Bank Of America Ripoff, deals with vendors on who gets paid first. Glendale Arizona

I do not understand your problem. Are you being ripped off or are you just not adhering to the rules set by your bank? Why should you care about the order in which checks are cashed in your account?

First, you should not write checks unless you have the money in your account to cover them. That is illegal. Second, the order in which checks are cashed, although it may appear to be a ripoff when you get multiple insufficient funds fees, is actually designed to make sure that large, important purchases are covered, like mortgages. If these purchases were denied, people could be subject to bounced check fees, up to triple the amount from the person they sent the check to.

Third, before you all gang up on me, I do not work in the banking industry. I am merely a consumer. I inherited a BofA account. Although they are not my favorite bank, I prefer a credit union, they have not caused me any problems. I usually keep at least a few extra hundred dollars in my account to make sure I never run into unexpected withdrawal problems. I also keep my checkbook balanced.

I have read a very large number of reports about NSF fees from banks, all banks. Most, but not all of the reports come down to the fact that people did not have enough money in their accounts to cover their checks. There would be far fewer reports if people would take responsibility for their actions and not blame the bank everytime they are overdrawn. The bank has no responsiblity to loan you money. Maybe if you read this report, the future would bring us only reports from people who were ripped off by banks and it was NOT their fault.

This is not about checks.

This is about the order in which deposits and debits are paid or posted. BOA is not playing above board. $33 overdraft fee is fair, when it legitimately happens. But when a bank holds something or pushes something else ahead in order to further capitalize on the situation, it appears to be unethical. The $33 overdraft turns into several hundred dollars and there is no way to track what actually presented and when.
At any rate, I'm out of there and researching legal options.

A check is a debit to your account.

Here's a solution for you. Don't generate debits (checks, atm withdrawals, POS transactions) to your account UNLESS you ALREADY have the money in your checking account to cover these debits.

When you spend money you ALREADY have in your account, it won't matter which debits or checks are processed first. ALL debits will be covered.

If you feel compelled to generate debits (write checks, use your debit card) to your account even though you don't have the money in your account to cover these transactions, then I suggest you get overdraft protection on your account by linking your savings account or a line of credit to your checking account.

Problem solved.

Knock on wood, I havent bounced a check for a long time....

I understand where Beth is coming from. When our favorite government changed the banking laws (Check Clearing for the 21st Century Act) it set up a lot of people to fail. The law has allowed banks to clear checks quicker... usually within 24 hours of being presented to a bank. What the law did not do was change the deposit part of the transactions. Deposits can still be held, sometimes for up to 10 business days, before the bank is required to credit your account.

Say that on Friday I deposit my pay check. Saturday I go grocery shopping, pay bills, pay the rent...whatever. There is still a good chance that the bank has not credited my account with the deposit before the checks hit the bank. Bang... late fee....With a good number of people in the country living from pay day to pay day, even the most meticulous person is going to have problems.

I do not agree with Beth when she says that $33 for a late fee is fair. After your check is orginally entered into the system it is destroyed. From this point on, everything is done by computers. If there is not enough money in your account, the COMPUTER automatically adds the late fee, the COMPUTER automatically generates the letter (including any signatures). These letters are automatically stuffed into envelopes and are automatically mailed (usually at a discount rate).

There is no way that anyone can tell me that the fee is justified by the cost to "reprocess" the check. NSF fees, overdraft fees, overlimit fees are a money making scam by the banks. They are grossly excessive.

You don't get it, and that's o.k.

Anyone getting fees from the bank isn't "getting it". I am a WAMU ex-employee that worked with customers in the corporate office on issues like this. "well you shouldn't spend what you don't have... blah, blah, blah." That "blah, blah, blah." is costing you money. You need to be concerned with that "blah, blah, blah." Do banks make mistakes? ABSOLUTELY! I saw it happen, and not just once or twice over the years. Bank mistakes, however, do not involve "holding of deposits", or "order of processed items". Mistakes involve transactions processed twice, deposits to the incorrect account, etc. I hope I am not comming off as abrasive to you Beth, but like you already discovered, YOU are playing the BANKS game. They set the rules. Do not disregard these rules as "blah". And do not go to another bank to spend funds that aren't there (or cleared) without expecting penalty either. I know I sound like another bank employee spoon feeding you bank B.S., but I haven't paid an overdraft fee, or NSF fee in over five years with a very active account. I must be doing something right, and there isn't some banking secret that I picked up while working behind the curtain. Please take my advice as a friend, not as an ex-automated excuse machine for the bank. Space your deposits, and the withdrawals coming in against those deposits as far apart as possible. You can't argue that if you had an appropriate cushion in the account, that this OD situation never would have taken place. Good luck to you, I hope that you never pay another penny in banking fees (we have better places to spend this exorbitant amount of money) :)
If you feel that I am missing something specific to your situation, then please respond with these details. If you feel that I am trying to sound condescending with my response, then I apologize in advance.

All the best.

Beth, I agree with you. Bottom line - sure, you (and I and many others who cannot afford to wait the 5-10 business days for deposits to clear) sometimes run into NSF problems. For our "irresponsibility" the bank has the right to make 33 bones off us, sometimes up to 5 times a day (and as you said, conveniently, more times the next day by presenting things according to their aims).

But whether or not I am being responsible, Bank of America should not be allowed to go into my account and reorder my debits in order to maximize the amount of fees they can collect. It's irresponsible to bounce one check. But it must be criminal to reorder debits that have already been posted in order to maximize fees. My recommendations to all of you - keep posting these things, call your banking commision, and move your funds from that bank.

All banks collect NSF fees, but not all banks are criminal vultures.