I opened a business checking account at Bank of America. I was told there was no charge for ATM transactions. I asked if there was a catch and they said "No" and were incredibly courteous.
It was a new account so they put a hold on my customer's checks that I deposited and told me it would take roughly 10 days or so to clear, which I assumed was standard.
One of the checks I deposited bounced and I was charged a fee which was deducted from my account unknowingly.
Soon after, I moved my business leaving approximately $1.00 in it just to keep it open during the transition.
Three days later I checked my balance to see if other checks had cleared. My ATM balance read over $200, leading me to assume some had.
Apparently I was wrong and it was a computer error.
What I was not told is that there is a $1.50 fee just to check my balance, This put me in the red for which I was assessed a $33 overdraft charge. The $25 of the phantom $200 put me further into the red. This caused a second overdraft charge of $66. A few weeks later I recieved a letter in the mail stating that my checking account was overdrawn and that I owed money. Believing this to be impossible, I went to an ATM to check my balance, and found that I was in the red.
If those charges weren't bad enough, the $1.50 "balance checking fee" caused another overdraft and more outrageous penalties.
Obviously I was upset. I called the bank and was refered to their "wonderful" customer service department where not only did they not explain or rectify the situation, they threatened to report me to ChexSystems if I did not pay promptly.
Well within a week or so I paid up and promptly closed my account at the end of July.
I moved back to Wisconsin. There I attempted to reopen a bank account with my old credit union and was Promptly rejected.
The bastards reported me to Chexsystems anyways and it took three days worth of phone calls to Bank of America to get them to agree to ask that I be removed from Chexsystems. This removal took 10 days during which I could not recieve a paycheck (direct deposit only) or get accepted for a credit card to buy food.
Needless to say, I, nor anyone else I know, will ever do bussiness with Bank of America again.
Graham
Green Bay, Wisconsin
U.S.A.