Complaint Review: Bank Of America - Delray Beach Florida

DO NOT PUT ANY FAITH, WHATSOEVER, IN BALANCE INFORMATION YOU RECEIVE FROM AN ATM, OVER THE PHONE, OR ONLINE. I am a former bank employee (large bank, no worse than the rest), I worked in the Merchant Credit Card Processing department for over two years, and as a General Banking Telephone Representative for two years, as well. I am not writing to defend any bank, not in the least. I definitely am NOT going to attempt, in any way, to tackle the issue of banks posting procedures of debits, credits and direct deposits. But there are two things in the original post that I hope I may be able to shed some light on. Claudia writes: next day get charged an overdraft fee when the money WAS AVAILABLE to me otherwise an ATM machine wouldn't have dispensed the cash. ONLY HAPPENS AT BANK OF AMERICA Yes, an ATM WILL dispense cash when the final result will be an overdrafting of the account. I'll try to explain why below. Second, it is NOT JUST BANK OF AMERICA. I won't make a blanket statement and say ALL BANKS DO THIS, but if there are any that don't, I am unaware of their names. I have been a devoted Ripoff Report reader for years, and the few banks that may have been mentioned as not routinely allowing overdrafts aren't mentioned with enough frequency that I recall who any of those banks might be. Regarding how overdrafting occurs, first of all, finding out that the banks use a computerized procedure daily to put on your account the dollar amount that they will LET you overdraw your account will, hopefully, help explain how you can, unknowingly and unwillingly, overdraft your account. Essentially, this is the dollar amount the bank will loan you so that you can withdraw money from an ATM, have a debit sale approved, or a check paid, when in the final analysis, you did not have the money in the account to cover the amount of money you spent from the account. Generally speaking, you don't apply for this privilege. It's just standard operating procedures for the banks. It's very obviously in their best interest to provide this service. The following is even worse. I am not aware of the specific banks that do the following, but have read that when a customer does a balance inquiry, some banks will include in the account balance this unasked-for overdraft or bounce protection. I don't actually know what the true average overdraft limit is, but seemed like the typical customer would have an overdraft limit upwards of a $1000, presuming no history of routinely having non-sufficient funds and then leaving an overdrawn balance for more than a few days before bringing the account positive again. In order to have an overdraft amount of $0.00, where debit card transactions will come up declined at the business, or checks will be returned to a business as a bad check, it really did seem to require that there be quite a lot of non-sufficient fund activity, with weeks following where the account had a negative balance. So, yes, indeed, an ATM WILL DISPENSE CASH, and a debit card transaction, whether debit or credit is selected, WILL BE APPROVED, even when the end result will be that there actually isn't enough money in the account. These are facts. The banks WILL tell you they do this. Also, the countless testimonials in the reports on this website, spanning quite a few years now, prove that the banks do allow customers to withdraw cash, make debit card purchases, and write checks that will be paid, even when the customer, clearly and plainly, did not/does not have enough money actually in the account to pay for these actions at the time they occur. The company line for why banks allow customers to even UNWILLINGLY overdraft is that they value you as a customer and don't want you to be embarrassed and inconvenienced by having a transaction declined, or a bad check returned to a business who will then also charge you a fee for the check. I have read on numerous reports that people will insist that their bank remove this, so that when they don't have enough money for a debit card sale, it will say declined. No one seems to have any success getting banks to do this. A fatal financial error is to rely on ATM balance inquiries, and even online/phone banking information. There are too many items that those balances may not, or cannot, account for. For instance, debit card sales are NOT immediately removed from your bank account at the time of the sale. There is a long explanation why, and I'd be glad to provide it if anyone wants me to, but just knowing that the automated balance you receive is NOT A GUARANTEE OF YOUR ACCOUNT'S BALANCE may help enlighten someone. So, how can you actually have a genuine, working, real-time, real-life knowledge of your bank account's deposits and withdrawals? Well. The most unpopular statement I see on the bank account reports is the response that says use a register. I've seen replies that state I never write checks, I don't HAVE a checkbook, or register!'. That doesn't mean you can't GET a register. Ask at the branch, call the 800#, order one from a check printing company. IT'S WORTH IT. You don't need a checkbook to use a register. I very rarely write checks, but the register is used constantly for recording my ridiculous amounts of debit card transactions. I do, very much, understand that the credit/debit/direct deposit posting issues really, seriously mess with customers accounts, including customers who religiously keep a register, check their accounts online and/or over the phone constantly, and are not living paycheck to paycheck, but nonetheless end up in financial nightmares with the bank, due to the posting issues. But for so many of the reports, keeping a record of the money you have coming in, and the money you are spending, yes, THAT IS THE ANSWER. Relying on online banking, and Heaven Forbid!, ATMs! - you will feed the bank's neverending appetite for fees for as long as you let THE BANK tell you how much money you have put in, and have taken out, in whatever fashion. I'm not wishing to sound condescending at all, but if you are able to hold a job, pay bills, in a large majority be raising kids, why can't you keep track of your finances with a pen and paper, or on one of the many computer programs available? Why don't you place a HUGE importance on being completely on top of your personal finances? If a person sincerely believes that the bank should be responsible for helping them keep their account in order, they are just being willfully blind. There is no reason for anyone to expect ANY bank to give a darn about whether your account is positive or negative, and why it is or isn't as it should be. BANKS DON'T CARE. It doesn't matter what their ads insist, or if they are a credit union, etc. Financial service providers are in the business of making money, not keeping your personal finances straight. For those people who have stellar relationships with their bank, or have a bank that does go the extra mile for their customers, seriously, please do count your blessings. But that isn't the case for the majority of the country. It also may not be the case for your fellow depositors. No one can make you care about knowing how the bank works, or what the state of your financial affairs are. But if you think you are too busy, or it should be the responsibility of the banks, or the government, or who knows who else, to take care of YOUR FINANCES - your parents didn't raise you right. And even if that's the case, WHY DON'T YOU CARE about the state of your personal finances? How can you be too busy to watch out for your money that NO ONE ELSE IS GOING TO WATCH OUT FOR? When it comes down to it, your personal finances are all you have in this world to rely on, to keep you from homelessness and bankruptcy and literally working until the day you die, leaving only bills for your family to pay. If you were not raised to be financially responsible, and you don't raise your kids to be that way, either, when you die, paying for your final expenses may end up being the straw that breaks the camel's back for your kids finances, or your grandchildren's finances. This is not a case where I'm just trying to scare people. Funeral expenses and associated costs of a person's death devastate people EVERY DAY. Caring about your own financial business has to start somewhere. Schools MAY be starting to teach real-world finances, I don't know. But they didn't when I was in school. I had to learn by reading, and asking family, friends, coworkers, and YES, banking and business professionals!, to explain how to take care of my own personal financial business. This was over 20 years ago, long before the advent of the internet, and yet, I learned! If you've read this far, and probably few have, if you take nothing else away from this post, DON'T USE ATM/PHONE/ONLINE BALANCES TO JUDGE HOW MUCH MONEY YOU HAVE AVAILABLE TO SPEND. If that leaves you wondering what to do - hey, I tried. Wishing us all peace and prosperity. Thank you.

Although I did not want to explain full details about this, what most of you all don't know is that the amount FPL charged me was a mistake. But when I contacted FPL, they only offered to give me the credit next month.When I contacted the bank to try to stop payment, they told me that not only it would cost me $30 but it may have not worked(it was only couple days away). So anyway I would be either $35 short, or $30 short. JUST to give you an update, I did take this further and I got my money refunded(actually more than expected). Thank you all for posting.

"But anyway, make story short, had AVAILABLE BALANCE $144.80 think to myself, ok, I have enough money to cover a transaction that I knew was coming through " "automatic withdraw for FPL posted FIRST for $201" (please do the math) Yes, please do as I do not understand your logic from square one. You were in a huge hole before you even started.

I want to thank you for choosing to bank with Bank of America, Steve, wow 15 years! Right on! The reason Bank of America did that FPL transaction first, is this, our system is designed to pay HIGHEST to LOWEST reguardless in the order you made the purchases. Let me say this, so long as the money spent from the account, does not exceed its actual balance, which can be achieved by writing down all transactions in a check register or on a sheet of paper, then it does not matter the order in which we choose to process the items. And yes, I will agree if you overspend your account, Highest to Lowest order, can cause more overdraft fee's. We do this HIGHEST to LOWEST for 2 reasons, 1) is that we are utilizing your money to pay for your purchase. And the 2nd and main reason is that in the event you are going to overdraw your account, we would rather reject a mcdonalds purchase, something small ect.. rather than a larger purchase. Your larger purchases are typically the more important ones, rent, utilities, groceries, car payment insurance ect.. Because depending upon status and account history, we may decline payments on items. If you only knew the volume of people that call in praying that we pay their items for them, paying their rent ect.. In your situation, had we taken the FPL last, there could have been a chance that we would have rejected the item, but that could have also led to you possibly calling us angered that we didn't pay the item, where is the middle ground? I understand that you are frustrated by overdraft fee's, they can become expensive, I have paid them before, but after the 2nd time, I didn't overdraw my account again. I hope this information helps you understand why we take HIGHEST to LOWEST. Thank you for choosing Bank of America.

Jennifer, Your post is confusing. Are you talking about a debit card on a checking account or an actual credit card? If it is a checking account, your CHECKBOOK REGISTER would tell you your accurate available balance, so the posting dates of transactions are irrelevant. Who cares when they post, unless you are one of these people who will not use a register and depend on an ATM for your available balance. Big mistake. Also, as far as debit transactions go, only transactions where you enter your pin# are processed and posted immediately. If you use your debit card and do not enter your pin it is treated like a credit transaction and is posted whenever the merchant does a batch process. Claudia, Only use your CHECKBOOK register to determine your balance, and don't record or use deposits until AFTER they have cleared/posted to your account, and you will never have a problem. I have been with BofA for more than 15 years and have never had a problem.

Jennifer, Your post is confusing. Are you talking about a debit card on a checking account or an actual credit card? If it is a checking account, your CHECKBOOK REGISTER would tell you your accurate available balance, so the posting dates of transactions are irrelevant. Who cares when they post, unless you are one of these people who will not use a register and depend on an ATM for your available balance. Big mistake. Also, as far as debit transactions go, only transactions where you enter your pin# are processed and posted immediately. If you use your debit card and do not enter your pin it is treated like a credit transaction and is posted whenever the merchant does a batch process. Claudia, Only use your CHECKBOOK register to determine your balance, and don't record or use deposits until AFTER they have cleared/posted to your account, and you will never have a problem. I have been with BofA for more than 15 years and have never had a problem.

Jennifer, Your post is confusing. Are you talking about a debit card on a checking account or an actual credit card? If it is a checking account, your CHECKBOOK REGISTER would tell you your accurate available balance, so the posting dates of transactions are irrelevant. Who cares when they post, unless you are one of these people who will not use a register and depend on an ATM for your available balance. Big mistake. Also, as far as debit transactions go, only transactions where you enter your pin# are processed and posted immediately. If you use your debit card and do not enter your pin it is treated like a credit transaction and is posted whenever the merchant does a batch process. Claudia, Only use your CHECKBOOK register to determine your balance, and don't record or use deposits until AFTER they have cleared/posted to your account, and you will never have a problem. I have been with BofA for more than 15 years and have never had a problem.

Bank of America is certainly not a great bank to work with. I have had many problems over the years and was very upset to learn that my longtime credit card company was bought out by them. On the subject matter at hand, you have to realize that not all transactions are immediately posted to your account. Sometimes it can take up to 3-5 days to post. So while it says you have this money available, that may not include payments or withdrawls that have yet to post. Also, (and I am not saying this is right, remember I hate Bank of America) it is their policy to process the largest transaction first. I am not sure what their rationale is, but it is obvious that the reason they do this is to catch someone in your predicament. I suggest you switch banks. Also - remember that you have automatic withdrawals and figure that into your available balances.