I have had a Bank of America Checking and Savings account for well over 15 years now. Why I have stuck with them so long is beyond me—maybe I'm just afraid to change everything over. Through the years, they have soaked me with overdraft fees probably well into the thousands. I always just thought I deserved the charges and figured that I was just a "bad girl" who didn't know how to manage her money. Now that I am older and much wiser, I am realizing that I was not a "bad girl" but that I was a VICTIM.
I was most recently violated by Bank of America when my income tax refund was direct deposited into my account. Upon receipt of the money, I paid off many bills to try to get ahead as well to get out of debt. This seemed to be to no avail because it all ended up costing me $520 in Bank of America overdraft and returned check fees! The first issue I faced was after a busy morning online and over the phone paying bills. After making about 15-20 transactions, I realized that my telephone payment to my oil company was declined! I panicked! Why would it be??? I had LOTs of money available in my account a few hours earlier. So, I immediately called Bank of America and after a long runaround, was connected with their fraud department. They themselves had FROZEN my account and weren't letting any transactions go through! How crazy! If there was a problem with my account I would have called them and told them so. After I had proved that I was who I said I was and that I was the one making all of the transactions they unfroze my account. So then I had to embarissingly backtrack and notify those whom I had done business with earlier that morning and explain what had happened. What a morning!
Then to make matters worse, just this past week, one of the transactions I forgot to record and it triggered an "avalanche" of overdraft and returned check fees! I ended up incurring $520 in fees (12 in all at $35 a shot!) The bank refused to do anything about them. Generally, when I have a transaction go through that ends up putting me in the "red", the bank will cover it and just slap me with a $35 fee and then I deposit the money and there's no embarassment on my end. This time, they decided to play dirty and they not only charged me $35 when two items posted, but then had the gaul to slap me with another $35 when they returned them as unpaid! This sent me into a panic. Sadly to admit, one of the checks was to my church to pay for my daughter's choir robe! If ever I wished that they had covered a check—it was that one. It was a very expensive banking week for me—GRAND TOTAL WEEK ENDING 2/27=$520 EMBARASSMENT
Wait—that's not the end of my soap opera with Bank of America. Just today, I had a local Kmart store call me, no not once, but three times regarding a check that I had mailed them to pay on a layaway for a new microwave which I desperately need. They attempted to process my $40 check and it was regected by Certegy Check Services. (another embarassment) Therefore, today my evening was spent (all 3 hours of it) on the telephone. I called Bank of America SIX times, Certegy THREE, Early Warning Services TWO, Spoke with Kmart FOUR, Telecheck TWO, and Check Systems TWO more times to no avail. Finally I came to the conclusion that I'm better off getting out of the entire crazy system and going back to the "good old days" of using CASH and MONEY ORDERS. Considering all of the embarassment, harassment, stress, and MONEY—it is NOT worth the aggravation!
My husband has been after me for years, to get rid of them as my bank and I've always resisted. But guess what—I've finally had the last straw! Let them report me to Certegy, EWS and all of the other acronyms—frankly I don't care. I don't need them and I refuse to be a host to their leech-sucking money grubbing frenzy any longer! If more and more American citizens get fed up with the "system" and just stop patronizing it then they'll no longer be a system as we know it. I'm an American, but I DON'T need Bank of America—they give America a bad name.
Wendy
Winston Salem, North Carolina
U.S.A.
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