I recently checked my boa account online and say I was negative sixty cents. I went directly to the bank 45 minutes away at 830 am and made a cash deposit of 18 dollars. Cash. I was told by the teller at this undisclosed location that I would not receive any overdraft fees since the deposit was made before 3pm that day.
I went to work. Came home and checked my account, AN OVERDRAFT!?! How could this be? I contacted BOA on their website and was told that since my transaction had posted the day before at 8 pm it did not matter that I had made a cash deposit. Outraged I asked for a refund. She said she would refund my money and I would see it post the next day.
The next morning I check my account, yup $35 refunded. Direct deposit from my job in the amount of $287. Nice. I had money. I went to work and thought nothing of it.
I did not check my account balance until this morning. 2 OVERDRAFT FEES! $35 dollars each. I already paid my bills and did my Black friday shopping. Now I was negative $60 in my account. Furious I contacted BOA. They explained that I had 2 pending transactions the day I received the overdraft but they did not post to my account until wednesday. ARE YOU KIDDING? I asked to speak with a representative who told me that there was nothing they could do and I would receive a fee every 2 days until it was out of the negative.
Furious, I went to work and contacted a local branch that I never use. The very nice manager told me she had no idea where the fees came from and had no clue what happened but her computer would only allow one fee return. She brought my account balance down to a little over 25 dollars in the hole. She told me to get money into the account asap so I wouldn't receive anymore overdrafts.
I asked her to explain how their system works. When a merchant swipes your card it does not always charge your account that moment. Some merchants have to batch out to charge the card. Some merchants don't batch out.
SO FOR INSTANCE: If I go to a store and make a purchase for $20 dollars, it may not clear for up to 30 days. That's how long a store has to claim the monies. Now here's the problem with how BOA does their business.
IF THAT MERCHANT does not batch until the 22nd day.
BOA back-dates the transaction to the date of purchase. So if I purchase on the 1st, but they don't batch out until the 22nd. IT MAY NOT POST until the 22nd, but the bank bases that transaction as if it was done on the 1st. So if on the first I only have $19.50 in my account and even though on the 22nd I have $1000 in my account. BOA is still going to assess an overdraft fee because IF I DID purchase that and it cleared on the 1st it still would have thrown me into the negative.
Ask any representative about this, this is how it works.
My advise EVERYONE to keep a good register of their transactions if you use this bank. Don't rely on your online account. I've learned my lesson.
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