I have been reading all of the previous entries about this Last Bastion of Rip-offs-BofA, and it seems that everything that's been reported has happened to me, too.
I especially like the one about posting the debits by amount. Although they do sort by date to some extent as well, I, too, just learned that they will clear the biggest debit first, thereby allowing the 5-6 smaller debits to bounce or be paid into overdraft-at $28/pop here in Washington. WHAT a rip-off!
And the holding of checks. The bank employee's answer is a bunch of baloney! I cannot believe he or she had the gall to put that answer in writing! Last year I had a check for $135,000 from LINA, or Life Insurance of North America -one of the biggest companies in the world with assets in the multi-BILLIONS. There was no question about the legitimacy of the check, the bank admitted that. Yet they held it for 10 days (seven working days)! Can that person honestly claim the bank was afraid it would bounce? Give me a break.
It is legal -but it shouldn't be. They get to use our money-millions of dollars-interest free!!! For a week.in the international money trade this could and does - earn them billions!
But now the latest. A few months ago I had an Internet merchant fraudulently charging my Visa debit card through BofA $10/month. They wouldn't stop, so BofA took a fraud report, cancelled the card (without telling me, BTW, leaving me with no cash or ATM card for an entire weekend) and issued a new card with a new number.
Fine. So a few months go by, and I had occassion over those few months to cancel an account I had with Compuserve -a three year rebate pay-back deal that was finally over. Still, I was worried they would keep charging me, as these ISP's tend to do until you go to the office personally with a shotgun to make them stop. (Only kidding, guys)
I also cancelled a monthly subscription to a charity for $10/month at the same time. Both were on the Visa card.
Then I remembered that the card # these merchants had had been cancelled by Bank of America. Great -I thought. Now they can't keep charging me, because I'm not going to give them the new number. I did, though, give it to a few merchants with whom I still wanted to maintain a relationship.
Now, just a few days ago I looked at my online banking balance sheet and lo and behold-there is a two month charge from Compuserve and a one month charge from the charity. That's $70 out of my pocket, which because I'm not rich, I need! And to top it off the bank charged me a $28.00 overdraft fee as a result of the $10.00 charge.
I complained to the bank and so far-guess what. No answer and no refund of any of my money!
Now remember, I couldn't even use this card. Plus a bank employee told me on the phone that I didn't even need to tear up the old card because it was a number NO ONE COULD EVER use again! Good thing I didn't listen, huh?
These people need to be locked up, just like the ENRON and WORLDCOM and TYCO people. They are corporate thieves and they are protected by BIG government and BIG business. But there are a lot of us, too.
When will a Class Action Suit be filed? Can I initiate one? If anyone knows the answer to this question, please answer it on this web-site. I'm disabled and I have a great deal of time on my hands. I'll do it! Just tell me what to do.
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