As bad as it is, it's funny.

Fuck B of A.

Funds being on "HOLD" not being released? Sure, hate the bank for doing their job.

@Joe Caputo: but how do you really feel?

Couldn't withdraw his own money? Why didn't he call police and say the bank was robbing him?

So the caller was wrong then. The bank wasn't being robbed. He just felt as if the bank were robbing him....

@AlexDitto: Sometimes, you have to notify the bank that you'll be taking your money out.

Maybe it was a CD.

@AlexDitto:

For some reason, this reminds me of Space Balls: The Movie.

"You better have the money, or else.."

"Or else what?"

"Or else Pizza's gonna take out for YOU"

Obligatory Blazing Saddles reference:
"One more move and this n*gger gets it!"

When I was in college, I lived in an off-campus apartment. My roomate and I were about to go out and grab some dinner when a cop knocked on our door and asked us some questions about when we had seen the woman who lived next door - we hadn't seen her in a while.

So we roll out, come back a few hours later to find our other roomate and a friend talking to her - she had asked them to help her fix her sliding glass door. Evidently, she had called the IRS about some tax issue, and at some point told them that she "might as well kill herself". So they called the cops, who broke into her apartment.

So the lesson is, don't tell the IRS you are going to kill yourself, either.

@Dooley: Please, please, I'm just plain Yogurt.

@AlexDitto: financial institutions put deposited checks on hold until they clear. knowing how people are when they come into the CU i work at, it was probably a HUGE check that he expected to get $6k cash back on immediately. hey there's a thing called CHECK FRAUD!

also that Nigerian/Craigslist scam actually happens. we're a small CU and at least once a month we get an email letting us know that some person was selling a motorcycle and got a check for $2k more & is supposed to wire the difference back. people are that dumb.

I couldn't withdraw money at my bank that I had deposited the day before. I just called them, assured them that I had deposited the money, that I needed to pay for items, all in a pleasant tone and they allowed me to use it. Then again, I live in a small town so that might have been an exception (I've done that twice now, very nice woman, bought her something for doing it.)

Why does every person call 911 for the dumbest shit? Is that the only number we can remember when we are really pissed or want information?

@exkon: Some holds can get a bit crazy. My credit union is holding the funds on a check issued by Wells Fargo Shareholder services!

@Trai_Dep: Listen to him men, he's crazy enough to do it!

So people don't get the wrong idea, as I almost did, even knowing the movie:

i work for BOA ATM Network Support, and trust me, people call the Police all the time when they have a problem at an ATM.

I cannot tell you how many times I have taken a call from Officer so and so, on-site, with a customer who claims the ATM stole their money. They tried to withdraw cash and the ATM malfunctioned. Did the customer think of contacting us first? Nope, that's too simple... they decide it's important enough to call the police about.

Ridiculous...

Worst bank ever. When i was with boa they would routinely put my paychecks on hold for a week or more to get some overdraft fees out of me. Fucken hate this bank, my credit union is 100x better.

@exkon: Yeah, like putting a 15-day hold on a settlement check from an insurance company.

Seriously, 15 days to clear a check in this day and age?

@SWAK_GitEmSteveDave loves->★: No! God blangit dang blummit!

@madanthony:

I had a friend that called 911 saying he could not take the pain anymore (AK round in his leg from Nam) and he was going to kill himself. He did not need too. The Police did it for him. True story.

@batsy: Extend to you this "Laurel and Hardy" handshake.

@varro: it doesn't take 15 days to clear the check. it takes 15 days to make sure the bastard insurance company doesn't jerk you around & decide to dishonor the check.

here's a tip: if you are dealing with a lawyer in an insurance settlement, have the lawyer cut you a check out of his/her IOLTA account & let the insurance co. pay the lawyer's office.

7 years i've been in banking. i have never, ever, ever seen a lawyer check bounce. insurance checks? we get at least one of those back every week.

@Joe Caputo: I agree... I've had many issues with them when I had them as a bank. Unfortuantely or fortunately now I'm making money everytime one is built in Chicago since one of my customers is involved in their construction. Kind of bitter sweet.

@Timeus: That does seem dumb, but on the other hand, perhaps those customers feel that B of A won't help them no matter what the situation is, so they go right to the cops. People often feel this way about gigantic financial institutions.

I never had a problem with B of A.... except for when they recommended opening a second checking account to use for bills, which I saw was a great idea. However, that meant paying a maintenance fee, which I didn't take into account, thus overdrafting.... by $3.00 *sigh*... not worth the hassle anymore.

That's funny. Disorderly conduct is a reasonable charge for this "crime" and I bet the branch manager has egg on his face.

@Joe Caputo: In Russia, B of A fuck you.

/doing it wrong...even when doing it right

@Joe Caputo:

I'm so glad I took the advice of the folks here and joined a credit union instead. I left B of A for Chase, which was more of the same and then finally got my head out of my ass and joined a C.U. I'll never go back to regular banks again.

@allthoseships: Yeah, but how about this, my wife is self employed with one client, she gets a check for the exact same ammount every two weeks and every friday she deposits it at BoA. How come they arbitraily hold it for 2 days one week 3 days another and once they held it for a full week.

When asked, they said "We can hold it as long as we like and its still within the rules"

I told the guy, well at least your consistant. When he asked why I told him that I have never not been dissapointed with BoA and for that they should pat them selves on the back.

BoA reminds me of me when I was about 12 years old, not a week went by without me making my mom want to pull out her hair. "Aaron, can we just have one week where you dont put your future or this family in peril.

The answer was no until about the age of 14.

@Mfalconieri:

Because cops have nothing better to do. At least that's what I tell myself whenever I get pulled over for speeding!

@Skybolt:

True that. If a bank has consistently done nothing to help you and charged you erroneous fees in the process, why would you trust them to help when their own ATM steals your money?

B of A had this program called "keep the change." When you used your debit card for a purchase, they would round up the total to the nearest dollar and then deposit the change into your savings account. Sounded like a great idea, right?

Well, I had to open a savings account in order to get the benefit of this service. What they didn't tell me was they were going to charge me $3 a month for a savings account. When I went in to close all of my accounts there and tell them to go pound sand, they offered to waive the account fees. By then it was too late; I'd already joined a credit union. Screw B of A.

@Mfalconieri: actually a lot of places you have to call 911 for almost anything since they have stopped using local numbers. i had a car stolen and spent half an hour trying to call the regular cops before they told me call 911. i felt uncomfortable doing it.

@Ben_Q2: So he committed suicide by cop, classy. :-/

@tbax929: Unfortunately, in my town there is only ONE credit union and I don't work for any of the companies they service. :( I did leave BOA for Suntrust and haven't looked back. They're the lesser of the evils.

@Ben_Q2: Did he live in Milton, Fl by chance?

@Oface: There was a story on Consumerist earlier this year which listed a website you can goto to find all the credit unions in your area and what their "requirements" are.

@SWAK_GitEmSteveDave loves->★: Right. And there's only one. And I don't work for any of the companies.

Report serious violations about national banks (banks with N.A. somewhere on their paperwork or on their site) to the Comptroller of the Currency. [www.occ.treas.gov]

My complaint: Their tellers, on seven separate occasions, gave my money to thieves with ONLY a fake driver's license in my name with the wrong expiration date. They gave away $70,000 of a friend of mine with a similar level of verification. I had people run tests for me (some did this voluntarily after I blogged about my experience), and found the same lax verification procedures.

The COC has been sitting on my complaint, and I don't like that the Comptroller himself was previously a lobbyist for the banking industry, but I called them to press them to do something about my complaint (made in September) and I got a letter from them that they're looking into it, dated December 2.

Since we clearly cannot trust government watchdogs to do much more than sit with their tongues hanging out as sleazebags make off with everybody's money, I suggest you consider my experience and those of the others I write about above in making your choice about where you bank. Had I known the level of "verification" B of A seems to do at a branch that isn't yours (and I think I've figured out why), I would have cleared my money out fast. Instead, after being a customer for almost 20 years there, they fired me as a customer after I complained a bit too bitterly about how they failed their fiduciary duty to me with their spectacular pattern of laxness in verifying identity.

I now bank at a small community bank where the guy who signed me up and deposited my money knows me, and where, when I called the 1800 line to say I'd be in Paris for a few weeks (ie, please don't cancel my ATM card when I use it over there), the guy on the 1800 line knew him too, and agreed that he's a great guy.

This guy (my new banker) told me he couldn't work for a bank like B of A because he couldn't stand to have customers mad at him all the time. Instead, if you ask people in the neighborhood about him (a lot of people I know bank with him) they always have something really nice to say about him.

@Hamtronix: True. My motorcycle was stolen a few years back. I looked up the local station's number in the phone book and called two separate numbers that just rang and rang. I drove down to the station to report it and encountered this conversation:

Officer - "Why didn't you call? We could have sent a cruiser to your home?"

Me - "I called two different numbers and no one answered the phone."

Officer - "Why didn't you call 911?"

Me - "Isn't that only for emergencies? What if I caused someone else to be placed on hold who had a real emergency?"

Several Officers in the room - *blank confused stares*

Me - "I'll call 911 next time"

@TLD_GitEmSteveDave loves->★: "Excuse me while I whip this out."
(shrieeeeek!)
Gods, what a great movie.

@Amy Alkon: I really don't see how a "small community" bank is going to protect you from someone with fake ID. Did B of A hold you responsible for what was essentially a bank robbery?

@Mfalconieri: I was at a GameStop once watching a police officer try and keep a straight face after a older gentleman felt he was being ripped off by their used game policy. From what I could overhear, the man's son or grandson had sold a used game back to the store and the man didn't feel his compensation was adequate for a new game...so he called the police. So yes. People call 911 for ridiculous reasons.

I am no big fan of banks, but many times the reason for putting holds on items is because even if the check is good, it may eventually be denied. Anything that is a larger amount always will be. A good plan is to use direct deposit or cashiers checks.

Your new banker can work in small towns MAYBE, but part of the benefit of a large impersonal bank is that I don't have some local banker knowing all my business. It also is what leads to redlining in mortgages and denying loans to people of specific races.

@Timeus: Maybe because your customer service sucks? I quit you turds back when you were Seafirst.

@tbax929: you obviously do not live in seattle where everybody speeds, runs red lights and walks down the street smoking weed. okay, maybe not everybody walks down the street smoking weed, but none-the-less the cops don't do anything about any of it.

i always presume it is because they are out arresting real criminals.

call cust svc fromt he atm, u crazy you guys do not answer the phone that quickly not even during off hours.