On November 12, I paid my second mortgage via check from my Bank of America account. Originally, I had this account with Fleet, but BOA recently acquired Fleet, and my account became BOA.
On November 15, by mistake, I paid this same mortgage again over the phone. I had my budget strictly planned this month, and there was no room for another $370.00. When this second check came, my account was overwrawn by $240. I also had a number of small credit card payments and small checks scheduled to be paid. I did not worry, because I knew from my experience with Fleet that the largest payment made against unsufficient funds will be returned, I will incure $25 fee, but all my remaining small payments will be covered by the funds returned to my account.
To my astounishment, next two days I've seen all my small payments and checks have been rejected, and fees assessed on every payment mounted to almost $300.00, while the original large amount that caused the overdraft has not been declined.
I wrote to customer service, requesting to reverse these fees, and asking for explanation. BOA replied (I have a copy) that this is their policy based on "customer feedback" to pay overdrafts on "descending basis".
This looks like a poor pretext for assessing hundreds of dollars in fees to me: I have never had sufficient funds to cover my second mortgage payment, but I did have sufficient funds to cover all my small payments. The action BOA took seems totally illogical from the risk management standpoint and against any money management practices, but suits perfectly if the intend was to assess a maximum amount in fees: declining one payment would bring them $25, declining multiple small payments gave them 10 times more, and counting.
They also caused me monetary losses double that amount, because I will be charged on the lenders side, embarassment and inconveniences because of returned checks, and a huge emotional distress.
I am definitely looking for an attorney. The case seems very transparent to me, with all documentation available. I believe, if BOA did this to me, it could be their routine practice, and there are many customers suffering from it.
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