My B of A Horror Story!
Written: Jul 14 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Nothing in our experience
Cons: horrendous customer service, outrageous fees, unsafe policies
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| dagny21's Full Review: Bank of America |
There have been so many negative reviews of B of A on this site that I won't bother with the basics. I'll just share my story:
My husband and I move around a lot. Guam... Alaska... Seattle... and we've banked at many different local banks. But, each time it was a pain to switch accounts when we moved. So, this time when we relocated to San Diego, we decided to bank with the big guys, in the hopes that next time we moved we'd be able to stay with the same bank.
Boy, do we regret it.
When we opened our account with Bank of America, things seemed okay. But, very quickly, things began to go wrong.
The first problem was we went to the grocery store a few days after depositing a large paycheck(my husband is in the computer industry) and our card was declined. We then went to the cash machine and discovered we had very little money available. It was Saturday night, and we couldn't get into the bank until Monday, and we'd just written a lot of checks to pay bills, and I panicked, thinking we were going to bounce all over town.
When we went into the bank, we were told that all of his paychecks were to be held for 5 business days. We had specifically been told by the new accounts person at the Mission Valley branch in San Diego that all checks, accept for payroll checks would be held. I said, "but these are payroll checks." She looked at the account and said: "Oh, well, all checks over a thousand dollars - even payroll checks - will be held."
I freaked out. I told her "look, my husband makes good money. You're telling us that if he made minimum wage, we'd have all our money, but because he doesn't, we're being punished." I told her had we known that we'd have gone straight to another bank. She then put a note on our account not to hold the checks.
Unfortunately, she put the note to not hold my paychecks, which are very small. So the next month we went through this again.
Then, we discovered when we took advantage of the online feature, that we had quite a bit less money than we thought we did because of all the different fees they have. For instance, we knew that if we went to a non Bank of America cash machine we'd be charged a fee from that cash machine, but we did not know that Bank of America would also charge us. So, we had twice as many fees as we expected.
We also discovered so many discrepancies and problems along the way with our account that we had to speak to teller after teller. Each time, we were charged another $2, which can really add up.
The last straw occurred a few weeks ago. We deposited my husband's paycheck at night in the cash machine. It was post dated for the next day. A few days later, we discovered - again - NOT ENOUGH MONEY IN THE ACCOUNT. We again went to the bank - got charged the requisite $2 - and found out our check(which was dated for that day) had been returned to us by mail! They said that their records showed that we deposited it at 530pm in what we thought was a night deposit, but that it wouldn't qualify as a night deposit until 6pm, and since the check was dated for the next day, it was no good! To make matters worse, we had used our debit card a few different times the night before and it had taken us - just barely - into negative numbers. The bank covered the charges, but charged us $20 for each. We had to borrow money from my parents while we waited for our check, which my parents had to give us in cash because we were afraid of how long they might hold a check.
Now, not only do we have to wait for the mail on our check, but the check they stuck in the mail was endorsed! Which, you should all know means it is the same as cash. We were told that this was their standard policy. We waited a week for the check to arrive, then decided to have payment stopped on it(an $18 charge from his company) and get a new one. Today the check arrived in our mail. According to the postmark, it took them 2 full weeks to even put it in the mail, and they assured us that it went out right away.
Tomorrow we are switching to Washington Mutual, a much smaller bank we have dealt with and been happy with in the past, and who happens to be within walking distance of Bank of America.
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
dagny21
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 in Kids & Family |
 - Top 500 |
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Member: Christine D
Location: Alaska
Reviews written: 312
Trusted by: 51 members
About Me:
Happily married mother of one boy.
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