Really not happy with Bank of America right now
As some of you know, Jessi and I have been house shopping. In preparation for spending the requisite substantial amount of money I’ve been liquidating investments so I can consolidate my down payment into a high interest savings account (5.05% from EmigrantDirect.com). For various reasons I haven’t been able to have the money wired directly into that account, so it’s been coming in checks that are then deposited into my Bank of America checking account and then wired to my EmigrantDirect account once the checks clear and the funds are released. This has caused a whole shitstorm of problems that, as far as I can tell, defy all logic, common sense, and mathematical reality.
One of those recent, large deposits was for a little over $11,000. More money than I had with Bank of America at the time. Normal procedure when making a deposit to my account is that my account balance goes up by the full amount, but my available balance only goes up by some smaller amount until the check clears and they release the funds to me and I actually have access to the full amount. This time, however, they put a hold on those $11,000+, which, for some reason that no one I’ve talked to at Bank of American can explain in any sort of coherent way has resulted in a large portion of that deposit being debited against my available balance. My available balance was not nearly enough to cover that debit and so I went into overdraft. Overdraft protection kicked in and transferred the vast majority of my savings account balance to my checking account, leaving me with less than $20 in my savings account, and still not covering that massive, unexplained, unreasonable, illogical, mathematically unsound debit un-covered, and giving me an available balance of -$6000 in my checking account, despite an actual balance of just shy of $20,000. Since all of my money went into failing to cover that mysterious debit which doesn’t even show up on my statement, I now have no access to my money at all until those funds are released to me. I did, however, manage to extract a promise that I will not be penalized for going under my minimum balance on my savings account, nor will I have to pay a fee for the over-draft protection that I shouldn’t have needed by any reasonable standards. And you can bet they will hear about it if they conveniently forget that fact.
The best explanation I was able to wrest out of Bank of America for why depositing nearly $20,000 into my account results in me having a buying power of -$6000: it’s just the way it works and it’s too complicated to explain over the phone.
Well, you know what’s not too complicated to explain over the phone? That as soon as this is all cleared up and I have access to all of my money I’m switching banks. I don’t care that banking with BofA is convenient, that they have a national ATM network, or that they have the best online banking in the industry. They’ve also completely screwed me over if I, for some strange reason, feel the need to spend money any time soon. You know, on something ridiculously lavish like food.
November 9th, 2006 16:19
Man! I hear you about that food. Can’t go more than a day and a half without food before I start getting dizzy and weak.
November 9th, 2006 22:51
Just a quick not of advice: when you switch accounts, DO NOT go to Sovereign Bank, or as I call them, Suckereign Blowjobwank. For similarly strange and unexplained reasons, they have screwed me more than once on major things, when the money was just SITTING THERE, waiting specifically for this exact purchase/event/expenditure, one of which was the day after my wedding, when trying to pay the goddamn Inn.
Makes me seethe just thinking about the expression on the wedding planner and facility managers’ faces as I ‘hemmed and hawed’ and tried to make light of someone else’s mistake, knowing that I had plenty in there to cover it all…knowing they didn’t believe me. Truly embarrassing…
Wankers.
November 10th, 2006 12:40
Thanks, I’ll cross Sovereign off the list. I was thinking I’d go with Citizen, about whom I’ve heard almost entirely good things.
November 10th, 2006 13:00
[...] « Really not happy with Bank of America right now [...]
November 15th, 2006 21:39
I don’t recommend Citizens. If you have to actually visit the bank and deal with a teller, you must bring food and good reading material. It takes forever, and no one seems to care.
I’d recommend you hunt around for your local credit union. The rates are usually better, and they are all hoping on the ‘online banking’ band wagon as well. I have an account with a specialized credit union (last employer) and I’ve never had a problem. They even let me over draw (without overdraft!) the day before my direct deposit hits.
November 15th, 2006 22:18
Interesting, I hadn’t heard that about Citizen before. I’ll definitely have to check out the credit unions.
Anyone know anything about Leader bank?
November 15th, 2006 23:04
I’ve never had a problem with Wainwright and they’re Boston-based and friendly and open on Saturdays.
November 16th, 2006 02:48
I came across this post via Universal Hub and I’ve got to second staying away from Citizens. I’ve had problems with them very similar to what you are talking about here. I also had one of their tellers lose a paycheck that I had deposited. (Strangely enough, I never had an issue with an deposit made at an ATM.) It took me 4 - 5 hours over the phone to get it all straightened out because they offered several possible solutions that weren’t acceptable and I had to keep working my way up the corporate ladder to find someone who actually wanted to make the effort to help me.
January 18th, 2007 12:09
Join tht fight!
Groups.MySpace.com/Bankof AmericaSucksAss
♥Laura
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