Complaint to the Comptroller of the Currency Administrator of National Banks:
My husband has been a BoA customer for over 10 years (when they were once called Boatman's bank). My husband has worked the same TV job for 10 years and gets direct deposit of over $900 every two weeks. When I married him, I just changed my account over to joint checking at BoA with my husband’s. The problems started about a couple years ago. Direct deposit would show up in pending and available so I would pay bills. Then direct deposit would POST after some (not all) bills had gone through to overdraw my account. I have never had hold on checks from out of state or in-state and, in Dec of 2005, deposited a hand written, non BoA, out of town check for $100 from my mother at the ATM. This was available in minutes to me to spend. I then got a refund check for $874.31 from my college. Here is what is going on:
The bank in my area knows us and calls us by first name when we come in and, as I said, we never had a problem until the last couple years

On Jan 17th 2006, I got a check from my college, DeVry, for 874.31. It was from excess financial aid. I set up for some bills to go out the next day, thinking the money would be there on the day I put the money in the bank. I then went to the ATM to deposit the check but found I had forgotten a pen to sign the bank of the check. I then parked and walked into the bank with my 12 year old. A couple main bank people there said "Hi, Christina, we haven’t seen you in a while!" I said I was busy with school and such and went up to the counter to deposit the signed check. The teller knew me and never asked for ID. I stated that I wanted to deposit the check in my checking account. She then said she could not deposit the money. I asked why not? She stated that it was an out of state check and I only had $30 in my account to cover it. She also said that it looks like you NEVER have deposited this much money in your account before. I was VERY ticked and said "EXCUSE ME? My husband gets over $900 every two weeks for the last 10 years into this account! How do you think we pay for everything!!! I also just deposited $100 with a PERSONAL, non bank of America, out of town check and only had $5 in my account. You let that go through!!" She said she was sorry and had been looking at the wrong screen. She then said I would have to talk to the branch manager, Jennifer, to get this taken care of.

Jennifer came over, made a face at me.....HELD THE CHECK TO THE LIGHT like it was a bad check and asked me if I get these checks often. I told her that I get refund checks every once in a while when my student loans pay more than my balance at the school. She then said she would deposit the money but I can't have access to it until Jan 25th AND even then, I can only have $774.31 of it. I said "WHAT!!! You've NEVER does this to me before! What happens to the other $100 of the $874.31???? She said she would release that later but gave no date. I told her that I better have ALL the money there or we go to small claims court and let a judge decide. She said, "Look I will call your school's bank on the 20th and if the funds look like they will clear; I will release the money to you....all of it." I said OK.

I then went home to complain about my treatment to the main branch and those people said there was nothing they could do and that it was THIS manager’s discretion to place a hold on the account; NOT theirs. They refused to help.

I then called my school on January 20, 2006 to see if the check cleared their end and told them what this woman is doing with their money. My school, Devry, looked at THEIR bank's website and saw that Bank of America HAD received the money and it had cleared their end. They were so upset with my bank that they called my bank on three- way with me listening in. My bank told my school official that they had found that the money was set to clear but she was not releasing the money until the 25th. My school official then said, " Let me get this straight...You're saying it's your discretion to take the hold off for this woman? And, even though OUR bank's website shows you have our money, you will not release the hold??" My bank said yes. My bank then said they would be nice and maybe release the money on the 23rd instead. My school official then said to my bank that they would call back on Monday to make sure it was done. When my school official and I got off the phone with my bank; the official said this was ridiculous and that I should change banks. I then reminded my official that the bank manager that she just talked to had promised to release the funds on the 20th if the check had cleared. This official said she would NEVER bank there after what she just heard. I told her we were opening up another account at another bank and as soon as my husbands direct deposit starts going to the new bank; we are closing this one.

I later saw on my account that the money had posted but I had no access to it as of January 21, 2006. I also saw that day, online, that all the bills I paid the same day I deposited the check went through (5 of them) and I had 5, $34 charges on my account and one bounced check. I then called the bank to complain again and only got two of the $34 charges reversed! My account showed I have about $775 in there but my available balance is a negative $20.54!!!!!!

I then told the main bank, by email, that I would be closing my account soon for these actions. They shot me an email asking how they could keep us as customers and that we have been such good customers with them for a long time BLAH BLAH BLAH. I shot them an email back and said, “You can start by releasing my funds to me that have cleared my school’s bank ALREADY!!! I have yet to hear back from them.

Bank of America released the hold on my check on Jan 23rd 2006, charged me $138 in fees, and then had my bank account all messed up. They are a dollar off from what my figures are on Microsoft Money. I downloaded everything they have into Microsoft Money for years and it's never been wrong. My balance, AFTER downloading and checking against BoA account 50+ times, is a dollar off. I worried that Bank of America was trying to get me to overdraft and take fees, thinking I am too stupid to catch the error and spend a dollar over, just because they know I am trying to close my account with them. I opened a better checking, savings, and money market account with USAA Federal Savings Bank that also holds my home and auto insurance. Bank of America told me they saw that I sent money with my Visa Check Card to this new bank and asked if I was leaving them. I said "darn right I am!” I am glad I caught there error or I would have gone overdraft again for their mistakes! I took the $1.00 out of Microsoft Money so I do not go over and can't wait to close the account as soon as our direct deposit is moved to the new bank. When I caught the error, I called BoA and asked to speak to a "manager". I was told there was a hold for $1.00 and they had no idea why. I told them I would "eat" the dollar by taking it out of my check book register as "bank error". The next day...the dollar was back in my account.

On 02/01/2006, my daughter's SSI money was sent to Bank of America by way of direct deposit (it will go to the new bank next time around). At 6: 00 AM I saw this and sent all the money to my new, USAA bank. It posted to USAA on 02/01/2006 and was available right away. I then saw that evening that Bank of America was trying to cash a check that had bounced for $21 on January 17th 2006 due to the hold that had been on my account earlier. The “pending showed in this order: My child’s SSI money deposit, my transfer of the SSI money to our USAA bank, then the $21 check.

Then I saw on January 02, 2006 (one business day later) that my transfer of the SSI money is still in pending, the SSI payment posted first, THEN they paid a check they bounced 3 weeks ago and charged me fees for, THEN they took back $68 in fees they refunded for putting my deposit of over $800 on hold on 01/17/2006. I now owe them $88 and they should have posted the SSI first, took the transfer I did at 6: 00 AM out, THEN take the $21 check out, and THEN the $68 in reversed fees. Because of their errors, I check my Bank of America account 5 or more times a day. Something is ALWAYS new with it and I have not used the account for anything but moving money to the new bank a couple times and buy groceries until my new USAA debit card came in; all since 01/23/2006 (when I opened my new bank account after the hold was over on my account). I checked my Bank of America account last night and saw that the fees were not there of the $68 and the check was trying to clear AFTER it showed my transfer went through. I have paid bills at my new back with the SSI transfer......what happens if they deny the transfer after it already shows cleared at my new bank and bills have been paid? They can't do this to me!!!!! This is retaliation because they know I am changing banks and want to mess up my life and credit for doing so.

RESOLUTION:
I want the $68 fees reversed that they had given back to us on 01/18/2006 and took back on 02/02/2006. I want them to fix the order of transactions back to the way they were to be:
1) 02/01/2006: US Treasury 310 SSI Direct Deposit of $487.86
2) 02/01/2006 6: 00 AM: Checkcard USAA bank Deposit San Antonio TX for $489.04 ( I had a $2.18 available balance before the SSI check direct deposit went through to do this).
3)02/02/2006 ATM/ Check card adjustment to reinstate NSF/ overdraft fees regard (from my account being on hold with over $800 deposited and POSTED to account but not available to me): $68 (this debit was not on my "pending" or "posted on 02/01/2006 at 8:30 PM but, on 02/02/2006 they say it was in pending on 02/01/2006 which is wrong.
4) 02/02/2006: China Star redeposit of check that bounced from same issue as number 3 on 01/07/2006 (about 3 weeks ago) for $21.00
I do not want this to cause any issues with my transfer to my USAA account of the $489.04 since bills have been paid and the money is posted to my USAA account. I will file suite if this effects me negatively with my USAA bank and the bills I paid after that transfer.