BoA = Bank of America
LOC = Line of Credit
I have a BoA checking account.
On 7/6 I had a balance of $500
On 7/7 I made a transfer to my Line of Credit Account for $300
On 7/7 A check came in in the amount of $350
That last transaction overdrew my account and triggered a $31 overdraft fee. Now how did that happen? I've got $500 in my account - plenty to cover the $350 check.
BoA claims the LOC transfer request came in prior to the $350 check. Fine, it came in prior. I'll have to take their word for it.
I then asked, "Well if the money was then transferred to the LOC, they why wasn't the check paid out of the checking AND LOC? BoA says that the LOC transfer takes "days to clear" so the money was not available in the Line of Credit either. Sorry, you're money's in limbo and if you give us an opportunity to exploit the situation, we're BoA, and you can bet we're going to exploit it and charge you whatever we can.
A couple of days later, a little debit came into the account and because of the first $31 fee, I was overdrawn again. Add $34 to that for a total of $65 in "overdraft" fees because BoA really knows how to take care of their customers.
What? My money is available within BoA for a payment, but because you put a multi-day hold on intra-bank transfers, you decide it's better to levy compounding overdraft fees on your customers?
It must be a simple computer process that makes that decision. Surely a human being at BoA would see what happened here and reverse the charges.
So I call BoA's online customer service and speak with an unamed customer service woman. She tells me there was no error and the charges will not be reversed. I'm then transferred to the LOC department who tells me they cannot help me and sends me back to online customer service again. I speak with an Angela Jackson in customer service who tells me again it's no bank error and that I'll just have to accept $65 in fees because BoA put my funds on hold. Seems like a pretty good deal for BoA. Put customer funds 'on hold', charge overdraft fees which overdraws the account further - charge more fees. What a business!
I then spoke to Angela's supervisor, Cher Chaput from their Jacksonville, FL office. She was just as cold and unapologetic about the "correct bank procedure" and told me that I'd just have to accept it and there was nothing she would do help me.
Is this the newly merged and customer-friendly BoA? What a sight to behold.
To top it all off, at the beginning of my phone call to BoA, I was told via an automated message that I could take a survey at the end of the call and all I had to do was tell the customer service person I wanted to take it.
Well of course I asked the supervisor Cher to transfer me to that survey. What did she do? She hung up on me of course!
Good job Cher and Bank of America. Way to serve your customers.
This comes down to fairness and how to treat a customer. The bank can obviously spin this to their benefit, to make $65, but what does this say about them as a company? Very little, I think.
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