Comments on: American Cliche #192

By: Scott

Scott — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 18:44:53 +0000

Wow – clearly this is a sore spot for lots of you. Why do we tolerate this? Why is this allowed to happen?

-S

By: Natasha

Natasha — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 18:42:11 +0000

My story is almost exact to yours, Scott. After being with BoA for 16 years I was basically told to piss-off and that my longevity with their bank didn’t matter to them even though I always had a stellar account standing. They wouldn’t waive the fees.
A long story, short – I decided to close my account. It took 3 times going into my local branch, writing a half-dozen online “customer service” emails and receiving their canned answers and they STILL didn’t close my account, they just kept adding fees on top of the original fees! They wouldn’t give me a corporate phone number(although I later found one in an online blog) only an address. I finally got it closed by contacting a friend of a friend that worked as a local VP.
Unfortunately, our story is not unique. My sister and 2 of my friends both had the same experience. My BoA CC was easier to close, but not by much.
My advice is to find a local bank. I’ve found their business practices are more ethical than the big guys. *A plus – I never knew banking could be so personable until I switched to a local.

By: Daniel G.

Daniel G. — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 18:01:57 +0000

On the debit card issue, here is my advice: do not use them! Banks are really lousy at processing payment transactions. This is not what they were created to do. They just do it because they saw they could make more money.

Why would anyone want to use a debit card anyway is beyond me. Well, I can understand that people would want to use debit cards as a way to control their expenditures. But you can pretty much do the same with a credit card. Here is what I do. I have one credit card with a very low credit limit – like $200. What I do at the beginning of the month is make a pre-payment on my credit card, of lets say, $500. That gives me $500 of prepaid usage on my credit card, and a $200 of “overdraft”. If in the middle of the month, I am close to using up all the prepayment on my credit card, I just make another payment. In fact, I made it a habit to check the balance of my credit card every week – it is e-mailed automatically from my credit card on-line account, and decide if I need to make another payment to increase the available balance for the following week. It typically takes about 2 business days for the payment to be reflected in the available credit on my credit card.

By: Lupe

Lupe — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 18:31:19 +0000

I have an account with Bank of America and they will charge you an overdraft fee in other stupid situations. For example, if you have $20 in your account and you are going to make a deposit that day but charge a $21 charge they will charge you an overdraft fee because you did not have the money in the bank when you made the charge. I feel that this is stupid because the charge has not even cleared and the money will be there when it does clear. Just another way for them to get your money. When I confronted them, they told me that all banks would be starting to do this. I also have an account with CitiBank. They do not do this. I have been happier with them then I ever was with Bank of America. Might be a bank you could look into.

By: Justo

Justo — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 23:35:27 +0000

I have a Bank of America horror story as well. Years ago when I a college student and had a BofA checking account, I deposited $200 cash at an ATM. However, either I accidentally entered $20 or the ATM only registered $20. Either way, only $20 was deposited to my account.

I tried like hell to get my remaining $180. Back then, I just had enough an was pretty much living paycheck to paycheck. So the fact that I was out $180 was not cool.

The customer representatives I talked to were not able to get me my money. They claimed that if the ATM machine didn’t balance, then my account would be credited. Yet, the account was never credited. The account went into overdraft. It reached close to negative $200.

At that point I just let the account close. BofA closed the account for being over-drafted. Essentially I walked away. I kind of got my money back by way of the transactions that did clear. However, with service fees and the such I am sure I lost out on at least $50.

Never again have I, or will I, become a BofA customer. They seem to have a total “Big Business” mentality and don’t seem to care for their customers. To hear your story only asserts my previous outlook of BofA. Thanks for sharing.

———
On another note, I too am considering changing banks for other reasons. WaMu -> Chase doesn’t cut it for me anymore. Contemplating on going with Wells Fargo. I am in the SoCal area. Any suggestions?

By: Joe

Joe — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 09:14:07 +0000

I totally feel you on the banking problems, Scott. It’s so ridiculous. Banks and credit card companies impose these fees as a deterrent, but really they want you to fuck up. They want you to default so they can jack the interest rate. They want you to overdraft so they can make money for nothing on overdraft charges and all this other bullshit.

It wasn’t until I got a credit card and a checking account that I really understood why Dante reserves a special place in the Inferno for usurers.

By: Felipe

Felipe — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 03:10:22 +0000

Chase does the same thing. They charge 12 dollars but its still ridiculous!!!! (I guess you could say its better???) I started when it was called WaMu. They prided them selfs in “no fees” and they charged me fees. Again, terrible business culture. Morgan can tell you her stories of B of A…. =(

By: Felipe

Felipe — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 02:59:31 +0000

I hate fee’s they call it “finance fees.” Its a horrible business culture. You should your money out!

By: Felipe

Felipe — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 02:50:12 +0000

Hey I commented, but im not sure if it went through…