Some criminal has joined with Bank of America to make John’s life hell. Multiple fraud investigations have froze what little of John’s money remains after overdraft fees have sucked it dry before BofA decided there were no errors or fraud on his account. Fed up, John has closed his account but wants his money back.

His story:

I opened an account with Bank of America just over a year ago (I knew I shouldn’t, but they have a lot of branches and ATMs around here so it was really convenient). Back in February (2010), I logged into my account to find a $100 charge from a company I had never heard of. Luckily I had just been paid, so there were no overdrafts, just missing money. Within a week the fraud investigation was closed and my money returned along with a new debit card.

Fast forward to July. There is a charge for $44.83, plus a $1.43 international fee. Great. I went to the closest branch to sort out the issue this time- I only had $50 in the account, and I ended up with $175 in overdrafts as a bill and a few pending charges rolled in. A new case is opened, and the money was refunded immediately while they investigated. A couple weeks later, I received a letter from BoA with some questions (did I have my card at the time of the incident, does anyone have access to my email etc etc), which I filled out and sent back. There was then silence until the middle of August when, out of no where, I received three fee reversals- one for $175, $44.83 and $1.43, which drained my account to less than a dollar and, you guessed it, another bill overdrafted my account. At this point, Bank of America was holding $256 of my money hostage (which, sad to say, is one week’s pay to me).

I called them up and was told that “repeated attempts to contact me were unsuccessful and the case was closed” (apparently they had some more questions). I checked the dates on my phone for when they claim I was called and found no BoA calls, nor remember receiving one at the time. But it’s okay, because a new case can be opened and I can answer the rest of the questions over the phone (and I only have to wait 10 more business days for a decision!). This time, they kept the money while the second investigation took place.

Well, 10 business days later, which happened to be October 19th (three months after this all started), I got another letter stating that “no posting error has occurred on your account.”

At this point I withdrew what remained in my account and closed it. Where do I go from here? (Oh, I’ve also received 3 letters from them since closing my account informing me that I am overdrawn and need to deposit funds immediately). Please help!

What would you do if someone stole your money and your bank didn’t believe you?

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