This morning I managed to negotiate my way out of paying $160 in overdraft bank fees. I had been running a little lower on cash in my checking account this week than I thought, and I managed to overdraw my account with several small charges. So today I called up Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) and requested that my excessive overdraft fees be removed. I had nearly $200 in overdraft fees due to multiple small debit charges, and it seemed to me that $200 in fees was excessive for such small debits. While Bank of America would not remove all the charges, the customer service representative on the phone generously offered to remove $160 worth of fees without any significant prodding on my part.
I have a somewhat mediocre opinion of Bank of America as a whole, but I was especially pleased with the way I was treated on the phone today. And the lesson to you readers should be clear. Bank fees and charges that seem to be set in stone are actually quite negotiable, since financial institutions absolutely do not want to lose you as a customer. Do not lie down and let yourself be charged up the wazoo by your bank. In all likelihood a simple telephone call is all it will take to get those overdraft charges (or even credit card late fees) eliminated.
12 comments:
I called BoA recently about the same thing. I have a very bad, self-defeating, habit of overdrawing my account. I'd racked up $300 worth of fees and they reduced it down to half, so I think they are starting to get very customer service oriented. All I did was pick up the phone and ask.
Hi, I find out to have a same problem exactly today afternoon, they charged me for overdraft fees of $427, for several using of my debit card for purchases ranges from $2 -$10, I have overdraft protection, and my saving has enough amount for cover these purchases, I have $47 and they told me it should be $50. today I called Customer solutions, but they weren't helpful at all, would you please let me know, which number I should call?
this is my email address:zina.amirmoafi@gmail.com
Bank of America does not pay items as presented. They "pick and choose" the payment of item in order to incur the largest amount of overdraft fees. They turn a deaf ear when you protest this practice. Bank of America shouldn't be entitled to any stimulus money. They already have their own bailout...it called overdraft fees! "We the People" need to take back our power and stop being victims. Inundate the White House with letters and emails demanding that the president do something about B of A. What they do to the American people is true terrorism!
well, actually , I work for Bank of America, and they don't let us refund the fees if we have refunded in the past. So my advice is, if you overdraw your account, wait until the overdraft is a big amount, and get a first time refund. Just remember, after that, it will not be likely that you will receive another refund. I work for the bank and deal with customers everyday. The bank has no obligation to refund the fees but helps you out the first time. After that, it's all on you to keep your account positive and organized...
BoA is piece of you know what. They are a scam hiding behind a banking facade. How else can you explain that I can make any electronic transaction, anywhere I want, and --be it a deposit, transfer, or a debit--, I can go home, pull up my account and it's reflected in the balance. YET, I can, over the course of a few days, go around town and overdraw the living @#$% out of my account. These transactions should be denied!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
They know that your account will be overdrawn because the transactions are in the queue to be posted. They say they let them though because, technically, the items haven't posted yet. Bull&^%$!!! Banks did not used to operate this way!!!!!
Sorry about your bad luck BoA being in an industry that has become less profitable over the years. That means it's time to inovate, not bend all your hard-working customers, barely making ends meet, over the barrel!!
Oh, and the bastards had the audacity, after charging me 455.00 in fees, to charge me an additional 35.00 for having a negative balance for more than 5 days!!!!!
Mother#@#$ers!!!!!!!!!!!
Wow, I suddenly feel much better...
oddly enough we are going through this right now....(as I type this in fact, my husband is at the Bank of America branch)...we saw we were in the negative, so we transferred $$ over, but they charged so much in fees that it threw us back under which racked up more fees! We have almost $525 in fees in the last week and they are refusing to help him, and we have been their customers for many many years. We are pulling our money out as we speak, um, type...
BOA's excuse for letting payments go through when there are insufficient funds in the account is that debit card payments made without using your pin are processed through Visa and not the bank. BOA is unwilling to work with people and I am extremely disappointed with them. They will not budge when it comes to overdraft fees and on top of it all they charge an extended overdraft fee when you have benn overdrawn more than 5 days.
OH and as for " keep track of your spending, and you won't be overdrawn" Screw that. I have an installment agreement with the IRS. I pay $100 a month and have been sending by mail until they started automatically deducting it from my account. Nobody sent me a letter letting me know the electronic draft agreement was approved. SO i sent a check in, they took it, and lo and behold, the same day IRS decides to deduct 100 bucks from my checking. OF COURSE I had about 5 other debit transactions I had made, all under $5.00. SO that sets the ball rolling. I over drafted by $112.00 and BOA charges me $240 in overdraft fees! Thanks BOA! I got screwed and didn't even get to enjoy it!
Welcome to the new age of Bank of America. BofA used to be an understanding bank. I think all the credit crunch has caused them to drop some customer understanding as it affects their bottom line. I recently made a bank to bank transfer of 8k from my checking instead of my savings. (Checking had 5k in it Savings had 15k in it) Account over-drafted, i have overdraft protection but we had just made a large purchase on the cc so their was not enough limit left on the card to cover the whole overdraft. So they charged be 10*35 + a 90 overdraft protection (3%) on my cc. So i am looking at 440 in charges.
Call customer service they say there is nothing they can do if it is not a bank error you get no refunds period. They said if that was a problem i could try and go to the branch where i opened my account as they have more authority. Go to the branch, they say there is nothing they can do if i would like to call customer service they have more authority on these types of issues.
I am over it. It was my fault but you would think they would be a little more understanding and remove a few of the charges. What gets me is the 10 overdraft charges that i had were all under 50.00 each. I am looking for a new bank and if that fails i am burying my money in the backyard.
Bank of America can Suck it!!!!! I am paying for my charges to the account but they are getting closed out. I will not deposit any more to pay for fees I had expected maybe 1 overdraft charge but they move my charges around so that the charge that I thought was coming out last came out first!!!! what the efffff????!!!!! and then 10 misc. charges that were no more than 5 dollars came out consecutively after. BULLLLLSH$$$T!!! the charges were batched from 5 days prior! I got gas at QFC $50.00 came out on the 1st the 1 dollar charge to use the CC came out today $35.00 fricken dollars each time!!!! then the fees caused my bank acct to go neg again today causing another cavalcade of misc fees HOLYSH$$$$$T!!! I hate Bank of America! As of today my account is closed
I have seriously considered dropping Bank of America altogether also. There are several good credit unions in the area. But I am starting to prefer ING Direct for my online banking needs. Bank of America's only advantage is that they are everywhere.
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