Bank Of America Active Duty Military Stay Away and First Sergenats and Commanders PLEASE READ Dyess Air Force Base Texas

My company uses Bank of America for payroll. And many times, our employees who have their accounts with BoA get their direct deposits the day BEFORE payday.

Banks make mistakes! How much trouble(ie. money) your bank will cause you depends on what their bottom line is. I joined the reserves in 1990 right before Dessert Storm. While in Tech school my unit activated. The accidently placed me on the deployment sheet and when I didn't show up they stopped my pay. Fortunately, I belonged to Scott Credit Union. They where a members only credit union for military and people working at Scott AFB. The Air Force deposited my pay check into my account and then pulled it 24hs later. Apparently with direct deposit the military can put money in and take it back out of your account. The credit union realized what had happened and moved heaven and earth to find me. When they could get in touch with me(I never thought to tell my bank I was going to basic!) They located my parents through my co-signed car loan to try a locate me. SCU waived all penalties with them and cleared everything up with the 2 places that I had written checks in that 24 hour period.

I have seen this happen to way too many active duty members. I worked for Bank of America for quite a few years and every payday they would come in wanting to know why their checks had not posted. It did take at times anywhere from 2-4 days for those checks to post. It was heartbreaking to see some of these people have to pay hundreds of dollars in NSF fees because BofA had no released the money. It never made sense to me because I am also a military spouse and I know that when DFAS releases the money it is good and therefor there should be no reason the "hold" a deposit..

Edward,

When you "schedule" an online bill payment, you are not actually making the transaction at that point. The transaction is made when the bank sends your scheduled payment.

Now, if you scheduled the payment to be sent prior to the deposit to cover it, it would be the same as writing a bad check or using your debit card.

And, technically, writing that check to mail prior to the funds actually being in your account and available, IS WRITING A BAD CHECK.

That is the point you are missing here.

The OP is full of crap saying a military direct deposit of his payroll took 4 days! I served 10+ years in multiple branches with multiple banks and have never seen that one. He is a liar. I will say it because I know better.

He is the standard check floater and is also the guy who cannot seem to figure out how to keep an accurate checkbook register.

FEDERAL LAW dictates that your payroll direct deposit MUST be posted prior to close of business on your paydate. Most states have similar labor laws as well regarding paydates. The bank knows this, and they follow the law. If they were not following the law, the feds would be closing them down.

Just common sense here.

Please don't go even go there with writing a check before you have the funds to cover it and 'breaking the law'. I don't think you want to open up that can of worms. I guess EVERYONE who uses automatic bill pay is breaking the law also and the banks are guitly as accomplices since they allow and encourage it. When you setup automatic bill pay, you have broken the law because you have created a transaction for which you don't have the funds to cover AT THAT POINT, right? That's the reason their SCHEDULED for a future date, like on or after your payday. Duh!

My point is, if you know full well that you can write a check on Thursday and US Mail it to a Merchant clear across the country, and your payday is the very next day, Friday. Now what are the odds the check will make it clear across the country to the Merchant, be processed by them, be cashed by them at their bank and then returned for payment from your bank, ALL within 24 hours and before bank business day cutoff, and beating your deposit the next day on Friday? Wow, now that indeed is one HOT CHECK!

Remember in this OP, the Walmart check bounced 3 days AFTER payday. With Walmart scanning and electronically converting checks these days and with Check 21, if the checked bounced 3 days after payday, then I'm FAIRLY CERTAIN the check was NOT written at Walmart before Payday. Otherwise both Walmart and Check 21 are not very efficient. With Check 21, on average it usually takes no more than TWO DAYS for that check to be presented. Now do your own math and calculate when the check was most likely written? Either the DAY OF or DAY AFTER payday. No law broken at all. Which brings me and the OP back to the original question, still. What's the hold up with the Deposit?

Excellent points from you JG regarding the possible differnce in action taken by the different banks. But still, how can the two different banks be SO FAR part with the date from the same employer using the same Direct Deposit procedures. This is highly unusual.

Edward,

If you write a check before your deposit is posted AND available, you have broken the law, and violated your agreement with the bank.

It really is that simple.

If you waited until your money was posted and available BEFORE wriring those 2 checks you mentioned, there would have been no problem.

Therefore, you "floated" a check.
In violation of the law.
You wrote a bad check.
Two of them.

Also, the Fed Reserve check deposit hold guidelines are very clear that funds from checks drawn by the US Government are to be available next business day. And Steve is correct - same regulation says electronic payments are next business day as well.

Regulation CC. If BofA was holding direct deposits, then the OP probably has a claim against them where he can recoup his fees.

But another item it what is the actual payday? The DoD may send the direct deposit several days in advance; the credit union may have "seen" the transaction sitting at the clearinghouse for a few days in the future, and went ahead and credited the OP's account, while BofA could see it, but play the "not available" game....

I'm sure you know me better than that. Trust me. I actually do try to read very carefully before 'jumping someone', even though I wouldn't word it like that. That's not my style to 'jump someone'. It only detracts from the true issues. At any rate I stand corrected regarding your BofA years of service. No problem.

But as I also stated, which you have confirmed, I doubted the legality of banks being able to hold Direct Deposits. But I will be the first to admit I'm no expert on this. I cannot say with 100% certainty that this CAN NOT be, or IS NOT done. I don't know if there is some sort of loophole somewhere that the banks are dancing around. But the OP laid out clear, concise facts. I'm not one to call the OP a liar. And given their track record, I can certainly see how the Bandits of America would try and pull something like this and be able to justify it and get away with it. When the smoke clears, it may not be concluded that BofA held the Direct Deposit but instead they pulled some other underhanded trick that, in effect, accomplished the same result.

You ask me to think about it and I have. Ignoring check floating for a moment, how do you explain a Walmart check bouncing 3 DAYS AFTER payday and the Direct Deposit? There's no check float there. The same is true for the USAA auto insurance. These did not bounce the day BEFORE payday or the day OF payday. They all bounced days AFTER payday because the Direct Deposit wasn't there yet. So why wasn't the Direct Deposit there, if it wasn't held, since legally it can't be held? That is the question.

Edward,

I suggest that you read what was actually written before jumping someone.

If you were paying attention, you would have seen that I had 14 years with BofA, NOT 30 as you stated. I have made this clear on multiple posts.

Although I did state in more than one post that I have had checking accounts for 30 years with no problems. Which means that when I was 14 I had a checking account, and even at 14 did not bounce checks!

I, too was in the military for 10 years and had direct deposit for most of them, and never had a problem with my military pay direct deposit posting, even with Bank of America.

Legally, a financial institution must make your direct deposit funds available to you prior to the end of the business day posting cutoff of your payday. This means your direct deposit may not be available until late afternoon, if the bank chooses to.

The problem is that people like the OP make anticipation of deposit transactions, which cause the NSF fees. Under existing laws, and bank policy, funds must be available for use at the time the transaction is made. If a person makes a transaction prior to the funds being posted and available, they have created an NSF fee situation for themselves.

Just common sense here.

And, the OP is obviously engaging in a blatant lie saying that BofA is posting his military direct deposit 2-4 days after his paydate. That is absolute nonsense! It simply did not happen.

This person is simply floating transactions in anticipation of his direct deposit, which he found out is a very bad practice.

Think about it, if that is really the practice of BofA, why did I not experience the same thing with my direct deposited military pay to my BofA account??

>>>
Submitted: 8/25/2008 8:56:39 AM
Modified: 8/25/2008 10:13:00 AM Edward
Dallas, Texas
U.S.A.

What is the KEY Difference Here?
The customer is the same. The employer is the same. The payroll and direct deposit procedures. All of these factors are the same. Yet somehow you go from a customer with NEVER any NSF issues until that customer does what? You change banks. Hey Steve, you have over 30 years with BofA with no issues. Well you're only 10 years up on John who has over 20 years with SSFCU with no NSF problems either. Why is that? As I borrow your question from your post.

Though I've heard about it from time time, I've never experienced it and find it utterly hard to believe that ANY bank would hold direct deposits. Think about why deposits are normally held. Check deposits are normally held to ensure the check clears. You mean to tell me that when a Direct Deposit is wired directly from an employer, a bank still needs to HOLD that Direct Deposit to ensure it won't bounce? And then in this OP, you not only have a Direct Deposit from just any employer but a Direct Deposit from Uncle Sam and yet BofA still sees the need to HOLD a Direct Deposit from Uncle Sam?

Steve raised the question of financial irresponsiblity. What kind of message does that send from BofA who doesn't even trust Direct Deposit checks from our own US government? Apparently it's not the customer who's financially irresponsible, but instead it's the US Government that's financially irresponsible , so much so, that BofA feels compelled to HOLD it's payroll deposit checks? Once you see past this oviously flawed logic, then you can see clearly through to the obvious ripoff here.

The ripoff that never existed with SSFCU in over 20 years but managed to wreak havoc in only 2 months at BofA. Smart move, getting out before the Bandits of America stole everything from you.



>>>

The customer is the same. The employer is the same. The payroll and direct deposit procedures. All of these factors are the same. Yet somehow you go from a customer with NEVER any NSF issues until that customer does what? You change banks. Hey Steve, you have over 30 years with BofA with no issues. Well you're only 10 years up on John who has over 20 years with SSFCU with no NSF problems either. Why is that? As I borrow your question from your post.

Though I've heard about it from time time, I've never experienced it and find it utterly hard to believe that ANY bank would hold direct deposits. Think about why deposits are normally held. Check deposits are normally held to ensure the check clears. You mean to tell me that when a Direct Deposit is wired directly from an employer, a bank still needs to HOLD that Direct Deposit to ensure it won't bounce? And then in this OP, you not only have a Direct Deposit from just any employer but a Direct Deposit from Uncle Sam and yet BofA still sees the need to HOLD a Direct Deposit from Uncle Sam?

Steve raised the question of financial irresponsiblity. What kind of message does that send from BofA who doesn't even trust Direct Deposit checks from our own US government? Apparently it's not the customer who's financially irresponsible, but instead it's the US Government that's financially irresponsible , so much so, that BofA feels compelled to HOLD it's payroll deposit checks? Once you see past this oviously flawed logic, then you can see clearly through to the obvious ripoff here.

The ripoff that never existed with SSFCU in over 20 years but managed to wreak havoc in only 2 months at BofA. Smart move, getting out before the Bandits of America stole everything from you.

And, I forgot to mention that even if I wrote a check on payday or even the day before payday, I HAD A $2000 SIGNATURE OVERDRAFT PROTECTION LOAN. BOA MILKED that dry by delaying my paycheck deposits and using that overdraft to pay for my day or two after payday scheduled automatic car/property insurance (about $200) and $250 mutual fund auto payment and $75 each pay period emergency savings account automatic payment. I NEVER looked on line at my BOA statement to see if these auto payments cleared because THEY were all scheduled the DAY AFTER PAYDAY and they should have cleared and SSFCU never had a problem with the exact set up withdrawl system. Because I didn't check that BOA screwed me, BOA easily racked up that $2000 over a 2 or 3 pay day period. Bank of America ADMITTED TO ME they had PERMISSION TO DELAY THE DEPOSIT OF MILITARY PAYCHECKS from depositing on payday. They TOLD ME that "although I could NOT SEE my paycheck deposit on payday, it was really there and that any checks that presented would be paid." What BOA was really doing is keeping hundreds of military paychecks in a nice big account collecting interest for themselves while they racked up INF fees from the military members. Military people cannot balance a bank account that has imaginary deposits!!!

I also have several bank accounts and I most certainly know how to balance a checking account! However, if my military paycheck was NEVER deposited into my BOA checking account on time but was always deposited as a moving target between 2-5 days late, then that makes it IMPOSSIBLE to balance. I could have kept a ton of money in my BOA checking account earning next to nothing in interest to keep from bouncing a check until BOA "got around" to depositing my military paychecks but I refused to do this because I have money markets, CD and mutual funds for that extra money. You are correct in saying I wrote checks in the commissary (GASP) ON PAYDAY (not before) without looking at my on-line BOA account because I (GASP) thought my paycheck would be deposited ON PAYDAY along with the hundreds of others crowded into the commissary on payday. I am EXTREMELY frugal with money and paid off my home in 10 years and pay cash for a used 2 or 3 year old Toyota or Honda every 20+ years when it is on its last leg and max out my IRA's each year. I know how to handle money and I know BOA ripped me off.

Funny how I didn't have a bounced check problem for 20 years with SSFCU but had a HUGE bounced check problem for 2 months in 2001 (4 pay periods) with BOA. Funny also how this mysterious bounced check problem ENDED when my military paychecks were deposited back into SSFCU and this is 2008 and still no bounced check problems and I live on a reduced retirement income! I also never bounced checks at my banks in AK or MS.

You have a LOT of gall to be accusing me of not being disciplined enough to balance my checking account WHEN BOA NEVER DEPOSITED MY PAYCHECKS INTO IT on PAYDAY until days after when you could not even discipline yourself to stay in the military.

First Sergeants and Commanders, GET YOUR AIRMAN, SOLDIER, MARINE or GUARDSMAN AWAY FROM BOA if he/she is having bounced check problems. Send them to SSFCU or USAA or some other bank.

John,

I too was in the military [twice] and dealt with Bank of America during both periods.
I never had a problem.

You simply never learned how to properly manage your account, and that is the root of your problem. This has nothing to do with Bank of America, or any other bank. It is YOUR irresponsibility.

You obviously got used to "floating" checks at the BX before your pay actually hit and was available for use. And, I bet you never kept an accurate checkbook register.

I have had multiple checking accounts in multiple states and 14+ years of that was with BofA. I have had these checking accounts over the past 30 years and I have never paid even 1 NSF fee.

Why is that?