A heads up regarding a new policy of Bank of America...

...in case anyone here has an account (as I still do, unfortunately), with these bailed-out, taxpayer-sucking, politically bottom-feeding crooked scum.

Let me preface this by saying, yes, I know, I should not have ONE CENT deposited with this criminal institution. I have savings/assets outside of them, but I still have a checking account which I use for everyday expenses. And, yes, I will be terminating that.

Here's what happened today: I deposited a check into the checking account, through an ATM, and when I got the receipt showing my balance, it showed a balance of less than half of what it should have been.

When I called their "customer service" representative, I was told that BofA has recently reprogrammed their ATMs to print out a receipt showing ONLY the available balance (meaning, not including the updated amount including the just-made deposit). The deposited amount is not added to the pre-existing balance until the deposit is posted, usually the nexy day. The "customer service" rep told me she has been receiving constant calls from upset people who think their accounts have been debited without their knowledge (like me).

When I asked, "why would they do this?", she told me, "they are trying to get people to budget their money more carefully"(!).

I said (rather furiously), "the Bank of America, who operated so recklessly that they needed a multi-billion dollar payout from the American Taxpayer, is trying to tell ME how to be budget conscious? I have literally NEVER overdrawn my checking account in over fifteen years (the whole time I've had the account), and Bank of America, the VERY SAME BofA who are multi-billion dollar bailout taxpayer-funded recipients, are telling ME how to work within a budget, by LYING to me about my account balance?!"

That's right, the Bank of Fucking America, Corporate Welfare Recipients of THE HIGHEST FUCKING ORDER are trying to school me in how to set a FUCKING BUDGET!! By not giving me my TRUE BALANCE when I make a deposit through an ATM, so I think I have LESS MONEY than I should?!

Anybody else (willing to admit they still patronize these scumsucking crooks), notice this new "policy"?

Addendum: Sorry for all of the shouting, but this is the long overdue proverbial BofA bullshit straw to my personal camel's back. I'm closing my BofA checking account tomorrow. It's an advantageous time to do so, cuz I just moved and need to get new checks printed with my new address, anyway.

...the new system is very deceptive. Previously, the receipt printed out by the ATM after a deposit showed the true balance, assuming the deposited check cleared.

Now, that is not the case, and the change was not announced or publicized to account holders such as myself. I can imagine a "heart attack/stroke" scenario where an elderly/and/or less-than-healthy person deposits their Social Security, or any kind of check, gets the receipt out of the ATM (with no details provided), and sees less than half of what they expect to see in their account.

Believe me, I was extremely shocked to see the amount on the receipt after a deposit which should have more than doubled the balance. There was no indication of the true balance, and this was an unannounced change to the way ATM deposits have been handled for the last 15+ years, in my experience.

separately, with each clearly labeled, like my bank (Chase) does?

Instead of actually depositing the funds FIRST, so that nobody is overdrawn on the day of a deposit, they decided to just restate the available balance so they could still "surprise" people with overdrafts when they actually had made a deposit.

They run the debits before the credits. This just makes sure you know it so you don't go out and write a check, say for the rent, based on your entire deposit. If someone takes that check straight-away to the bank, it will bounce. You clearly aren't ever in a position to need to do that, but lots of people are. They could run the deposits first, but noooo, they'd lose way too much money that way.

In fact, many I have dealt with only show your collected balance as your available balance. A collected balance is the $$ the bank already has received the $$ for. ie: You live in Ga. & deposit a check drawn on a Calif. bank. There is a clearing time before the bank in Ga. actually is crdited for the fund from calif.

They're all out for themselves FIRST!

I haven't had an account with a BIG Bank for about 20 years! When they started nickel & diming te small customer while giving every break imaginable to their corporate customers, I said goodby & good riddance! I've never been sorry either!

that's not the best reason to dump BoA.

They have been doing that for quite a while with my account. None of your money is stolen, and the balance is accurate, although you may not like the way they show it.

When I deposit a check, I get $100 of it immediately available, with the rest available when the check clears, usually the next day. The receipt clearly shows "available balance" or something to that effect.

It was nice a year or so ago when they showed both balances-- what's available right now and what will be, but that seems to have confused even more people. Since they changed it, I've found that I am capable of depositing a check for $200 and adding $100 to the "available balance".

I suspect the rep was pulling your chain-- the new way is because people are stupid and complain no matter what they do, but probably complain less this way.

...until today.

And I know that there are plenty of other good (and even better) reasons to dump BofA.

But this is an unnecessarily startling policy change as far as the way the ATMs are programmed to print out your deposit receipt.

When I deposit a check, I get $100 of it immediately available, with the rest available when the check clears, usually the next day. The receipt clearly shows "available balance" or something to that effect.

The receipts I have always received, up until today, showed the deposit amount, and the TOTAL balance, including the as yet uncleared deposit.

ON EDIT: I never suggested that my money was stolen by BofA, but the sudden disappearance of more than half (based on the deceptive ATM receipt), could lead one to think that they may have been scammed. For example, I had just made a $24 purchase at a local market, with the BofA debit card, than, less than 15 minutes later, made the deposit. My first thought was that maybe something funny happened just a few minutes earlier with the debit transaction, but I did not assume it to be a BofA perpetrated ripoff...more likely, a point of sale problem. It was neither, just a stupid change in BofA policy.

how much was really in there? I'd rather know the available amount, if given a choice.

I don't know if it goes by region, state, or whatever for national banks to decide how to program ATM receipts, but the change they made that I really hate is killing off the mini-statement you used to get at the ATM. Now they want you to go online, but if you're at the ATM and the balance doesn't look right, you can't see the recent transactions any more.

I keep a notebook and I get printed copies of checks I deposit through atms so I have proof it went in there.

look, Not knowing your exact available balance or THINKING you know what it is is what leads to a lot of overdrafts and overdraft fees. Let's face it, consumers can be quite lazy when it comes to checking their accounts and I've always thought banks should make it clear how much money you have at your immediate disposal. And I like the fact that credit cards have to decline your purchase when you don't have any money left on your card. banks make a lot of money off of our laziness.

I think you were wrong to take out your anger on the customer service rep. I don't think she meant to come off the way you thought she did.

...and I am literally NEVER overdrawn. Yes, I vented on the customer service rep, and apologized to her for having to take shit from me, but I explained that I hoped she would transmit my dissatisfaction to her higher-ups.

Additionally, if she can't take shit for working at a corrupt institution, maybe she should look for other work (I know, not a good time for that). I have to take all sorts of what I consider to be shit from people all the time, in my line of work. Why not somebody who works for Bank of America?

:spank: :spank: :spank:


...(except for the fat cats).

and then charge you an overdraft fee when you spend the money they tell you have, but aren't actually making available yet.

So I don't understand your complaint.

But it's very good that you're leaving them. Do that, yes.

to maximize the potential number of overdrafts.

They are scum. Do not use them!

I have overdraft protection for checks, but last month, unbeknownst to me, they changed the rules to also include ATM transactions. I rarely carry money, and use the ATM for even small purchases. In the past, when I ran out of money, it would just be rejected. Because I was travelling, I did not realize my account was overdrawn and was astonished to return home and find that I had been billed $25.00 for each transaction, many of which were less than $3.00. In all, they charged me $400 for overdrafts equalling $320. I immediately deposted money to cover this, which showed up on my account as being availabe, but they continued to charge me for transactions the next day. I called them and told them that them they had charged me the equivalent of more than 6000% interest, computed annually, and that while I expected Wall Street banks to pull these kind of tricks, I did not expect it of credit unions. I've been banking with them for 10 years, and never had anything like this happen before. I'm wondering if it is a new manager...