Bank Of America
Pending Transactions and Deposit Hold Led to $175 Overdraft Fees

On 8/29 in AM I had 2 PENDING (note: not cleared, but PENDING) debit card transactions (one of which was NEVER going to clear as it was an error). I made a sizeable deposit that same day in time for it to be credited to my account & cover any subsequent transactions. But, the 2 pending transactions would have caused an overdraft if a deposit had not been made that day. The bank decided to put a hold on the deposit (w/o my knowledge) even though in the 4 yrs that I have had this acct there has NEVER been a hold on any of my deposits. I assumed (wrong) that I had access to all funds in my acct., but I was charged $175 in overdraft fees for PENDING items that exceeded my "available" balance that apparently was significantly less than my actual balance determined by a higher GOD. Seven days after the deposit, I received a letter in the mail advising that they had put a 3 day hold on my deposit & 2 days after that I got a notice where I had been charged overdraft fees for 5 PENDING transactions that cleared the bank the SAME day as the overdraft fees. I visited my local branch to find out why this happened. The personal banker could not give me a reason for the deposit hold... Only that maybe it was because the check deposited was unknown to the bank... It was a very well known LOCAL bank! I asked for my overdraft fees back & was told he didn't have the authority to do that, but he assured me he would have the branch mgr call me before the close of the business day. (NOTE: Pending debit transactions are only cleared after the merchant requests payment... So the bank is out NO money or risk until that happens!)

It's now been 2 weeks & I have never received a call if only to tell me that the mgr was powerless to do anything. I have another planned trip to the branch to give them the opportunity to do "the right thing", but after reading other reports, I don't put much hope in anyone there actually possessing a conscience. In the mean time, my daughter has lost close to $600 for the same thing. Deposits made the same day as the pending debit transaction & the debit worked before the deposit resulting in a $35 overdraft fee. We shouldn't have to check online or call the 800 customer svc # (to speak to a holier than thou B%H) before we spend OUR money that we have "entrusted" to a financial institution. I have spoken to other banks about this procedure & been told that that is NOT the norm & should NEVER be handled that way. I will be closing my acct whether they refund my $175 or not... But beware america, america's bank is using our money to keep themselves afloat!

Company: Bank Of America
Country: USA
State: Texas
City: Arlington
Site: bankofamerica.com

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