This is more out of general wondering than anything else. My wife and I opened a joint checking account in early November. I have direct deposit, however, at this point in time, she does not. I have been with Bank of America since 2001. In the past year at least, I have been depositing her paychecks via ATM into my personal checking account. As long as I deposited it before the cut off (it was 6 PM, now it is 8 PM), the check was posted/cleared and funds were available at 12:01 AM the next day. However, my wife deposited her paycheck on a Tuesday morning. The date of the check had the date of the deposit on it. She used a deposit slip and went into the branch. The check posted at 12:01 AM Wed. morning, but the funds were not available (actually, 100 bucks were available).

I have been going back and forth on mail w/BoA and they said it says on the receipt that the funds won't be available till 2 days after the deposit was made, and after 5 PM. My wife said that the receipt does state the date, but no time. Is this legal to do with a payroll check? This has never happened before, and I am wondering what people think is the real issue. I can't find anything in the agreement we got as a welcome package that mentions holds. I always thought it depended on the amount (the amount is under 4 figures).

In 2005 I bought a new Dell computer from Costco here in San Jose. I had a Internet account prior to the purchase and decided to sign up with AOL's free trial 60 day promotion. I cancelled the AOL Account three days later after getting my regular internet provider installed on the new computer. I went to Bank of America and opened up a new checking account to keep the AOL and other purchase's seperate fro my regular banking. I kept recieving NTSF notices from B of A for six months in a row until I requested and recieved a paper copy of my checking account. AOL had developed a SECOND AOL account and was charging me full price each month! I notified AOL after numerous tries "32 times" and there responce was "Yes we can see you never used your account after three days but we will only credit you for 2 months only. I took the responce to B of A and the telephone official stated that B@A will credit all NTSF charges to mt checking account, a total including NTSF charges of over $ 562.90 dollars.
Upset with my so called B@A policies I closed my account and low and behold B of A reversed their deision! I recieved two collection notices, one from AOL and one from B of A. In both cases I forwarded a copy of the overbilling by both AOL and NTSF overcharges by B of A. I have tried since to open a new banking account at five different banks and was advised that B of A has filed some type of banking notice that I CANNOT OPEN A BANK ACCOUNT UNTIL 2012! Talk about abusing taxpayers and leveling unreal retalitory measures aginst anyone complaining about B of A business practices!

If it is that easy to do to me @ 68 years old and completely disabled for the past five years, then you know B of A is doing this to allot of other citizens.

three times now i have paid my credit card bill into a bank of america.the payment has been made on the due date but the money has not been posted untill 3 days later making me suffer a late payment fee of $39 plus a raising of my interest rate. when i raise the issue at customer service their reply is always this is the way we do business.surely this is fraud? my issue is when i go in the bank and pay my credit card on the 1st of the month,why do they stamp my receipt for the 3rd of the month?

How does one by-pass the gatekeepers (the poor people who actually see and talk to customers but have learned double-talk and have no power to actually affect policy) to air complaints to policy makers at this or any big company? I suspect the answer is that one doesn't.

One of my latest problems with Bank of America is that despite being told by a person who handled my equity loan a couple of years ago that I was part of a "linked" system of accounts and would therefore receive benefits such as not have to pay fees for online checking. Many months later, I was scanning my online accounts history and noticed $25 being debited monthly. I called the customer service line to ask about the charge. The representative replied that it was a mistake - that she would remove the charge. I asked if she would be sure to also remove any such prior charges; she said that she would. At that point, I trusted the problem was taken care of.

In the last month, I again found a $25 charge. This time I e-mailed customer service and was told that in order to avoid the charge, I had to have $25,000 in my checking account. I went into the bank to talk to a live person. She pleasantly, explained to me that I was lucky to be "an advantage customer" (??what does that mean?) - then pulled up my account on her computer and said, "Here's the problem. The person who originally linked your accounts neglected to include your checking account in the linked accounts. I asked if she would be sure that all past charges were reimbursed.

"I can only do that for 3 months, but I can connect you to Customer Solutions (on the phone)."

I told her that I didn't want to talk to anyone else on the phone given my past experiences with "customer service" and asked for the name of someone at a level to be accountable for company policy. She went in to speak to her boss; he said he'd talk to me. After 1/2 hour of cooling my heels, I left.

During my time of waiting, another unhappy customer arrived. His complaint was about the double talk; apparently he hadn't chosen the right designation to be given optimum interest on an account. I don't know what the representative said, but he responded, "what do you mean by "relationship customer?!!" I've been coming to this bank for 20 years, and I don't have a relationship???... I DO have $30,000 in accounts!"

I think he should feel lucky he wasn't an "advantage customer" like me. The big banks are pulling scams like the credit card companies, I guess. Bank of America gives out lollipops and asks about your day, but if you don't know their language - don't know the right questions to ask, they are definitely not there to help people make the best money decisions.

People I work with suggested I find a smaller, more personal bank. I used to go to smaller banks, but they all get gobbled up by the bigger, meaner banks.

I've over stayed my talking time, I'm sure. Thanks for the venting space.

Bank of America - www.bankofamerica.com

I've been ripped off by Bank of America charging my checking account overdraft fees several times. It is terrible how they can get away with charging these fees with no recourse from the consumer. My most recent story goes like this: My daughter, who was out of town, deposited $400.00 cash into my Bank of America Checking Account at a Bank of America branch office inside at a teller station. She did this so I could withdrawal the money to pay her car payment since she was out of town. When she deposited the cash the teller assured her that the cash would be immediately available for withdrawal. My daughter deposited the cash on a Thursday, and so after being assured by the teller that the money was available; I withdrew the cash and paid my daughters car payment. I also used my ATM card to make 2 other transactions from my checking account that night. On Friday evening I checked my account status online, and noticed that the cash withdrawal and the 2 ATM card transactions that had been done AFTER the $400.00 cash DEPOSIT transaction had occurred, were debited from my checking account but the cash deposit had a "Counter Credit Hold" placed on it, so conveniently the bank had manipulated my daughter;s cash deposit and my withdrawal activity so that the cash deposit that was placed on hold put my checking account in a negative balance, hence the 3 overdraft fees. I went to my local bank office in person on Saturday to inquire about these charges and after I explained my issue, the bank employee did refund one of the charges out of the goodness of her heart. I am thankful for that refund. However, the bank representatives advised me that the reason I was charged these fees in the first place was because my overdraft protection was not listed as being active on my checking account. I had never cancelled this overdraft protection. I have had my credit card account linked to my checking account providing overdraft protection for over 10 years and the protection has been utilized by Bank of America in other incidents. I am still being charged 2 $35.00 fees. I have written 3 emails to their "customer service" and I have been told that they will not refund these 2 remaining charges. It's a big racket with this bank and their fees. Too bad the answer couldn't be to switch banks, they pretty much all are crooks with poor service and unreasonable bank fees.