Anyone use Bank Of America?

[jessica31876]

Cause GRRRRR!!! I am so tired of this bank. They charge for everything. My daughter has an account there. She is 18. She made a mistake and overdrafted her account for like four charges that were around 15 dollars total!! They were going to charge her for that 15 dollars 140 dollars!!Now I know you should know what is in your account and you are responsible for when you overdraft but come on she is only 18 and it was only 15 dollars. As soon as she realized the account was in hte negative she went to deposit money and it was too late they still charged for it. The lady we talked to at the bank today was kinda snotty about how she should be more careful and make sure you write everything down to the penny but I think probably most people have at least one time in their life made a mistake in their checking accounts. I know my husband and I have. In the 20 years we have been married it has happened a handful of times to us...mostly because he forgets to tell me he spent money. And that is how it always was with us too. We would have a couple really small amounts and end up with over a hundred dollars in overdraft fees. I learned really fast to check the account every single day to make sure I was getting anything he might have spent. The best part is she has been with them since she was 16 and never had this issue before. I feel bad for her but I guess it is a good lesson to learn for her to keep alot more careful track of her spendings.

[Kat Stokes]

We have them for our home loan and I wish we didn't. They are IMPOSSIBLE to deal with. If I could, I would switch my loan to someone else immediately. They are probably the most difficult bank to deal with.

[Leila]

I'd suggest she try again by calling rather than going in to the office. IME with BOA, the office staff have their hands tied and are less likely to help than someone on the phone. That said, they would only refund the money for ONE of the overdraft fees. It's not much, but it's worth trying for!

[jessica31876]

Yea they do this thing with transactions no matter what order they come in they go highest amount to lowest amount. This is what always got us. We would have enough for like four smaller transactions and most of a larger one or all of the larger one and then not for the smaller ones. So the bank says well we are "protecting you" in case the larger transaction is your mortgage or rent or insurance. Ummm yea I dont think so. They do it this way so as to incur more fees for people when they do make mistakes. It is how they make their money. They also charge us 8.95 to have the account with them. They used to charge for using teller service in the bank and for calling the automated service!! It was like 25 cents per phone call and 1 dollar for using the teller.

We are transferring all our accounts to a credit union really soon.

[scrap2day]

Originally Posted by jessica31876

We are transferring all our accounts to a credit union really soon.

I've never worked with BOA but had an account at another HUGE nationally known bank. It was AWFUL.

A friend finally convinced me to switch to a credit union. I can't tell you how pleased I am that I switched. Good luck.

[Paula]

We bank with them out of necessity since it's the only bank here and I HATE them. We had a retailer steal my debit card # and charge $300 on it. We filed a dispute, they temporarily credited us $300 - then a month later we get a notice from them stating they didn't find any fault with the store and they took the $300 back. We had to take it all the way to the top before we got our money back. It was a nightmare.

[Paula]

Originally Posted by Leila

I'd suggest she try again by calling rather than going in to the office. IME with BOA, the office staff have their hands tied and are less likely to help than someone on the phone. That said, they would only refund the money for ONE of the overdraft fees. It's not much, but it's worth trying for!

That is very true! You can get farther with the phone reps than the actual peeps in the bank.

[Jennilyn]

We have overdraft protection on our accounts so if we go under, we only get charged $5 for the month.

[NeverendingJen]

We have an account with BOA but through the military department and I have had nothing but good experiences with them. We've had issues with other banks and credit unions, but BoA has always been prompt with their help and corrected every issue we have had. I don't know if the fact that we are military makes a difference or what, but even at the local branches we have had no issues.

[Stacey42]

They bought out our mortgage company a few months back. So far they have been ok as far as that account goes. I had to make some changes, get the MIP removed because we'd hit the % paid where you no longer need it on FHA loans & they were right on it.

But they call almost daily wanting me to open a checking account or get a credit card or refinance or get a home equity loan. Only they insist on speaking to DH, who is never home even though my name is also on the account. Apparently only HE can request they stop calling me, but then they won't call if there is a problem with the mortgage & do I want to risk that? (they say that, personally I don't give a rap, the mortgage has been on autopay for 6 years & I've never had a call in 13 years of home ownership about it)

[Beth Swann]

Dave Ramsey absolutely despises BOA and everything about them. Sorry to hear about everyone's woes with them, sooo not fun!

If at all possible for everyone else watching this thread, don't ever get an account with them if you can avoid it.

We have been able to avoid them our entire life until Countrywide sold our mortgage to them. Not looking forward to my future with that company....

[Megan Turnidge]

Originally Posted by Beth Swann

Dave Ramsey absolutely despises BOA and everything about them.

lol I was thinking the same thing. He HATES BOA! I bank with Wells Fargo and a credit union. I have never had problems with WF, but I think credit unions are the way to go.

[BrattyMeg]

I too use Wells Fargo/Wachovia for my car but our mortgage and banking is thru our credit union..been with the same one over 10 years and have never had a problem

dh had BOA for awhile before we were married and he never had a problem with them

Beth I had Countrywide on our old house and they sold ours to Citibank morgage and they were a nightmare to deal with...not sure which would be better lol

[jessica31876]

even without having the issues with the overdraft I have had major issues with BOA. The only reason I have not changed is I did not want to change over all the auto-payments I had set up or start all over with a new bank. We started there back when it was Barnett Bank. Then it went to Nations Bank and finally BOA. When it was Barnett and Nations it was not too bad but once it went to BOA it just steadily got worse and worse. We needed a card last month to set up auto-draft on our car insurance and had to wait almost 3 hours to get a card with our acct # and routing #. It was ridiculous. Then they wrote the number down wrong and we ended up having to call the 1800 number to get it corrected while at the insurance office.

[Stacey42]

Originally Posted by Beth Swann

We have been able to avoid them our entire life until Countrywide sold our mortgage to them. Not looking forward to my future with that company....

Countrywide was acquired by Bank of America. Which is why they have my mortgage as well... Countrywide was awesome!

[jessica31876]

BOA was one of the banks which needed to be bailed out waasn't it?

[MommaTrish]

We use BOA and so do my parents. We have all sorts of issues with them but nothing compared to what my parents just went through with them. on a technical mistake due to the bank they transfered out over $2000 from their checking putting them in MASSIVELY huge debt to the bank. They put back the money but are trying to make them still pay the overdraft on it.

[Nettio]

Originally Posted by FlirtatiousBrat

Beth I had Countrywide on our old house and they sold ours to Citibank morgage and they were a nightmare to deal with...not sure which would be better lol

lol, see and we had Countrywide for our mortgage and had nothing but problems with them. I figure dealing with BOA can only be a step up. I had a student loan through BOA and never had any issues with them.

To the OP, if you think this might be a common concern with your daughter, you might look into a bank that offers overdraft protection from a savings account. I have a WaMu account, now Chase, but I think it's like a $10 fee if you overdraft and they just move the money from the savings account for you (assuming you have the money). It's not a excuse to not pay attention to my account but I like that it's an added safety net and it sure beats the $30 overdraft fees.

Has anyone here had any experience with Chase? I loved Washington Mutual but now that they've become Chase bank, I'm not sure I want to keep my money with them. Of course that might be due to the absolutely horrible credit card experience I had with them.

[Nettio]

Originally Posted by jessica31876

BOA was one of the banks which needed to be bailed out waasn't it?

Yes, but according to this list, they've paid back the money already.

Originally Posted by Stacey42

Countrywide was acquired by Bank of America. Which is why they have my mortgage as well... Countrywide was awesome!

You're lucky then, because I don't think I've ever dealt with such a group of incompetent idiots before. They mailed our paperwork to the wrong address TWICE and we had to repeatedly call to correct mistakes they made with our payment and escrow account. They never did manage to get it right so it's a good thing we pay attention enough to know how it's supposed to work.

[jessica31876]

I dont think it is a concern to be honest because she has had an account for 2 years and this is the first time it ever happened to her. The problem is she spent alot of money on prom and then her friends kinda use her in my opinion. They all have jobs but when they go out they claim they are broke because they know she will pay their way. It ticks me off because she works really hard and if she pays their way well they should return the favor the next time only it doesnt happen that way. I talked to her about it today and told her just for two weeks or so dont pay for any of them to do anything and then see who is still calling when those two weeks are done. Those are the people I told her are really her friends the others probably not so much

[jessica31876]

OMGosh!! The bank we were with before BOA we had even more issues with. Alot of times I would have to deposit cash but their hours were really short and my husband could not get there before they closed so we used the ATM and I had at least three instances where my deposit was supposedly less then what I put in and I would count the deposit at leqast three or four times. I know it was right. Then they would mail out statements and more then once we would not receive ours. I think almost four months went by when that happened. I figured out why....when the statements would be sent out sometimes they would send someone elses in our envelope. Twice I received other peoples statements. Once I had three statements in my envelope. I called the bank and they just said sorry and please destroy the other statements!! We closed that account very quickly! It was a local bank. Central Florida something or other.

Originally Posted by Nettio

You're lucky then, because I don't think I've ever dealt with such a group of incompetent idiots before. They mailed our paperwork to the wrong address TWICE and we had to repeatedly call to correct mistakes they made with our payment and escrow account. They never did manage to get it right so it's a good thing we pay attention enough to know how it's supposed to work.

[mnm_y2]

Originally Posted by Stacey42

Countrywide was acquired by Bank of America. Which is why they have my mortgage as well... Countrywide was awesome!

I've had BofA since I was 17 and have had for the most part only positive experiences. When I've seen fees, it's been for things that were my fault. I have 2 checking and 1 savings with them and have overdraft protection just in case. I think the charge is $10 maybe? I left my debit card at the gas station once and by the time i realized it, there was already over $500 charged on it. I had no issues getting my $ back into my account and then a follow up letter that everything was taking care of.

Countrywide on the other hand... OMG. I'm so glad they are BofA now.

[jessica31876]

see even when Ive had something happen that was not my fault they were not really cooperative. We had an unauthorized charge from a company online for alot of money and it took several calls to BOA to get it resolved. It was not our fault...kinda a bait and switch and when we finally found someone to help us they said they had received alot of complaints on that particular company. We have had instances where a store would ring our purchases multiple times and BOA says well you just have to wait for it to fall out of pending. Sorry. It was a mistake on the stores part. Like a glitch or soemthing and yea we always got the money back but you know its still a pain. The last thing that really upset me is one year we went to buy our kids new bunkbeds and right before buying them we stopped and bought gas. Well we go to buy the beds and find out my husbands card was frozen. We had the money but could not buy the beds. I used my card and went right through. The money came from the same account. When we called the bank they said they froze his card because of suspicious activity. When I said yes but not more then five minutes after you froze his card you allowed my card to make the same purchase? How does that make any sense? They did not have an explanation. I know if there really was someone using our card it is a good thing they would not have been able to but at that moment it was somewhat embarrassing to hand them the card and have it be declined.

Originally Posted by mnm_y2

I've had BofA since I was 17 and have had for the most part only positive experiences. When I've seen fees, it's been for things that were my fault. I have 2 checking and 1 savings with them and have overdraft protection just in case. I think the charge is $10 maybe? I left my debit card at the gas station once and by the time i realized it, there was already over $500 charged on it. I had no issues getting my $ back into my account and then a follow up letter that everything was taking care of.

Countrywide on the other hand... OMG. I'm so glad they are BofA now.

[jessica31876]

Oh and we opened our accounts in 90's sometime. Cannot honestly remember when now.

[carriesmom]

BofA sucks! Big Time. I closed my account with them about a year ago. I had auto pay and it was set to come out on my payday which was the day after Christmas. I didn't have the money beforehand to cover my car payment which is why I scheduled it when I did. I purchased a Christmas tree which I did have money for in the account and then had a freak out when I saw my account overdrawn when my paycheck was pending. I was livid. What was the point of scheduling a payment when it happened earlier. I emailed them repeatedly and their excuse was that it was car company's decision to take the money early and they had no control. I said you're the bank, you can hold the money until it is due to be paid. They gave me the runaround. So at the New Year I opened an account with NBA and never looked back. I hate BofA with a passion.

[d2vasquez]

I have Chase too Lynette and am just getting used to it but do have an account with a credit union in case I decide to change. My account used to be held by Home Savings then Washington Mutual and now Chase. With the changes in the credit card fees, I know that Chase sent out a note saying you had to sign up for overdraft or they would no longer offer any protection if you accidently went over using your bank debit card. If you continue with the overdraft, they will only charge you up to 3 fees ($34 each) no matter how many items overdrafted unless you have monies in a savings or other account with Chase. Then is it only $10 to transfer the monies into your account. Also if you deposit monies to cover the shortage before 8:00 pm in the atm, it will be credited the same business day so you can avoid a shortage if you find out after the bank closes. I don't know if that time varies from state to state but the bank teller told me that yesterday when I was waiting in line to make a deposit. I am sure the atm in your area will have a posted time. HTH!

[Nettio]

I was just reading that note earlier today. But I was confused, if I agree to the protection, will it default to moving the money out of savings with the $10 fee first? That's how I had my WaMu account set up but I wasn't clear whether that would still be the case or not?

We use USAA as our main account now but I had kept my WaMu account because it gave my parents an easy way to give me money since it's a joint account with my mom. But I'm not really loving their website and I don't really have a good vibe from them so I don't know. I think I might just move my savings out of there and keep the account for just the money transfer purpose.

Originally Posted by d2vasquez

I have Chase too Lynette and am just getting used to it but do have an account with a credit union in case I decide to change. My account used to be held by Home Savings then Washington Mutual and now Chase. With the changes in the credit card fees, I know that Chase sent out a note saying you had to sign up for overdraft or they would no longer offer any protection if you accidently went over using your bank debit card. If you continue with the overdraft, they will only charge you up to 3 fees ($34 each) no matter how many items overdrafted unless you have monies in a savings or other account with Chase. Then is it only $10 to transfer the monies into your account. Also if you deposit monies to cover the shortage before 8:00 pm in the atm, it will be credited the same business day so you can avoid a shortage if you find out after the bank closes. I don't know if that time varies from state to state but the bank teller told me that yesterday when I was waiting in line to make a deposit. I am sure the atm in your area will have a posted time. HTH!

[Stacey42]

We have Wells Fargo/Wachovia & if you sign up for overdraft protection there are no fees. They just transfer the money from the account. It's a relief since DH has a habit of buying 'work related' things that don't get reimbursed until the paycheck after next. (which really really angers me, but when you are out of town with a company van and no company gas card & you need gas, there are few options) Each checking account has to have it's own overdraft savings account or credit card though. Used to be they could all pull from one but that changed this month, so our personal accounts lost the overdraft protection so the main account could keep it. I think there are minimum balances required though.

[Julie Billingsley]

that is a bummer! So they wouldn't reverse those fees? I bank with Wells Fargo. Anyway, one day I checked my balance online and it was seriously negative. My husband's paycheck had bounced 7 days after he had deposited it. And as if that wasn't horrible enough, that caused us to bounce 4 checks too. If they had posted the checks in smallest-to-biggest order, I would have only bounced 1 but their system posts it in biggest-to-smallest order. So I went into my branch and talked to the customer service rep and asked for 3 of the charges to be removed. The lady talked to her manager and they actually waved all 4 charges AND the returned item fee on the paycheck too. They were so incredibly sweet!!! When I said thank you, the lady told me that it was good that I had come into the branch because they have the power to override the rules based on their relationship with you.

Hope you get it settled out with the bank. It's painful to see all those fees!

and just curious, I don't listen to Dave Ramsey but do follow Financial Peace, why doesn't Dave like BOA?

[jessica31876]

Julie they did eventually reverse three of them. But the lady was so snotty about it. Like my daughter was completely irresponsible for doing it. She lectured for like 10 minutes about how she should spend time every night going through her little record book (which BTW bank of america has turned to giving little books the size of a credit card to record transactions in. They are seriously tiny!!) My daughter works and goes to school and has graduation and prom all coming up...well prom is done now. But she has alot on her plate so she obviously forgot something. It was a mistake. But the lady acted like its the worst thing in the world. It is not the first time I have encountered attitudes like that with BOA employees. Some are super nice and really caring and some are just miserable.

[lovely1m]

Originally Posted by jessica31876

I know if there really was someone using our card it is a good thing they would not have been able to but at that moment it was somewhat embarrassing to hand them the card and have it be declined.

I can't explain why yours worked if its the same account, but when your credit card is 'declined' you should always call the company right away. A lot of times its not being declined, but asking the merchant to call and verify that it is the cardholder there using it, but merchants don't often know what it means and just say, oh, its declined.

I don't use BoA, we don't have them here.

[Nettio]

Originally Posted by jessica31876

Well we go to buy the beds and find out my husbands card was frozen. We had the money but could not buy the beds. I used my card and went right through. The money came from the same account. When we called the bank they said they froze his card because of suspicious activity. When I said yes but not more then five minutes after you froze his card you allowed my card to make the same purchase? How does that make any sense? They did not have an explanation. I know if there really was someone using our card it is a good thing they would not have been able to but at that moment it was somewhat embarrassing to hand them the card and have it be declined.

Well the issue would be with the specific card, not the account itself. Even though you both have cards to the same account, the actual card numbers would be different so for whatever reason they felt his card might have been compromised (stolen) but not yours.

I totally understand the frustration though because I had my card randomly declined because the bank's system was down. I was like seriously?? Or my favorite, my DH used his card to pay for satellite internet for a whole group of people ($3000) in the first month he was in Afghanistan and the bank shut off his card because of the location. The funny part was we bank with USAA which is a military bank. You'd think they wouldn't have been so quick to mark Afghanistan as being suspicious usage.

[Paula]

Originally Posted by mturnidge

lol I was thinking the same thing. He HATES BOA! I bank with Wells Fargo and a credit union. I have never had problems with WF, but I think credit unions are the way to go.

We were with Wells Fargo for eight years before we moved here and had to change to BOA. The closest WF to us is three hours away and we felt we needed to bank with someone local. BOA was the only option.

[juliemarie]

We used Bank of America for a small amount of time. One day I went in there to withdraw $2500 because we were buying a snowmobile. The tellers didn't have access to that large amount of cash, they had to track down a supervisor who told me I should have called ahead with that request so they could be prepared. Heck, I thought I was going to a bank, where I thought they keep money lol

[jessica31876]

LOL Julie...yea youd think that would not be a problem.

I went into a Sunbank with a check for 4500 dollars. I did not want to deposit it in BOA because they hold checks. Well it was not an issue with Sunbank. I am pretty sure Sunbank is also a local bank...like maybe just in Florida.

[d2vasquez]

Lynette the way I read it - Chase will use monies in your savings account first and charge the $10.00 but if you don't have that then they charge the higher fee I described. It is in the FAQs in their website if you want to see it.

[mummytothree]

Darla and Lynette.....we've been with Chase for almost 8 years (well at first it was Bank One and Chase bought them out after like 2 years) and we love love love them!!! I've never had one problem with them!!! Always exceptional customer service!!!!

[Balinda]

Our mortgage got sold to BOA last summer...a nightmare...and still is actually...
the BOA I spoke to in the beginning of our mortgage sale told us that BOA bought
out Country Wide. Like that is supposed to make me feel better.

Sorry to hear all her troubles but now she knows how they really are and will be more careful. I would be looking for another bank though. We use Capital One and have had no issues with them at all.

[kaylaugh]

I'm another Chase customer via buyout. I was with Bank United, it was bought by Washing Mutual, and now it's Chase. Funny thing is I went in to a Chase branch to open my business account and they turned me down. So I did it at WaMu...a month later it was a Chase account anyway...lol!

The local credit union here does everything in real time. I actually prefer the nearly real-time setup at Chase because if I log in and see an oopsie in time I can transfer money to cover the problem and never get a fee. Between DH's spending and forgetting to tell me (or ask if he has enough) and then my MS-brain-memory issues, we run into shortfalls more than I like. But it's not the end of the world...it's a PITA and sometimes a serious drain on the grocery budget but you survive and move on. The first time I ever bounced a check I was sure they would throw me in jail...lol!

Kristi

[nonnie]

We use USAA mostly but we got nervous because we move so much and wanted a "local" bank that is EVERYWHERE where we could go in to a lobby for an emergency - and believe me there are only a few - Bank of America is in a few overseas locations - so we went with a savings account with them - THEY ARE THE WORST!!!!!!!! I HATE THEM!!! They fee you to DEATH - I keep saying every month how I need to change We LOVE USAA - they are the BEST bank every and I never thought I would say that about a bank - We move to Italy in Feb and I think I will change to whatever bank is on base and be done with them finally!!!!!

I HIGHLY recommend moving your daughter to another bank!

[NeverendingJen]

Nonnie- BoA was at most of the bases in Italy, was one of the few...it was that or NavyFed, which was even worse for us than any bank we've been with.

[my2monkeys]

Originally Posted by Stacey42

But they call almost daily wanting me to open a checking account or get a credit card or refinance or get a home equity loan. Only they insist on speaking to DH, who is never home even though my name is also on the account. Apparently only HE can request they stop calling me, but then they won't call if there is a problem with the mortgage & do I want to risk that? (they say that, personally I don't give a rap, the mortgage has been on autopay for 6 years & I've never had a call in 13 years of home ownership about it)

I had the same problem with them calling daily wanting us to sign up for this or that... but they only wanted to speak to DH (who was deployed at the time)... I finally got them to stop by threating to turn them in for harassment.

We also got really tired of the constant notices that their system may have been breached... and our information stolen. We even had the Military Account, but we closed it after several ongoing problems... over a year after the account was closed we get an e-mail stating either we reply to this e-mail or they would close our account... turns out our information had been stolen and someone was phishing for the account information and passwords.

[my2monkeys]

Originally Posted by nonnie

They (BoA) fee you to DEATH - I keep saying every month how I need to change We LOVE USAA - they are the BEST bank every and I never thought I would say that about a bank - We move to Italy in Feb and I think I will change to whatever bank is on base and be done with them finally!!!!!

We also have USAA... and love them. It was a bit an adjustment with how few branches they have... and uploading your own checks... but we haven't had a single problem with them... and have recommended them to several of our friends who ask about it.

[ColleenSwerb]

I've been with BOA for 5 years now without any problems. We briefly had our mortgage with them, but then we streamlined and now we're back with Wells Fargo.
I've had nothing but good customer service both on the phone, and in person, with BOA. ::shrugs::

[Nettio]

Originally Posted by nonnie

We use USAA mostly but we got nervous because we move so much and wanted a "local" bank that is EVERYWHERE where we could go in to a lobby for an emergency - and believe me there are only a few - Bank of America is in a few overseas locations - so we went with a savings account with them - THEY ARE THE WORST!!!!!!!! I HATE THEM!!! They fee you to DEATH - I keep saying every month how I need to change We LOVE USAA - they are the BEST bank every and I never thought I would say that about a bank - We move to Italy in Feb and I think I will change to whatever bank is on base and be done with them finally!!!!!

I HIGHLY recommend moving your daughter to another bank!

You might not like this then because the overseas banks on the bases are Community Bank which is technically run by Bank of America. But you can't actually do BOA business at a Community Bank so there's probably no real reason for you to keep that account. I'm pretty sure Community Bank is only overseas use anyway so you wouldn't be able to keep that account once you moved back to the US.

We only had USAA when we lived in Korea and we never had any problems. The main thing we needed to be able to do was get foreign currency and you could do that directly from the ATM. But then in the 5 years we've had USAA, I don't think I've ever run into a situation that needed a teller.