way, you can leave a buffer and not overdraft.
I’ve been using Presidential Bank online checking. The interest rates are equivalent to B of A CDs, and only $1000 min balance. Wean yourself off of these ripoff banks!
I just absolutely have to comment. In the last 45 days Bank of America has charged 36 overdraft fees totaling $1,275.00 in overdraft charges. Keep in mind, my wife made a transfer to “catch up” our account from another BofA account with over $10,000 in it. Literally paperwork (not even that anymore) to charge $35 per incident. Immediately after she made the $1,000 transfer they charged 8 more at $35 each. So when she went to write a check and run some errands we were charge $35 again for each transaction. I have spent over 5 hours on the phone with the Customer disService department and got nowhere. I was told that because of how the notes were written in the history I could not have the fees reversed. They were still holding our money in another account. So disgusted I can’t even write anymore right now.
Oh my god, thank you for this page. I had 11 overdraft charges totalling $385, and the people at the regular customer service number said they could only refund $96. I then called the Executive Customer Relations general line and the lady was incredibly helpful, explained exactly how transactions are posted and when, how things work, and how to better manage my money, and then she refunded 9 of the 11 overdraft charges totaling $280! Amazing, and it never would have happened without this page. And like the woman above wrote, she asked how I had gotten the number, like it’s a secret number. I told her I got it from a friend.
I bank with Bank Of America.. I have a situation were money was,and has been being taking out of my account without my knowledge or authorization.. I call the 800 number.. I filled many claims.. Today I have spoke to the executive office and I have to go through it all again.. filing claims again.. I have been charged $3,000 – $4,000.00 in bank fees in 4 and a half years and about $1,000.00 in transactions that I had nothing to do with. I would deposit money though and it takes days to go through.. I will refile the claims if there is even a little chance that I can get even a quarter percent back of the money I feel has been stolen from me.
Thank you, for everyone who reads this and makes a post here. I’ve found BofA to be difficult in refunding overdraft fees, even after proving their fee was charged in error. If you check your account with them daily (which I’ve learned to do) you know immediately if there is a problem. If you make a deposit the same day they show even a small $4 over draft, they will charge you $35. If you have another $1 over draft..guess what? ANOTHER $35 and the list goes on until your next paycheck goes to fees not to bills…I’ve fought with them regarding high fees for $1 or $10 overdrafts where deposits were made the same day, they refuse to reverse any fees. This is how they get rich. I agree with the person who suggested we close any accounts with them. I have a checking, savings, investment and ira accounts with them. I’m closing all of them and transferring my business to a company more interested in customer service.
Thank you! I tried calling the 1-800 number then the online chat, asking them to reverse my overdraft charge. I just started using online banking and forgot I scheduled a payment. My old bank showed all my ending payments on my balance screen so I always knew what withdraws were to come. When I called the lady was very nice and it worked like a charm! Thank you again!
Here’s an idea – balance your checkbook, don’t write checks when you don’t have any money, and read your statements. You won’t be charged an overdraft fee if you DON’T OVERDRAW YOUR ACCOUNT!
I recently have been paying off bills and due to circumstances beyond my control spent only a little over what was in my account a few times. I called BofA and the woman who answered immediately reviewed some past overdraft fees. Not only did I get almost half refunded she said to call back tomorrow and that I would be able to get more back once they reviewed the others. All it took was one 5 min phone call.
“Here’s an idea – balance your checkbook, don’t write checks when you don’t have any money, and read your statements.”
Brilliant, there’s always someone who’s more than willing to play the role of “Captain Obvious.” You realize that over half the overdraft charges are for debit cards right? Debit cards originally had the effect of eliminating overdraft charges since you card was simply declined if you accidentally erred. Then someone came along and said “Ohhh we could be making $37,000,000,000 as an industry if we get rid of this cap”
For me the whole point of debit card technology is that you CAN’T overdraft if you use the card exclusively since it’s electronically checking your account for funds. Then this “courtesy overdraft” came along and screwed lower income people like myself a new hole. I don’t have a problem with the courtesy overdraft per say but what makes it BS is that you CAN’T OPT OUT (until recently) and you’re automatically enrolled. In my case recently I racked up $140 fees for (not joking here) -$1.22 overdraft. 11,000% is reasonable?
I think everyone agrees that their should be some sort of fee for overdrafting but it should proportional and reasonable and debit card holders should have the option to opt out.
Maybe if they spent more time investigating the crappy mortgages they were buying/offering and less time screwing over poor and disadvantaged people they wouldn’t have had to be bailed out.
Bank of America is awful. I had my debit card on file for my web hosting provider. I knew the bill for my domain and hosting were going to be due in a few months. I decided to pay for it in advance, to make sure it was taken out when I had the money. Well I paid for the wrong thing, and didnt know it until today. My fault for being an air head…but then I found out something about BofA that sucks.
Yesterday I went shopping and spent a total of $80 at 7 different places. I had $82 in my checking account. Today the $85 dollar charge for my domain and web hosting was charged to my account.
Bank of america told me today they do not process the charges based on the date they happened, they base it on the size of the transaction. So that means todays transaction will process first because it is the biggest. It will empty my account, then all those little charges I made the day before….when my money was in my account will process. So each of those will get a overdraft fee.
Why do they do that? I dont know other than to make sure they get as many overdraft fees as possible. What other reason could their be. I never ever got a over draft fee on a debit card until I got a BofA account.
I think it is evil what they are doing. I heard that they are going to cap their overdraft fee’s to 3 a day…wow how nice of them. Why dont they pay transactions as they come in…instead of stacking the deck against people. They are going to put a cap on there screwing over of people…they are just going to do it a little bit instead of a lot…how wonderful of them…..
I am closing my account, have already found someone else that does not do what BofA does.
They told me to call back after all the overdrafts happend and they would talk to me about doing maybe doing something about it maybe…but no one would say for sure if they would reverse the charges. So now I am going to have at least 280 dollars of my 1000 pay check go to overdraft fees. I think they should pay the little ones first and charge me one overdraft fee for the mistake I made. Will be interesting trying to live on $20 after I pay my rent for the month. I needed to lose weight I guess this will help me. Come to think of it…the charge will be more because it will include the $85 I was not expecting to pay…nice….
Never thought in America if you work hard watch your penny’s try your hardest to do the rite thing…you would not go hungry. Guess I was wrong. Just so some people at some bank who already have a ton of money can make more…
I just got $200 of my $245 worth of OD fees waived by a very helpful customer service rep.
Thanks for this great information. I don’t think I even would have tried if I hadn’t seen your blog!
Ms. Condos will not be reading e-mail sent to that address listed. That e-mail shall now bounce. Better results are generated by writing, and sending a fax.
Nancy M. Condos
VP/ Customer Advocate
Executive Customer Relations
Office of the Chairman
Fax# 704-386-4578
Unfortunately, whatever relief you get sadly does not alter the policies that shall inevitably see many Bank of America consumers and consumers of nationally associated banks in general caught up in a spiraling fee trap. They shall likely provide you relief at the top level but once, understanding that you have already likely seen relief on previous occasions from local associates refunding half the charges on previous occasions. They will then assert, essentially, that you have not proven your worth as an “investment”.
What many fail to realize is that these charges are not in fact at all legal. What they remain are short term loans imposed upon consumers without consumer consent. Regulatory bodies such as the Fed and OCC during Bush Jr. days were packed with industry friendly hacks, if not actual industry representatives – and have deliberately not only neglected their regulatory mission but have allowed banks free reign to exclude these loan interest rates from the Truth in Lending Act, state usury laws, and all federal regulations applicable towards all other loans.
These agencies have deliberately misinterpreted the National Bank Act so that the banks may have “legal” cover for what in truth remain illegal schemes. The Act actually forbids such behavior.
John said:
“some measure success by how often they get out of fees. i measure success by how rarely fees are levied. i can’t remember my last such fee. over a decade ago perhaps.”
You measure your success “by how rarely fees are levied”? I guess we need people like you in this world just to make everything else look so much more exciting. Good for you and your mediocre yet satisfactory lifestyle!
I just got $140 of OD fees waived by a sending an email to executive customer relations. I am so thrilled that in these time of hardship the bank was so understanding.
I was so overjoyed to receive a phone call and the charges credited back to my account.
Thanks for the information on this blog as I called the BofA customer services and was only told that one of my fees could be credited.
It is so nice to know that we as a consumer are still heard!
people like allen need to shut up. they think they are so perfect hopefully they won’t have to experience losing a job or income then they would understand not everyone is perfect when it comes to finances.
I have been using online banking with B of A since 2001, making all bill payments online. However, I am looking to move away from the service — I just found out this week that the regular balance statement Web page is no longer an accurate reflection of what was in my account. After being hit with $140 in OD fees on one day, I was informed by B of A customer service that there is another Web pagecalled “available balance history” that can only be accessed by clicking on a link on the far left of the second web page away from the main entrance. Interesting that the main page AND the downloadble detail shows a positive balance for the day in question. CUstomer service told me that the “available balance” web page had been introduced three months ago. My question is now, why conceal this “available balance” page under the other ones, why not make that available balance web page the only running balance in the interest of transparency?
I must say, it feels great to be giving BofA the boot for all the deceptive online banking/balance/OD tricks, of which there are many. After years of paying OD fees to BofA, I’ve closed my two checking and two savings accounts with them and moved on to another bank, which is the only way I know to make them feel any pain… and I encourage others to do the same. I totally admit the majority of my ODs occurred because I don’t keep detailed hand written records of my daily transactions, but I also didn’t feel I needed to, given the seemingly full featured online banking and bill pay feature BofA provided. Why do I need to write down every transaction when I can see them all nicely itemized online? I’ll tell you why, because of all the deception built into that ‘available’ balance, credit transactions that show one day, then completely disappear then suddenly post, and for that incredibly obnoxious way they sort your daily transactions largest to smallest. It’s actually total greedy genius on their part to provide such a seemingly full featured tool with a ton of ‘holes’ in it, just waiting for you to over draw your account by 10 bucks creating 4 or 5 OD fees. Buh bye BofA!
Sent an e-mail. The next day received a call. Refunded overdrafts and then some (I had 4 fees, was credited $500 — for some other overdrafts fees I had in the past). Contacting the execs definitely works. Still closing my account. BofA just has too much drama, and their customer service reps are apparently trained in the school of The Customer Is Always Wrong, where they take classes like Hostility and How to Sell Nonsense as Common Sense.
Took the metaphor too far. But I’m sure I’ve made my point.
Called the exec number for the office of the president. Liver person answered the phone within 4 rings. Was able to refund $500 in fees for overdraft. I have to agree though… I will never do business with Bank of America again. Too little too late.
That number definitely worked.
Hi, I called the main line, I only got $35.00 refunded and then tried the executive number and was able to get the rest $105 in fees refunded. They were very nice and understanding. This was completely my fault and knew the rules, I will try to be more careful next time.
I talked to B of A today and the rep did not want to give me anything. I was charged 10 fees total of $350 dollars for 22.32 overdrawn. I still dont see how the math comes out. I would have been fine if it were not for their policy of post the highest transaction first so that all of the little ones generate as many fees as possible. who would have thought a one night Red Box rental would cost me an extra $35 because the $28 I spent two days later went through first because it was higher.
My landlord decided to cash a check from 6 months ago that i had totally forgot about, this caused $335 in overdraft charges. I called customer service and they offered NO help. So i called the number listed above (704-386-5687) and spoke to a very nice lady. I explained my situation to her and she was very helpful and credited back $210 to my account. Didnt get the full amount but thats fine as i understand that this was my fault. Thank you to this site as with out it i would have been up sh*t creek without a paddle. She did ask where I got the number and i told her friends.
I had some overdrafts from September which I was not excited about so I called the Executive Customer Service number and chatted with the rep there. She explained how their posting policy worked and I explained how I set up the online banking alerts to tell me if my balance was getting low. On my request, she let me opt-out of overdraft protection for the account which means they will bounce checks or deny debit transactions if I don’t have enough money. I am fine with that because I don’t do any transactions with the thought in mind that I will go below $0. At the end, she refunded my overdraft fees and was very polite and easy to deal with. Don’t waste your time going to the local bank because they don’t have the authority to do anything (trust me, I tried).
Calling the 704 number does work. I got charged $630 in overdraft fees in two days. I talked to customer service and got a nice rep and she refunded $210. I called back the next day and got $140 refunded. Bank of America now only charges for 4 overdraft transactions a day instead of 10. Thats supposed to be there new policy. I was not satisfied with what they refunded me so I called the executive number and got an additional $175 refunded. I paid $105, a bunch of crap. The lady at the executive office gave me this long speech. Whatever trick just give me my money so that I can close this account and move to my local credit union. Thanks BofA. You suck!
Bank of America is horrific. I went to ask them how I could avoid overdraft fees on my debit card, thinking that they could just use their amazing computers to not give me money when I didn’t have it. The rep said I should take their zero-interest credit card offer and link it to my checking account as protection. Next thing I was late on a payment on the card and it was suddenly no longer free but had a large monthly fee, high interest, and a charge of $35 every time I used the credit card in an ATM machine (they had also told me this was free).
This was a while back. Well the card is maxed out due to 3 months without salary and recently I made a mistake. My rent check was cashed 3 weeks late and I thought it had already gone through. I was making a series of small payments with PayPal over a few days and next thing I had 6 “Overdraft Item Fees” and 8 “Returned Item Fees” totalling $490. Found out today. I’ll go see the tomorrow and see what I can do.
If 75% of their fees come this way, then people with no money are essentially paying for the services provided to people who do have money. God bless America. I hope Obama and Barney Frank get this Consumer Protection Act going.
I called the 704 number today and had good results. I messed up and had overdrawn and they charged a total of 7 overdraft fees. I was very polite on the phone and explained my situation. She explained their policy and also explained how items post to the account. The rep was very polite. She also reccomended I use online banking and mobile alerts. She was also very adament about also using a check register. I was also asked where I got the number from. She stated in the future it is preferable to allow the normal customer service represenatives to handle these situations. In the end 4 of my overdraft fees were credited back to my account. I’m really glad I found this page and the number!!
Put a paycheck in the wrong account last month and got 14 OD fees at $35 a pop = $490. Most transactions were under $5. BofA rep offered me $120, I said no and asked for manager. Manager offered me $120, said that was new maximum imposed on all branches either in person or by phone. I said no and asked for escalation. Gave me postal address for Tampa HQ to submit a letter.
Today called Executive Relations #, after the “educational advisement” which included some absurdity about how OD fees are imposed to discourage OD fees, offered me $300 back. Accepted it. Rep advised that further decisions made by associates may not be escalated. Will be moving my money elsewhere soon.
I just got my OD fee ($140) back after talking with a manager at a local branch near my home. I recommend people out there to simply go ask for help in the first place. They will listen.
I tried to email Nancy (Customer Advocate) and got the following message today 10.23.09…
Hi. This is the qmail-send program at yahoo.com.
I’m afraid I wasn’t able to deliver your message to the following addresses.
This is a permanent error; I’ve given up. Sorry it didn’t work out.
:
171.159.65.178 does not like recipient.
Remote host said: 550 5.1.1 … User unknown
Giving up on 171.159.65.178.
Made a mistake earlier this month that netted me over $300 in overdraft fees. Being a mother of three very small children and trying to make ends meet in today’s very expensive world, I called BoA Customer Service to ask if they could help me. The snotty, holier than thou rep told me he could give me ONE fee back as a “courtesy”. I asked for a manager – same deal. After pretending to look up a bunch of things, she gave me exactly the same answer. I accepted the fee return, thinking that was the best I could do. For someone who has used BoA for many years and normally accepted overdraft fees as my own fault, I was livid at the fact that they intentionally shuffle your transactions so that the offending transaction is at the bottom of the list, slapping you with a LOT of OD fees for ONE mistake.
So this site was a godsend! Called the exec number, got six of nine remaining fees back. Ideally, all of them would have been even nicer, but this definitely beats the one lousy fee that Captain Attitude and his helpful manager wanted to give me back.
I will be switching banks, however, because this is heinous and should not be allowed. And to you folks who claim that we are garbage for making a mistake, I’d like to see it happen to you, and see how happy you are. I am so sorry that some of us live paycheck to paycheck because we have no other choice and aren’t comfortable with lots of cushion cash lying around. Even the very best at managing our balances can make mistakes. We shouldn’t have to pay tenfold for them!
Same situation as everyone else – I was hit with (5) $35 fees for overdraft.
-I went to a local branch figuring face to face would be most effective. Shockingly, they said they couldn’t help me and instead referred me to a customer service line. Claimed corporate didn’t give them any leway to make these adjustments anymore.
-I called the number the local branch rep. gave me – and they refunded two of the $35 fees. I still wasn’t happy so I called:
Call Executive Customer Relations:
Executive Customer Relations general line: 704-386-5687
as pointed out on this site. Bingo – the rep. credited all of the fees back after a short conversation!
Thanks for posting this info.
Bank of America is willing to help if this is your first offense.
I got a SIX $35 overdraft fee in 48 hours simply because I transfered funds from Account A to Account B, causing Account A to have NSF (Why the heck would they allow me to transfer money that does not exist?).
Anyways, go to a branch manager, BE NICE, say that you are a long time customer (if you really are), this is your first offense (if it really is)… And thank them again when they are working, don’t talk/ explain/complain too much.’
By the way, I got my entire $210 back =) Very happy customer and will stay with BOA for a while…
Thanks for the advice! It was a lifesaver.
I called the number on the back of my card, explained the situation to the representative and asked if there was anything they could do to help me. I accepted responsibility for the mistake and apologized. They checked my account and noted that I have not had any overdrafts in several years, so they agreed to refund all the fees!! $105 total!!
I am glad this was resolved so easily, and it is a huge load off my shoulders. I wish that banks would discontinue the “courtesy” service of covering purchases when there is not enough money in the account, and then charging an overdraft fee. I would rather be denied at the counter for my $2 iced coffee, then get the coffee, overdraft my account and wind up drinking a $37 coffee!!
I also feel like the bank processes the larger payments first, so that when people do overdraft on smaller purchases they rack up more overdraft fees. For example, they cleared a check for $400, before the three smaller purchases I made several days earlier. The $400 check mostly depleted the account, and then I was charged three overdraft fees for the three small purchases. If the small purchases had processed when they were made, rather than 3-5 days later, the only overdraft would have been from the check, thus only one overdraft fee.
In any case, I am very happy about the way this was resolved, and plan to be even more vigilant in the future about keeping track of my purchases through online banking.
Thank you sooo much for this information! I just got refunded $210 in overdraft fees by calling executive customer relations! Something the regular customer service said they couldn’t do…bullshit.
I recently incurred 105.00 in OD fees w/ BoA. I had made a couple of very small transactions on a thurs and friday. Sunday night I make another debit transaction. The 1st 2 transactions were pending. They decided to clear my last transaction first bc it was larger and then the other 2. Suffice to say that clearing the transactions in that order caused more fees than had they cleared in the order they were made. I called BoA and spoke to a very friendly rep who tried to explain to me why that gets done. I explained that the logic seems ridiculous but that I obviously didn’t have a choice. They should make that clear when people open their accounts because of course – no one reads the fine print. In any case, I mentioned I was unemployed and those fees were going to take up a major part of my unemployment direct deposit but thanks him for his information anyways. He immediately acknowledged the difficulty of my situation and told me that he would reverse the fees out of courtesy just because i mentioned my unemployment situation. It was a huge weight of my shoulders!
Same as Ellie: $210 refunded by executive customer relations (after getting “disconnected” from regular cust. relations when I asked to speak to the supervisor because they’d only refund $35) because it was my first ODF in 9 years – don’t give up! 🙂
I just checked my account and I found that I was under by $16 thanks to an overdraft fee. It wasn’t 30 of them like some of you. But this was due to my former employer giving me a check and purposely voiding it the next day. I’m pretty mad about it. Plus, I’m probably going to get another OD fee because two transactions cleared when I got the first OD fee. This gave me a few ideas. Thanks!
I received a refund of $280 by calling the executive office. I am so happy I wasn’t even hoping for that much of the fees returned. She did all that she could see but I will have to pay 1 $35 fee for being negative too many days.
I am so happy I found this website.
I called 704.386.5687 and spoke to an Advocate named Quinn. I explained my situation and she was able to waived 3 out of my 4 overdraft charges on my account. I am very satisfied and this helped me immensely.
If anyone is in any similar and unfortunate situation definitely try calling this number! It will save you hundreds of dollars in less than 5 minutes!
I wish my experience had ended on a positive note. I was hospitalized just before payday hence the late deposit. I’d had auto-deposit for 2 years until a delay in recording the deposit occurred (10 days). There were several auto-payments that processed the day before I landed in the ER taking my account balance down to a few bucks. I wasn’t worried.. payday was coming. Little did I know I had been charged 5 separate fees for Electronic Foreign Currency Fees. Meaning I made 5 online purchases which processed ( although all in USD currency) from out of country accounts. A processing fee I was told. These purchases had been made more than a month earlier. My bank processed these fees, then the largest auto-payments, then bounced 4 small payments ( all $5. and under) @ 35.00 per. By the time I got home from the hospital 4 more auto-payments had processed. By then I was being charged a daily fee on the original ones plus their initial fees, and now 4 more. Another 140.00 to the original 140.00.
I called customer service. I went to my branch and spoke with the branch manager after waiting 45 minutes. ( 45 minutes is a long time to wait for anything 3 days after major surgery). I explained what had happened in each case. The branch manager was sympathetic to my plight but offered no help. The customer service rep seemed to feel it was her obligation to issue a lecture on budgeting and banking practices. I then found this site and contacted the executive customer relations representative. A deal was struck, I would pay for 6 of the OD fees plus the daily fees and the bank would cancel 2.
I would have made more working at McDonald’s for the amount of hours this took me to save $70.00.
I paid the their fees and changed banks the same day. They lost a 30+ year customer.
Thanks so much for this blog, I was charged $105 in charges for a 13.85 overdraft, I dunno what I would have done if I hadnt stumbled across this site though. Customer services is not helpful at all. My check is direct deposited and I dont make much, so it all would have came out of my check on Friday if not for you all. thanks a million.
THANK YOU THIS BLOG SAVED MY LIFE!!!!! i went to the bank and asked them to wave my fees and they said that there’s nothing they can do, but i called the number listed on this blog and she refunded 4 of 6 $35 overdraft fees!
So I was charged $244 of over-draft fees from Bank of America. I had 7 of them, I had no idea. I called customer service about it, twice!! No help!! They lectured me about managing my money (Pissed me the fuck off) So I called the Executive Customer Relations line.. and I got my money back. Its very upsetting that a bank charges all these hidden and outrageous fees. Congress should step up their game and regulate this…its getting ridiculous. People are broke and these banks are taking advantage. We have to stand up to this!!!
P.S. I’m glad I found this blog. Thanks a million!!!
I wanted you guys to know I called Corporate Headquarters and they issued a refund for 105.00 dollars, I thought I cancelled online bill pay and found I did, this in turn caused 4 overdraft fees, I called customer service and they issued 1 refund, I called 704-386-5687 today and they issued a refund for the remaining balance, they are super nice and will help you as much as they can.
Ditto. Just called Corporate and they issued a refund in full for 105.00 dollars. Many thanks for this website which I found by googling “Bank of America fees”.
Thank you soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much for this information I got refunded $280 in overdraft fees 🙂
Works like a charm! After a call to customer service main line my request for ODF waver was denied. Called the CEO office at a number above and got all the fees reversed. The lady was very apologetic and the call took less than 10 minutes. Thanks for saving me the money!
I received some ridiculous fees that totaled $700. I was able to talk them down to crediting my account $525. I called the CEO’s office at 704-386-5681. I immediately talked to a rep who didn’t even put me on hold. They only wanted to take off 4 charges at first. It’s better than nothing I guess.
BoA only gives you 1 refund a year! So even if it was the bank’s error like my last 2 no refund
thank you so much for posting this!!! i just got my $70 dollars back just now. i know partly its my fault cause ’em not reading their booklets about fees! haha. im happy 🙂 BUT. i switch already to another bank.
This totally works! Call the number, if the manager doesn’t give you the refund.
I do think the overdraft fee is overpriced. I had 3 reversed the previous month and so I had two come in again which the manager denied my request on reversing the two.
Called up the number and in 5-6 minutes or so had the fee reversed.
Guy was super nice but stressed that I keep track of my money -_- and also wondered how I got the number. (I didn’t tell him I google’d how to reverse my overdraft) I just told him the manager wasn’t able to help me out so I searched the website.
I had my account in pretty good standing for the year, so thanks again for the tips!
Its all about the, 704 386 5687 executive office number. They will help you when no one else will!
$315 in overdraft fees reversed immediately!
THERE IS JUSTICE IN THIS WORLD!!- EVEN THE BANKING WORLD!
The lady who helped me couldn’t have been nicer. -The complete opposite of the costumer service superviser numb-skull asshole.
CALL THAT NUMBER Thanks so much!!
I just emailed a few higher-ups and got a reply from the executive offices of BoA that said my request was received and I will be contacted by the Customer Advocate who was assigned to my case within 5 days. What does that mean? Will I get my refund or just end up having to pay more while I wait? Has this happened to anybody else on here?
BoA charged me 6 ODs in mere 4 days. and i just saw it yesterday.Today had an appointment with a personal banker and she understood that it it not my fault. She explained to me that a website that i ordered an item $300 worth, and it “AUTHORIZED” it 3x, holding the retail purchase amount in 3x , that’s $900.
Confident that i have money left, i did not worry spending. Then the ODs came in. BoA rep made a request to the Research and Adjustment Department, and told me i will hear from them on Tuesday, since its Saturday today.
But anyways, I will still be calling the (704) number, for it will be much easier, i think.
Will update on this soon!
I just called in 20 minutes ago had 3 od fees, i called customer relations and they refunded my 95 dollars!! great service and great advice
Does anyone have updated contact info for BofA Customer Advocate and/or CEO? I sent an email to Nancy Condos and received a reply that her email was not found in BofA system.
thanks!
Oh God, the poster who said you should be telling people to run as fast as you can from this bank is right. I have found them unwilling to listen to even the most obviously technical errors, showing neither mercy nor understanding. I made one calculation error, ie, forgot that netflix took out 18 dollars every month, and proceeded to buy a coffee, some smokes, some bread from the store, etc., all purchases under 5 dollars. It cost me 300 dollars in OD fees.
I said, look, I made one mistake and everything after that were these tiny purchases, I mean, I overdrew a total of about 25 dollars. You’re saying that it cost you 300 dollars to cover that? That would be like giving someone a 25 dollar loan and then charging them 1,200% interest on it!!!
Then the other day my mom wrote me a $100 check. I deposited it into my ATM and then made a few small purchases with my card. I found out later that her bank had put a temporary hold on her account because of a possible security breach involving the internet. A week later, after 7 or 8 small purchases I had made, BOA took the check out of the account, making everything I did after that an overdraft. 300 bucks again, but it was obviously no one’s fault, my mom didn’t know about it, I didn’t know, and the money was in her account, it was just temporarily frozen. I explained all this to 2 BOA managers, and they said, “Well, when you sign a check you’re taking responsibility, it’s assumed you know you’re dealing with a reputable party.” I was like, “A reputable party? My mother?! You think my mom doesn’t have a hundred bucks in her account?! I just explained this to you, are you even listening?! It wasn’t a bounced check you idiots!!” Still, no mercy.
Moral of the story? Bank of America: Too Big to Fail, Too Big to Care.
There you go, a study on major banks showed that B of A came in 7th to last (out of about 50) when it came to customer trust.
http://bucks.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/03/the-least-trusted-banks-in-america/
This has been a life saver!!! I just called the executive customer relations general line and received back 6 of my 7 overdraft fees after being told no by the customer reps twice. It took a 15 minute call and a short lecture about keeping better track of my funds, but it was worth it. Of course she did mention this is only a one time courtesy from their CEO offices as she stated, but I’m so glad I found this information online. THANK YOU!!!!
I also had such an experience. As soon as i know that there was a overdraft transaction in my checking account, i transfer some money from my saving. they deducted $35 per oeverdraft transaction. I called the customer service and asked if this charge can be waived as its my first overdraft transaction. The representative was friendly and they credited back the amount as courtesy.
Thanks bofa!!
This has helped me so much! I wasn’t aware that could call the office of the CEO. After speaking with 3 customer service agents and a manager this was the next step. Thank you!
Husband & I had 5 overdraft fees last week and 12 in the past 3 days. Due to their weird ordering of items, and their “authorization” holds. I tried with the executive customer service line. We were nothing but nice & courteous to them but when we told them we were planning to cancel and take the issue to small claims court she told my husband that she didn’t care, it didn’t matter, and that if we didn’t know how to manage our money perhaps we were better off canceling anyway and NOT USING A BANK..!!!! As if were too retarded to use a bank..! And we saved $14,000 from just May to November of last year to buy our first home (In LOS ANGELES btw) and she’s telling US we’re too stupid to use a bank..??? She lectured my husband for 20 minutes then offered us 6 fees back. Of 17. She said it would be the final decision ever. So he declined the offer and hung up and we planned to go to small claims court as I have read online we have the right to do. He called back twice more and eventually the 3rd person told him they couldn’t do ANYTHING because the 1st person had already decided (on the 6 fees back) AND processed it. Even though we had told her NOT to..!!!
BTW he is no longer the CEO and that e-mail does not work.
I just spent half my workday typing out an e-mail to them.
Anyone have a *working* corporate e-mail address I can use that they will respond well to..??? =(
About a month ago i took out 40 bucks at the atm with my BoA debit card. As many people before me have been saying, I made a mistake. I only had five dollars in my account at the time, giving me a negative balance of 35 dollars. I know it’s not much and most people could have paid that back. But I had been unemployed for a while and what money I did have I had to pay rent and electric bills (top priorities). Well they have been charging me a continuous fee of $8 a day. I now have a negative balance of over $400, or over drafting $35. I’ve tried calling explaining my situation, telling them I just got a new job and really want to get this taken care of. But there is no way I will be able to pay off that whole amount. They said there was nothing they could do so it’s still just been accumulating. I have money now, and I need to get this taken care of and get this weight off of my shoulders. I can’t afford to pay over $400 right now, but could pay back some if they could come to an agreement and let me pay back what I over drafted and a certain amount of fees. I am dealing with a lot of other things right now, and this is really stressing me out. Can anybody give me any advice, or any thoughts on this matter? I would greatly appreciate it.
Last night a bit after 10:00 pm, I transferred about $130 from my BOA account to my daughter’s BOA account so she could pay her BOA credit card. Today, she called me to tell me that she was charged $35.
In case you don’t know (I didn’t), the posting time for electronic transfers in Arizona cuts off at 9:45 pm. So, although her account said she had something more than $130, when she transferred $100 to her BOA credit card, she had overdrawn her account for the day.
So, BOA just made $35 by our moving money from one BOA account to another BOA account. How do I get in on this kind of money maker?!
I actually messaged a customer service representative. I had over $400 in overdraft fees, and they refunded 105, but I am working to get the other 300!! I am soo happy I stumbled upon this article! =)
Thank you!!!!
I found a website that had an email list of executives at BOM. I messaged them all I believe it was on Friday evening. Prior to this I had only gotten 6 of 12 refunded ($210). On Tuesday I believe it was I got an automatic response that it would be submitted for review but I didn’t think anything was going to come of it. This morning they called me and they refunded me the rest of the fees..! I had complained about the transaction ordering process, and also had complained about the RUDE “executive” customer service representative who instead of valuing our business told my husband he was probably better off not using banks anyway and so to go ahead and close our account..!! They treated us like lowly peons when we have just bought a house at the ages of 22 and 24.
We had three overdraft fees that particularly stung since they hit the day before we got paid, and were all for less than the fee itself. (12.99, 12.99, and .99). I called my local office and basically followed the article. I introduced myself, said we’d had several overdraft fees hit and I was calling to see if there was anything that could be done about them. I said we’d been customers for years, we had their credit cards, this was totally our fault for losing track of things, and we’d always been in good standing with them. (All true.) It was also our first “offense”. I was expecting her to maybe waive one of the fees, but instead she waived all three. ($105) She was very polite and friendly.
Just remember; be polite, be friendly, keep your voice level, and thank the representative for their time. It’s cliche, but a good attitude really will get you everywhere. Thanks for this article!
I just spoke with a very nice Corporate Rep. by the name of Denise, she not only counceled me in a timely fashion but also without talking to me as if I was a child. The regular customer service reps try and belittle us BOA customers, and she really treated me the way I am sure she would want to be treated. Denise also refunded all 4 35 dollar OD fee’s thank goodness!
*Im pleased with this website Thanks!
Wow Just called 20 minutes ago. The lady was super nice, I told her my story and she refunded my 105.00 back 🙂 I’m glad I found this site.
I left 10 cents in a checking account at another bank and they continued to charge me for the next 9 months. 12 months later, I walked in to deposit 5k in a savings account and was denied opening a savings account, even after paying the fees. The OD charges were well over $100 and an accident. I have more than one checking account and just simply forgot.
WOW! Executive line works..the professionals are extremely courteous and they actualy care about your situation unlike the branch offices.
Thank you so much for the info i just got $350.00 in fees refunded to my account!!!!!
Just gotta say thank you so much on this one – by calling the exec # I just got $70 in overdraft fees credited to my account (and, I had already had a “courtesy” refund for another fee in the last six months by calling the “generic” back of card phone number, which had said NO WAY when I called about these current fees). So helpful on the phone and I was just really impressed. Don’t think I’ll be able to use it even again, but sooooo worth it.
THANK YOU SO MUCH for the information.
You are such a lifesaver.
Thank you so much!!! This worked like a charm.. Actually when I called the executive customer service lady, the first question she asked was how I got this number 🙂 Too funny. I was refunded 210.00. You are the man.. Citizen = 1 Corporate Greed = 0
Thanks you so much!! Icalled and got my fees refunded to me. I saved $140.
I am wowed!! Called the customer relations general number and talked to a girl who was VERY understanding. After reviewing my account she refunded all 5 of my NSF charges!!! That’s $175! This REALLY works. I was skeptical but not anymore. 🙂
I have been a customer quite some time with boa — even when they were Nations Bank — however, the other day I tried to purchase a money order with my debit card and was told the fee for the m.o. was $5.00. I then walked away and went to the local post office and the fee was $1.10. This left a bad impression and am having negative vibes now about boa. Furthermore, I wish I had known about this site before. It is good to hear of other people’s nightmare stories and know there may be help if you look in the right place. Thanks.
Thank you sooooooo much it does really work this is the 2nd time i’ve called and they didnt refund all but half of the fees im still happy cause the overdraft was my fault they were very nice about it call 704 386 5687
Thank for this Information. I had four ODF the customer Rep and the supervisor took care of 2 of the ODF. So I called BOA again and this rep took care of one more ODF. So Then I call the Executive Customer Relations Number and they took care of the last ODF. Thanks! Now I am not $207 in the hole but a positive $36.
I would just like to say that to all of you who have overdrawn your account, give me a break. I could care less what Bank of America’s overdraft policy is. I have banked there for over 5 years and have never had a problem. Why you ask? I USE A CHECK REGISTER!!! You know, the thing you log ALL of your transactions in at the end of day. And blaming them for a mistake YOU made in bill pay is the lamest thing ever. Do you understand that it isn’t like there’s a person just sitting there waiting for you to overdraw your bank account. If there is a bank error, they will refund the fees. But if it was your error and you just paid your bill in a hurry or just didn’t care to pay attention to the amount that YOU entered, you should be charged fees. You are ignorant to think that you are the only person in the world that this would happen to. I pay all of my bills through bill pay and have NEVER had a problem. So many people are just plain ignorant and think it’s okay to overdraw their accounts. Well go ahead. Get the fees. I hope they can’t be refunded. And calling to escalate, this is just ridiculous. I’m glad that honest, hard working people like myself, who balance their account and pay their bills don’t get anything back. Yet you who just overdraw and don’t pay attention, think your entitled to have a refund. Grow up people. It’s time you took responsiblity for your own actions.
I hope you never have any financial issues, ie. sickness or death in the family. Perhaps you will learn compassion the easy way or the hard way…You will learn it one way or another
I made an error in my check register and it cost me $190 in fees before I recognized something went wrong. I called regular customer service and they were not willing to help. I did a Google search and it brought back your website. I called the executive office and Yolanda heard me out, was understanding and reversed all but $35. I have been a BOA customer for 5 years, have rarely had a fee that was due to my error and Yolanda said she recognized that this situation was an anomaly for me. I will not forget this.
I just wanted to let everyone know that the EXECUTIVE line really works!
My story:
I recently overdrew by a small amount and was charged an overdraft fee. When noticed this on the following day, I immediately deposited a few hundred to prevent this from happening again. Well, turns out I was one day late, and the day after that, I was charged with FOUR overdraft fees!!
I called the regular customer service and followed some of the advice on this article. I was polite, explained I was a student, that this was the first time I screwed up, that my family had several business accounts with them, and that I immediately deposited cash to bring the balance to positive after the first overdraft.
Well, because they could not classify this as an error on their end, they only waived 3 out of the 5 fees. I was furious (privately) and was about to close the account.
Then I called up the executive line and they waived ALL the fees!! The customer service representative, Jose, could not be more polite and understanding.
I’m so grateful for this article, for all these comments, and I recommend that everyone call the Executive line (704-386-5687) when the regular CS rep can’t help you.
I had a rent check paid in early by mistake and subsequently was charged 5 x $35.00 in OD fees = $175 for a total of $69.00 in debit card and check payments. As we are on a low income this was 1/4 of our pay packet, and something we would never be able to recover from.
I chatted to customer service online for 1.5hrs being transferred and talking to 3 different people. The best they said they could do was $35.00, I pleaded for 1 hour stating that we would not be able to pay our bills due to this accident. I wasn’t looking for BOA to be social services just to help a loyal customer of 5 years who has everything with BOA.
They refused. I then found this blog through Google and called the executive office. The lady who answered was so kind. She examined my account, gave me tips on how to avoid this in the future, including things that I was not aware of, after spending 30mins with me and being thoroughly lovely and helpful she credited back all of the fees. This was a fantastic experience of customer service and the sort of thing (the helpfulness not the refund) that one should surely receive from regular customer service.
I come from a country where banking is very heavily regulated and a consumer managed to get the industry to change it’s fee’s because it was deemed by the EU to be excessive to charge this much money for a check they never paid and an automated letter that at most costs $1.00 to produce and mail.
One day I hope that consumers in America receive these sort of logical rights.
My lesson from all of this is, as a low income family, I can not afford to risk this again so I will more than likely switch to a federal credit union.
I was a personal banker for BOA and when I left they implemented a system where all they do is enter your request for a refund and the system will tell them whether or not they can issue a refund. If the system say no then a BCM (banking center manager) will have to override the system to issue a refund. The BC then may take a hit if there have been too many overrides when it comes down to quarterly bonuses. It’s unfair but the employees are now held at the same level as the customer. There were times I wanted to credit someone and the system said no and I would ask my boss and she would say “what did the system say?” and of course she would say no because she didn’t want it to effect our numbers for our quarterly bonuses. The best bet is to ask and if denied escalate. I just stopped using my check card only use it for gas and I don’t have issues. Bill Pay online will show you your available balance before you schedule your bills and will only take it out when you schedule it. If you monitor your account and rarely use the check card, the banks can’t make money off of you. I haven’t had a fee in years. Just take out what you need in cash and use the bank like a glorified mattress
Thank you!!! I followed the advice above and made the call. I didnt really believe it would work but I took the chance.
It worked!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They looked up my account and talked with me about how to manage fees. Then returned all the overdraft fees. WOW!!! Thank you so much for your posts and the information. It was pricesless….
WOW!! I got hit with 4 overdraft fees ($35 each) last week, I put $200 into my account, next day I got hit with another 2 overdraft fee ($35 each, again). I spent countless hours trying to get someone to remove t he fees for me but to no avail. Today, I woke up and saw another 3 overdraft fees ($35 each of course) …. I was skeptical when reading this page about the executive customer service number and them being able to assist more than the regular reps. Boy was I wrong… I called them, was given a 10 minute session on how to manage my account and my checking balance properly (very helpful) and then I was refunded ALL of my fees. THANK YOU!!! I CAN NOW PAY MY RENT!!
I called the CEO’s office office and got my $70 overdraft fee waved when customer service said no! Bank of America rules!
It does work , I made an honest mistake, and the CEO himself after I explain my circumstances, refunded the fee as a courteosy
I’m pleasantly surprised and SO glad I fount this article. Being a part-time worker and grad student I was surprised to find 7 overdraft fees on my account. I have never had an overdraft fee. I called the Executive Customer Relations line and after a firm conversation the fees were all refunded as a courtesy. Wow! How great that was! Also, note that there is a new law in effect Aug 15th concerning overdraft fees. You can set up with your bank to offer a decline on transactions when you do not have enough in your account. Basically you have to authorize the fee, however this is something you have to sign up for (of course). I think it is worth it if you want a little more control over your accounts.
Jose’ at customer service was an awesome miracle worker. I made a mistake and didn’t realize I was overdrawn; he understood and immediately worked to make this error disappear. He was unbelievably courteous and seemed to know exactly why I was calling, taking time to talk to me about my account and even praising me for my (up until now) great performance on my checking account. We worked everything out and he immediately credited my account for all fees; half today, half tomorrow. THIS REALLY WORKS! DO NOT HESITATE! It seems weirdly easy, but it definitely works. HALLELUJIAH!
i just got off the phone with the ceo customer advocate dept and got all 4 fees refunded..i was only asking for 3. i spoke with 2 supervisors and 2 customer service reps before hand. thank u thank u thank u
for this website! i cannot thank you enough!~
god bless!
Bank of America are thugs and it’s impossible to have any kind of dialogue with them. They will charge you overdraft fees even after you DROP OUT of overdraft protection!
They will tell you that there’s another “fee” if you don’t pay back when you spend more than what you have (which could not ever happen when you drop out of overdraft, because once you’re out of overdraft protection, the card is supposed to DENY the purchase!!! )
Don’t even bother with those bastards. Try once to resolve the issue, but once they bullshit you (which they will) just send a complaint through this site:
http://www.helpwithmybank.gov/complaints/index.html
I got every penny back, and this was after I spoke to about 20 bank associates. I showed them their own literature through sites that spelled out their own new policies regarding overdrafts, which forced them to return a couple of overdrafts (which they had previously refused.)
The employees themselves don’t know what the bank publishes online for customers, YOU need to educate them so that they return your money!!
So just go here http://www.helpwithmybank.gov/complaints/index.html
You will get your money back in less than 72 hours.
Thank U very very much…This really worked for me and I am so happy right now. I appreciate your patience to post this article and I want to really thank U from bottom of my Heart.
with all fairness to BOC, I don’t think that they are thugs. Afterall they are a business and they have to do things to deter people from overdrafting in order to stay in business. I am very greatful that they refunded my money. I have been with BOC for almost 6 years and I am a very satisfied customer.
That corporate number isn’t helpful…. I spoke to Dulcia. I told her I had been a customer for years, I have a savings, checking, business, mortgage and a trust account with Bank of America and she still would not refund me the $35 overdraft fee!!!!! They are also charging me account fees which I was told I would not get with free checking!
Yestrday I called customer service 1.800., calmly explained what happend that I overdrew checking account by mistake and that’s it. Overdraft fee has beed credited back. Earlier I tried to solve the problem on the chat, but they wasn’t eager to help me.
I tried to call the number, Executive Customer Relations general line: 704-386-5687. The lady on the other line was very nice. I explained the reason why I overdrew the acct. I also said that I’ve tried to call the regular customer service number, but the reps couldn’t help me.
The lady gave me like 10 minutes lectures on how to manage money/acct, but she refunded all my overdraft fees $100+ dollars 🙂 It’s totally worth it….
Thank you !! Thank you !! Thank you !! God bless you. We had similar issue. I had 14 overdraft fees totalling to $520. The person at (704)386-5687 was extremely nice and took care of 9 out of 14 charges. That brings down my damage. Love BOA.
I was a skeptic too until i called the 704 number. Spoke to a very nice employee and 10 minutes later bammm!! refunded all 8 overdraft fees. I almost cried 🙂
🙂 Ditto, was charged $105 for being overdrawn by $0.02 and $14 , the customer service couldnt help, so I found this site. Called the 704 number and they were very helpful. Refunded back all of it. One happy customer !
I want to share my experience with BOA and overdraft fees, after several attempts to deal with the overdraft fees on my own I had no success. I made several small payment in the debt but it was eventually closed by BOA. then I found this site and talked to a very nice lady that was not able to help me because my account was closed and sent to collections. It was a step to get my fees addressed but I was not successful. The great thing with the America is that you have SOOO many other options to bank and that’s what I’ll do.
This site was a great resource and I’m very happy others have been able to address whatever issues they had with overdraft fees. Thank you to the poster of this site. Now if someone could give me some tips on how to clear up this debt with the BOA 3rd party collections, to not reflex on credit scores I would appreciate it.
” Take charge of you financial life and only buy what you can afford” famous scholar TampaT
THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!! I too called the 704 number and spoke to a wonderful employee that restored my faith in Bank of America!! I had an awful time talking to what is supposed to be “customer service” even got the manager there and was denied with a smile on her face. I had explained that it was my mistake but that I did not understand the policy on deposits (which was true!!) but she kept telling me there was nothing she could do and noone else I could talk to. thanks to you, I got my $245 back!! This Executive office employee was just DIVINE!!! Super sweet and educated me prior to my refund!! THANK YOU BANK OF AMERICA!!!!
My mom had a ROUGH time telling and telling this person that it was NOT HER FAULT that a machine was “Out of order” and it wasn’t annnyways she got through to this (like she said) wonderful women that was not high temper like the other women and she was so nice that after they were done talking she said:”God bless you” and my mom said:”God bless you too have a GREAT night!!!! :)” Soooo as you can see Bank Of America is a WONDERFUL place!!!! 😀
Wow… I’m going through the mortgage process, and my heart dropped when it came to printing out my last 3 months statements. 5 overdraft fees, $35 each (as so many of us know). I have been freaking out to say the least.. I didn’t want this to ruin the chances of my wife and I buying our first home together.
Needless to say… I randomly did a search on google and found this blog. Long story short… the phone # worked for me too!!! I can NOT believe it. This has totally made my day. Thank you so much for providing us with some real hope in this helpless world of financial stress.
Bank of america just charge 12$ fees on our account for a check that our tenant’s bank credited on our account by mistake and canceled right away. I called bank of america 2x to explain to them what happened no success. I online chat with boa no success.
So I end up having to pay 12$ fee for something that I wasn’t aware off or even asked for..
After 12 years with this bank (we have all of our savings, checkings our mortgages everything…), no need to tell you we’ll close all of our accounts and transfer our mortgage somewhere else.
The problem is… which bank to choose ?
I just had an online chat with them, got 4 overdraft fees due to automatic paypal deductions.
WONDERFUL helpful agent Patty refunded me.
To take into account:
1. I am a long time customer
2. I maintain a medium balance
3. I have savings and checking
4. I accepted fault and was polite.
They refunded me $140.
So I think being reasonable goes a long way.
Does this really worked??? i recieved some unfair overdraft fees lately and I was trying to get them refunded
It works. At least, as of ten minutes ago it did.
3 overdrafts totaling $105.
5 minutes with ‘Kimberly’ at the 704 number = $105 refunded. Honestly? I asked for $70 of it back. She gave me 105. Awesome.
I’ve been with the bank for many years
I have savings and checking.
I accepted fault.
It’ll take til tomorrow for it to be credited.
BE NICE WHEN YOU CALL. She was a big help.
Good luck.
Thanks so much for this blog! Totally worked. I called and was exceedingly nice and admitted my error. They didn’t refund it all, but they did refund two of the overdraft fees
I am a longtime customer and I definitely mentioned that!
Yesss!!!!! I called the 704 number and she credited me back 6 fees worth $210 of credit. Thank you.
Thank you so much! I called the 704 number and she credited me back 3 OD fees as a one time courtesy from the office of the president. She just asked me how many accounts I had and if I kept a check register to keep track of my account.
fyi, they do keep track of how many OD fees they return to you with the 704 # and regular CS #, and eventually the type in your account no more fees to be returned unless it is because of a bank error….
this may make me sound like a deadbeat but ive had close to $600 in fees returned to me in over 6 years….i was a very irresponsible teenager is my excuse….blahhhh lost $70…hopefully not more…
Everyone that has a bank account, at one time or another, will incur an overdraft. I am older than 45 years old and I can personally say that I have overdrafted maybe 8 times in more than 30 years of having a bank account. Of those eight times, I have maybe had fees reversed about five or six times. Most banks will look at a person’s overdraft history, and will reverse fees on the spot automatically crediting the account.
NOTICE that I said that the reversals were done on the spot and the money immediately credited back. I would think it ridiculous and crazy to have to CALL an Vice President or CEO of a company about overdraft fees. My opinion of BoA as a bank are EXCESSIVELY LOW : they have awful customer service, they charge for EVERY LITTLE THING, and they are constantly being seen in a negative way on the news. If a bank can take OUT the money automatically, then they should be able to put IN the money automatically. My advice is the same as Bucky’s earlier … FIND ANOTHER BANK!!
I Bing-ed BoA overdraft fees issues & found this site. Was charged Piles of OD fees over a span of 2 days & 2 more additional today!! It was because of 1 check that merchant didn’t cash out 2 weeks ago like they’re supposed to & the rest was a BAD DOMINO EFFECT to the rest of the balance which now overdrawn by $400+. Made a cash deposit at the ATM & had a check deposit made with MOBILE APP DEPOSIT function totaling $700.
U think by now I have recovered fm the OD & xtra cash to spare right? WRONG!! Bank had made additional hold amt on the check deposit even tho it was supposed to be 2 biz days, not 3 1/2!
Devastated & biting on my fingers, I called BoA cust service # to see if they can help with this mishap. Rep couldn’t help & told me to call the next biz day to see if 2 of those fees can be waived as the system wouldn’t let her since the 2 OD fees were still in “PROCESSING” mode. I asked if I could get the Supervisor to help, talked to him & he was adamant telling me it was my responsibilty to check my bal even tho I explained that I was not aware they were gonna put a partial $300 hold on that check dep made thru BoA app. He still said that they couldn’t reverse or waive the fees.
I looked up this site info & found the BoA Executive Customer Relations Corporate line & talked to a lady & explained why & what made me call (my 1st time calling this dept) She walked me thru the acct history & asked me to explain the various overdrawn debits that went thru & gave me a run thru on how to avoid this fm happening again. She looked & saw I have been making a lot of attempts to make many deposits to add more $ to my acct. She then told me that she will refund 6 of the 8 OD fees that was charged. Refunded $210!! Wow!! That you know is a lot of help for me!! All I did the entire time was talked clearly & was courteous & not raised my voice at all. IT PAYS TO BE NICE AFTER ALL!!! =)
WOW! Just wonderful. I got denied on the phone and in the bank. I called the number and I was helped immediately. The guy I spoke to definitely made me stay with bank of America. THANK YOU!
Worked great for me. Called them up, made sure to be ultra nice and explain it was my mistake (Which was corrected) and I was credited with 3 overdrafts from a clerical error.
AWESOME!!!
THANK YOU!!! I called the general number and they were very helpful. Got $70 in OD fees turned out and we are back in business! It is true what someone said above about the customer service policy, they just escalate you until you’re too tired to fight. I used the general number from this article and got my stuff back!
I called the Executive Customer Relations general line: 704-386-5687 because I had a $1300 overdrafted ($210 were the OD fees from BoA) and explained to the customer advocate how it happened. A deposit was supposed to be made but was not & so the charges went thru anyways & caused the damage. I asked her that I called in to see if she could help me & letting her know I have been making a lot of deposits but the OD was still my fault. She walked me thru how I can monitor my transactions better & commended me on using the register books to keep records. She refunded all the $210 OD fees & was super nice all the way. WOW!! Thank you for this site & info that allowed me to call in & fix this otherwise I would have still be sitting here pulling my hair. PS Be polite about it & indeed accept it was your fault if you did. Don’t be mad or complain & you’ll be helped as well.
I called the 704 Executive number today and had my overdraft fees reversed. The lady was very nice and told me how to balance my money better as well. Thanks for posting this! I had no luck talking to the regular customer service reps, and when I asked if there was anyone else I can call or anything else I could do, she told me “No” and that they would just go through the same process and give you the same answer. Good thing I googled this!
I cannot believe this actually worked!! I’ve been a BOA customer for per a decade with checking/savings, credit cards, student loans etc. There was a miscommunication with my employer where I was told my paycheck was going to be deposited early because of the thanksgiving holiday (which would have covered several transactions) but in fact was not deposited until several days later during which I incurred $210 in overdraft fees.
Called the executive number-nicely explained my situation and that I had never over drafted before and how I value my banking experience at BOA…and he reversed the $210.
Be honest people! It was my mistake/my employer and I did admit that. So thankful for that number!!
This number from your blog works like a charm. I was shot down 2 times, not this time with this number. The lady on the line was nice and attentive to my situation. She waived my $35 immediately. She asked me to sign off and back into my account, TA-DA the credit refund was there. She made it so so much easier for me as opposed to calling regular CS. Thank you for this useful post, I learnt a new thing today!
Executive Customer Relations general line: 704-386-5687
Initially, got vehemently denied by Manager. I pulled funds from my checking instead of depositing (wrong drop-downs). Manager gave me a big spiel on how the NSF fee is high because this is a FOR-profit organization and what not; how a credit union charges less and that BofA gives me all the tools to make sure I don’t make mistakes, blah blah blah. I admitted that I made a genuine mistake which I attempted to rectify and the transactions would show my attempt to fix; but she wasn’t going to help. I was a bit upset not because of the money (I could live with that); just that I felt a lack of respect.
Anyways, called the number today; gave the exact same explanation and got it waived in seconds. Thanks for posting this.
…or do yourself a favor and open a Schwab Investor Checking account.
I did it myself about 8 years ago after being slammed by BoA with fees. No more!
You can contact them directly, or you can use my referral code below:
• Call 866-516-0499.
• Visit schwab.com/referral.
Use my Referral Code: REFERA5W2Q
I think they’re going to give you a little gift, or something.
Happy banking!
It really does comes down to just asking! They want your business. Most banks will remove any fee if you ask them, even if it was your fault.
Just switch to Ally, USAA, or a credit union who treats you like a person instead of a pocketbook.
I spoke to several Reps and “executives” none waited for even the side of my story. I admitted my mistake to the agent and nothing. Called the 704-386-5687 number and was waived 4-5 fees. Phenomenal!
people
Thank God for this site. I just called in and had $490 refunded back to me. Thanks so much!!
This works!!
Explained and accepted the mistake. Got 35$ waived off. Thanks a lot, for the guide.
Another success here. I used their online chat. I had 2 overdraft fee for total of $70. I explained the situtation and she (Karla) refunded me the full amount to back my account. It was so simple and easy.
But I’m not going to try to get into this situtation again! Lesson (hopefully) learned.
Just got refunded $105. It was part my fault as I did not know that BOA declined only the transactions coming through my debit card (but not Paypal, electricity, etc…). So I admitted it. The girl on the line was extremely nice and patient and immediately told me “I am going to refund the $105, but i want to make sure you understand” I am so happy !!!! THANKS FOR THE BLOG !!!
OMG! I just got out of breath from jumping up and down. After I got declined from customer service to waive my $140 overdraft fees, I went online and found this article and decided to give the executive customer relations a try. The gentleman on the phone was very nice! I explained to him that I just changed my phone number and did not get any alerts also the company I work for did not tell me that they did not deposit my paycheck two days ago as agreed. he took care of it and refunded the whole amount immediately. Thank you so much!!!!! your post just made me $140 richer!!!!!
I recently lost my job and I was selling things on eBay to make money. for some reason when my money went in to PayPal, the PayPal fees were charged to my card instead of directly taking out of PayPal. for $6 I was going to have $110 overdraft fee. I called them and let them know what’s going on told them that I literally had 60 dollars to my name which was the $60 I had just made on eBay. because of me losing my job, even though I had a previous overdraft fees they were capable of returning my money! like others said be cool calm and collected remember these are people that are paid to helP, they personally did not choose to give these overdraft fees. just be human and talk to them with respect and they can help you. thanks for all the support and all the feedback everyone has left. it has helped, it literally just took a five minute call and now im not in debt!
Man…I had eight charges due to a mistake in my budgeting. I called the regular number and was told “Oh well” I escalated it and was again told “There is nothing we can do for you” I have been a member since 1997…This site gave me the right number and I spoke to Katie Patrick who overturned all 8!! Cant believe it!!!!!
I just got off the phone with Executive Customer Relations general line: 704-386-5687, and had my overdraft fee reversed immediately. I have a history of getting overdrafts and having them reversed as well, last overdraft fee was in April of this year. Since I’ve had so many of the overdraft fees already reversed, calling the regular customer service doesn’t help anymore, they won’t reverse any more fees for me since I’ve hit the limit. So I called the Executive general line, and had it reversed. Thanks!
This really does work! Thank you so much for the article I was refunded $70 in overdraft fees. BOA recently switched my savings to a checking because I was tranfering money to often and getting hit with fees for going over 3 transactions a month for my savings… so I was confused about which checking my paypal was connected to. Unfortunately it was the wrong account and I overdrew three times leading to three overdraft fees (one of which was refunded by a reg cust service rep). A lady on the executive line was very nice and helped me without no questions asked.
Wow, this really works. I have three accounts with BofA and I barely use one of them – I used to use it as my primary payment card, but as I got a credit card, I no longer use my debit card often. Anyhow, I connected the particular account with Uber, and I’ve always made sure there’s at least 50+ dollars available. I have used Uber a lot over the last weekend, and I guess all the charges were cleared in one day. Usually I get an email after one overdraft, but this time I got an email after all four items were charged. So, I was charged with 4 overdraft items which is like $136. I panicked, and called the regular customer service, and the representative was nice but she was no help. Then I found this blog and tried calling the Executive Customer Relations, but I was still in doubt because it was solely my mistake. I explained what happened, admitted it was a mistake, and also told her I usually have enough balance in another checking account for my apt rent and salary. She went over some protection programs, and made suggestion for having a savings account. Then she asked me to transfer the amount of overdrawn immediately, which I did right away online, and all my overdraft fees were reversed!!!! Amazing!! Well, I learned my lesson and thank you for this tip!
The email addresses that are listed don’t work but the phone number does!!!
I spoke with regular customer service last night and asked if there was way for some of the ODFs to be removed because I’m a college student and recently had some issues to cause me to overdraft. I was placed on hold for over five minutes and when the rep came back on the phone she said “There’s nothing we can do.” I pressed the issue again because I know there is something that they can do so the rep told me that she would speak with her manager. After another five minute hold I was given the same answer. At no point was I told options to help me to avoid the fees in the future, nothing at all. I told her that I would have to look into changing banks – keep in mind I have multiple accounts – and all she told me was I understand why you feel that way. No customer service skills AT ALL.
I called the 704 number that is listed above and spoke with a rep who went over options to help me manage my accounts better, empathized with me, AND helped me. I didn’t want all of the fees reversed just a few of them. He reviewed all of my accounts and reversed all that he saw – he even called me back when my cellphone lost service temporarily.
Super helpful article – it is truly a lifesaver AND money saver!!!
Unreal…I called the 704 number….$245 in fees GONE! Tried speaking to regular rep before that and got nothing. I couldn’t thank the person enough!
Very thankful for this thread. Just spoke with Daniel via the Enterprise Banking Service Center (same number listed above) and after reviewing my account for a few minutes, he informed me that he’d refunded 10 OD fees totaling $350. I didn’t ask for a specific amount, I merely explained my situation (laid off, auto-debits eventually overdrew checking account) and accepted full responsibility for the fees. He didn’t lecture me, didn’t ask how I got the number. What he did do was show compassion for my situation, wish me luck in my job search and as I mentioned, refund the $350 in fees.
This was above and beyond my expectations. While I will be moving my accounts (after 12 years), it’s refreshing to know that there are compassionate human beings at B of A that will listen and do what they can to improve your situation.
Thanks again for posting the contact info.
Do it! I was hesitant but I called and the $35 fee was refunded!!! Thank you for this post
Persistence in the key regardless of whom you decide to call. Keep calling bank and pressing the issue, and ask to speak to a manager, it all helps greatly.
I called and they refunded all of my overdraft fees and the monthly service charge. Thanks so much!
I just got denied by the people on the 1800 number so I called the 702 #. The guy immediately refunded all of my fees. You just saved me 70$. As a college student that’s a ton. THANK YOU!
I had about 10overdraft fees , and I just got off the phone with Executive Customer Relations general , the lady was very sweet and very helpful , I acknowledged my mistakes too, she refunded 5 of my overdraft fees of $35 that’s amazing! I was so broke this morning! Call them people
I called WF bank executive line, in less than five minutes I got 100% of my od fee reversed, prior to making the call to the executive line, i called the regular customer service and they told me they could only reimburse 75%.
PERSISTANCE PAYS OFF. I just made the decision i wanted all of my money reimbursed. THANKS FOR THIS POST.
Thank you so much for this post! Last week I made two transactions that overdrew my bank account, the negative balance was just $7 and it was there just for one day so, I thought it was kind of unfair to pay two fees ($70). I contacted customer service using the live chat and by phone but they didn’t help me.
Then I called the Executive Customer Relations line: 704-386-5687 and Yesid Florez was very happy to help me, he apologized and inmediately refunded me those fees. You’ll get excellent customer service if you call that line. I’m so happy 😀
I had one overdraft fee ($35) that I wanted to get a refund for because a transaction I made 2 weeks ago was charged late to my account and triggered it. I called the 704 number and told them my mistake but the guy helping me only told me that the fee was accessed properly and he wasn’t able to waive the fee 🙁
I wish the notification emails warning you that “your balance has fallen below $25” were sent right away so I could put money in my account to prevent overdrawing. They seem kind of pointless when I go to check my account right after and realize I have already been charged an overdraft fee.
i just called BOA regarding overdraft fees. as a one-time courtesy, they refunded my five charges. the lady was really nice and patient about it. currently waiting for the refunds to be reflected online. thank you!
Thank You!!! Stephanie was very nice. No judgement at all when you call them. Just explain your situation & be polite. Literally I was refunded $70 in 5 mins.
WOW !!!! I called CR and got all my overdraft fees refunded in less than 5 minutes !!!! they are so helpful after getting declined from CS and inside the bank !!!!!
The phone number was very helpful. She helped me take care of two overdraft fees that were because of an unexpected paypal withdrawal, that were supposed to pull from another account of mine. Much more helpful than the chat representative who told me to ask paypal.
I must say that I am super excited that I found this blog! I was charged a $78.00 OD fee on my savings account because of the amount of times I transferred money between my checking and savings accounts (previous habits of mine carried over from having a prepaid account for so many years). My main purpose was to make sure that I did not spend bill money.
I called the “regular” customer service line and got no help, even more so they were pretty rude. I was quoted a federal law guideline, but no assistance was offered. I did a search based off of the “federal law” info I was given and happened upon your website! Needless to say, I called the number you referenced in your blog and was able to get the help that I needed, as well as be informed for the future….I am totally pleased I did not settle for what I was told, I am glad that you provided this information! I did exactly what you said to get the help that I needed!
I have bookmarked your website and will pass this information along to anyone who needs it!!
Thank you and continued success on being a reliable source of banking information!!
Sincerely,
Shamika 🙂
So basically I took my self off over draft protection and the bank of America employee told me that if there are NOT enough funds in my account nothing will go through including online credit card payments and what happens 4 transactions go through a $35 dollar fee for each one and and there saying they have the right to send back or put through which ever one! I told them I was taken off over draft protection nothing should of went through I was told well then there like you have this setting that is standard and they can charge you overdraft and push items through! I’m like I shouldn’t be cause again I was taken off overdraft protection and I was not aware of this sitting! There not budging and not willing to work with me cause of there mistake so now I’m gonna have to write there cooperate office
Just followed your advice and got all four of my overdraft feels refunded ($140). Being open, kind and honest is the way to go.
Jonathan, I feel so blessed to have come across your blog post in my google search about BOA overdraft fees. I read your post last week and it took me a few days to get up the courage to contact the bank. I didn’t even want to have a phone conversation (much less an in-person convo), so I decided to start first with a simple live chat from the BOA website. Lo and behold, the very kind rep credited 2 of the 3 overdraft fees back to my account. That’s $70 of the overall $105 in fees. I feel so pleased with this result that I did not try to push for the remaining $35.
In my case, the fees were completely my fault and not the result of a one-time oversight. (I have “bounced” numerous times in the past, I’m sorry to say.) What I did have working in my favor is that I have been a BOA customer since 1992 and I have never once asked to have a charge or fee dropped. The rep said that I did not “qualify for a fee refund” (whatever that means), however because of my account history, they would give me a courtesy refund of two of the three charges.
Thank you again, Jonathan! This six-year old post has inspired me to think outside of the box more often when it comes to managing my finances.
This worked! I chatted with customer service and was denied, then I called and was denied as well. I called this number and they immediately waived the fee!! Thank you!!!
Man I gotta thank you so much I just had $270+ just from calling that 704 number and explaining my side of the story (the truth) and they gave me a Courtesy refund especially after customer service wouldn’t and had me on hold for two hours with the manager not answering my call I LOVE IT!!!!!!
I am so happy I found this page. I just got $245 of OD reversed. Of course customer service denied me, then I called the 704 number and the representative instantly reverse it for me. This really works people, Don’t hesitate to try it.
I called Executive Customer Line and they said they couldn’t help me with the $140 overdraft fee. Not only has my ability to pay my bills have been affected but now because of 4 overdraft fees including an extended over-draft fee my bank is at -$49 dollars.
I don’t even have money to pay for my up-coming taxes now, because this Bank took it all from the recent deposit I got from these vicious fees.
All for $49 and the bank got $149 out of my own money. This is horrible.
Reach out to them on Facebook or Twitter. They will help you.
A lot of people don’t know this, but the social media team is empowered to give overdraft refunds when other BOA employees refuse to help. Since calling the CEO’s office no longer works, this is probably the only way to turn a “no” into a “yes”.
The 704 still works like a charm!
I opened my first bank account with Bank of America when I was 21. I’m now 30 and until the past year, it had been a great experience, I had no complaints or misunderstandings of any sort and their service was more than stellar. It all started to change some months ago when I moved to a new city and my account was constantly under 50 dlls or less. I log into my online banking app almost compulsively, more than once after every transaction, mostly because I live on the line. At first the ‘keep the change’ feature became weird and would overdraft my account (so much for savings..), giving me then some 12 or 14 dollar fee. After a few times I got fed up with it and decided to end with that service.
Somehow though my account, if left untouched for days and with a balance of something like 3 dollars, would eventually overdraft to up to 20… I’m not talking about a day or two period but rearrangement of transactions by amount instead of chronological order. It would show (in a week of not using my card at all) that I went from having 1K (which unfortunately is an amount I haven’t seen just like that in a while) to -20.
I started getting fed up with this bank and it didn’t help that their customer service call centers also became a lot less nice and helpful than they used to be some 5 years ago. At this point I’ve received that ‘so fed up with this customer’ tone, irony, plain rudeness..
It all came to an end last week when I had 3 dollars left in my account and had set up an automatic payment for 58 the month before. An overdraft of -55 was charged. This was 100% my fault and I would cover it up the next day (I did expect a fee of some sort to be added for waiting a day). The next day I woke up to -195. After going to two branches, talking to tellers, calling, being sent to their overdraft department, I heard all types of explanations on how these 4 charges were made. As days went by I of course reached the amount of -230. The lady at the overdraft department said -230 was over the limit of what she could refund for me but what she could do for me is offer me options to set up alerts on my phone so it doesn’t happen again and gave me a number so I could pay that amount in payments. I found this insane. I went one last time to another branch yesterday only to hear that since it didn’t happen at the branch, they couldn’t do it. The teller also said ‘whoa’ about the amount and said they ‘definitely’ can’t refund that amount. I asked her what my options were and where should I go, she said ‘call the overdraft department, they will be happy to explain to you and go over details on why the fees were added’. Great!.. especially since I mentioned I HAD been in touch with the overdraft department.
So I googled and found this and called today. The lady asked me how I got this number but was very polite and patient and still listened to all of my story and the details of my transactions, and the lack of help everywhere else. She refunded 4 fees, so now I have a total of -90. It’s a lot better than 230 but still… this experienced was just the last one I needed to be so done with Bank of America. I’m paying that in person and closing my account today.
this blog helped sooo much! I sent an email to the CEO brian.t.moynihan@bankofamerica.com and I got a call the second day from a customer relations agent, she corrected what the cs agent’s information regarding how transactions are posted. I asked for one of the NSF fees but she actually refunded both!
Wow… i just called the 704 and in a matter of about 4 mins i got my extended overdraft fee reversed… wow… that was awesome… since friday i have spoken to more than 3 customer service reps and all have said its a valid charge which cannot be withdrawn,,, just chanced on the site and got the 704 number and it worked like charm… so grateful
Just used the 704 number myself and got $105 dollars in fees reversed after giving up on BofA customer reps denying me. Fees were two months old and were refunded in about three minutes! This works.
I took the advice of the comments and called the 704 number after calling the regular customer service number. The rep explained why the charges were what they were and kindly refunded my ODF. Thanks for the info now we need help with Comcast Cable LOL
Thank you so much for this post. I called the executive number and was immediately refunded an overdraft fee. The default customer service line had denied this request despite no history of overdrafting and having both checking and savings accounts with Bank of America for seven years.
Thank you so much for this post! Called the exec number and was able to get a refund. This was the first time ever it happened to me. I’m so happy!!!
Called the Executive number… After talking to a branch manager, customer service reps on the phone and being denied any sort of help with $70/ in overdraft fees.
I was just given a one time courtesy refund and this may have just saved me as a customer of BoA.
Call this phone number
For anyone scrolling through the comments to see if this still works — it does! I had 7 OD fees and the “regular” customer service agent was of NO help. Called this number and got 5/7 refunded. Very grateful ??
I have recently gone through one of the toughest periods in my life. Because of this, I was already incredibly low on cash and when my car broke down a month ago, I had to put myself in debt in order to pay to have it fixed. This created a snowball effect on my account and I haven’t been able to catch up for over a month. I accrued fee after fee, keeping my bank account in the negative. I called the 704 number and told the woman I spoke with of my situation. She was incredibly understanding of my situation, in-and-of itself being helpful. Not only that, but she refunded 10/15 overdraft fees I had accrued on my account in the last month. I couldn’t believe it when she said she had done that for me. I am so incredibly grateful for this assistance, it’s going to be instrumental in helping me catch back up and get back on the right track. Thank you so much for the information.
I am so grateful for this post. I have been a Bank of America account holder for 10 years. I recently accrued 3 overdrafts because I took a chance (bad move on my part) and made a utility payment online hoping I would have a few days before it posted in my checking account . Well it went through after 2 days and because it was the highest amount of pending charges it caused 2 smaller PayPal charges to overdraft as well. After reading this post I called customer service and the lady was very nice but told me she could only refund 1 of the overdrafts. I then called the 704 number and spoke with another nice lady. She asked where I got the number and said ‘ customer service was the correct department to call ‘ but didn’t hassle me further about it. After telling her my issue she said she understood and placed me in hold to see what could be done for me. After a short 2 min hold she was able to reverse another overdraft fee, 2 outta 3 ain’t bad. It was also explained because my account was in good standing for the most part and I was a long time customer the refund was a ‘courtesy’. I was very grateful for the help and stayed calm and polite and admitted my fault in making the utility payment. Lesson learned & thanks again for this tip.
Had a call with BoA today about 4 overcharge fees accumulated in the last two weeks totaling 140 USD; first got offered 1 out of 4 fees to be reimbursed, then asked to review, got put back on hold again for 15+ minutes. Final outcome: 3 out of 4 fees waived.
I had them also set the account to decline all overcharge fees.
This is an old article but I use this method today and it worked!! I got 3 fees waived. Thank you for the tip.
Want to reiterate that even though this article is old, it still works. When I called, I was told that I couldn’t get the fees refunded even though there was no reason listed in the system for it. I had never had an overdraft before. The rep told me repeatedly that she couldn’t do the refund until I asked for a supervisor. The supervisor looked over my account and saw no previous overdrafts so he refunded me my $70.
Bank of America gets over on Overdraft Fees
On Tuesday early Morning, i received an alert of a $6 dollar balance showing that my Student Loans came out. I had an emergency come up that morning and didn’t have any money so i used my option on the account to Overdraft my account. I went to the ATM to take the money out and it asked me if i would accept the Overdraft Fee and i selected yes for the Overdraft fee of $35.00. When i wake up the next morning to check my balance, I had two overdraft fees for $35.00 each. One on the Withdrawal and one for my Student Loans. I called to see why that would happen and the teller is trying to tell me that the Students Loans didn’t come out until after the Withdrawal even after they are acknowledging the alert i received that morning before the withdrawal. I spoke to like 3 different people at Bank of American and None of them would refund me the overdraft fee for the Student Loans..
Bank of America is using their Alerts and the way they clear items out to charge their Customers for additional Overdraft Fees. I am tired of all these companies pretending to care about their Customers when all reality, we are NOT..
Thanks for this info! It worked for me! I called the Executive Customer Service number and asked for them to waive some overdrafts. I’ve had a rough year so I had 23 overdrafts this year alone – but they waived 4 of them, as a courtesy. Better than nothing! Thanks again.
All I have to say is thank you, thank you, thank you ….. I had 6 NSF fees that were all my fault for using one of my PayPal cards linked to my savings account. I thought I was using my other PayPal card linked to checking account. It was an honest mistake. I called customer services 2 times and was told that they could only refund one fee. I asked to speak to a supervisor and she advised the same. I called back again to get the same result I even advised them I have been a banking member since 2001 (15 Years and that I was going to cancel my accounts and they still did not want to refund them.
I did not want to pay for 5 NSF fees so I started searching on Google to see what I can do. I found this site and contacted the number listed above Executive Customer Relations general line: 704-386-5687. They picked up right away.. Asked me how I got the number and I started telling my story. I was completely honest and they were able to refund all fees. For anyone out there reading don’t give up and escalate.
Thanks again
This still works! After a regular customer service rep only waived one, the executive rep waived the other two. Thank you so so much!
I realize this post was written in 2009.. But I think it’s a great resource & helpful to others to know that it’s still valid. It’s not a 100% guarantee that ALL of your overdraft fees will be refunded. But it’s good to hear others’ stories & experience with calling. I called the main BofA # from the back of my debit card & it said they are receiving a large number of callers & wait time will be longer, so I waited like 10 minutes before hanging up to call the Executive Customer Relations # where I spoke to a very polite woman who assured me she’d look into my account to see what she could do..she did ask how I got the #..I told her after being on the line waiting for 10+ min I hung up & found this # on Google. Anyway I was mainly hoping for half of my overdraft fees to be waived she put me on hold while she was looking at my account & typing & then said okay let me refresh your screen to see if the money is now showing. Okay yes it is! I went ahead and refunded you for both charges & mainly because you have no history of calling & asking for any overdraft fees to be refunded. I’m sure it helps that I’ve been a customer with them since 2005 & I’m only 27. So pretty much my whole adult life.
But anyway good luck to everyone! A 5 min phone call is worth hopefully getting at least some of your fees refunded!!
So you are talking about two different things. Banks offer Over Draft Coverage which pulls money from another account ( savings, credit card, line of credit ) and so on. Over Draft Coverage is choosing to opt in and it is not a guarantee the bank will pay the transaction. But if they do you will be charged a flat fee. Opt out transaction is declined if you don’t have sufficient funds no fee. If a charge does post and you are charged a fee it’s waived. This applies to everyday purchases not recurring/scheduled payments where you’ve agreed to have a company debit your account.
If you threaten to close your accounts and take your money to another bank, they’ll refund you really quick. Worked for me twice, now.
My account was charged with Overdraft fees on 8/11 due to my negligence and I was ok with it as my payments were coming in on 8/21. But in between on 8/17 I was charged again (after 5 days another overdraft fees). I waited for my payments to come in then called BOFA customer service, and requested them to waive at least the second charges, but they were of not much help.
Then I read this post and wrote a mail requesting to waive my fees and damm they did call me back and refunded one of the fee !!
Really big thanks to this post.
I was just hit with a $12 monthly maintenance fee because of miscommunication with my spouse, I’ve had the account 5 or 6 years and never had been hit with a fee previously. I called the regular customer service number to inquire about a reimbursement and was told no by both the associate and her manager. I called the Executive Relations number listed above and was reimbursed after explaining the situation.
Thank you, thank you, thank you. After reading the post about the BoA customer who got $280 in NSF fees refunded, I wrote BoA myself. They had charged me 7 NSF fees in succession (which sucked ass) and was my fault. […] So I wrote a formal letter of complaint to Kenneth Lewis. This past Saturday, they refunded all of the fees – even though it was my fault. I can’t believe it. That rocks. People do have the power.
This comment infuriated me. People do have the power? Are you kidding me? These fradulent banks are charging you ridiculous 35 dollar overdraft fees. A fee that should be at MOST be a couple bucks (if they should even exist at all) And you are happy because they removed some of them.
Don’t be an idiot.
Worked for me! Called the executive office after customer service wouldn’t refund any fees. I told the truth about what happened and why and they refunded 3 fees even though this wasn’t my first offense. Thank you!!!
Hey connor,
Can you send me that numberplease .for some reason it says that the number provided office has been closed and to call boa customer service
The phone number no longer works as of March 14th 2018
Placing blame isn’t really necessary Allan. They already make so much in overdraft fees they’ve sustained that I’m pretty sure you, and those as awesome as you, would never see a noticeable sizable difference in “costs.”
Will a reversed fee still show up as an overdraft in the overdraft and returned fee summary?
Glad it worked for all of you, because, even after the $660,000,000.00+ overdraft class action settlement, I was still charged illegal overdraft fees and when I tried to get overdraft removed for months, after I opted out, Was told, all the way up the ladder (of lying thrives), was out out only works until an automatic withdrawal comes out, with not enough funds to cover it and overdraft goes back into effect and there’s no way they can remove it.
When I went to close my account, they then said I was given the wrong account and offered me a safe money checking account, with a debit only card, no checks writing ( on a checking account???), no interest, with a $5 monthly fee.
I wasn’t going to pay BofA to use my money, to make them more money.
The owe me thousands in overdraft and returned payment fees, that I’m still fighting for.
I was charged some bullshit minimum interest charge, although the amount is only $1.50 (and this is when i always pay my full balance prior to the due date) but it just very galling that they are very deceptive in their business practices.