Bank Of America ripped me off... And before you say "You should have kept a register", please read this in full.
My husband and I make a decent living. We make 6 figures. We have been using Bank of America for a few years now, and have had nothing but problems. We haven't been able to change banks because we are now in Chexsystems, etc... No other bank with touch us now, unless we go 6 months with no icident, which BOFA won't let happen.
It started off when we opened our account. We walked into the bank with cash, and walked out with temporary checks. A week late I received 12 cards - 6 minis, and 6 full sized - with 6 different card numbers on them. 3 sets were in my name, and 3 were in my husbands name. We had opened 3 accounts - a savings for our future children, a savings for us, and a checking account. At first everything was fine, so we decided to use BOFA for a credit card. All is fine and dandy.
Our balance up to this point had never fallen below 5,000$, and most of the time was above that. That was just in checking. We also had overdraft protection tied to our savings account, which we never touched, and had more than enough money to cover anything we may have charged. We squandered a long time to save up our money.
We then started to receive out of state checks as rent on property we owned. We had multiple checks coming in at the beginning of the month. We were not spending against these checks, we didnt need to. However, for each check that was being deposited, the bank was tying up that much of our money as well. We never knew that this was happening until I used my debit card one day to make a bunch of small purchases. I wrote everything down when I got home (as I do every day), and then accessed online banking a couple of days later to pay a few bills.
At that time I noticed that I had been charged with 10 overdraft fees over 2 days, and that they started out at 15$ and moved up to 34$. This added up to alot of money. To top it off, some of the charges were returned. However, my balance hadn't hit 0$, and besides the checks that were pending I had 1,000s of dollars in my account. AND, what happened to my OD protection? I called BOFA and spoke to a very rude person who explained to me that because of the checks being on hold to clear my balance was insufficient to cover the charges. The heck you say! After asking to speak to 2 supervisors, I finally got an answer of "Because of the amount of and quantity of out of state checks, the total amount of the checks was placed on hold in your account." The xxxx. Xx of the checks PLUS that same amount of my own money was held. The manager said that this shouldn't have happened and as a good faith gesture they refunded half of my fees. I wasn't happy with this resolution, but I took it as a learning experience and vowed that I would take this into consideration next time.
After that, my entire wallet was stolen. Cards, DL, SS Card, everything. I reported the wallet stolen, and the bank reps that I talked to said that my cards (all of them in my name) were frozen and that new cards would be issued. Also, any money that was spent from the time it was stolen would be issued back to my account. Yay! Nothing had been spent! Crisis averted! Wrong!
The person I had spoken to only cancelled 2 of the 3 cards I reported missing. The 3rd card was debit/credit of course... However instead of using credit (smart fella), the person who stole the card used the 1800 number on the back of the card to change my pin # and used that to make purchases. My ding dong move was to leave my SS card in my wallet, I know. As soon as I saw suspicious activity on the checking account I called the bank. How is it that I am making purchases as xxx location when I am across town, at work, and my husband is at xxx location? They connected me to a dispute department, and the money (a few thousand dollars) was back in my account that day. I thought that this was done and overwith. They suspended the card, and the person wasn't able to use it anymore. Shortly after that I was out shopping, and my card came back declined. I had been using it all day, I thought "what happened?". I called BOFA and got another rude associate who said that my account was overdrawn... The heck you say again! I asked why, and she connected me to the claims department. Apparently they reversed the credit because the transactions were pin based, and the money in my account was tied up in out of state checks. ARGH! There were overdraft fees, AGAIN, and I called customer service and spoke to a supervisor AGAIN.
I was told that a portion of my overdraft fees would be refunded, but that because of the severe number of overdrafts in my account no further credits would be made. Great, I thought. I then went to another bank and attempted to open an account. I was denied an account because I was in Chxsystems, and because of NSF activity within recent months. Now I was stuck.
What I then did was started to do was give my best friend the checks, and she would cash them for me. Her bank doesn't tie up funds on her, imagine that! I would then put cash in checking. That worked for about 4 months. Then my cards started to come back declined again. Suspicious bank activity. My deposits had changed, and my spending habits were increasing. This happened multiple times, each time resulting in returned checks and fees. I called and spoke to another rude person, and insisted on knowing WHY this was happening. I didn't receive an answer, I was hung up on. We had enough... But what can we do? Go to another bank? All of this compounded by hours of wasted phone time and time sitting in branch offices...
I have had nothing but problems and customer service nightmares from this bank. God forbid we live paycheck to paycheck and have this happen... From now on I am checking companies for usacomplaints.com - and living on cash!
Michelle
Los Angeles, California
U.S.A.
0 comments