Complaint Review: Bank Of America

Nikki, I think you're still missing my point and how this difference is important. As I forestated, some banks POST transactions REAL TIME to the ledger at ANY given time of day ALL DAY. This means you check your account online at 10:00am and your ACCOUNT balance, not your AVAILABLE balance, but your ACCOUNT/POSTED balance is $100. Then you check online at 1:00pm and your ACCOUNT/POSTED balance may be $50 or it may be $200. When you made a debit purchase using your pin, these banks POST that immediately to your account. They don't wait until nightly processing. This results in the posted balance decrease from $100 to $50. On the other hand, these banks POST deposits immediately to the ledger resulting in the posted balance increase from $100 to $200.

Nikki, the point you're missing is Bank of America DOES NOT post transactions REAL TIME to the ledger like that. BofA ONLY posts transactions during nightly processing. That's it. Once nightly processing is completed at BofA and you check your account online, your POSTED/ACCOUNT balance will not change ever again, until after the next nightly processing. Nikki, if you were to move your account to Bank of America, using the same Direct Deposit instructions from your same employer, your Direct Deposit would POST Thursday night. Here's why.

Your employer has given instructions to make your deposit available to you on your payday, Friday. Your current bank is ABLE to do this by posting your deposit during the day on Friday. BofA doesn't do this. Therefore, the ONLY way BofA can put the money in your account for your use on Friday is for them to POST your deposit Thursday night. After Thursday's nightly processing is completed, BofA WILL NOT post anymore until Friday night. You wouldn't get, and be able to use your funds until Saturday morning, which is not your payday and not in line with your employer's instructions. Here's why this small detail is so important.

Since BofA has no choice but to post your deposit Thursday night so you have it on Friday, this means that same deposit CAN and WILL be used to catch, cover, and pay for checks posting Thursday night. The reason? Once again because of BofA's procedures. They post deposits first. Any outstanding checks written or debits made that come in Thursday night will be covered by your Direct Deposit which posts first on Thursday night because that's the only way BofA can ENSURE you get your deposit on Friday. The conclusion Nikki? You give advice that Direct Deposits cannot be used to pay for items posting the same night the Direct Deposit is sent in. I agree this is true for you based on how your bank does things, but I think you can see now how your statement cannot be applied to all customers, like Bank of America customers.

No, my brother and I do not have the same bank. Which is why when our employer directs Friday, mine hard posts Friday morning for Friday's transactions and my brother's comes in Thursday night, "pends" all day Friday and hard posts Friday evening for Friday's transactions.

With your direct deposit, you stated your direct deposit would come in on Wednesday night, pend all day Thursday and hard post Thursday night. Yes, that would cover Thursday's transactions because it would come in Wednesday night and hard post Thursday night for Thursday's transactions. However I doubt it would have covered your Wednesday transactions.

The point I was trying to make was if the direct deposit comes in Thursday night, it will hard post for Friday's transactions. Just like yours that came in Wednesday night would hard post for Thursday's transactions.

Just because a direct deposit is coming in at midnight does not mean it is good for the transactions made earlier that day. It is good for the transactions you make tomorrow.

Maria, you stated you do not feel like they should be able to subtract from the account when you cannot deposit until the next day. Why are you writing those checks when you cannot deposit until the next day? If you wrote them, they can subtract them. The bank is not going to hold onto your checks for one more day to wait for your direct deposit. You didn't.

You indicated you and your brother both work for the same employer. But do you both also use the same bank? Here's why this is important. I could be wrong, but I find it highly unusual that an employer would use different dates of availability and posting for different employees for Direct Deposits. Assuming everyone has the same payday, logic would dictate the same date is used for ALL employees for their Direct Deposits.

Now on to the bank. Assuming the bank receives the SAME Direct Deposit instructions for all employees of this one company, I find it highly unusual the same bank would make one account holder's Direct Deposit Pending Thursday night and all day Friday, but for a different account holder from the SAME employer, the bank instead ONLY hard Posts the deposit Friday morning. Two DIFFERENT procedures for two DIFFERENT account holders who work for the SAME company using the SAME Direct Deposit procedures? This doesn't make any sense. Therefore, my only assumption and conclusion is you and your brother probably have accounts at different banks.

And here's why this is important, getting back to this OP. In the case of Bank of America, they do not do REAL TIME posting to the ledger like your bank does. BofA only posts one time, during nightly processing, that's it. So if you have Direct Deposit and your payday is Friday and your employer sends instructions to make your money available to you on Friday, Bank of America has no choice but to post your Direct Deposit Thursday night. Because after Thursday's nightly processing is completed, BofA will not post anymore until Friday night. This would mean your money would not be available until Saturday morning. This doesn't make sense and would be unfair because your payday is Friday. I understand that OTHER banks actually post to the ledger at any time and they may in fact POST the deposit Friday morning, AFTER the previous nightly processing, like your bank does. But not with BofA. That's not how they work.

Now if you confirm that you and your brother do in fact use the same bank, then you have certainly provided new information that has just totally confused me. But it still wouldn't apply to BofA. If you and your brother both had accounts at BofA, both of you would have your Direct Deposits post Thursday night since your payday is Friday. That's how it works at BofA.

Your employer sends the instruction to make the funds available to you at the beginning of the day on Thursday which would make them come in on Wednesday night and hard post Thursday night. My employer has the instruction that the funds are to be available at the beginning of the day on Friday (payday), even though he sends the order in Wed.

My bank hard posts my direct deposit on Friday morning and does not "pend" at all. However, my brother, who works for the same employer, has his funds come in Thursday night, they "pend" all day Friday and they post Friday night. It's all a matter of what the employer directs.

I'm merely explaining to people that even though their direct deposit comes in at midnight on Thursday, it does not count towards Thursday's purchases. Yours did because it was a "pending" transaction all day Thurs since it came in Wednesday night.

What many of the posters are doing is the equivalent of you spending your paycheck on Wednesday.

That is why I can relate to what some of these customers are complaining about. And I can see how many outsiders are not truly understanding what the customer is saying. I am stating for a fact, that I had a Bank of America account for well over ten years. And during that time I indeed had Direct Deposit. My payday was Friday and I'm telling you unequivocally that my Direct Deposit posted Thursday night and it posted FIRST before anything else and it was used to pay for items presented Thursday night.

I wanted this understood first before I complicated it any further with this additional information. Here is the full sequence of events. My employer sends over the Direct Deposit information to the bank on Wednesday. It includes instructions to make the funds 'Available' to the customer Wednesday night/Thursday Morning, but do not post it until Thursday night/Friday morning. So during Wednesday's nightly processing, BofA processes all of my checks and debits and THEN they make the Direct Deposit available to me. This is the LAST thing to occur Wednesday night. So my Available balance on Thursday morning includes my paycheck but the paycheck did not post Wednesday night. It's still a PENDING deposit, but still it's Available for me to spend on THURSDAY.

Then, the next night during Thursday's nightly processing, BofA POSTS my paycheck first. So when the day begins on Friday MORNING, my paycheck is FULLY in my account and credited. Compared to Thursday MORNING where my paycheck was not fully POSTED to my account but it was made AVAILABLE to me. Guess what else. Since my paycheck was made available to me on Wednesday night/Thursday morning, this also means that any debit purchases I made on Thursday, guess what? They were covered also, because those debits posted Thursday night after the Direct Deposit posted. And to be perfectly clear, yes my payday was Friday. The actual date of the paycheck is always Friday.

That is why I can relate to what some of these customers are complaining about. And I can see how many outsiders are not truly understanding what the customer is saying. I am stating for a fact, that I had a Bank of America account for well over ten years. And during that time I indeed had Direct Deposit. My payday was Friday and I'm telling you unequivocally that my Direct Deposit posted Thursday night and it posted FIRST before anything else and it was used to pay for items presented Thursday night.

I wanted this understood first before I complicated it any further with this additional information. Here is the full sequence of events. My employer sends over the Direct Deposit information to the bank on Wednesday. It includes instructions to make the funds 'Available' to the customer Wednesday night/Thursday Morning, but do not post it until Thursday night/Friday morning. So during Wednesday's nightly processing, BofA processes all of my checks and debits and THEN they make the Direct Deposit available to me. This is the LAST thing to occur Wednesday night. So my Available balance on Thursday morning includes my paycheck but the paycheck did not post Wednesday night. It's still a PENDING deposit, but still it's Available for me to spend on THURSDAY.

Then, the next night during Thursday's nightly processing, BofA POSTS my paycheck first. So when the day begins on Friday MORNING, my paycheck is FULLY in my account and credited. Compared to Thursday MORNING where my paycheck was not fully POSTED to my account but it was made AVAILABLE to me. Guess what else. Since my paycheck was made available to me on Wednesday night/Thursday morning, this also means that any debit purchases I made on Thursday, guess what? They were covered also, because those debits posted Thursday night after the Direct Deposit posted. And to be perfectly clear, yes my payday was Friday. The actual date of the paycheck is always Friday.

With direct deposit, payday is Friday (or whatever day your employer has chosen). The employer notifies the bank they want the funds available Friday. That does not mean it's available for Thursday's item processing. It just posts Thursday night so it is available for use first thing Friday.

If your payday is Friday, your direct deposit is posted with Friday's date, even though it may be put in Thursday night. Debit transactions for Thursday post with Thursday's date. That is why, even though people believe their direct deposit is coming through on Thursday night, they cannot use it to pay for Thursday's postings or holds.

In your rebuttal, you were treating direct deposits as a Thursday transaction and they really aren't. They are a Friday transaction, but are posted Thursday night so the money is immediately available for use on Friday.

I WAS a Bank of America customer for over ten years, so I'm not just speculating about what used to happen. During my tenure with Bank of America, during nightly processing, they posted deposits first before everything else, then they posted debits and checks, largest amounts first of course. This means, if my payday is Friday and I have Direct Deposit, my paycheck is deposited FIRST during Thursday night's processing. There is no dispute here. Trust me, I know FIRST HAND what happened to MY OWN account after looking at it occur week after week for over TEN YEARS.

So just as an example, If I were to write a check to a Merchant on Wednesday, then the check is presented on Thursday, it will not come out or post until Thursday's nightly processing. So this is what happens. BofA begins Thursday's nightly processing by posting my Direct Deposit FIRST. Then BofA begins deducting all of my debits and checks, which includes the check I wrote to the Merchant on Wednesday. The conclusion? The Direct Deposit posted FIRST, AHEAD OF, and COVERED the Merchant check which was written and dated before it. Now I invite anyone, including and especially any BofA employees to dispute this example.

But with that said, if the Merchant check was run through immediately and it posted Wednesday night, then I would get burned with a fee (if there was not sufficient funds to cover it). No one to blame but myself. But if the check doesn't post until Thursday night, BofA DOES NOT post it first just because they see it was written and dated for Wednesday and my Direct Deposit is dated for Friday. That was not how their nightly processing worked. Even though the Merchant check was written and dated for Wednesday, My Friday's Direct Deposit posts BEFORE the Merchant check since they both POST on the same night. Because BofA's policy is to post and credit Deposits first. That's the key. It doesn't matter the date of a check or when it's written. What matters is when they post. Any check that posts on the same night that a deposit posts during nightly processsing, the deposit ALWAYS posts first. No dispute.

If you knowingly write checks that you don't presently have the funds to cover (i.e. check floating), then you are the one who should be penalized for this action. Remember, Banks are here for us to place our money in, however, they are also in the business of making money. If you use funds that are not available in your account, then they are in the right to charge an OD fee. That would be stated in the pamphlet called a deposit and fee disclosure booklet. Furthermore, they are within their right to charge this because anyone who opens an account, signs a master-relationship agreement form.

Direct Deposits - every report I have read on here states that the person who wrote it thinks that direct deposits posted for a certain day, are available to cover previous day transactions. Not true. The direct deposit(s) for a certain day only cover transactions for that day.

example, if I only have $100 in my account and a check for $200 comes in, I cannot expect the bank to cover this for a direct deposit set for a current day.

Yes, the direct deposit and check came in on seemingly the same night, however the posted check will have the previous day's date and the direct deposit is pending for the current date.


Hope this helps

If you see the charges posting to your account on a (let's say) Friday, it means that they were incurred on Thursday, for items that cleared on Wednesday night. So if you were counting on a Friday payday to cover your checks, you weren't even close.

In case you haven't noticed, that's pretty much what all these fraudulent OD fee reports are about.

Can you clarify that?

Are you actually suggesting that you should be able to write checks without the funds to cover them and that you shouldn't be charged fees until you have a chance to deposit money to cover the checks you already have out there?

Here's a better idea. Don't write checks without enough money in the account to cover them!