My complaint is with Bank of America, I feel they have created an overdraft system that is designed for them to make huge profits off the people who are the least able to afford it.
I know that I was in the wrong when I wrote a check on a Sunday that I knew was $100 over what I had in my account. But I also knew that I would have cash the next day to deposit and cover the check. Unfortunalty a car accident prevented me from making it to the bank the following day in order to deposit the necessary money.
With the system that BOA has in place, all charges that are made as credit typically pend for several days before they post to your account. So what BOA does is when those charges actually post they arrange them in order from the highest to the lowest, which I think is absolutly unfair and done specifically so they can reap the most money from an overdraft.
So, instead of me having one fee of $35 for that check, I ended up with about $350 in fees because of 8 transactions that had been made the previous Thurdsay, Friday and Saturday before I even wrote the check.
Because checks don't pend, they just automatically post that whole Monday after I wrote the check my account was fine, but then Tuedsay morning, it showed that the check had posted on Monday and of course it was the first transaction of the day, leaving me with 8 other transactions that were made prior to the check to be charged with overdraft fees.
On top of that I was going out of town on a business trip that Tuesday morning and wouldn't be returning until Sat. So I went to the bank that morning to see what could be done and because I still had two other transactions pending and I wanted to avoid two more fees. They told me nothing could be done because the actual overdraft fees hadn't been charged to my account yet. So I deposited enough money to bring my account into the positve and to cover the two pending transactions.
I explained that I was going out of town and wouldn't be able to deal with this until the following Monday, because I was concerned about a new fee that BOA has adopted, if you don't pay your overdraft fees within 5 days they charge you another $35.
An employee told me not to worry, that I had 5 business days from when the overdraft fees were charged to handle the matter. Well he misinformed me, it's actually 5 bus. days from when your account becomes overdrawn.
In addition to that, they rearanged the transactions again so that all the overdraft fees were posted and then my deposit that I made to cover the two pending transactions. So I ended up with two more $35 dollar fees and an additional $35 fee for not being able to pay it all off within 5 days, making that a grand total of $350 in overdraft fees.
When I called customer service all I wanted was for 1 or 2 of the fees to be removed. I though that this was fair considering that their employee misinformed and the fact that I was out of town with no vehicle and no way to deal with the situation and they refused to help me. They just kept saying unless it's fruad or a bank error we can't remove the fees. Well how is their employee giving me the wrong information not a bank error.
Any way I ended up borrowing the money, paying off the account and closing it. I know most banks have the same polocies, but I just really wanted a fresh start with someone else. I hate BOA and will forever discourage anyone I know from doing business with them.
In my opinion this whole overdraft system is set up so that banks can make money off the people who can least afford it. Why do they think people overdraw their accounts, because they are rich, not likely. And then they come up with this new fee for not repaying in 5 days. Obviously if your account is overdrawn it's because you don't have money, so lets make you even more broke than you already are.
Honeslty I would prefer that they just didn't cover anything. If I don't have the money then the card shouldn't work. Or if it's a check send it back to the merchant. If that's what they would have done I would have had one $35 fee from the bank and a $25 fee from the merchant. I don't know about you but, $60 sound a whole lot better than $350.
Something needs to be done about this banking system, it's hurting the people who can least afford it. The fees should be a % of the amout you overdraw, not a set fee. How does it make sense to be charged $35 when you overdraw for under $5. Thats over a %100 they are charging you. Absolutly insane, it should be illegal.
Karl
highlands ranch,#2Consumer Comment
Fri, September 11, 2009
AND PAY THE COST OF YOUR SLAVERY, THE LET THE BANKERS CONTINUE TO CREATE MONEY & CONTROL CREDIT." - Sir Josiah Stamp, former head of the Bank of England. You can 'Google' JOSIAH STAMP, and read about him, if you'd like.
Ronny g
North hollywood,#3
Fri, September 11, 2009
You were wrong to write a check that was greater then what you had in your account. That is called floating and although the bank will cover it in most cases..it is technically not legal. So although you had good intentions to make a deposit to cover it, I can't in all fairness blame the bank for this, an unfortunate circumstance prevented you from getting the deposit in on time..and hence it was going to cause an overdraft as per the overdraft policy of your bank.
Jim
Anaheim,#4
Fri, September 11, 2009
To the OP, your overdraft wasn't caused when the money was removed from your account; it occurred when you spent the money you already spent while the items were still pending. If you had kept something most people in the United States keep (and that would be a check register), you would not be in this mess because the real balance in your account would be in your register. This is not a matter of a banking system needing to be modified. This has to do with educating consumers that there are no shortcuts to managing your finances. That's what you did. There are zero shortcuts to managing your money.
When you wrote the check, it wasn't simply for $100 more than what was in your account. It was for far more than that. The 8 pending transactions reduce the actual account balance and since overdrafts are based on available balance (account balance less pending transactions), what you had available was far less than what you believed. As you already surmised, anything that is pending and the account goes into the negative - results in an overdraft. You can't even race to the bank any longer; because you can't float transactions with a debit card. No such thing.
Accordingly - this is not a bank issue. This is an account holder issue and it will follow you to the next bank and the one after that. Why? Because all banks are the same with the same policies and the same functions. The only difference between banks is the name in front. There is not a bank in this country you can go to any longer that doesn;t have the same exact policies as this bank. If you don't believe me, I encourage you to go on this website and plug in the name of any bank you can think - go ahead! Do it. You'll find the same complaints written by the same types of people who equally fail to grasp any idea or clue as to how to manage their finances.
Finally, the $35 overdraft fee is a penalty - not interest. Penalties are fixed - just like a ticket for making an illegal turn or running a red. They don't alter the penalty for running the red by how close you were to actually making it while the light was yellow. All of these fees and penalties are very well documented. Even if you overdraw by one cent, you get a $35 overdraft fee. The amount of the overdraft is never the issue and it doesn't matter what you think or what I think. It only matters what the T&C's of the agreement are and since you agreed to abide by the terms of the agreement with this bank (and the next one - and the one after that), you will pay the fee if you overdraft the account. Since the T&C's have been found by the courts to be legal, there is nothing illegal going on.
There's a lesson here when you go to the next bank. Learn from it.
Karl
highlands ranch,#5
Thu, September 10, 2009
HAS COME UP WITH A WAY FOR BANKS TO 'MANIPULATE' ITS CUSTOMERS OUT OF THEIR MONEY TOO, right?