I opened my very first savings bank account at Fleet Bank when I was seven. The Fleet was purchased by Bank of America while I was entering my freshman year of college. My father and I went to the bank together to set up a student checking account which did not have a minimum balance requirement. I had this account throughout my college experiance. I signed up for their paperless billing which is where you monitor your accounts online only. Over a period of seven months I was going through a period where I was not able to monitor my account with a computer but I used the ATM to check my balances and made sure my account was never overdrawn. When I was able to check my account again I saw every month there were several fees charged to my account. These fees totaled several hundred dollars. As a student this amount of money was a big problem. I immediatly raced over to the Bank to find out what the problem was. I was informed that my account had a minimum balence requirement of 2,000 and the fees were as a result of that requirement not being met. I had the original information from the account and there was not such requirement. When I asked why I the charges were just being made even though I had had the account for three years I was informed that I was "lucky not to be retroactivly charged!" Somehow I was told I must have beat the system and they had just caught on to it. They waved a few of the fees but I was informed that no one in the whole company had the power to wave them all! That was the first incident there have been three similar event following that. I recently opened an account with a local credit union and I can't tell you how happy I am to not have to worry that I am being stolen from by a Bank that has such huge profits it should be embarrased to steal from a financial conciencious student working her way through school. What I find most astounding is that as a student I was making an investment in my longterm earning potential. Bank of America should recognize that treating students well would be a longterm investment in the future of their own business. I am glad to be partnering with a financial institution which earns profit through investment not fees.
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