Bank Of America Stealing from debit, checking in a VARIETY of ways Oakland California

I have had it with Bank of America's bussiness practices. They have removed over $300 from my checking acount for the last time!!!

This particular charge was removed from my checking account as soon as I made a semi-large deposit last week. Of course I wasn't notified until I checked my own balance. It sprouted from a credit to my account that was supposed to replace a debit card theft.

4 months ago someone stole my card number, made a fake card, and ran up close to $300.00 in charges. The Bank took my report and, as promised, returned the amount in question to my account. Now it seems, they have decided to remove it again, 3 months after I got the money back. Quite convenient since I just made that deposit, and my account was empty before this deposit. Of course the hold time on the phone as of now is 18 minutes so I have yet to correspond with them on this issue.

Around the same time that someone had stolen the card, I had another report going through the Bank of America Beaurocracy. This one involved a check that just plain disappeared. I deposited a $240 unemployment check with $100 cash from Birthday money. The amount went into my account and was made available immediately because I cashed the check first and deposited it AS CASH (this way you can avoid the hold they put on checks on smaller amounts ).

A couple of days later the money was removed from my account without notification of any sort (as is typical). Under the impression that the money was in my account, A few days later I threw out the reciept and went on to purchase some groceries and run some errands. Little did I know that the money had already been removed and I was overdrafting the whole time. Another $200.00 in overdrafts, in addition to the $240 that disappeared.

It seems that the check had never, in fact, been "cashed" and when I deposited it as cash they only found the $100 Birthday money in cash. No check. The one I gave them did not exist. 4 months of constantly calling them and waiting on hold for hours, constant delays and many promised yet never recieved call backs got me an investigation, an explanation that the teller was suspected, and finnally, NO return of money. I was told I had to physically go to the bank in question and speak with the manager if I still wanted to persue it. 4 months to be told to go to the branch???

After speaking with the manager (who is actually very friendly) another in-bank investigation was performed and my money was FINNALLY returned to my account without any explanation. I still had to pay the overdrafts, so they pretty much got the check anyway!


Over the years, I have paid probably over a thousand dollars in over-drafts to this bank. Although some were, in fact, my fault, there were many others I had absolutely no control over. Their habit of NOT notifying me that they remove money (sometimes hundreds of dollars) from my account and then charging me overdrafts when I think I am spending it, has cost me many a months' rent. These were only 2 instances I have dealt with, but there have been MANY smaller ones thoroughout my time with this bank. I don't use checks often so I don't keep a check book, I rely on my most recent inquiry to keep tabs on my balance. I'm not going to check it 10 times a week and they know that.

I am an art student at a private school and at the moment I am surviving on only student loan disbursments that I recieve every 3-4 months. The checks are barely enough to cover my rent and some bills and even though they are in large amounts when I get them they need to last over extended periods of time. It seems each time I make a deposit another new charge is removed from my checking account without my notification, usually a couple hundred dollars for one thing or another.

Their policy of ALWAYS holding my checks for a week makes things esspecially difficult, because when I do get those checks I'm usually in dire need of the money. When I'm in the bank they tell me if I want my checks cashed right then and there that I have to go to a check cashing place (who would probalbly charge me a lot for such a big check!)

Whats funny is that these problems have really amped up recently, since the economy started really taking a dive... the amounts have increased substantially. I wonder if the bank is doing this to a lot of it's customers to save money, and, just like me, there isn't much you can do about it except file a report with the bank and go through MONTHS of hassle to maybe possibly get it back.

Meow
emeryville, California
U.S.A.

Click here to read other Rip Off Reports on Bank of America