Bank Of America ripoff, insufficient funds fees, account fees, refusal to provide current terms and conditions San Leandro California

Recently I had a charge on my account that I did not authorize. This debit caused an insufficient funds charge. Bank of America seems to manipulate the way they handle funds in order to charge unreasonable fees. They have also declined my requests for a written disclosure of the terms and conditions that apply to my account.

I was shocked when I received a notice of insufficient funds from Bank of America. They claimed that there were two electronic debits to my account for a single transaction. The charges were for a purchase that involved foreign currency. It seems they consider a foreign currency conversion to be a separate transaction. The amount of the debit for that adjustment for currency value was $0.24. I was charged $32 for each item, a total of $64.

Despite the fact that I had made a cash deposit that evening (after "the business day") that would not have been subject to a hold, they claimed I had insufficient funds. My ATM receipt at the time of my deposit still showed a positive balance. Even though funds were available to me at that point, they were not available to pay for other transactions.

There is a no win situation when dealing with Bank of America. They will always use your money to their benefit. If your account becomes overdrawn, they charge you a fee. If you have overdraft protection to cover insufficient funds, they charge you a fee to transfer the funds. If you keep funds in your account to cover errors, you give up the interest it could be earning.

When I first opened a checking account in 1977 I was happy with the service B of A provided. Paying them $8.50 a month in account fees to manipulate my funds so that "special handling" is required is a rip-off. There must be a reason for their choice of dates for each statement period, but they can't tell me what it is. In June/July there were 33 days and Oct./Nov. there were 26 days in the period for my account. I have no right to know what day they will deduct the account fee but I should keep my balance high enough to cover it. I suspect they use this to their advantage in order to create an insufficient funds situation that they will profit from. Transactions are processed or held for processing so that by charging their fees first they can kindly choose to pay a debit and claim you have a negative balance.

You have to give them credit for being creative with their terms. Experience with B of A has taught me that a day may have many different definitions. Calendar days, business days and banking days seem to change as to their "cutoff time" often enough to keep customers unaware. I believe the conditions and charges may differ depending on the type of account a customer has as well.

I understand that Bank of America is in business to make a profit, but I don't like feeling guilty when I receive their stock dividends. It is not fair to take money from customers, they should earn it by providing honest service.

Cher
San Leandro, California
U.S.A.