Bank Of America Overdraft fees charged on items that cleared bank (charged due to pending transactions) Charlotte North Carolina

This is legal the bank changed from doing soft holds to hard holds which means as soon as a authorization comes in on your account this is considered paid, the only way to get the fees refunded to you is if the authorization drops off your account, and then the fees are automatically refunded, of course this is a way for banks to increase in profit but if you have the money in your account then you would not be a so called victim of this. They even have it at the atm machine if you do a withdrawal and have nsf it tells you that you will be charged a overdraft fee and if you agree to continue and then try to have the fee refunded you will be told no, because you agreed to it. so bottom line just make sure you have the money in your account.

I only use my bank to pay bills, for daily transactions I use cash or pre-paid debit cards for this very reason, I used to live paycheck to paycheck, and sometimes I would make a mistake and my debit card would allow me to overdraft the account.

They set it up that way for a reason, they WANT all of you to easily overdraft your account, thats because they WANT your money. Dont mistake it, they are out to PROFIT off the consumer. PROFIT is more important to them than customer service. They really do not give a flying rats a*s about the consumer especially if you are a paycheck to paycheck sort of person and not a high roller.

One comment to one of the posters here, Allison- If you got charged multiple times for the same transaction those can be reversed, they will reverse fees for anything under $2.00.

The problem is, if you are running on the edge of empty in your bank account, you can get victimized by this. Just be smart, either be really meticulous with record keeping or seperate your spending from your bank. They are absolutely rude and nasty if you argue with them about their policies. They could care less if they took your gas and food money for the week over a $10 mistake.

There is no doubt that they are out to profit off this, and they are are making massive profits!! The problem is the ones falling victim to this are the ones who can least afford it.

If everyone does what I do, overdrafts would be all but elimated, and let the CEO's cry about their reduced bottom line.

There does need to be some federal control here, we need to have a bank that is fair and just, don't punish minor mistakes with huge fees, make the punishment fit the crime, not the companys budget.

It does suck that they take all of our power away from us, and treat us like cattle. So I say treat them the same and remove their ability to fee you!!

Ken of Massachusetts explained it perfectly when Ken said:

'What is confusing you is that a transaction can run through a 'debit channel' (PIN-based) or a 'credit channel' (signature based). Running a transaction witha signature does not make it a credit card transaction, it is merely the electronic route it will take to get to your bank.

In either case, the transaction legally occurs when you swipe the card. If you don't have the funds in your account at that millisecond, you are overdrawn.'

The problem here is Bank of America customers WERE ABLE to do this in the past, with the 'credit channel' (signature based) transactions. In the past at BofA when you used your card as a 'debit card' (PIN-based) and you overdrew your Available Balance, you were charged an overdraft fee because these 'debit card' type purchases were considered to POST IMMEDIATELY to the ledger. So in effect, you overdrew your Posted Balance, thus BofA charged you a fee since they charged fees based on the Posted Balance.

On the other hand, in the past, if you used your card as a 'credit card' (signature based), and you overdrew your Available Balance, BofA DID NOT charge you a fee for these transactions because they had not yet overdrawn the Posted Balance. And because of the two or three day float waiting for Merchants to send in the batch, you could BEAT these transactions to the bank with a deposit. So when these 'credit card' type transactions finally posted, you would not be charged a fee for them since the Posted Balance was never overdrawn, even though the Available Balance was overdrawn. BofA FORMERLY charged fees based on the Posted Balance.

Well, it appears that Bank of America has closed this loophole with their recent policy change in March of 2008. It now appears that no matter how you use your card, the minute you overdraw your Available Balance you will be charged a fee no matter if you use the card as a 'debit card' (PIN-based) or as a 'credit card' (signature based). It now appears that BofA charges OD fees based on the Available Balance, not the Posted Balance. Given their past history, I was actually SURPRISED the Bandits of America sat back and allowed this loophole to exist for so long.

But ultimately the ownership of the problem lies with you. I got myself into trouble with Compass several years ago about the same situation, except I made a big mistake in my accounting and actually thought the money was there. Either way, same end result. I have found a bank that does not normally charge you an overdraft fee until the charge actually postst though, TCF Bank. As long as the transaction is merely pending and not psoted then I have never been charged. I'm not sure how long they will continue this but as if right now thats howo it is. I wouldn't depend on this, but at least its a little bit of a safety net if you make a mistake.

But ultimately the ownership of the problem lies with you. I got myself into trouble with Compass several years ago about the same situation, except I made a big mistake in my accounting and actually thought the money was there. Either way, same end result. I have found a bank that does not normally charge you an overdraft fee until the charge actually postst though, TCF Bank. As long as the transaction is merely pending and not psoted then I have never been charged. I'm not sure how long they will continue this but as if right now thats howo it is. I wouldn't depend on this, but at least its a little bit of a safety net if you make a mistake.

But ultimately the ownership of the problem lies with you. I got myself into trouble with Compass several years ago about the same situation, except I made a big mistake in my accounting and actually thought the money was there. Either way, same end result. I have found a bank that does not normally charge you an overdraft fee until the charge actually postst though, TCF Bank. As long as the transaction is merely pending and not psoted then I have never been charged. I'm not sure how long they will continue this but as if right now thats howo it is. I wouldn't depend on this, but at least its a little bit of a safety net if you make a mistake.

But ultimately the ownership of the problem lies with you. I got myself into trouble with Compass several years ago about the same situation, except I made a big mistake in my accounting and actually thought the money was there. Either way, same end result. I have found a bank that does not normally charge you an overdraft fee until the charge actually postst though, TCF Bank. As long as the transaction is merely pending and not psoted then I have never been charged. I'm not sure how long they will continue this but as if right now thats howo it is. I wouldn't depend on this, but at least its a little bit of a safety net if you make a mistake.

"I used my Bank of America check card as a credit card". No you didn't. A debit card only LOOKS like a credit card, it is not one, nor can it be used like one.

What is confusing you is that a transaction can run through a 'debit channel' (PIN-based) or a 'credit channel' (signature based). Running a transaction witha signature does not make it a credit card transaction, it is merely the electronic route it will take to get to your bank.

In either case, the transaction legally occurs when you swipe the card. If you don't have the funds in your account at that millisecond, you are overdrawn. You cannot assume you will beat it to the bank... you won't. The only way you can possibly do this is to write out a check, and as more and more merchants sign on to Check21, this becomes riskier.

One final note: don't assume that the transaction will reject because you don't have available funds, because it won't. No more than you could expect someone to tap you on the shoulder and stop you if you attempted to write a check that you can't cover.

Technology makes some things easier, but it also makes it more important than ever that you manage your own accounts and don't depend on your bank to do it for you.

I just want you to know Pamela, I am a 22 year old with a 1 year old and a husband. WE live paycheck to paycheck. We do get direct deposit. And when my husbands job didn't have the funds but the deposit still went through and SHOWED on the website (I use chase bank) same thing happened to us. So far there has been 1200$ in fees. Funny thing is, we waited until all the fees stopped and emptied the account. Nothing else was pending, a women from the bank confirmed this.

Three days later I checked the account, we are now $ - 450 .NEGATIVE!! I have no money to feed myself nor my child. Somehow, they kept trying to put the same item through 20 times. So my .90 cent paypal fee costed me 35.90 over 11 times. We have lost over a thousand dollars. All of the purchases come to about 30 dollars.

Then it was a day after your transactions.

I agree that the fees suck but you did overdraft your account. In the future, do not authorize transactions until the money is hard posted to your account. It's not the bank's responsibility to make sure that you don't go negative.

It doesn't matter that the charges did not hard post to your account, you still spent the money on the 8th. Your direct deposit went in on the 9th. The minute the bank guaranteed the funds to the merchant (which is when you swipe your card), they are allowed to assess fees. The question is, did you have the money at the time you made the charge? Not did you have the money at the time the merchant sent in the slip.

It also doesn't matter if you keep a register or not. You knew you swiped your card before your direct deposit went in. Remember, just because your direct deposit was going in at midnight, that doesn't mean the money is going in that night. It means the direct deposit is going in the next morning.

...before your direct deposit. You did not have the money in your account. This is not the bank's fault. If you are keeping a register then you would have known that you did not have the money. This is not a ripoff.

Your transactions began preceeding your direct deposit, so since technically your balance is in the red you will get popped NSF fees. The float we use get before the computer age has vanished. This is not only done at BofA; but many banks do this. These fees are meant to be punitive. Next time you need to wait until the Direct Deposit is posted before writing checks or going to the ATM, which is exactly what I do. One more day of waiting does not hurt. Courts will not be sympathetic to you because the bank really had done nothing wrong. Read your agreement again and notice how they can decide how they want to take action to generate banking fees.

When you purchase or debit your card the transactions are electronically noted instantly with the date ,time ,and place of purchase .

As a card holder , you have a duty to balance your account/budget .

In each account monthly statement BOA send a budget worksheet .

I will agree if the funds are not in your account to cover the transaction , it/they should be denied .

I will agree the way it's set up an account holder can make 3 or 4 transactions , then they charge you fees .

Having said that , BOA will usually waive the first fee if it's your first ever insufficient funds fee .