Bank Of America
Nsf fees again!

I've seen the numerous complaints regarding the NSF fees as well as the rebutals by the defenders of this practice. While I don't condone one overdrafting one's checking account I do feel there are specific policies in place to maximize the bank's profits in this area:

1. They "stack" the checks in decending order. The largest check post first regardless of what order the checks were actually presented. While this is "legal"; if the point of the overdraft fee is to penalize customers, why is the system designed to always give the bank a maximum profit? Beleive me it NEVER works in the customer's favor. Is it a punishment or a money maker for the bank? I thought banks made their money by lending deposited money at a higher interest rate than they paid depositers. Now it seems that this has given way to penalties. Is there even a need for the banks to actually make loans anymore?

2. They withhold electronic transfers or ATM charges for up to five days so that they post in a batch with the other checks including the largest one placed in there out of order.

For example you charge something or take out money on the 23rd and it doesn't actually post until the 28th at which point it incurs an NSF fee because another large check that wasn't received until the 28th. Why should you be charged for a transaction done on the 23rd when there was money in there because of a charge that occured on the 28th. Don't tell me it took that long to post, it's all done electronically, you can even see it on the account waiting there in the pending transactions columm for DAYS waiting for the large check to come in and create 5 NSF fees for all the small charges that occured before it.

I complained to BOA about this and just got the constant refrain of "that's how the system does it" and on and on. I had one woman tell me "well you lucky we limit it to 5 per day"

I'm not trying to say you should be able to overdraw your account willy nilly and not incur a charge. What I'm against is a system that manipulates the chronology of the drafts and ATM transactions to MAXIMIZE FEES. I have no qualm with a bank penalizing customers for negligence but neither should NSF fees be a Cash Cow for the banks.

To those of you who say "well, if you balanced your checkbook this wouldn't happen" I agree. My qualm is that they specifically post the charges in the order THEY want to maximize profits. Here is what I would want to see done differently:

1. Post ATM charges on THE DAY they happen, not several days later.

2. Post the checks IN THE ORDER THEY ARE RECEIVED. Not an arbitrary order which just so happens to maximize the NSF fees. I don't go that bunk about the largest charge is obviously the most important. How do they know what charges are critical and which ones aren't? How do they know that the $243 charges isn't for a Credit Card payment and the $81 charge isn't for auto insurance?

I know, I know the solution is to simply have more money in there than you spend, that would be nice. I commend those of you that are able to so thoroughly keep your check book balanced despite the fact that you live paycheck to paycheck. I'm not in the habit of be charged overdraft fees and the error in arithmetic was my own, I do not blame the bank for that. I just felt it was unfair to be charged FIVE overdraft fees for one error, especially when it practically seemed "rigged". Legal? Yes. Ethical? Perhaps comapared with other banks. Customer Friendly? After much complaining they did give me half the fees back as it was my first time. Seems like a lot of money for a "convenience"

Company: Bank Of America
Country: USA
State: California
City: Los Angeles

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