My parents have an account at Bank of America. They sent me on an errand to deposit two cheques into their account. Not only did the teller screw up the deposit (she shorted the amount by $2200!), she tried to sell me a credit card with a long line of people behind me. I was actually there to open an account but after that I decided to go to Northern Trust instead.

I would have been happier if this story ended with a recap about closing the account right away and taking the business to a smaller regional bank that appreciates the business. I would not touch BoA or WaMu with a ten-foot pole, and I'm not sure I would with HSBC either.

Credit Union! I dropped BOA over 15 years ago because they told me they would have to put a $2000 dollar check written on a local bank I was depositing on hold. I told them to go get f**ked, since said bank check was written on, was across the street and I could have just cashed it.

Is there any way to join a credit union if you don't fit the obvious criteria?

@astruc: There are many places in USA where your place of residence or business is enough. From one I picked at random in web search (eligibility requirments) "If you live or work in Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach, Pinellas, Hillsborough, Clay, Duval, Nassau or St. Johns County, you may open an account. "

Wow. I don't get why BoA put this guy's account on hold, though my guess is that the "hold" status on the account would explain why you only had $366 available. If the OP lives in Chicago, maybe this had something to do with the LaSalle-BoA merge? Maybe it was some really weird glitch with their network? *big shrug* If not, then they just plain effed up. And as for BoA not apologizing, well...they don't want to admit they did anything wrong, and that's probably company policy, actually. I remember when I went through this customer service training a couple years ago at a different bank where I used to work--we were told that we should never admit we don't know the answer to something and we shouldn't say anything negative about the bank at all. I think that even apologizing for a mistake on the bank's part is "negative" enough for a rep to not say it outright, and this is why the rep said he/she was reversing the OD fees as a "courtesy," which is probably the closest thing to an apology that the rep could say. And when the OP pushed and asked why it was a courtesy, well...I think the BoA rep BS'ed there and said it was his fault. I wouldn't be surprised if the BoA rep didn't know what else to say, but had to say something without explicitly admitting this was the bank's fault, so that was all the rep could say on the spot. Not cool. :(

I love Emprise Bank. I believe it's regional in the Wichita area of Kansas, but they give free checks, online banking, don't do that "anticipated overdraft" crap (they'll call you same day you go over your balance to notify you, as long as you have money in before it posts, no fees), they refund ATM fees for using other banks' ATMs, and finally, pay 4% APY interest on my *checking* account. Beats the snot out of my local credit union, believe it or not.

MAke a mistake? Banks and credit card companies dont make mistakes. You do. they have hundreds of pages of policy that you will never see and you are bound by them.

What most people don't get is that when you get overdraft fees it's for the items from the day before. So, yes, those overdraft fees happened on transactions that were made before the deposit because they post 24 hours later. So, yes, it was his fault. Why do banks have to take the blame when someone else makes the mistake? Common sense, balance your checkbook.

@jsttheman: BOA placed a hold on his account and declined his debit card for charges in which the money would have been available if the hold was not placed. That caused the overdraft fee's, although if the card was declined, how did that cause an overdraft?

Sadly, there doesn't seem to be a "good" anything anymore. The consolidation of the banking industry has resulted in monolithic organizations with disconnected customer service, endless policies, and bot-style management. This isn't just a banking phenomenon, but has/is occurring in so many industries: grocery, retail, and pharmaceutical, to name a few. We've become a global community, and with that we have lost the human identity. Two steps forward for technology and society, one step backward for humanity. Moral of the story: pray that every transaction goes correctly, and caveat emptor.

BofA flat sucks. So does WaMu for that matter. I had been a WaMu customer for over 10 years, and their deposit holding, and debit antics finally made me switch to a credit union. I couldn't be happier.

Back in the day I did customer service over the phone, and I know with absolute certainty that "Sir, frankly I can't tell you why this happened, but I apologize that it did. It is all squared away right now, and I have removed these overdraft fees because you are right - you did nothing wrong." would have had this man hanging up satisfied.

I don't understand why all banks use this 'courtesy' line even when it's clearly the bank's fault. Hey banks. We know you make mistakes just like we do. You should own up to yours too. Fixing a problem you created isn't a courtesy, it's a goddamn responsibility.

@InThrees: How was it their problem that they got the overdraft fees?

Checks can take 5-7 days to clear. Depending on your relationship with the bank you may have access to the funds as soon as the deposit is made. If you have had issues with check kiting or bounced checks it's 5-7 for you. The new policy is transactions are considered posted when they are done regardless of wether or not you're online balance reflects this. If the OP say made a car payment and then deposited the check before the payment posted then he was check kiting and thus the overdraft fees. I got nailed myself that way because it used to be if you made a deposit to cover the debit before the charge was posted then you were in the clear even if a late fee was pending. Unfortunately too many people were kiting and the policy was changed. I'm in consumer credit but that is how I understand that line of business to work. As a caveat I do admit that it could have been some kind of complete internal SNAFU. That being said the post seemed light on details, though I am inclined to believe the OP because I do work for them. ;-)

@jsttheman: The customer had just deposited $2000+, $300+ of which was available. RTFA.

@jsttheman: I don't think you understand. BOA had all his money on hold. Meaning, the money he had available in his account to cover bills and any automatic payments was made unavailable by BOA without warning or reason. He had a balance of $366, but because of the hold he was hit with overdraft fees. They held his money hostage, then acted like it wasn't their problem.

@silentnight913: if that is indeed the case then it could be a instance of a hold due to possible fraud freezing all the funds. Which would of course be an internal SNAFU as I suspected

This story is exactly why I will bank with Wachovia for as long as possible. I can deposit one check or 20 checks and they will all be available in my account next day, no questions asked. Its like they actually want to keep me as a customer, amazing.

Don't know how the deposit was made, but if it was via the ATM, that's a good way to have funds from a large check deposit held. Jacob says he apparently had access to roughly $366. Is he sure of that? does he balance his checkbook regularly? I am a teller and I regularly have people tell me "My account can't be overdrawn", but then when I give them a list of transactions that changes to "Oh yeah, I forgot about that stuff". Maybe there were transactions that hadn't posted when he printed his balance - when they did, it overdrew his account & the entire thing was frozen. You cannot solely rely on a balance receipt for your balance; you have to also take into account other transactions you have made that have not yet posted. Not everything posts instantly.

I am so happy that my company travel card switching from BoA at the end of the year to CitiBank. Although CitiBank is no angel, atleast it isn't the devil.

Although none of my personal accounts are with BoA, it is the principal of doing ANY kind of business with them.

@silentnight913: I don't think you understand. If indeed there was a hold on his account and nothing goes through then he would have received NSF fees. That wasn't the instance. Even though he did have a hold on his account his items still went through his account which resulted in the mentioned the overdraft fees.

Now, even though he did a deposit and they still put it on hold the overdrafts came through the same day (8 hours later) than he did the deposit which means that the actual items that presented to his account came through before the deposit was made because overdraft fees present 24 hours later giving you that day you overdraw to make a deposit to avoid the fees. This means that the hold on his account didn't affect items coming out and being presented, it just means that he didn't have the funds to cover it. When bank of america places a hold on your account it's for future items, not items that were presented before. Those are still going to go through.

how can they charge an overdraft fee when they wouldn't let him withdraw any money to overdraw?

associated bank once put a hold on my card because my signature on the receipt the pizza delivery guy had me sign "didn't look enough like mine". i'd had to sign against my leg, so of course it didn't. but instead of contacting me to tell me they thought there'd been a false charge and they were locking my account, i had to find out with a cart full of groceries with a big DECLINED and alarm-type thing going off, which btw is embarassing.

@macdave2: You can see my message above but the thing is that the purchases that resulted in the overdraft fees were presented to the bank before the deposit so the hold on his funds couldn't have affected his purchases because he deposited it too late.

@fjordtjie: Because he had outstanding purchases that were made before they put a hold on his account. When those items presented he didn't have the money to cover them.

I take it all you "credit union" bandwagoneers know for certain that every credit union in existence has employees that never make mistakes and computers that never have erroneous data or programming?

@Buran: Nobody said they were perfect. They just seem to perform much better, on average, than regular banks. How many credit union stories have been on The Consumerist? Not very many.

I think InThrees has it right on the money. It's not that we expect the companies we deal with never to make a mistake. They are run by humans, and humans are fallible. What we ask is for those mistakes to be acknowledged when they happen, fixed as quickly as reasonably possible, and not to act as though they are doing the customer a huge favor in fixing their own error.

In the end, when they think they're making themselves look clean and polished by insinuating that every customer service issue that comes up is the customer's fault and that any fixes are done only out of the goodness and kindness of their hearts, they're really just driving away the people who won't tolerate being treated so unfairly, without respect and honesty.

How hard is it to be truthful, especially when it is so often the difference between keeping and losing a customer?

I had 2 checkings with BOA. The 2nd I used more like a savings account. Someone broke into my paypal and I called BOA just in case someone tried to drain the account. BOA closed the wrong account. Sure enough fraudulent charges hit and they refuse to remove the overdraft fees and blamed me because the paypal account had my last name on it(well duh idiots). The local branch lady tried to get it sorted out but even she got pissed at her own company. To this day months later my account is still overdrafted by around $400 and they refuse to remove the fees even though they were all fraudulent. I told them that was fine but the moment they put me on telecheck, chexsystems, or put it on my credit I would see them in court.

@jsttheman: No man, your lost. Read a little more carefully. The article clearly states that the account hold froze the deposit and his available balance (including money alread in his account.) So the freeze that went into effect after he made earlier purchases then prevented those charges from clearing. The $366 he spoke about was what he intended to use for candy money until the bulk of the deposit cleared up after the weekend.

recap- the freeze also locked down funds in his account previous to the deposit.

@astruc: Frequently there is a dodge where you join some organization for a $5 fee or similar. That puts you in an acceptable group for the credit union. You never need to join that group again because once a credit union lets you in, you're in forever. Reminds me of the Jets in West Side Story but not so much dancing.

@Buran: I am part of the credit union bandwagon and yes, they do screw up.
Maybe the real issue is the gigantic banks have policies in place where employees are not allowed to say "Woopsie, our bad!". Maybe small banks are like credit unions which are usually small and also have good service. After time, the the good little banks are swallowed by MegaBank and become a bad bank.

@RetailGuy83:
There are probably defects in their accounting software, some possibly undiscovered because they generate revenue. Last year BA electronically processed a correctly-drawn check to my accountant at his local branch, correctly debited my account at another branch, then revoked the payment the next day, recharged his account, recredited my account (!!!????) and charged both accounts bounce fees. All actions were documented in the printed statement the next day, which also showed the cleared balance in my account as high-four-figures over the amount of the check during the entire period. Since I own BA stock I asked the right people for an audit of the incident. I got back an ambiguous letter that didn't admit error and pretended this was an innocent glitch. I preserve the BA account to clear some automatic payments, but all my other business now goes to three other banks. I simply don't trust them any more. Hugh McColl (see wikipedia.org) and NCNB ruined a formerly excellent bank.

@twitley: No doubt BoA is truly awful. One of my friends used to bank their. Once he made a deposit at an ATM for like $500.35. Well when he put the money in the envelope he forgot to put in the .35. So, he made out another deposit for 0.00 and put the .35 in with a note explaining his mistake. Instead of putting a hold on the account, BoA placed a withdrawl on the account for over $950,000.00. It was quite funny watching both the teller's face and his when I went with him to figure out why his card was declinded for gasoline. Also, we printed an ATM slip showing his account balance which still makes me giggle whenever I come across it.

Anyway, not sure why you pointed that comment at me as I was defending the OP in my statement, but it did give me a chance to share, so no worries.

I have been a BofA customer for over 10 years, with the exact same checking and savings accounts. I NEVER had a problem- my debit card was stolen twice, and the funds were replaced in my account within hours. I never experienced the ridiculous holds, fees-from-nowhere, or other craziness other people complain about. I even recommended BofA to friends when Wells Fargo screwed them up.

Until this month.

This month alone I have been charged $146 in "over use fees". WTF are overuse fees? Apparently there is suddenly "too much activity" on my account. Too many deposits (WTF?), too many ATM withdrawals (BofA atms), too many transfers, and too many uses at stores as a debit card. The irony is, I've been doing LESS transactions by close to 50% in the past two months. I also have "free checking."

I called the bank. Ooops, their bad. Here, they will refund HALF that money as a "courtesy". I was also treated to a hard sell about how I should open ANOTHER BofA account and how if I did, then they would waive all the fees.

The kicker though, was the debacle of my last deposit, made yesterday. I made my $900 deposit at the local Bofa ATM- the new fancy kind with the optical reader. Verified the scan, to go to my checking acct. Went to withdraw, and hey, where'd my $ go? Into my SAVINGS account.

Went into the bank. Manager apologized profusely. Couldn't get tech support on the phone, they were too busy. The Manager stood next to me at the ATM and directed me to transfer the $900 from savings to checking, he watched to verify it worked correctly. It seemed to. Life went on.

Today.....$900 were removed from my accounts.... FEES for "erroneous ATM transfer". The ENTIRE paycheck? GONE.

I LOSE IT.

I call Bofa. I cannot get through for over FIVE hours, "there are too many customers waiting to speak to an associate, please call back later."

They would not release the funds....they would not admit error.

Two more HOURS of talking to 3 reps, and 2 supervisors, plus getting a banking advocate (my friend who is a former BOFA manager) to talk to them for me, the funds are released.

Except ANOTHER $87 in fees because the other fees counted as transactions and now once again I was subject to an activity fee, which hadn't gone through because the deposit was messed up and so I had a overdraft fee for the bogus fees. Is that clear? EXACTLY. I'll try it again. Bank messes up, puts deposit in wrong acct. Manager directs me to transfer. I do. I incur a fee because the funds weren't released properly (no one can tell me why this crap happened). ALL money taken from my account. Additional fees because those other fees I just said put me over an activity limit (WTF?!?!), which never existed before, but now does. Now an overdraft fees because without the deposit being available all those fees overdrew my account.

So that refund for half the OTHER wrong set of fees? MEANINGLESS. I am not even more in the hole.

On Monday I am closing my accounts, taking the CASH and going to WaMu.

Fuck.this.shit.

I should be so lucky. I have tried to close the same checking account three times, and it is still open.

Several years ago I lived in a small town in Indiana. Not many banks there then. The bank made an error crediting my account over $600 As a courtesy I called their bookkeeping department to let them know. Call was like this: Hello, I have a checking account with your bank and I found an error I think you'd like to know about. BANK: We are the bank and we don't make errors! ME: OK, then you don't want to hear from me and I hung up. It took them about 3 months to find error, and after that I changed banks. I wonder how much in wages it cost to find that error since it took so long? Later on, that bank was bought by another and those people were then unemployed.

@Dobernala: True, but consider the fact that banks have far more customers than credit unions do, and even if the same percentage of them are unhappy, you'll hear more unhappy bank customers just due to the math. Also, unhappy people tend to be vocal. Happy ones are silent.

I have been with BofA for 17 years. In fact I still have the same account that I opened at 16 (changed features of course)

In that time I have had one problem. A deposit was put on hold. I went up to the local branch that same day and spoke with the manager......bam......the hold was released.

@jsttheman:

YOU are correct. Allow me to confirm his assertions and clarify NSF/OD billing at BofA.

NSF/OD fees are billed the business day AFTER a transaction POSTS to your account and creates an OD or is returned NSF. The "new policy" everyone is referring to relates to check card (NOT PINNED) activity ONLY. Customers are now being billed fees ONLY if their available balance during processing each night does not cover the transaction that are attempting to post. Previously, BofA paid items and assessed fees based on your current (posted) balance; now they are assessing based on the available balance, which including pending authorizations for check card activity. This all goes back, once again, to keeping a check register and not kiting transactions. For the most part, the only people affected adversely by this new policy are those that do not keep a check register and spend funds that are not available to them - available meaning the balance in the register, NOT the available balance at the ATM, over the phone or via Online Banking

Now, in regard to the OPs balance being placed on hold and PINNED transactions being denied (he stated he never uses check card option). This situation was in no way related to the new NSF/OD policy. Yes, the deposit may have generated a risk block on his account; this is most likely because the deposit was substantially higher than his average deposit and/or balance history. As posted wrekxx stated, other patterns of activity on the account including frequent NSF/OD activity and/or return item chargebacks may have generated this hold, and would have remained until the item deposited "cleared" or the hold was released by the bank. Hold release dates in general are established by Reg CC; the type of item deposited and the location of the clearing bank vs. the depositing bank determine the period of time a deposit is on hold. However, Reg CC does allows "exception holds", typically placed on new accounts and accounts that are seen as a risk to the bank. Now, the transactions the OP attempted while the account had a block on it would NOT have generated fees; again, fees are not generated until the business day AFTER transactions post, and if they are declined and don't post, fees are not charged.

Unfortunately, it seems that the OP had OD/NSFd his account the previous business day, and was advised correctly that the fees being refunded was done as a courtesy. I can only stress the importance of keeping a check register.

@ RetailGuy83 :

When BofA places a fraud block an an account, they amount of the hold is $888,888.88. This amount is used so it can be easily distinguished by banking staff. Now, the fact that the teller had a difficult time figuring it out does not surprise me, because tellers (no matter what bank) are rarely trained on things like this and, well, need I say more...

I just recently joined a credit union, and I am really pleased. Not only do the staff know who I am when I call, they also have some of the lowest loan rates and highest savings account yields I have ever seen, and the best credit card rates I have seen in a long time. (Incidentally, I did shop around and found that their rates are substantially better than the other credit unions in the area)

It's a little tiny one, with only one branch, and my member number has only four digits (this member number, then, is the prefix to all of my account numbers). As a bonus, they have an ATM in the lobby of my workplace, and a deal in place with a local grocery chain so that deposits can be made there if needed.

So far, I'm thrilled. It's a big difference between them and the Very Big Banking Corporation.

@lauy: I ask this question, only because it happened to me. I do keep a check register, and I also deduct the amount of my automated drafts 2 days before they are scheduled to post. Now, one of my automated drafts is keyed in incorrectly by the vendor ($285, instead of $85). I also keep a daily eye on my online statement, so when I saw this charge come through I called the vendor while it was still pending. They corrected the charge (By issuing a refund for $200, not return/rering) and I went along merrily, noting an $85 payment in my register. For 36 hours or so, BOTH the original charge and my refund were in "pending" bank float float zone. I make a few incidental purchases over the next 2 or so days totaling around $100. Then, 3 days after the refund I withdrew $500 from an ATM (To pay rent, Also note that by this point the online system indicated the refund had processed and was removed from magical float world.). When I got online and checked my account the next morning I had been sacked with 5 NSF fees for about $175 leaving me with a negative balance of $100. Now I'm not a genius, but it seems to me I should have positive $75 dollars in the account, not to mention, why was I able to withdraw $500 from an ATM is if wasn't "there." I was told the $200 refund caused the SNAFU, after they did "research."

Very frustrating, with Wachovia BTW.

So, the question for all you banking-shills is, how does a person track account balance using a register when banks magicaly float your deposits/refunds for un-determined periods of time? Especially, when they tell you that the on-line system isn't acurate?

@lauy: Ah, good to know, still funny.

My first checking account was with a long-since defunct bank in Seattle called "Emerald City Savings and Loan." If you were about to overdraft, they called you. They even held NSF checks until the end of the day just in case you deposited money, to keep you in the black. One time, I had trouble using their ATM and got pi$$ed off and shoved a hamburger in the deposit slot (hey, I was 16, I was immature...) The next day, I got a call, apparently they figured the whole thing out (the problem I had and the fact that I shoved a burger in the slot...) and they basically told me "Next time, please just call us." It was the first time I had ever heard of 24 hour customer service, and they actually had a human on staff who was empowered to fix problems 24 hours a day.

Sigh.

Now I'm with Citibank. It's not the worst, I suppose. But I do miss those days. And I feel more and more like shoving a burger into a deposit slot lately.

Screw banks and credit card companies. Why fight with them to access your own money? Why let them screw you out of your own money with endless fees and gotchas? Use cash. It's legal tender for all debts, public and private - and it's YOURS to control; you don't have to beg somebody else for access to it.

@humphrmi: Hah, that's great. I'm surprised they didn't call the cops on you or something.

@cyberscribe: Have you actually tried to use cash to rent a car? Buy airline tickets? Transact anything online? Cash is only legal tender when a vendor says it's ok.

My BoA debacle came after I moved to Texas from California, I was still receiving checks from Univ. California San Diego. Didn't want to open a new account in Tx. with BoA but went there to cash a check (was the same bank the check was written on). Had to sign it over to my father who had an account there. They gave me all kinds of grief as to why they couldn't cash the thing (about $800 or so). Well, they finally caved in after holding up their saturday morning lobby line and announced they would do this this one time but never again. I informed them I was expecting 2-3 more checks just like it and they WOULD cash them. (UCSD is not exactly some nobody you might be suspicious of getting checks from). Opened an account soon after with Bank-One (now Chase) and have been mostly happy with the service.

Moved in the past year and needed a new account, signed up with BOA. Next thing we know, every two weeks when my paycheck gets dumped into our account, the bank puts a hold on our account. It's always on a Friday, and can't get rectified until Monday, so we're without cash through the weekend. They said it was just the system getting used to our large periodic deposits. After the third time, I grabbed my cash and hightailed it across the street to Wachovia. No more problems.

Either they have seriously overly aggressive fraud controls, or they are completely screwed up. Either way, I had no patience for it.

See ya!