I have been both a multi-year business and personal account holder at BBT. I must admit the business accounts are good, and you can make a mistake and walk away unscathed. Perhaps since they get some good fees already, who knows.
However, with the personal accounts you need to have the mercy of someone who will actually want to pick up a pen or go to the computer to reverse the charges. Calling the 800 number is worthless. We know they pay nothing, so they get nothing from the people. Basically, I am an aggressive bill payer, and I hate debt, so I do get a bit tight. However, transferring money inter-institution is easy and has worked very effectively. What I have noticed is that BBT seems to be more creative on overdrafts.
We made the awful mistake of doing a road race with Active.com. They give you this really nice opportunity for free magazines that retro in 30 days later. So basically we forgot to cancel. Yep, guess what: 4 charges hit the same day, and we got whacked with a $140 fee. What is really cute is that we had plenty of funds in our two business accounts, but apparently they do not care about that. So basically an 89.00 unauthorized in silly magazine charges cost us $140.00 in stupid charges.
What really upset me is that we transferred a significant amount apparently after 2pm. Yep, transfer from the same bank into the same bank with cleared funds after the deadline, and you get a credit to the account stating the funds are available in the account. Then the funds that you transferred from the account with the cleared funds get debited immediately for the amount that you had just sent to the "Virtual credited account." Now, I am not saying that we could not have done better or played the account less aggressively, no, but I am saying that I have a print saying that this is available now in the personal account and now is not available in the business account. Really, so they do not trust their own account to have funds? No, just creative fee collection.
What those goofs in Charlotte or wherever do not realize is that $140 will cost them much more. Say hmmm, no home mortgages, no merchant account, no credit card, no business Cash manager, no ach, no checks, no recommendation to clients, etc. Hmm. Anyway, what do I know? I am just the idiot who thought they were different from the rest of the big boys.
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