Margaret Harrison, a young wife and mother living in San Diego, first noticed the problem four years ago when she applied for unemployment.
“They asked if I worked on a horse ranch in eastern Washington, and I said no,” laughs Harrison. “[I’m] not quite the rancher type.”
She investigated and found out a laborer named Pablo has been using her Social Security number. And while Margaret pays for credit monitoring, she says the Equifax credit reporting bureau never noticed the problem until she told the agency. Now Equifax has put a fraud alert on her account. And then there’s this: Last month, the Bank of America sent her a new debit card bearing her name and Pablo’s picture!
Margaret says the Bank of America claims it can’t take any action against Pablo because he pays his bills on time — that her case is in what they call “a reactive state.”
“Because currently it’s not negatively impacting my credit, so I have no legal recourse for any action,” says Harrison.
Uh, is this what a bank calls Customer Service?
BofA has been robbing me blind since day one. I paid 100 toopen an account online. The person I was working for made a fraudulent transaction I still have NOT recewived my money after opening another account with them.
Just today I went in there to dispute the 145.00 overdraft on my account. now get this on feb 1st I deposited 1071.23 I spent 1152.57 and which resulted in a 145.00 overdraft you do the math and get this I just checked my account again not only did they overdraw my account for pending transaction in my online banking they have them llisted as posted and now I have 171.00 in overdraft fees I do not know what to do i stopped my direct deposit. and need to close this account. BANK OF AMERICA ARE A BUNCH OF THEIVES and had i not requested to speak with the assistant manager the re wasnt goingto deal with me at all
I am interested in a class action legal action aare you
STEPHEN ETICK
344451 Calle Las Palmas
Cathedral City, CA 92234
SETICK@DC.RR.COM
January 24, 2008
Re: Acc# 0229109244
Letter dated November, 2007 sent to Bank of America Servicing Agent
TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN:
On Monday 10/29/07 I tried to deposit funds into my Bank of America bank checking account # 02291 09244 at my branch in Cathedral City, CA 92234; my deposit was for $1,735.00 in cash.
Before the bank opened I realized there was a new type of A T M machine, so I decided to use the machine. The machine did not accept my A T M card, and it would not let me make a deposit either. I then went to the Albertsons market, also in Cathedral City, to use their A T M machine and the machine indicated, “unable to access this account”?
I then called the special 800 number I was given (as a special customer, I was told a while back), and was told to go back to my branch when it opens. I returned to the bank, and was greeted by a greeter in front of the bank. The greeter was a heavy set man who took me to an empty desk, and said someone will be here soon, and she will help you.
When she finally arrived, I tried to explain the problem to her; she did not understand what I was saying, and could not give me any answers. She became very frustrated. She was rude, inexperienced, and acted like the bank never makes mistakes, I felt she did not have the capacity to listen. However, she knew how to talk about something she obliviously did not how to fix?
I did not use any negative language. Needless to say, I was and still am quite upset and perhaps talking loud? I myself was getting quite frustrated. The greeter asked me to leave and I did. I stopped all of my payments on my automatic payments, but, the bank paid my vendors anyway. Why would they pay my vendors if they did not accept my cash deposit? I have been with Bank of America many a year, plus being 67 years of age, and never had NSF.
The Bank of America branch I was in is highly negligent in regard to customers’ private issues, which made me feel very uncomfortable. I am still upset about being asked to leave the bank. This is a first for me. There are no cubicles, just desks, which are around six feet from other customers who are waiting in line to see a teller, who, by the way, can hear my conversation quite ember sings.
The bank would not accept my $1,735.00 in cash deposit. Nevertheless, the bank did charge my account with many delinquent charges, and took funds out of my daughter’s account. Perhaps this is another issue I signed for that was apparently hidden in the small print?
To this day I have not spoken to a Bank of America employee. See enclosed letters.
Furthermore, Bank of America has given me credit card with a $12,500.00 credit line, which I do not use. So, why all this trouble?
I called the phone number many times, as suggested, in response to an e-mail sent on 10/31/07, by Carl Johnson. When I did call, the hold time and than being put on hold, for an inappropriate amount of time, on several occasions, was ridiculous. I feel most likely the e-mail was a stock e-mail?
I feel I have a case for defamation of character.
I also have accounting issues with two vendors, at this time I have requested copies of my last two years receivables & payables,
Steve Etick
Enclosures:
1 Letter dated 11/27/07 from B of A from customer service
3 2 Letter dated 11/27/07 from B of A from Maria Garcia
4 Letter dated 11/28/07 e-mail from Carol Johnson B of A
5 Letter dated 12/05/08 from B f A advice of credit (blank?)
6 Copy of check need to be deposited
7 Bank statements (bank charges)
I just did a consolodation last month and got my first bill and there was a late charge pluss the rate went up 100%…I am putting this back on the cards they came from,I wish I had read all this about BOA before having had anything to do with them. Live and learn. Sounds like they are skimming a lot of money off people. I paid to have the transfer, and now late fee and high interest…and it’s only been 1 month. Wonder if they are about to have the same trouble as Bear Stearns.
BoA is not a company, it is more like the mafia in fact i trust the mafia more. here is my story. I went to BoA to get a simple savings account but was talked into a debit/credit card with them by an employee who could barely speak english. I aksed many questions such as what happens if account goes over limit and so on and so on. One of the stipulations was that when i used the ATM i would be charged 1.50 to make transactions. I did a balance inquiry every day to make sure things were adding up. but everytime i was very low all of a sudden it would go into negative. I called and asked and was told that sometimes charges take a while to go through, convenient for them they would wait to charge me for transactions until balance was low enough to reap in the overdraw fee’s. What it came down to is i checked account balance one day it said i had 6 dollars left so i bought a ice coffee. next day checked again said i had 3.50 left. So i bought another iced coffee. my account shut down and BoA let me know i owed them 65 dollars for the 2 iced coffee’s. Here are the things i see wrong with this:
1: the balance inquiries were considered transactions even tho the ATM never asked if it was ok to charge me, and even at that the 1.50 charge they told me was doubled, reason they claim is that even though the bank i was using had the appropriate logo they also charge me 1.50. SO in essence it is ok for two companies to charge me for the same transaction. Imagine this, lets say you go to get new tires for your car so you go to a place that sells tires, they tell you you can get all 4 tires for 250 dollars, so you pay. later in the week you get in the mail a bill for 250 dollars from good year. You have already paid for them so how can two companies charge you for the same transaction. BoA tells me it is because that bank charges them, well thats why i pay BoA the 1.50 and they simply double bill it so they dont absorb any responsibility.
2. In this world you must ask what the word “credit” means. By law credit is using money that is not actually there as an advance and in return you pay an interest rate. In this case the interest rate would appear at well over the legal rates allowed by the government. Who needs an iced coffee enough to pay 60 dollars for it. I have seen many so called criminals get charges with “loan sharking” over things much less criminal than what this bank is doing.
In this day and age when we are overseas so called defending our country one must ask who are the true terrorists. Comapnies like this are vultures and would not care if any of us died if they could profit off if it. How far must things go before we all realize the people ruining this county arent across the world they ar within and sitting and waiting to take whatever they can off of us until we cannot survive. I now cannot get a bank account nor can i get a car loan for another car. I have a house, a damn good steady job and i am not allowed to even have a bank account. I will fight with every drop of blood i have to not pay them a dime for their greed lying, cheating, and yes stealing. We as americans must come together and realize that our american corporations are draining this country not a guy with an ak and a towel on his head in the hills in afghanistan. All of us have paid for this multi billion dollar war but what money or time is being spent by our government to protect its own people from rogue companies such as this that will charge illegal interest rates and just call them fees in order to manipulate the system.
Heres another bit of info…Bofa owns your credit card if you pay to fia…ever wondered why you couldnt pay it to the bank that issued your card..because they sold it like everything else they do FIA is BOFA..and employees get fired if they mess up their identity..
This looks pretty serious to me, financial safety is a very important factor. Some banks do need more secure systems otherwise they risk running out of clients.
Bank of America tellers gave away $12,000 of my money in seven separate occasions to thieves; for example, a woman with missing teeth and a fake driver’s license in my name with the wrong expiration date. She had no PIN number of mine, she just had an account slip and that fake ID and they gave her the money. Bank of America has stonewalled me every step of the way in my attempts to find the thief, and they’ve fired me as a customer as of the end of July; apparently because I complained a little to vigorously that they failed in their fiduciary duty to me. They likewise (as with Harrison) cite “privacy” for the thief as a reason not to give me the video of her. I believe I can get it through Fair Credit (act) but I have a book due and I’m a bit behind in sending them the certified letter.
More on this on my blog at advicegoddess.com
I hate this bank! I originally had a line of credit with MBNA and never had a single problem until BOA bought them out. Ever since then, there is always an issue month after month with my bill.
Their customer service hotline is a joke. You can never get a live person to speak to and in that rare chance that you do, you wait an awful long time on hold and then you find out that the person on the other end can’t even help you with the problem.
The last f***up came this month when they purposely “forgot” to send my bill in the mail. I enrolled in their online banking just so I could pay this said bill on time. I can’t wait to pay off my loan and get rid of them for good.
Wow, B of A has been busy. I used B of A in the year 1979 to open both savings and checking afrer being hired by the City of Torrance. Was not long before they started bouncing my checks for as little as 1 Cent lacking for the full amount of check, “Hello” I have a savings also and a courtesy call would be nice ,.. Not their policy so closed out the accounts and never looked back. Now its 2008. Norweigian Cruise Lines Credit card was bought by B of A. And the problems began. They took my interest rate from 7% to 24.77 % . And went from a thirty day billing cycle to a 26 day billing cycle , causing me late fees. When I inquired about this they said they had sent me notification regarding the new billing methods. I asked about my interest rate and they said they checked my credit history and my credit was a factor in them raising my interest rate as well. I gave them no permission to check my credit score. No signiture etc. I took a loan out and paid B of A off , but I still had free travel cruise points that had accumulated and did not want to lose them so when charging on thus card I paid the entire balance every month. Still adding points for that cruise upgrade. Recieved my statement in the mail and they had deducted 191 points from me for not using them and I went off… I chatted with an online chat person about this and she blamed Norweigian Cruise lines for it.When I told her that I called Norwegian and they expressed that the points should never expire.She clicked me off like I was not important. B of A is literally cheating us out of our money , points and doing some shady things .
Next is my grand daughter who opened an account with B of A and had automatic deposits from her job. Etc… She noticed alot of overdraft fees being withdrawn from her account etc. causing even more overdrafts when her withdrawel etc . She regurlarly viewed her account balance at the atm , only to find that the atm balance and the bank balance were not the same. When she asked why her atm debits were not being posted at the time of the transactions were being done she was told that it was the vendors fault.We asked why B of A allowed her to overdraw when the money was not in the bank and we were told that they dont limit the card. Which is why so many of our kids and grandkids who work are being sucked dry. My Bank will not give me one dollar over my balance that I have in my bank. I get the card back and a notice saying “NON- SUFFICIENT FUNDS” .
I emailed a complaint to the “FDIC” and as of this day still have not heard from them either.
So People get your funds from B of A and run and never look back.
Well I have been a victim of ID theft twice now while banking with BOA. They have also come up with a way to make millions in one day, by doing another one of their sleazy little stunts which I am fighting them about.
After having a whole ton of overdraft fees I approached them yesterday and they said they found that of they take the larger amounts first it is easier to throw all the little amounts into OD and then instead of paying $35 on one large amount, you now pay $35 on many little amounts, and boy does it mount up.
As one of the previous writers said, there are many other banks out there and I think we should move on.
Bank of America should be called bank of mexico they love their little buddies. I would close the account and contact equifax.com
Bank of America is a rip off. They should shut them down for good!!! They are always charging unnecessary fees. I am closing every account I have with them and I hope lots more people do. NEVR GET BANK OF AMERICA.!!!!!!!!!
It’s just like BA to screw people over. I have being paying my bills on time never late,nor over the limit, but they choose to close my credit card accounts stating my dept to ratio is too high.
I have being a devoted customer for over 12 years and they close my account and will allow a fraudster keep his! Just fantastic!
On Dec 23, 2008, I received a call from Paypal, informing me of unusual chrges to my paypal account, I told the agent that I didn’t authorize these charges, and was informed that th charges couldn’t be stopped at paypal, that it must be done at my bank, Bank of America. I rushed to my bank, was told that the transaction had not made it to my account, but was informed that the charges couldn’t be stopped. It being Christmas Eve, I withdrew all my funds from my account, leaving a zero balance. That evening, the charges were paid to paypal anyway, on a zero balance, and wuth bank charges, my accopunt was charged with oer $300, on a zero balance.I filed with with equifax for identy theft, called all my credit card banks, changing account numbers, ect. and added a fraud alert.
Can I do any thing about the way Bank of America handled this transaction, or Paypal.
Thanks.
#45–LM==similar thing happened to me a while back. After the charges were applied to my account, I withdrew funds and closed by account moving to Wells Fargo. I doubt any bank is different on this issue==they value their corporate clients, and not their depositors.
I was told I had to resolve the dispute with the vendor and only after that there was an appeal process at the bank that nobody ever uses.
I so “assume” that in all the small print there are links making these vendors “supreme.” I also assume that a consumer lawsuit against an individual forewarned charge could be won==aka Pyrrhic victory.
Think of your screwing over as part of the “consumer economy” and take steps to minimize your exposure. Closing and reopening accounts does a bit to stop this==as does paying by check rather than an open account.
Last year, a company did not get $3000 worth of business from me because they required Pay Pal and would not even take a check. Weird.
Youtube interview
Below is a clip from an interview with Georges Marciano on identity theft, Bank of America and the ongoing struggle to get justice.
http://www.youtube.com/user/o8justiceforall
First of all I would need to actually see this debit card. I work for card services in our fraud department and i can assure that we would close that acct in a split second as soon as she contacted us………. its a publicity stunt, trying to find a way to sue because someone stole her ss number. Suing would never win anyway. We would tie it up in courts for years.
I can’t believe that considering BofA’s fraudulant tactics, that they are still in business. I would LOVE to see this bank of thieves run aground. I’ve only had an acct. with them for 5 months & believe me, it’s been 5 months too long. In the last 2 weeks, they have placed 10 NSF fees on my account, which total $350. And then to kick a guy while he’s down, today they charged another $35 for an ‘Extended Overdrawn Fee’. The way they post a debit to one’s account is unfair & really sucks for the account holder. Last week I had 5 debit transactions post on the same day. I had enough money in my acct. to pay the first 4 items that came thru (4 transactions I had done earlier that day), but the 5th transaction was much larger & was done later that night. I checked my account the next day & was surprised to see 4 $35 NSF fees. The thiefs debited the LAST transaction I did to my account FIRST which then made the other 4 tranactions become NSF. This is HIGHWAY ROBBERY at its finest. Shouldn’t the transactions be posted to the account in the order they were done or approved? What gives them the right to pick and choose which debits to post first? Each transaction/debit should post in the order they were approved by BofA. Can you imagine how much money they make, at $35 a pop, with this low-down, shady trick? Not to mention, why did my debit card get approved for that large 5th transaction? If I didn’t have the money, my debit card should have been declined, right? I work in a busy retail store, & I see debit cards being declined daily. Probably never a Bof A card though, because that would be a missed opportunity for the thieves of BofA to steal customers money. BANK OF AMERICA – YOU HAVE FRAUDULANT BUSINESS PRACTICES THAT ARE UNFAIR AND IMMORAL. Why don’t you try actually caring for your customers for once. Most of them probably live paycheck to paycheck (as I do), & not getting a paycheck this week (because my whole check went to pay your NSF charges) will be an EXTREME hardship. Imagine a 45 yr old woman (single mom) having to borrow money from her parents so her kids could eat this week. How pathetic.