How Bank of America Ripped Me Off

Not more than a year ago life was good. I was working in Key West, Florida, cooking for a beautiful ocean side resort. I was making good money, living in a nice house on a tropical island, putting a little bit of that money in the bank for my future, living the American dream. I had an account with Bank of America that I had started in Nevada. They happened to have branches in Key West, so everything was going to work out just fine. It would be smooth sailing for me down in the Keys.

But, the dream didn’t last long. In fact, it began to fall apart after I received my first paycheck from my new job. I was short on cash after moving expenses, and not having a paycheck for almost a month. I had a few bills I needed to catch up on, phone bill, student loan, credit card. I had called my different debtors and told them that I was in the middle of a move and would be able to make them a payment on the given date of my first paycheck from my new job. Everything was working out just fine. At least as far as I knew.

When I went to the Bank of America branch in downtown Key West to cash my paycheck, the teller told me that because I had started my account out of state there would be a three day holding period before my money would be available to use. Just a little setback, I thought. No problem, I’ll just get back on the phone and explain my situation to the bill collectors, everything would be taken care of on Monday. And, sure enough, it was.

A few weeks passed, and I put up with the three day waiting period on my paychecks with only a slight remorse in the back of my mind. I’m not one to cause an uproar, this was their banking rule, I was willing to live with it. After all, Bank of America ATM’s are everywhere, and the debit card looked so sophisticated with my photo on it.

One day, while doing some routine banking at the downtown Key West branch, the teller, who recognized me as a fresh new local, encouraged me to make the change from a Nevada account to a Florida account, in order to avoid the three day holding period on my paychecks. What a brilliant idea. Why hadn’t I thought of that? Because I’m not familiar with all the banking rules involved with in-state, and out-of-state accounts, paycheck holds, etc. I was a layperson in a banking specialist’s world, and this polite person in-the-know was willing to help me. Things were looking up for me. No more waiting for access to my own money. So it seemed. 

I went into the little office at the front of the bank, and sat down with the nicest man on the face of this planet. He seemed so happy just to have my presence in his establishment. He assured me that things were going to be so much easier for me from now on, and that my life was on the verge of some spectacular transition. He had me sign only five or six extremely small print documents that weren’t important to read. Then he handed me a folder of paperwork that weighed about two pounds, and my temporary debit card that I could begin using immediately. In fact, he encouraged me to go outside right then, and use the bank’s ATM to ensure that the pin number was correct. When I came back into the office and confirmed that it was, he smiled and nodded. Did he wink at me? I can’t remember. This guy was really excited about my new account. That was the last pleasantly tolerable experience I had with Bank of America.

The very next week, I was relieved to know that I wouldn’t have to wait for the hold on my paycheck. My rent was due, my phone bill was late, and my credit card bill was going to be due before I would be paid again. I worked evenings, so being paid on Friday meant that I couldn’t do my banking until Saturday morning. But I wanted to pay my bills as soon as possible. Fortunately, I thought, Bank of America has a very convenient system where you can deposit cash or checks directly into an ATM. The machine scans the bill or check and verifies the amount, immediately depositing the money into your account. The receipt even shows a scanned printout of the check, signature and all. I decided to take advantage of this feature late Friday night on my way home from work. My receipt from the ATM said that the money was deposited, and my balance was now enough for me to pay my bills. I went home, and began to make the calls, photo ID debit card in hand, to automated payment centers for all my debts.

Over the next week I used my debit card for various purchases. Food, toiletries, fishing bait, beer. Smooth sailing. Until one day at the local drug store my card was denied. Surely I had enough money in the bank for the laundry detergent and Doritos I had laid on the counter. Embarrassed, I left my goods with the clerk, and went outside to call Bank of America’s automated customer service center and see what my balance was. I almost fell out on the sidewalk when I heard the computerized voice tell me that my account was more than $800,000 overdrawn. I called back three more times, to make sure this was not a mistake. It wasn’t.

It seems that when I had deposited my check into Bank of America’s downtown Key West branch ATM machine, even though my receipt told me that the money I had deposited was in the balance, it failed to tell me that there was an eleven day hold on all deposits made into new accounts. When I had changed my Nevada account to a Florida account, it was recognized as a new account. So, for about a week now, I had been paying bills, getting coffee at the local Internet cafe, drinking pints at the local watering holes, buying toothpaste, deodorant, and miscellaneous other items at the local drug store, all with money that the bank claimed I never had. So, after letting me make these purchases, and charging me multiple overdraft fees, the bank decided I was a high-risk spender and put a fake debit on my account for $888,888.88 to stop all debit activity.

Customer service was hell with Bank of America. Talking to a human was almost impossible. But I needed to talk to someone desperately to explain my situation. No doubt, when they heard my situation, we would have a nice laugh over the phone, and everything would be resolved. They would put the money from my paycheck into my account, and take back all the overdraft fees, payments would be made to the bill collectors who were now wanting to charge me for bad transactions. Everything would be ok. It was just a misunderstanding. But it wasn’t.

It took about fifty calls for me to get a customer service representative that spoke proper English, and could understand what had happened. But there was nothing that person could do. He was obviously reading me a disclosure script that basically told me I had signed documents at the bank which discussed all of Bank of America’s policies, and I was screwed, if I didn’t like it, too bad. I’m sure if they could have charged me an unhappy client fee they would have. The man on the phone told me, that with the current situation of my account being overdrawn, I couldn’t even close my account and get the money that was mine in the first place. That my check would be cleared in another 4 days, due to the complications that had occurred, making my eleven day hold a fifteen day hold, and that when the balance was brought back to the positive, I would not be allowed to use my debit card anymore. He said that I couldn’t even go to the bank and close my account, because it had been turned over to their high-risk department. I would have to wait until my deposited paycheck cleared, then they would cut me a check, after all overdraft fees, and a new $75 investigation fee that they were charging me to figure out why my balance was all wrong, and that check would be in the mail in seven to ten business days. Also, my name was being put on a national checking service that would prevent me from having another bank account at any bank in America for seven years.

So, a little over a month after depositing my paycheck into my new Florida account with Bank of America, I received a check in the mail for about $158. They got over $500 from me in overdraft fees, investigation fees, and even charged me a fee for closing my account. Now, I can’t have a bank account in America until the year 2016. And, honestly, as of right now I don’t care. Perhaps in the year 2016 the banking situation will be different, or fair. But for now, I’m happy cashing my paychecks and keeping the money in a safe place at home. I can still pay my bills with money orders, and I’m not too worried about the 1% annual interest I could be making if I had a savings account with Bank of America. That’s just one less cup of coffee per year for me.