Hi. I am writing about a Bank of America incident that just happened Saturday. Friday, my husband got paid and we cashed the check at a check cashing store and deposited the cash before 2:00 in the day even though the bank's policy states the cutoff time is 3:00. We weren't by any means cutting it close. Anyway, my husband went back to work and I decided to go shopping. I stopped at the bank and did a balance inquiry that stated that we had $1,100 in our checking. The rent check was due to come out, only $635, so I knew my limits. Anyway, I went out and spent around $100 on groceries and a new outfit. We ate out that night and compulsively, I came home and checked my statement. We had checks forged on our old BofA account almost a year ago, so I am kind of paranoid about it. Anyway, the real fun didn't start until the next day. I got up and checked my online banking statement and it's covered in red deductions. I have five red deductions and I am positive over $400. Does this make sense? I call the customer service number, being as polite as I have ever been. I was a daycare worker for six years, so I know how to be nice, and I know that this generally works so much better than being mean. I also just figured it was a mistake and that it could easily be taken care of.
Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.
The bank tells me that my cash deposit didn't go in with that nights items. I respond that I made the cash deposit before the cutoff time. Luckily, I saved the slip. Just as a sidebar, I have a platinum account because half of my husbands paycheck goes into a bank of america savings account totaling over 20,000. We are saving for a new house and so we try and keep a minimum in the checking to resist temptation, having scrimped and saved to pay off student loans for two masters from very good colleges and credit card debt from our teens. When you go so long just trying to get out of debt and having NO spending money, temptation gets almost unbearable. Anyway, one of the platinum account privelages is that even if you deposit cash by ATM, $500 of that money becomes available, no questions asked. So why is two o'clock in the day such a problem? I tell the bank that I have the deposit slip from the day before that clearly states the time on it. I also have the balance inquiry.
"Hold please for a moment."
A moment turns out to be almost fifteen minutes, but I hold. The person they transfer me to tells me that because the deposit didn't go in with that nights items I am responsible for the overdraft charges that are going to incur.
Huh?
I ask her how she really figures that, since it was the bank's error not mine. She tells me that the system will automatically post the charges and she has no way to stop it.
I tell her that though I might sound young, I wasn't born yesterday. How can she really expect anyone to believe that BofA employees have no failsafes in a situation like this, but that is exactly what she expects me to believe. Then she starts to get rude, talking to me like I am a two year old and that I am so ignorant I could possibly never understand something so complex as bank policies. I ask to speak to her supervisor, which entitles me to another 15 minutes of waiting, and she is just as rude as the lady before her. I ask her if I can talk to somebody at my local branch. She says yes and I hang up.
The bank was closed Monday, but today I went in with my husband in tow, determined that all of our accounts would be closed if this wasn't taken care of. I know that seems a little extreme, but $150 worth of overdraft fees for going seven dollars over when the money was clearly in the bank seems extreme to me. My husband and I have learned to be extremely cheap. Somewhere in our first year of college (also our first year of marriage) when we realized that we would never have a house or be free of credit card debt and school loans if we didn't develop better spending habits, we became very cheap. As a rule, people as cheap as we are don't like to spend $150 on nothing. But then, I suppose nobody really likes to spend $150 on nothing. I am getting off topic again. We went in today and the manager was nice, but told us that the overdraft fees were our responsibility, even after viewing the deposit slip and the balance inquiry. I ask him why it showed in our account as soon as we deposited it, but it disappeared before the night's maintenance. That seems very strange to me. I told him that I don't understand how we went into the night with $1,100 in the bank and woke up the next morning overdrafted by seven dollars with over $400 in our account. He reiterates that the fees are our responsibility. Does that make sense to anybody? Now Nick (my husband) steps in and threatens to close the savings account in his name. They check for a moment and then, they are all smiles, offering us a refund. I get angry and tell them I want all of our accounts closed. How dare them treat me like I can be bullied, but as soon as they realize who my husband is and what kind of money he is clocking into savings over a four month period, they are so anxious to help. That really disgusts me. The only problem is that now they are holding us accountable for the fees, which I don't feel as though I should have to pay. Does anyone have any suggestions? Does anyone just agree? The BofA people just say it with so much conviction that you really start to believe it. It makes me feel like maybe I am missing something.
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