I do not understand why the state of Florida has allowed the Bank of America and Compass Bank to continue to literally steal money from their customers, nor why the Attorney General has not prosecuted them. If the methods practiced by both these banks in the way they manipulate their check postings and issue short term credit in order to generate excessive fees is not considered fraudulent, fraud does not exist. A small mistake in your checking account can easily cost a you hundreds of dollars. I am fairly certain that if the data regarding multiple fees were analyzed, it would show that the majority of people affected were those with lower incomes.
They create these enormous fees by posting checks from the largest to the smallest. At first glance this might seem like its legitimate. It is simply the way they choose to do business. But the results make it clear that the only reason they operate this way is to create more fees. And this is only part of the tactic that they use. I will get to the other part after I present the following realistic example to show how this plays out. A person makes a small mistake in his check book and believes he has a balance of $788.00. His actual balance is $748.00. His rent is due next week but he bumped into his landlord and gave him a check for $750.00. A couple days later he made four small purchases which amounted to $25.00. A few hours after they hit his account the check for $750.00 reached his bank (Bank of America or Compass Bank). At this point what should happen should be a little annoying, but not that big of a deal. The money was clearly easily there to pay the four small charges amounting to $25.00.
Obviously, he made an error regarding the $788.00 check. It would be reasonable for the bank to bounce it and charge him their fee. Of Or, since he is a long standing direct deposit customer, they might pay it knowing funds will be in his account shortly. What they actually do is so blatantly unethical, it is almost unbelievable that an institution that presents itself as being trustworthy and moral would even consider it. They post and pay the $750.00 check first. Then they post the four small checks.instead of charging 1 fee of $36.00, they now charge five fees totaling $180.00.
The way Bank of America tries to justify these actions clearly indicates that someone in their hierarchy thinks their customers are morons. They actually claim to do it for our benefit. The larger checks are more important to us so those are the ones we should want paid the most. Since the idiocy of the justification speaks for itself, no further comment is necessary.
Before anyone (like a bank employee) dares to claim that their intent is not to defraud the public, you have to somehow find a way to explain away that fact that you issue credit to someone you have already denied the exact same credit without the fees. That is the final slap in the face from these thieves. I know first hand that both myself and my wife applied for lines of credit at these institutions. We were both turned down as I am sure many if not most others who get hit with these excessive fees are. But they then give customers the exact same credit that they requested. The only difference is they can now charge excessive fees.
In the above example, if the person had been denied a line of credit, the large check should have simply bounced, incurring only one fee.
These banks, and any others that operate in the same manner, should be despised and not trusted by the public or their employees. If they cheat some people this way, given the opportunity they will cheat and steal from anyone they can. That includes employees.
If you work at these places the only moral action is to find another job. Dont participate in their evil.
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