I have been in an epic struggle with my finances and the Bank of America. I am sure I will not be as clear on this as you would like, or as informative as you will need, but I need to try.
this is embarrassing, but since the loss of my little business I have incurred over $8000 in over draft fees, transfer fees, low balance fees, and remedial fees from vendors.
I have for the life of me not known what was going wrong in my bank Accounts, I never wrote the check unless the money was there, I did not use the card unless I could pay the bill, I have been out of credit now for 2 years and still Over drafts, transfer fees, on and on.
but according to my records there should have be NO overdrafts. what Happened?
Well here is what I discovered
the Banks all through the last decade worked really hard at getting digital, when I worked in my old world, I knew the people who were digitizing Banks and the Reserve.
One thing that has saved the industry billions is the development of banking friendly software.
I will not name the package I think is the culprit in this, because most likely this was taken to a C level Executive and he approved the algorithm just the way it was.
THE PROBLEM:
on 1/30/2010 at 8 am Your current Balance is 200.00
on 1/30/2010 at 10 am you deposit 800.00 -- the ATM records your balance at 1000.00
pn 1/30/2010 at 12 noon, a debit is presented for 150.00 -- your balance shows 850.00
on 1/30/2010 at 1 PM our way home you get an overdraft charge notice your account is overdrawn by 600.00
on 1/30/2010 at 1:10 you receive a second overdraft notice for another 150.00 you are now -750.00
on 1/31/2010 you receive a notice that the bank has decided to hold the 800.00 deposit until next week.
Mathematically it should all be ok right, NO one spent the 800.00 and below the days previous balance was spent 150.00 out of 200 but no NOT to the bank of America.
the bank has "bent" the rules, they took a clause in the Fed Reserve Sec. 229.16(a)
In short that says if you have overdrawn your account any time in the last 6 months, your accounts are now Exceptions to the 229. Once your account is an exception account, Physics Changes for you, becuse Time and Date can change at the whim of the bank.
at 10 am the 800.00 check was deposited, and there is an automatic hold because it is a personal check, the HOLD however drops down to the FIRST process of the day, 8 am, and the deposit goes to the last batch of the day Say 5PM.
At 8 am there is only 200 in the bank, and the bank Charges back the $800.00 Check overdrawing the account.
35.00 OD charge Assessed for 800.00 hold
35.00 OD charge assessed for 150.00 purchase
10.00 OD Protection Fee Charges for moving 45.12 from savings to Checking OD protection 10.00 Fee
I am now out $80.00 -- But I do not know that until it is too late, and now checks are going to bounce to cover the 80.00
In the Available balance section of the online banking you can see how they move around the deposits and charges. And if you can GET a receipt, those printed receipts are what we have as prof. More accurately how they batch the deposits and charges to exercise profitable deposit/charge strategy.
Whether or not this is maliciously being done to get more fees as most people will pay and go away. Or if this is a software issue, it needs to be fixed and changed.
I am sure the experts will tell me how banking REALLY works, this is all in my imagination, blah blah
But this is the 5th time we have been through this in the last 18 months. We catch them all the time, and proved through time date stamps that they have charged us a hold PRIOR deposit.
But to date thy have only reimbursed 350.00 in fees.
::::::::::::::::::::Summary:::::::::::::::::::::::
the Software package is directed to charge all Large Charges FIRST and to charge your account in Biggest to Smallest order until all charges are rendered and to charge the fees real time.
Deposits are lumped together and charged at intervals through out the day>
::::::::::::::::POINT OF THE DIARY::::::::::::::::
each and everyone of us needs to review our accounts and see if this has happened. IF you even suspect it has happened, call the bank and ask for the funds to be reimbursed,
However, the depositary bank may assess overdraft or returned-check fees if the exception hold notice states that the customer may be entitled to a refund of any overdraft or returned-check fees imposed and describes how the customer can obtain the refund. The bank must then refund the fees upon request.
We all need to call Bank of America Today and register a complaint about this practice.
1 - 800 - 432 - 1000
As for an Associate
We should strike on BOA and all remove our money, until they start to treat us with respect.
UPDATE:
FROM A COMMENTER BELOW
I did that work for about 2 years and didn't use online banking for several years afterward due to what I knew about the implementations. The CEO of the company I worked for basically screwed the vast majority of his employees (huge number laid off enmasse to move to dirt cheap labor markets) then bailed out after he made his millions (okay...tens of millions) in a few years time.
The same type of 'front running' deposits versus withdrawals to make profits is also being done in similar fashion in the stock market using these 'wonderful' tools called computers. Anyone who doesn't believe that is terribly naive. There is no oversight of these criminal actions within the US and it is all free money for the criminals. Rah! Rah! Go USA, go USA!