Previously and still at other banks today (such as Washington Mutual or Chase bank), a pending transaction is not a supposed cleared transaction, because of such things as authorizations and verifications on accounts, and such if during a pending status money is deposited to cover the amount that is pending no fee is assessed.
For instance, if Xbox Live decides to bill your account, they verifiy for $1.00 before they take the full amount back. That $1.00 goes back into your account, that is why it's called a verification. It verifies that the account is active. Whether or not the funds are there is not the purpose.
Now... Bofa has decided to change it's policy to say that our right to use our money how we see fit (such as making a charge or verification for $1.00 when we only have. 50 in the account) is wrong and punishable. It is Bofa's system that now charges a pending transaction which puts the account into overdraft, instead of denying the verification to go through.
I, myself, have felt the wrath of this idiot policy and have filed numerous verbal complaints, spoke many long hours on the phone, spoke with numerous bank managers and bank tellers, all of which revert to this policy change.
I'm also going to take a minute to explain how this can effect over 60% of Bofa's customers, which are middle aged people living paycheck to paycheck. Most people have a savings account. Let's take figuratively (because this is a mild example of what happened to me) that a checking account has. 50 cents in it, and the savings account has. 40 cents in it. These accounts are linked with Overdraft Protection. I go online and want to buy a month of Xbox Live for $7.00. It processes my card for a pending verification for $1.00.
At this point, during the PENDING status, I will automatically be charged an overdraft fee of $35.00. Automatically. I am now -$35.50 in my checking account. (I'll remind everybody that this is on Bofa's computers. The customer never sees this until a business day later, which by then is too late.) Now kicks in my overdraft protection from my savings account. It now adds. 40 cents to the -$35.50. It does not add. 40 cents prior. It adds it after the automatic debit has been done. Now I am at -35.10 in the checking account and $0 in my savings. Then a fee of $10.00 is charged automatically to my checking account for transferring the. 40 cents from my savings to the checking automatically, despite it not covering the full amount. Now I am at -$45.10 in my checking account. Yet, the $10.00 that they automatically withdrew was not available, which the bank then pays for itself and tells me, the customer, that I overspent funds and thus charges another $35.00 in overdraft charges.
Now, in my checking account, for a $1.00 pending verification, and protecting myself with Overdraft Protection, I am penalized a total of $80.10, all of which will be given straight to Bofa.
Imagine if it was a rent payment that went 1$ over the amount that was supposed to be taken out. Or if you're charged twice for something that you only paid once for. Is it realized in this forum how long it would take to get this money back? Not to mention it sets your other bills out of the way until that money is placed back into the account? And not because I didn't keep track of my money, not even for other people's mistakes, but because Bofa decided to change it's policy without giving ENOUGH notice to the customer.
To give proper summation: I am not complaining about my situation. I am complaining about the lack of notice. I use the Bank of America website every day at least 2 or 3 times a day to make sure that certain debits are taken and certain credits are added. Since the induction of Online Banking I have never had a problem with my account. I was never in overdraft, and when I was I deposited the money in enough time to cover the funds taken out.
When speaking with several Bofa Employees at their call center help service line (or whatever you may want to call it because they have hardly ever helped me), they mentioned that a statement was sent out via postage with my paper statement and online statements if I was signed up for Online Statements. I have checked my paper statements and did not see a notice regarding a policy change.
Yet also, I realize that Bofa does not HAVE to give notice of a policy change. I am not an ignorant man. This does however effect every singly person out there who has a rent payment due on the 1st, yet they get paid the 2nd, or needs vital repair work done to their car on the 29th but their paycheck won't be directly deposited until midnight.
And this statement goes straight to Kenneth Lewis sitting high atop his chair:
Your policy change is putting undue stress on the lives of the Americans you are supposedly helping with your interest rates, loan programs, discounts on Anti-Virus/Anti-Hacker software, scholarships and such. If you thought it in the best interest of your customers, why did you not post it on your website, which more than half of your customers use frequently? Why did you not send us all an email, or a message through your precious message center? Why did you not feel the need to call me on my phone (as you do when I am late with a payment) and inform me that the way I, and numerous others, have used my own money was now punishable with massive overdraft fees, NSF fees, Overdraft Protection Fees and the like?
Bryan
Houston, Texas
U.S.A.
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