BofA Account Fees

I got dinged $25 for a “Monthly Maintenance Fee” on my BofA checking account in November of 2014 and February of 2015. I’ve had the account since 2003 and the arrangement had always been no fee with no minimum balance so long as I had at least one direct deposit of $250 or more per month.

I assumed that somewhere in the sea of legal mumbo-jumbo the bank incessantly mails me was a change of terms notice where I now had to maintain some level of minimum balance. I looked up the terms and conditions for my “Tier Interest Checking Account” today and found that the minimum balance to avoid fees is $10,000 which is more than I usually have in the account yet I only got dinged twice.

I called the bank to find out what was going on and they folded faster than Superman on laundry day…couldn’t even finish articulating my problem before I was emphatically reassured that both fees had immediately been waived and they switched my account type back to what I had originally set-up right there on the same call.

I just wanted to share my experience as there are a lot of people on this board and a lot of them bank with BofA and getting all the fees waived and shutting the door (for now) on future fees was a hassle free five minute exercise.

Call them or go to a branch. There was some server issues that are causing this. They should take it back off. Happened twice to me, fixed both times quickly.

In reply to RX Reven':

Last bank that did that to me (Wells Fargo after they took over Wachovia) reversed the fees then I immediately closed the account and moved to a credit union as a thank you. I have no patience for that sort of nonsense.

The downside is that credit unions take a lot more planning to use.

I just came here to say "Bofa deez nutz". That is all.

Just wait 'til we go to negative interest rates...

Nice thing about Bank of America, if you go to a wealthy area branch you can get ANYTHING waived including stacked overdraft fees.

Down side to Bank of America, IT'S berkeleyIN' EVIL MRARARGH!

All I can say is to find a credit union in your area. I get free checking with 2.75% interest paid up to $20k. They just set me up with a 1.74% car loan. They also reimburse uo to $25 a month in atm fees.

I had BOA on a mortgage and it was so terrible....

I must be the only human being on the face of the planet that never has a problem with Bank of America. I have my credit card and my mortgage through them, I have great rates on both, and they've never been anything but easy, pleasant, and effective to deal with.

In reply to Duke:

I've never had a problem with them either.

In reply to Duke:

Never a problem in well over 10 years here either.

Credit union member here. I got tired of the slimy business of banks over ten years ago. All the good ones (i.e. small banks) got bought up by humongous evil too-big-to-fail mega-corporations run by greedy criminals.

I am not fond of banks.

I have not had that problem with BOA, but they sued to call all the time of the equity payment was late. Sometimes it was before it was due. We ended up taking pout another first mortgage to pay off the equity line.

The problem with all of these banks is, they change the criteria and bury it in a the terms and conditions pamphlet they put in the monthly statement. Nobody reads those. I left BB&T after they did it to me. First Citizens got me too, but I'm still with them because that's where the mortgage is and it was a good deal.

spitfirebill wrote: I have not had that problem with BOA, but they sued to call all the time of the equity payment was late. Sometimes it was before it was due. We ended up taking pout another first mortgage to pay off the equity line. The problem with all of these banks is, they change the criteria and bury it in a the terms and conditions pamphlet they put in the monthly statement. Nobody reads those. I left BB&T after they did it to me. First Citizens got me too, but I'm still with them because that's where the mortgage is and it was a good deal.

Exactly.

I didn’t get into speculation about why BofA was so quick reverse the charges and change my account type. I just wanted to let everyone know that for whatever reason, they’re in no mood – position - whatever to stand their ground...five minutes on the phone and I was $50 ahead and had eliminated my vulnerability to new fees until the next round of involuntary term changes in (3…2…1…)

BTW, I have a business account with another bank but I don’t want to move everything over to them as I suspect they’ll close the location soon…I went by yesterday and there were six cars in the employee spaces and only three cars in the customer spaces which is typical. They hate seeing me come in as I drop off loose coins but if not for me, the employee to customer ratio would increase from 2 to 1 to 3 to 1. I never say anything but I always think, why are you guys giving me the stink eye, do you realize I’m one of the few reasons you have a job…geesh.

Part of it was my fault. I wasn't looking at the monthly statements hard enough to see the fee. They waived a couple but I had to eat a couple too.

I would just go into the dealership and bitch about the fees and threaten to move to another bank. That usually works.

You know what's better than Bank of America? Keeping your money in a jar buried in the yard.

I deal with banks, auto lenders, and mortgage servicers a lot in my line of work. If you never have a problem with BofA, fantastic. If you DO ever have a problem, especially with a mortgage, you will never be able to find anyone that can help you. You will never talk to the same person twice on successive calls. Everyone is very sorry that your problem exists and completely unable to do anything about it.

I've tried to negotiate mortgage loan modifications on behalf of my clients a couple of times with B of A. For any given case, they will claim they never received documentation an average of three different times, despite the fact that I have return receipts for everything I sent.

On the macro- level, B of A (and some of the subsidiaries they bought) are arguably responsible for the housing crisis-NINJA loans, etc. And they were the pinnacle example of the "too-big-to-fail" bank that got bailed out.

I could go on, but I don't need to. What you want is a bank or credit union that is big enough to be convenient to use (more than a few branches and ATMs) but small enough that they feel accountable. Developing personal relationships with staff at banks like this can actually help you, because the organization is small enough that you can climb the ladder until you find someone who can help.

Also, just because a bank is a credit union does not necessarily mean they are going to be well-run and customer-oriented (although they are more likely to be so than any given bank).

psteav wrote: You know what's better than Bank of America? Keeping your money in a jar buried in the yard.

Plus 1K. My wife's aunt is now in a nursing home. Her money is in BofA. The wife went to the bank with her General POA(power of attorney), Financial POA, and statement of incompetency signed by two doctors. They will not let the wife write any checks to pay the bills or do anything with the account.

According to my lawyer neighbor and the lawyer who wrote up the POA's we may have to get a court order just to be able to pay her bills.