I opened my account with Bank of America when they were Nation's Bank. I moved from state to state a lot so I loved banking with them because it was convenient and they always went above and beyond to take care of me. That was of course until they decided that customers were no longer important.
I had an account with them for 8 years or so and the last year with them was more of a hassle than they are worth. I probably paid over $2000.00 in NSF fees or Overdraft fees during the last few months that my account was open.
Here is what they do. I would go to my online banking and pay all of my bills. It would be a bunch of small bills for $150 or less. I would write a check for my rent and health insurance. All of the bills paid online would clear the account and sometimes if I was waiting to get paid I would be short a couple of hundred to cover the larger rent check. I was ok with knowing that I would have to pay the $33 fee for them covering the rent check. I get paid every two weeks so every now and then I wouldn't have the money in the account until my direct deposit on pay day.
Anyways, I would go online to check my account balance since my paycheck had been deposited and most of my paycheck was gone to $33 fees. They would clear the larger check and bounce all the others and charge the fee.
At first I didn't realize what they were doing. Then, one month I printed a copy of my online statement that showed all of the smaller bills had been withdrawn from my account. When the rent check came in and they cleared it and bounced all other payments again charging me 10 fees @ $33 I printed that too.
I took both print outs to the local branch and asked the manager to explain to me why this was happening. Why is Bank of America paying the online bills and then bouncing all of them when the rent check comes in and causing all of these fees? All she did was talk in circles about how that is the way they do business. She said that they will always pay the larger amount first even if it comes in later.
I showed her the documents from my online account and she said it didn't matter. She said that online banking isn't 100% accurate and that they could pay the balances in whatever order they wanted, and would continue to do so. She said that it didn't make a difference that the smaller bills were scheduled to be paid a week in advance before the larger checks.
I called the 800 number and tried talking them, but they were less helpful than she was. Bank of America basically said that they don't care. I tried to get some of the fees back and they said that they only refund up to 2 fees a year. They have to get their money from the little people somehow.
Oh, by the way, this all occured last year when Florida got hit by 4 hurricanes. Money was tight, hurricane supplies had to be bought, food had to be replaced after it spoiled from not having any power for weeks, work hours were lost, and my apartment had it's roof ripped off.
Bank of America's response when I asked if any of that stuff mattered was that they didn't care about the hurricanes because it only affected a small amount of customers. And that even though I lost most of my belongings and my home, the 2 WEEKS since the hurricane hit should have been plenty of time for me to recover financially. (It took my insurance company 3 MONTHS to process and finish my claim)
I finally opened a new account with another bank and I don't have to deal with Bank of America's ego. If anyone decides to file a lawsuit against them I will jump right on board that wagon. They need to be put into check and they don't deserve to use "America" in the title of their company.
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