Just when I thought Bank of America

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-29-2003
Just when I thought Bank of America
19
Thu, 07-15-2004 - 1:16pm
couldn't tick me off anymore... they did. I'm sure some of you read my rant a few weeks ago about BOA charging me with an overdraft fee when they had no proof that my account had overdrafted. I was seriously considering closing my account but decided to give them one more chance since they do offer free checking, bill paying, etc. Well this was my experience this month:

I made 3 small payments (electronically) and had about $900 left in my account. My rent (over $1000) was due and I didn't want to pay it late b/c I'm assessed a $100 fee, so I decided to go ahead and send the payment (by check) and risk the overdraft fee of $33. Well somehow, my rent CHECK went through before my ELECTRONIC payments so I ended up with 3 overdraft fees instead of just one! Wait, it gets worse. One of the electronic payments I made was to my Fleet credit card account and since I didn't have the funds to cover it, it rejected. I waited a few days to see if BOA would resubmit it and they didn't, so I made ANOTHER payment. Wouldn't you know that the very next day BOA resubmits my ORIGINAL payment which of course, caused me to overdraft AGAIN. So now I'm up to 4 overdrafts at $33 each. Finally this morning, I checked my account and noticed a 5th overdraft b/c of a charge I made on my bank card last weekend. Thank God I get paid tomorrow! Needless to say, I will now be banking with my credit union. I know I'll still get charged for overdrafts but at least it will only be $15!

Oh, and just to make matters worse, my BF dumped me this weekend BY EMAIL.

Oh the bright side, I will be moving into another apartment at the end of August where the rent is about $200 cheaper!

By the way why if Bank of America and Fleet Bank are basically the SAME company now, why does it take 3 days for my eletronic payment to my Fleet Credit Card to go through from my Bank of America account? Ugh!



Kimberly



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iVillage Member
Registered: 04-07-2003
Thu, 07-15-2004 - 1:56pm
Men. You know what, the creep is not worth even getting upset over. If he is disrespectful enough to do something like that, then he was no prize in the first place. When I was 22, I had a guy stop calling me for two weeks after we first slept together. Then he told my BEST FRIEND that he was breaking up with me. Yup, these swine actually exist. Ironically, that experience became a turning point in my life. I decided I wanted nothing to do with men, and that I would start focusing on ME, and ME only. In doing that, I managed to get rid of my life-long self-esteem problem. What a difference that made in my life! Several months later, a GOOD guy asked me out. To think I almost said no!

As for your bank, I can't believe banks in general think they can get away with treating their clients like that. I'd dump them in a heartbeat! I work at a plumbing wholesaler, and if we treated our custumers the way most banks treat their clients, we wouldn't have very many customers!



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iVillage Member
Registered: 04-02-2003
Thu, 07-15-2004 - 2:34pm
I bank with Bank of America. I am sorry you have had so many problems with them. I haven't yet. Fortunately for me, I know the VP of the main branch here, so I can just call him if I have a problem.

All ACH payments take about 3 days to post to your payment, even if they are owned by the same people. It takes 2 days to send the ACH and then another day for the receiver to post the payment to your account.

I have noticed over the course of the year I have been with BOA that they always post checks before posting electronic payments. Since I don't write many checks that works great for me. The thing that I love about BOA is that they post Deposits before they post electronic payments. I am not sure if they post payments before checks or not. Many banks will post your debits before any credits. I have had bounced checks and electronic payments at other banks because of this.

Again, I am sorry you have had problems with them. I don't blame you for going somewhere else.

Kathie

Avatar for cl_beckymk
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-19-2003
Thu, 07-15-2004 - 8:06pm

HUGS!!!!!!!!!!!!


I'm sorry to hear about all your bank troubles but I'm MORE sorry to hear about the way your boyfriend ended it with you!!!


Have a nice bubble bath & hot cup of tea/hot chocolate/glass of wine, whatever and just indulge yourself for a day or two.


Avatar for fire_bug
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-25-2003
Fri, 07-16-2004 - 12:25am
I agree that BOA is evil! We dumped them long ago and I'm so happy we did. We haven't had any problems with our credit union or the other banks we've used since then, but we had a number of major problems with BOA.

I saw an article recently (I've been looking for it and I can't find it again) that talks about ways banks manage to screw you. An example in the article was suppose you had $200 in your checking account and five transactions all come in at once - one for $250 and four for $20 each. They'll pay the $250 one first and then pay the $20 ones so you get five NSF charges, instead of declining the $250 0ne and then paying the $20 ones, which would only cost you one NSF fee. There were a lot of other things in there too. I wish I could find the article again.

I'm sorry you're having so many problems, but I honestly can't say I'm surprised based on our experiences with them.

Amy


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iVillage Member
Registered: 05-10-2004
Fri, 07-16-2004 - 10:35am

HUGS!!!!!!!!

 

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-29-2003
Fri, 07-16-2004 - 10:56am
Thanks for the words of support everyone! I'm actually much more upset about the NSF fees than I am about getting dumped! I mean, getting dumped was free but those NSF fees total up to almost $200! Grr! I contacted my human resources office to have my direct deposit switched to my credit union. I'm going to do all my banking from there from now on and I'll leave a little spending cash in the BOA account that I can access via ATM.



Kimberly



iVillage Member
Registered: 04-14-2003
Fri, 07-16-2004 - 4:10pm
*I contacted my human resources office to have my direct deposit switched to my credit union. I'm going to do all my banking from there from now on and I'll leave a little spending cash in the BOA account that I can access via ATM.*


Why do you need to keep this account open if you are banking through your credit union?

Windy

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-29-2003
Fri, 07-16-2004 - 4:44pm
Windy -- Unfortunately my credit union doesn't have an ATM in my area so I would have to pay an ATM fee everytime I took money out and also my gym membership is paid automatically from my BOA account. I'm going to keep a little spending money in the account as well as enough to cover the gym membership. In addition, I have a CC with Bank of America that is currently at 0.00% interest and I'm kind of paranoid that they may increase my rate if I close my account. I definitely don't want to risk that.


Kimberly



iVillage Member
Registered: 04-14-2003
Fri, 07-16-2004 - 7:29pm
Ahhh, it all makes sense now. :)

Windy

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-12-2003
Mon, 07-19-2004 - 11:56pm
A good rule of thumb is to never write a check without the money in the bank.Anything could happen when you float checks.

Charor

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