By now, there have been numerous complaints about Bank of America and their unethical banking practices, so I thought I would contribute my experience as a warning to current and impending customers. Last year, I was a member of Bank of America. I decided to open a bank account with them early in the year because it was easy to set up online. I set up direct deposit, and, therefore, had little need to deposit or write checks. I still prefer to do the majority of my banking online, utilizing direct deposit, debit cards and online bill pay.
Last year, on a Thursday in the early spring, I wrote a check to my landlord for the house I was renting at the time. I told him that the check was for the following Friday, but I wrote it to him then because I knew I probably wouldn't see him before them. I dated the check with the date I intended for the check to be cashed. Unbeknownest to me, at least for a brief period of time, he cashed the check a week early, forgetting what date I had asked him to cash it.
Being that I keep tabs on my bank account on a daily basis, the following day (the day after I wrote the check) I woke in the morning, logged onto the Bank of America website and checked my bank account. To my horror, I saw that the check I wrote my landlord had already been deposited in his bank account and the funds had already been drafted from my bank account. The reason I was so upset was that I had a few other debits scheduled to hit my account within the next day or two and, therefore, I would be overdrawn.
In an attempt to prevent a disaster, and a barrage of overdraft fees, I contacted my landlord, and he apologetically offered to write my a check BACK for the amount to deposit into my bank account. So, thinking that I may have dodged a bullet, I drove to my nearest Bank of America banking center and ran in to deposit the check. KEEP IN MIND THAT AT THIS POINT, I WAS NOT OVERDRAWN.
As I handed the clerk the check, she advised me that it would take 5 to 7 business days before the check would be credited to my bank account. Naturally, my predicament worsened. I explained to the bank teller that this would be a problem. I explained the situation to her and she said that once the check cleared and was credited to my bank account that I could call the Bank of America customer service line and they would credit any overdraft fees which had ensued resulted due to the problem.
Though I was suspicious of the way in which the teller suggest I handle this situation what choice did I have? As a sidenote, I want to say that it is extremely irritating to deal with a bank which can miraculously debit one's account from a check written less than 24 hours ago, but yet, they cannot credit MY account with a check I deposit for 5 to 7 days!
Needless to say, when the check was FINALLY credited to my account, the following week and after surveying the damage done to my bank account (I had several very small debit, each less than $10 and I also had several automatic payments set up for the following week which I couldn't stop in time to prevent even more overdrafts) I was overdrawn by over $400. So I contacted Bank of America, as advised by the bank teller, explained my situation to the representative, who told me he could definately understand my frustration. Then he proceeded to advise me that he needed to get approval from his supervisor to credit my account for the overdraft fees.
After waiting on hold for several minutes, the representative came back and advised me that unfortunately, he would not be able to credit me with the overdraft fees. As he explained it, I had broken the law by writing a post-dated check, anyhow. I was shocked that at this point, I was being accused by the representative of committing a crime and treating me like I had done something wrong. Not knowing what to do, and not really feeling that I had any options, I hung up the phone. I was in tears. I couldn't believe that I would be treated this way as a customer. I hadn't done anything wrong. Furthermore, I had done the RIGHT thing and attempted to correct the original error by depositing the money to prevent any overdrafts.
What makes me the angriest is that if I had known that they were not going to credit my account with the overdraft fees once the check was credited to my account, I could have at least deposited some cash to prevent even further overdraft fees. Yet, the bank teller assured me that it would not be a problem.
I simply CANNOT help but think that Bank of America took complete advantage of me. Not only do they try to acquire as much in overdraft fees from their customers as they possibly can, they pride themselves on this fact. I have a very close friend whose husband works for Bank of America and he told me that if he had known I had an account with them, he would have recommended I close it. He doesn't even bank with Bank of America. What Bank of America did was unethical and predatory.
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