This is the letter I wrote to Bank of America
To Bank of America Representative:
I am the owner of a Checking Account, the account number in question is The expiration date of my account is May. I am writing to you today to refuse the account balance from the Orange Hills Bank of America in Orange, California. At the moment my account balance is approximately (negative) $-412.00.
My reasons for refusal of this balance is that I have a problem with the overall process of how you handle the deposits, how you withdraw money from accounts that don't have enough cash flow and the amount you charge for non sufficient funds.
I have contacted Consumers Affairs with this matter and I'm including some recent feelings that they have made about these issues as well.
I am due a refund to my account. I have included some unjust fees that are broken down in this letter that total to the amount of $1260.00. These fees only cover the dates from February 11 through August 17th. I downloaded this information from my account online so these numbers have come directly from your establishment. I still need to check the beginning of February and the whole month of January but that information wasn't available online so I will need to get records from a Bank of America branch. Once I receive this information and if there are unacceptable deductions from my account then those deductions will be added to the total listed above. The major issue issues I have with your business practice is that I've tried to work things out with your establishment many times and I've been given the run around and excuses to keep following your unethical banking procedures while putting the blame on myself. I'm listing my issues below in detail so you are not left in the dark. I'm also including feelings about these issues from Consumer Affairs.
Issues that are of concern with Bank of America's checking account policy.
The amount of time you hold a check before it completely posts in my account: This is the major issue that has caused me the most problems with non sufficient funds. Normally I can understand a certain amount of hold but considering I've been a member of this branch since 2003 and you haven't seen one check deposited in my account that didn't have the needed amount of funds for a deposit.
99 percent of the checks that I deposit come from the same company. This company's account is also with Bank of America which is one of the reasons why I don't understand why it takes up to and on some occasions more than seven days to post my total deposit. I have had to try to come up with various ways to have my deposits post within twenty four hours but I have had no such luck. I have gone into branches and I have had your tellers withdraw cash directly from the account I've mentioned above and had the cash directly deposited into my account and you still practice the same procedure. I have asked the tellers to post the deposit immediately to my account which they tell me occurs but it doesn't cover upcoming checks that are coming in to be withdrawn from my account.
I have talked to customer service many times about this and I've been told that the hold is for my safety that this is standard procedure from Bank of America. This is to protect my accounts but it's not protecting anything. It only has cost me financial loss. This loss is the type of loss I can't afford at all not even if you think you are helping my security. This withholding of funds has cost me too many times NSF fees when the money is sitting in my account. I find this practice unacceptable!
The amount Bank of America charges for Non Sufficient Funds: The federal banking regulators admit that bounced checks or bounced loans are considered credit. With this accepted as a fact or truth then the amount that is posted for non sufficient funds are unjustified. An example would be if I didn't have enough for a check to clear in my account from an amount of up to $100.00 dollars and I'm charged the standard $32.00 I am going to pay an APR well over 260% if I was to pay back the $100 within a month's time. The amount that is listed is based on $100.00 and I've been charged the same $32.00 on NSF's for a negative balance fewer than five dollars. The APR % that's taken away from the account is comparable to theft. These percentages are taken from a thirty day period but most of my negative balance has been paid in full within seven days so this percentage that's issued is much higher than listed above.
The knowledge of withdraws when it's known that there isn't enough money in the account. This is done for the financial benefit of Bank of America. Your bank will then collect a NSF fee while they are perfectly aware that the account in question doesn't have these funds available. This has happened a few times that I've noticed within my banking activity report that I'm including with this letter. There is no reason why yours and other banking establishments should do this with real time information that is present to your establishment. It's unacceptable for your establishment to take advantage of consumers who end up in a cycle of debit due to your unethical banking practices.
These reasons that I've listed above have caused me extra charges from merchant penalties as well as embarrassment when I don't have funds available due to the fact that your bank deducts extremely large NSA funds fees from my account. I've been in situations where I can't even pay my rent, bills, or even food due to the wrongful deductions from my checking account due to your unethical approach to NSF deductions.
I have talked with services representatives numerous times about these issues and I've been told that it's my fault. I tried to close my account twice but both times I couldn't. Once time I was told I'm not allowed to close my account until I pay the negative balance. I told this customer service representative that I will gain even more NSF fees if I don't do this now but he said that is my issue I need to take care of. I didn't find this at all the proper way to conduct business and this representative was telling me I needed to change my ways of handling my funds. He's telling me I was in the wrong even though your establishment has put holds of over seven days on checks from companies that bank with Bank of America as well. He said it was for my security. If this is security it's not worth the price I'm paying. My so called security is unjust profit for Bank of America. My security that Bank of America provides for me has caused me a loss in money, a loss in business and embarrassment.
I recently tried to contact Bank of America because they sent my account to the Check services which have put up a red flag so my new account at a different bank is getting cancelled. It took me ten transfers before I spoke with a man named Rick Merritt. He said he could only settle on half of the balance they said I was responsible for which comes out to around $250.00. He said he would send me to collections if I don't contact him tomorrow. He said I was in the wrong even though he admitted he doesn't have the records or hasn't looked at them. Another person in his office that I spoke with earlier couldn't get there facts down and both parities had different reasons or excuses for why they are not at fault.
They keep saying it's my fault and that they didn't do anything wrong even though they are trying to settle the difference.
Joe
huntington beach, California
U.S.A.
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