Three times within the last several months, BOA charged my accounts with service charges causing me to be in overdraft. One being my savings. $12.95 for not maintaining a certain balance. This was out of the blue seeing as though I had not had this so-called balance for many months. They also charged my joint account $5.95 for months for the same reason. Gee, I thought it was "free checking".

My complaint is a serious matter pertaining to the Constitutionality of a BofA "representative" closing two of my Bank of America credit cards without cause. I paid my two high interest credit cards off a few days ago and today I received a phone call from a representative advising me that I had to have a "credit review" with her by phone. My caller ID did not indicate that the call was from BofA and I told her I did not want to engage with her via phone. She stated that my BofA credit cards would be changed and I would receive information via mail about it. She was so incredibly rude that I knew enough to contact my local bank. Sure enough..less than an hour later I learned that this snarling rep cancelled my credit cards.

If I was to be "reviewed" for my credit worthiness, she did not obtain any information from me to make her decision. In other words, she cancelled my accounts based on only information from my credit report, which is not a bad report. How can she unilaterally make a decision that my debt to income ratio is wrong if she does not have all the information? She cancelled my cards (because I PAID THEM) and the impact on my credit rating will be adverse. My "status" was fine with them while I was paying 25% interest and is suddenly "not acceptable" because I paid them off!

I have read through many other posts here about similar situations. Not sure I have seen one where cards were cancelled because they were paid off. Obviously, from what I have seen, change in ones "status" is open season for BofA to apply whatever gestapo tactics they want. If this has happened to anyone else and/or if there is any recourse anyone knows of for me, please let me know. I'd appreciate it.

Bank of America steals from their customers. They create overdraft fees by not processing your purchases as they occur even though you have the money available and at the time of purchase they went through fine. If you look at your balance you will see the “Balance” and “Available Balance” and will notice the amount you just spent is now gone from the “Available Balance”. So this means they have removed the money you just spent for the purchase you just made. Only problem is they don’t actually clear your purchase even though they have removed the amount from your “Available Balance”. Instead of clearing payments they hold them, sometimes for several days, and they call them "pending transactions”. Then they wait for other HIGHER charges to come through. When this happens they will clear those higher charges and then process the lower charges and often times this creates a deficit and will overdraft your account.

If you have money in other accounts or a savings account they will freeze those accounts and not allow you to use or withdrawal any of it unless you use it to pay their fees and get the negative account into the positive. So you could find yourself with an unexpected negative balance AND be frozen out of your accounts unable to get any of your money.

Right now we are in the middle of this nightmare, which we have seen several times since opening up accounts in 2005 and 2007. We were paid on Friday, January 29, 2010. We had plenty of money in the bank and that day, the 29th I paid several bills and then that weekend we bought groceries, and made several small purchases. Our account online looked in order and the “Balance” and “Available Balance” were correct because all the purchases we made were now gone from the “Balance” and showed what was left in the “Available Balance”, which was in the positive. When Monday, February 1, 2010 came I planned to deposit more money into the account to cover two car payments that were going to be coming out that day. When I went to check the online balance I saw that they had cleared the two car payments, which were supposed to clear Monday, and they used the money that had already been reserved (or so I thought) from the payments and purchases we made Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Then they proceeded to overdraft five of those purchases at $35.00 each. Later, in addition to that, they added another $35.00 fee called an “Extended Overdrawn Balance Charge” because the account had been in the negative for 5 consecutive business days.

We would LOVE to close our remaining account and leave but we are stuck there. Because of one of the many times they put my account into the negative with overdraft fees and it snowballed from being a manageable amount to an unmanageable amount, I was unable to get caught up. Then they started to charge me an additional $35.00 for “Excessive Overdrawn Fees” when my account was in the negative for 5 consecutive days or more. Soon I was unable to ever get caught up and pay my rent and bills and buy food and gas. I had to stop depositing money into the account because it was just getting eaten up by their fees and I needed to pay for basic necessities and rent. They eventually closed my account and then reported me to Chex Systems. Now because of this I am unable to open another bank account anywhere and am a prisoner there, unless I want to have NO bank account at all but then how do you cash your checks and pay bills like a normal person? You can’t without a great deal of hassle and the danger of having cash in your possession, which is risky and unprotected. But really, what’s the difference? It can be stolen by some random thief or it will be stolen by the bank you are supposed to trust to keep your money. Not rob you blind.

My story is just one of MANY exactly the same and this issue with the banks using computer programs to overdraft their customer’s accounts has to stop. They have literally stolen hundreds and hundreds if not thousands of dollars from my family. They refuse to refund the money and they continue to practice this fraudulent scheme year after year to hundreds of people without consequence. The Internet is loaded with stories exactly like mine. I have been talking to people at stores and other places of business and have heard the same story from many of them about Bank of America and a few other banks that are doing the same thing to their customers.

These banks squandered billions of dollars away on who knows what and then needed to be bailed out by the government. They created the sub-prime lending schemes to make money and we all see how that turned out. Now the country is in turmoil and the economy is in the gutter and people are suffering because of it. Now they add insult to injury and steal from their customers by creating this overdraft charge theft scheme to make money.

WHY IS THIS LEGAL?

When I first applied to Bank of America for a credit card, I was denied because of a less than perfect credit, and, instead was offered a debit card or the way they put it: "a secured account!" This meant that it was backed-up with the moneys in the account! Well, at first, it worked so that, if a debit was presented by a business; the bank would pay the transaction IF THE MONEYS WERE IN THE ACCOUNT AT THE TIME; IF THE MONEYS WERE NOT AVAILABLE, THE BANK WOULD NOT HONOR THE DEBT AN WOULD SENT THE DEBT BACK TO THE MERCHANT UNPAID! CHARGE THE ACCOUNT WITH AN "INSUFFICIENT ACCOUNT" FEE AND THAT WOULD BE THE END OF IT. The customer would have a fee when he contacted the merchant. My point being that it was just "one" transaction!
The new "scam" came into effect when the bank "honors" (that's the new term!) all transactions that reach the account. and charges the account holder $35 per each one!
The Secret: Process all debits before it processes any CREDITS to the account!
Since the beginning of the year (approximately 3 months!) this "SCAM" has yielded Bank of America over ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS IN OVERDRAFT FEES TO MY ACCOUNT!
As a consequence from this I could not make my mortgage payment this month! And the bank refuses to return any and all fees it has taken from the funds in the account! Is there anything I can do to suit BofA for this less than Honest Standard! Please, if anyone has any advice on this new "scam" please write to me!

Alright first of all I admit the overcharge was my fault. I currently have two bank accounts because of my temporary stay in Indiana. There are no bank branches located here for BOA. So as it sits, I didn't have any money in my BOA account as I'm not planning on using it again until I reached my final destination. I had comcast accidentally charge my BOA account which was my fault and have no problem paying one overdraft fee. Guess what they do? They charge me everyday I don't get the cash in to the account. I contacted them as soon as I realized my mistake and let them know I was having the cash transferred over but it would take 3 days to be approved. So being the generous understanding people they are they charge my account DAILY UNTIL THE CASH IS APPROVED AND TRANSFERRED. Well you bastards got my hard earned money, I hope you are happy, I'm closing my account after comcast finally receives their money. I've always heard you people were trash, now I know.