sckirklan's Journal: Fighting back against errant overdraft fees.

I've been a customer of Bank of America since way back when companies valued their customers. Now, new business conglomerate slash bookie con artist finds themselves getting away with more and more bogus overdraft fees. Having had this bank for more than a decade, people being creatures of habit, and my GI Bill and US Army disability set to go there when it starts to kick in I'd been reluctant to close it down completely. This has gone on for a couple years now and there comes a time when enough is enough. The latest story goes something like this, 2 overdraft charges for $35, the 1st one was charged when I had $35.38 left in the account so I'm left with $00.38. They explain this overdraft charge was for a charge 2 days later for $2.18. I then ordered an iPod mini replacement battery for a little less than $17 knowing I still had more than $17 in my account, so said my check register. Well this one did put me in the red but only because of the first errant overdraft charge. When you call on the phone and when you go into the local branch Bank of America reps appear to be trained to pass blame to the customer and make sure your wife ends the call in tears. I gave the local branch one last chance and was told I could always close my account and likely lose my VA entitlements should any continue to post to BoA. On to the Police Department I went. Eager to speak to an officer, I laid it out as it was, "I'd like to report a theft from my bank account by my bank!" The officer called BoA while I was there to look into this and they even tried to talk her in circles. She then simply asked if the dates on the online statement were accurate. The conversation ended shortly thereafter with Bank of America refunding me the errant fee and the resulting fee. I'd have much rather preferred the bank to have had every one of my fee's investigated and likely found errant as well, after all the very first wrong fee could have resulted in 10 years more. This, to me, seems noteworthy and a fine first step in a checks and balance policy for financial institutions in the US.

Off topic, I'm still looking for a lawyer that can work on terms to get the VA to fix my disability rating or join a class action pool.

Map it!
Pittsburg KS, 66762