Bank Of America
Bank of America steals funds though excessive & multiple overdraft fees

Through a series of bank mergers we currently have Bank of America. Every time the banks merged the fees seemed to increase. Recently we went on vacation from Dec 24 - Jan 1. My husband has automatic deposit and receives a check every Thur. He neglected to tell me that his Dec 27 check was deposited 2 weeks early.

On Dec 24, I checked my balance and had adequate funds to cover any pending checks. I wrongly assumed that there would be another check deposited on Dec 27. While on vacation (all the way across the country in CA) I used my debit card several times to pay for food and receive cash back. Never was my card denied because of lack of funds. When we returned on Jan 1 there were no notices of overdraft. On Jan 3. My husband's weekly check was deposited as normal. At this point I assumed that there was plenty of money in the account - Little did I know that this check was completely used up for the past debits, scheduled checks and 5 overdraft fees of $35. Each, which put each new purchase and check into overdraft again.

I had the first inkling on of a problem on Sat, Jan 5 when my husband went to the bank to withdraw funds and called to ask me why we were $200 in the hole. He thought that perhaps there was a problem with the Jan 3 automatic deposit. I went to the bank and verified that this check was received not realizing that it was the Dec 27 check that was missing. I could not understand what had happened. At this point I put a check in for $400 drawn from a local credit union. I went home to sift through my account as to the problem.

By the time I had figured out the mistake, it was after business hours on Sat. I went to the bank and deposited another $1000 from the local credit union. The bank of course did not credit that amount until Tues or later and I continued to accumulate overdraft fees. I did not receive my first notice of overdraft until Jan 8, over a week after the initial problem occurred. I landed up with 12 overdraft charges of $35 ($420)

I am not denying that the initial mistake was mine. What makes me furious is that they would put through debit card purchases with a negative balance in the first place. And also since they occurred in a location 3000 miles from my home, I am surprised that they would not flag these transactions as possible fraud and notify me. (I have had my credit union debit card pegged for possible fraud for much lesser things)

Also they took over a week to let me know of the first overdrafts thus not giving me timely notice to take care of the problem and avoid the many additional future overdrafts that occurred. And when I did deposit money to cover the overdrafts the money was not credited immediately, When I complained to the bank they refunded a measly $113 out of the $400.

BTW I used to have an overdraft protection account with the bank. Because my husband had a long period of unemployment we had run up our credit cards and had some late payments. Bank of America canceled our overdraft protection yet they had no problem advancing us over $1000 for overdrafts when they could collect $35 each time they made an advance (and some of the advances were only $20)

Company: Bank Of America
Country: USA
State: New Hampshire
City: Derry
Site: bankofamerica.com

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