This is a confusing story, but we don’t really know why Jenny would make up such a crazy sequence of events.
Apparently, Bank of America randomly gave her $400. She thought this was money from a lawsuit settlement being deposited into her account. Apparently it wasn’t. 4 days later, Jenny had a balance of $-159 and 9 overdraft charges. Bank of America says they have “no record” of the mysterious $400. What?
Read Jenny’s email inside.
Hey guys!
A co-worker of mine sends me messed up articles from your site regularly and that’s gotten me hooked. Anyway to make a long story short I was on vacation 2 weeks ago when I called the Automated Center of BoA to get my account balance to make sure I had enough money for food, gas, etc. My account was positive with a credit from my employer (May 3rd) and another $400 credit that was issued on May 6th.
I didn’t question the random $400 credit as I have money from a lawsuit settlement flowing in at random times so I figured that was what it was. Anyway I returned home and checked my account online on May 10th. My account balance was -$159. I was dumbfounded on how I had spent over $1000 in a week (employer check and random $400). I scoured my account to see what went wrong and I couldn’t find the $400. So I left my account to run its course because I hadn’t made any purchases since May 8th and thought that the account would remain at -$159. So I check my account yesterday because that’s when my employer check was direct deposited and I knew my account would be positive again.
I realized that I had been hit with not 1, not 3, not 5, but 9 overdrafts totaling $315. Not only do I think that this is excessive, I also blame BoA for this unfortunate event. Yeah I probably should have researched that $400 a little more, but why is a BoA associate randomly putting in $400 into peoples accounts and then 2 days later withdrawing it? I then researched your site to see who I should contact about this. I spoke with a representative named Felicia who told me that she doesn’t see a $400 credit and withdraw that was made on my account. Seriously? Your company doesn’t keep a record of things like this? Not only am I looking like a liar, but I’m also out $315.
So I’m basically just writing to vent and see what I can do about this situation. I have already written the CEO of BoA as mentioned in the previous posts. It was sent via UPS and reached their office at 9:45am this morning and signed by a Dixon. I guess I’ll let you know the outcome of that.
Is this situation really messed up or am I just being crazy?
Thanks for listening!
Jenny
Jenny, this situation is really messed up. You do seem to be handling it well, however. Anyone else have some insight for Jenny? —MEGHANN MARCO
(Photo: cmorran123)
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I’m with Datacloud. I have my own B ofA horror story. A merchant charged my debit card 400.00 instead of 40.00 on a charge. It caused a negative balance from a Friday til Monday night. I used my card for 12 small purchases over the weekend (all money that was mine…no float issues). When I found out about it, BofA told me my only choice was to tell their loss recovery department that the mistaken charge was fraud (which it clearly wasn’t). I chose to close the account and switch banks. In the course of the next 2 weeks, they managed to make the balance almost -$1,100.00 (none of it legitimate). The “debt” was sent to collections, I disputed and refused to pay. They still send me pre-approved credit card offers. What a sorry company.
I would rather keep money in a mattress.
@alexander: Aha, so you admit posting BS because you didn’t read the whole article! Your advice is worthless because your high-handedness has already been addressed in the rest of the article — the part you were too smug to bother reading.
Go over to Slashdot. They like your kind there.
@Datacloud: Uh, because not everyone has had an issue with them?
1. Retarded bank employee credits wrong account.
2. Retarded bank employee finds mistake and destroys the evidence.
3. Without a statement, customer is SOL.
Unless you’re very well placed in a company, destroying evidence like that is nigh impossible. But not everybody knows where to look for it.
And while it may sound funny in your head, retarded people aren’t the only ones who make mistakes – I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt in your case.
I’ve also noticed that I say “It’s entirely possible…” too often. At least I didn’t repeat myself a third time.
@Slusy: I may have stated that poorly. I meant that the funds must have existed in the account (short of any sudden out of nowhere large charge). Otherwise it would have not let the charge go through when she was placing the order.
If she did not have the funds (ie $400 of leeway) the money that was purchases that were overdrawn would never have been approved at check-out. Pending charges and holds count against your balance.
So, if you have a balance of $1000 spent $800 in one day, checked online and saw the pending charges of $800 that have not yet cleared, you’re not going to be able to purchase a $400 anything.
What happened with me when i got 5 (i think) over draft fees, was because of a check that posted. Checks never show as pending as far as i can tell.
@coreyander:
No no, CuteFTP is different than Cute PDF. One transfers files, one prints to PDF documents. You want the latter.
@shejake:
Actually, we knew about the error, pulled a ton of overtime to get it all corrected, and were automatically reversing your charges. The associate that you spoke with made it sound like we were doing something special for you, because that tends to make people feel like they pulled one over on us or something. Just fyi.
@bignetbuy: It’s interesting you mention this (that is, the fees that BoA levies on its account holders).
Last week, I made a $1,600 transfer from my ING Direct Savings Account (love ya, babe!) to my Bank of America Savings Account (you suck like a vaccuum!) Because I knew the money would take a while to clear, I had to move some funds around within my BoA accounts. For about a day and a half, the balance in my savings account was below $300.
Imagine my surprise when, on my next statement, I discovered a $3 monthly goddamned account fee. I immediately called BoA Customer Service (877‑231‑9372, the number from GetHuman), and I spoke to a very friendly, competent CSR.
“I’m just wondering,” I said, “if you could reverse this monthly charge.”
She looked up my information. “Well, hon,” she said, “it looks like your account dipped below $300 recently. That’s what we charge for.”
“Aaah,” I replied, “but it didn’t dip below $300 for a month. It dipped below $300 for a day and a half. I don’t mean to be a complete asshole,” I continued, “but, last time I checked, a day and a half is not a month.”
She laughed and said, “No, hon, you’re right. It’s not. I’ll just take care of that $3 for you.”
And then — poof! — the charge was gone.
I thanked her for taking care of my problem before I hung up the phone. But I’m still switching to a credit union when I move next month!
@acambras:
What are these “Checks” you refer to? You mean people actually trust their financial transactions to paper promisory notes? How 19th century!
@loquaciousmusic:
If you refer to the “Personal Schedule of Fees” that you were (hopefully) handed when you opened your account, you would see that a service charge is assessed any time your balance falls below the minimum balance At Any Time throughout the cycle. The CSR was a sweetheart to remove it. If you were polite, and it appeared that you typically kept a higher balance, it was reasonable for her to do it.
Also, I love me some ING.
@therasett: If you were polite, and it appeared that you typically kept a higher balance, it was reasonable for her to do it.
That’s what I’m saying, and that seems to be the straw that breaks the camel’s back around Consumerist. I happened to get in touch with a CSR who knew her way around BoA’s policies and was willing to grant me a “bye” for the fee. I did take her name down, and I am going to send BoA a note about how much I appreciated her knowledge and kindness.
That’s why I love ING. No balance, no minimum, and, if you call their CSRs, you get some nice folks in Minnesota (at least I did the last time I called). I’m thinking of opening a checking account with them — has anyone here had any experience with that?
Thank you, Consumerist, and thank you, posters, for making me a better, more confident consumer.
That’s why I love ING. No balance, no minimum…
I meant no minimum balance. Sorry! It’s 7:32 on a Friday night, and I’m still working! Yeesh!
@loquaciousmusic:
I opened an Electric Orange account, which was super easy and great, but I have ordered a debit card 3 times and never received it. I understand that their call center and all of their procedures must be new, so I’m being patient. But I’m starting to get a little irritated. A friend of mine got his no problem, and he totally loves it. They automatically extend you a 250.00 dollar line of credit for overdrafts, and the service charges on it are really reasonable. I recommend it, but I can’t give my total stamp of approval because I haven’t actually . . . used it yet.
So BOA puts $400 into your account, but two days later takes it back and you bounced 9 transactions? My questions is how can there be no record of the funds going in and out, its a bank and they must record every transaction correctly espcially at audit time.
Yeah the float game is a bad game and should never be played, but the funds where there and obvious mistake or not BOA put the money in and took it out. I say write your State Attorney General and ask their opinion.
It seems like everybody is posting their own horror stories of BoA. Let’s not forget the main reason here is to help a fellow consumerist with her problem with the mysterious $400. If she had $400 on her account at one point wouldn’t it have to show on her statement? I’m not sure how to even approach this issue.
Someone commented how nobody read the actual article. If you read the article you would really understand it wasn’t really her fault because she was expecting money coming in to begin with. Don’t blame the victim!! And also 9 overdraft charges are ridiculous. I had a similar experience with a merchant error (citibank credit card) charging me twice which made my account go into overdraft and everything in between. Wachovia was very helpful about it and refunded me all of my fees. Citi was also helpful about it too.
On a side note, the comment section of consumerist.com needs to be updated. How about implementing a positive/negative feedback of comments so we can rate how helpful someone’s comment is or how it is relevant.
…..We can help the poor gal. Moral? Don’t spend mysterious deposits till it’s clearly resolved as to how it came to be in your possession!
…..A relevance rating is probably going to bite folks like me in the ass. See, this comment is in response to a comment crying for more code on Gawker’s servers, not the original plea for help the esteemed Ms. Marco posted…
…..I’d add that the Consumerist Forums are a great place to spew wantonly and frequently. There IS stuff besides LOLCatz you should read there…
http://consumerist.proboards88.com/
I don’t think it’s particularly unusual to not question random deposits in your account. I have an account that is just “spending money” and I have money directly deposited in it for contracted jobs I do. People also deposit money in there as gifts from time to time.
It’s not like she didn’t know what was going on in her bank account; she looked to see the funds she had available, so she probably does that often. She said she gets random deposits from a settlement, therefore, she probably thought, “Cool, they deposited some money from my settlement!” Not, “Huh? $400? That’s weird! Well, I better go spend it.”
As some of the posters have said, bank accounting is much more complicated than a simple ledger.
Lesson 1: You can’t trust the “instant” balance in your account unless you can see the transactions that lead up to it. The only correct balance is what you get when you balance your checkbook after every transaction.
Lesson 2: The bank cannot, in most cases, instantly stop you from spending money you don’t have. There is no mechanism for the gas pump to reject your debit card purchase if your checking account happens to be low at that moment. I’m sure someday there will be, but the structural issues of the global banking system right now force slowness.
Lesson 3: In almost all cases, getting charged the overdraft fee and having the check clear is preferable to the bank rejecting the transaction. Usually, the bank will still charge you an NSF fee, and then whoever gets the check back will be pissed at you and probably charge you a fee too. In fact, it probably costs the bank more to NSF a check than it does to cover it, since the bank has to send the debit back up the banking chain to where it came from.
If the $400 posted on the account, it can’t be “removed” from the records. What I mean by that is if you saw a hard posting credit, the only way for that to be removed is a hard posting debit -
You would see
+400
Then at a later time see
-400
not my experience, but a co-worker’s with National City.
We work 3rd shift. he was looking at his account because he was going to buy some cattle in the morning. (his sidejob)
He checked it at 11pm and had 40+k in his account which was accurate.
for some reason he checked it again a 2am and there was only 10k in it.
he immediately printed out the page. and tried to get a hold of customer service, but it seems that their 24hr service is only active during business hours.
he checked it again at 6 and the balance was correct.
He contacted CS and they said they don’t know what the problem is and gave lame excuses.
over the next few weeks he tracked it as he had time. and randomly at times the phenomena repeated.
Here comes the tin-foil hat part. we noticed the times that the money was gone was when the markets were opening in tokyo. He’s firmly convinced that the bank is playing the market with customer’s money.
I’m sure he’s nuts but still it’s too freaky.
I know someone who continued getting paychecks from BoA, even half a year after he had left. Even though he had called them 3 months after he left to say, “Why are you guys still sending me paychecks?”
Of course, he had to pay it all back. But the point is, BoA doesn’t know what they are doing and can’t keep track of their internal finances – how would you expect them to manage yours?
We banked at BoA for 22 years. WE NEVER HAD any problem UNTIL we moved to University Park (Dallas), TX to the BoA at the corner of Lemon and Mockingbird, they HAD difficulty is setting up our account or in fact doing anything correctly. All they had to do was to transfer our accounts from one BoA to theirs and set it up the same. We had always had a savings account that was tied to our checking account for overdraft protection. After months and months of frustration with them and approximately $700 in erroneous Overdraft charges, I talked to a Customer Service REP on the phone (she was in Nevada). She made sure the accounts were tied together correctly and then credited our account $220 for what she could see on-line. She then told me to request copies of our accounts to show them the other monies they needed to refund our account. After six months of calling BoA every other week to obtain the information, I finally received in on a Friday. That week-end I researched the incorrect Overdraft charges – highlighting their mistakes and showing them where there was “monies” available and I should not have been charged this OD. I took this to the bank that Monday and they saw the errors – but you know what they told me? They don’t have to refund any monies if it’s been “more than six months”. I closed our accounts with a $318 OD still there and DO YOU want to know what BoA did to us? They reported against our CREDIT, that we were “irresponsible” with our accounts. Does anyone know how to correct this? One additional comment, I WILL NEVER DO BUSINESS WITH BoA again!!!!!!
I had a problem with Bank One similar to this, which made me dump them entirely. They would randomly apply charges to my account, as if someone elses account was being crossed with mine. Days later when the transactions should have “cleared” they would vanish. It often left me with no money waiting for these charges that I never made to clear. It happened on almost a daily basis for 2 weeks, despite me going in and trying to get it resolved in person. Of course when they cleared they had “no record” of any such transactions, and at first treated me like a nutcase. I made them print me daily account statements and finally I showed proof of their errors, they were apologetic but offered no resolution, so I pulled all my money out.
They blamed computer error. Probably the same issue here with BofA.