Complaint Review: Bank Of America

The other day I looked at my Bank of America checking account and found out that I was $19.00 overdrawn on my account. Four transactions had caused me to go over only $19.00. I couldn't figure out why I had gone over so I went back and looked at my statements and found that back in May 2008 that I was charged an overdraft fee, yet my account never showed to be overdrawn.

I went to talk to the branch manager, but he was out of town so I talked to one of the Banks financial managers. He told me that it was because I had gone over my limit. My account showed to be in good standing and he said that was because the same day that I went over that I made a deposit, but the deposit was after I made the transaction.

For years, Bank of America has maintained that if you are able to bring your account current before anything posts that you will not get any fees. However, the financial manager told me that they had just introduced a new policy stating that if you go over your limit you will get a fee and it doesn't matter if you get funds into the account the same day or not.

After this I showed him that the same thing happened in June 2008 where I went over and brought it current the very same day, yet there was no fee assessed. I asked him why I got a fee in May but not for June and he could not tell me. He told me that I would have to talk to the branch manager, the one who was out.

I came back and tried to talk to the branch manager but he was still out. So they told me to talk to the second financial manager who told me the exact same thing as the first, but like the first person I talked to, as soon as I presented my case about doing the same exact thing twice but only getting a fee the first time, she just threw up her hands and told me that I needed to talk to the branch manager.

I came back into the bank the following Monday to talk to the branch manager, yet he was still not back and I was told that he would be the next day. By this time the four transactions that caused me to go over by $19.00 had each received a $35.00 fee so my account was now over by $159.00.

I went to another local branch and talked to their branch manager. After presenting my case to her she sided with me and said that I should have not gotten any fee back in May. She told me that she would credit me back the $35 dollar fee from May. Now I thought that this would automatically cancel out the others. After all, if I had not gotten the $35 dollar fee back in May by account would have been in the positive by $16.00 and I would have never gotten the other four fee's. However the next day when I check my account, not only was my account still over, Five more transactions had come in over night and each one of them had a fee of $35.00 tagged on to them. So now my account was over by almost $400 dollars.

I called the bank and told them what had gone on and that I talked to a girl named Debra, a branch manager, who said that she was going to remove the fee from back in May. I asked why it did not erase the fee's that I have currently and I was told that all fee's had to be removed manually. I asked if I could get the others removed and I was told YES. I was placed on hold and after a few minutes the person comes back on the line and tells me that his computer will only allow him to remove 3 of the fee's. I asked him why and told him that if I had not gotten the very 1st fee then my account would not have gotten 4 more fee's which caused the $140 dollars in fee's to come in which in a chain reaction caused 5 more transactions to come in overdrawn causing $175 dollars in more fee's. The person that I was talking to told me that they understood my situation but that they could not remove any more fee's. By the time that I got off the phone it was about 5:30 and my local branch was closed so I decided to go back into the local branch the next day.

The next day I go into my local branch and talk to the branch manager who was finally back from his vacation. I talk to him and tell him my whole situation. My wife also had come into the bank with her payroll check which would have put us way into the positive but only if the fee's would be removed. If the fee's would not be removed then my wife's entire paycheck would get eaten and we would have still been in the hole about $150 dollars. After talking to the branch manager, he too sided for me and said that he would remove "some" fee's. He too said that the computer would only allow him to remove 3 fee's and that I would have to call the bank call center to get all the fee's removed. He told me that the call center had the power to remove all the fee's but that at the bank they did not. I don't understand why he did not call the call center for me but whatever. I asked him why I had gotten the one fee but not the other and like all the rest, he tried to explain what he "thought" might have happened, but wasn't for sure. He even told me, just like the first manager that I talked too, that if I am able to bring my account current the same day that my account goes over that I would not get a fee. So did I cause my account to go over, YES and I admit that, however as soon as I realized it I brought my account in good standing the very same day by depositing money back into my account. This I was told would not have given me a fee, yet I got one. Remember that I went over and brought it current the same day both in May and June, but only got a fee for May. Remember that my statement also shows that back in May that I never went overdrawn on my account because I made this deposit. Same thing goes for June.

I called the call center again and talked to a woman and explained to her what was going on with my account. She refused to refund any more fee's because she explained to me that I have had over 20 fee's removed off of my account in the past 3 months and that there was nothing she would do about the current situation. I asked her even if 2 different branch managers had decided that this current situation wasn't my fault and all I got was an "I'm sorry, there is nothing I can do".

Let me back up. I'm sure that your wondering why she said over 20 fee's. True, however two months ago back in May my niece had a baby. My wife and I went to the gift store and bought a $7.00 stuffed animal for her and the newborn. When I checked out a local volunteer, an elderly woman about 95 yeas old had checked us out. Mistakenly she charged my account $700 dollars instead of $7.00. Mistakes happen and I know this so I wasn't mad because I knew that it would all work out and that any fee that I got(because my account was now overdrawn) would get credited back to me. I went and talked to a hospital manager and she immediately refunded the $700 and charged my account the correct amount of $7.00. It took about two weeks for the $700 credit from the hospital to go back on my account. During the time of waiting, the bank had charged me 12 fee's and one overdraft fee, a total of $430 dollars. As soon as the $700 dollar credit came in from the hospital came in I called the bank in which they gave me credit for all $430 dollars. No problems what so ever. So that's why the lady that I was talking to said that I had over 20 fee's.

I tried to explain this to the lady that I was talking to and told her that the incident with the hospital was not my fault and two branch managers have sided with me that this current issue is not my fault either and have refunded $245 dollars worth of fee's but says that the call center has to remove the rest. However this lady refused to hear me out. In total I have talked to at least nine people and Bank of America refuses to remove any more fee's. The incident with the Hospital has marked me a a terrible customer who can't handle their finances even though it was not my fault and so has this current issue who at least 3 people, 2 of them managers, have told me that it wasn't my fault. If it is not my fault, then why won't Bank of America remove the fee's that I have gotten. This all boils down to one fee in which I was told by two different managers that I should have not gotten. But because I have had so many fee's removed the bank has marked me as a terrible customer and won't remove any of the fee's. If all the fee's were removed they I could get my account back in good standing. Bank of America has even started rejection payments and giving me a fee every time that they reject a transaction. The fee's keep coming yet there is nothing they will do even though I was told that it WAS NOT MY FAULT!!!

Ryan
San Angelo, Texas
U.S.A.

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