Consumer complaint received 2019-10-16
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: TX
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Problem caused by your funds being low
Sub-issue: Overdrafts and overdraft fees

Complaint:
I bank with Bank of America and to be honest this happens so often that I can't keep track of every time it's happened in anything like a fast response, but I can confirm that it is currently happening on my account in the last few days. 
Specifically, a handfull of purchases made on XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX have been moved out of order in my checking account under the premise of " processing '' for the explicit intent of filing overdraft finance charges despite having been made when the account was positive and before the overdrafting charge was automatically withdrawn. 
The overdrafting charge already received an overdraft finance charge, which I acknowledge and approve, resulting in that charge being finished processing IMMEDIATELY. 
My account was then " adjusted '' to push the other charges out as though they had JUST been processed and would be subject to " new '' overdraft charges. This " adjustment '' happens regularly when a large charge overdrafts in after smaller pending charges from up to a week prior and has once even humorously led to overdraft charges being accessed when the account later reads as being positive that entire time because of a deposit made to cover the difference. They also won't acknowledge processing direct deposits as covering the amount as they would any other processing check, even when the deposit was made 1 or more day before.

I spoke with the bank about this and they complained that the merchant must have filed them at a different time than when I charged the account. When I informed them that it was done automatically and the merchant had already sent me acknowledgments that the payment was processed/received they said the charges were made on a holiday ( XXXX XXXX a working holiday ) or held over from the weekend so no one was available to process the charges, despite the entire process being electronic and their own logic dictating that the charges should have been processed alongside the overdrafting charge or in the 2 days following. 

When I pressed further, explaining I just didn't want to be charged an overdraft fee for charges that aren't overdrafts just because they were moved " ahead '' of the actual troublemaking charge, I was hung up on. I called back and was told I would just have to eat the charge and was hung up on again ( or rather transferred to the fraud department without request so the account doesn't reflect the agent hanging up on me ). The fraud department also wouldn't help.

A second issue I was having at the time was that I was concerned a large sum of money was being moved through the account without being reflected online and was at times triggering the keep the change program on the account to remove an unusually high amount from the account ( {$7.00} instead of {$.00} ) without a correspondingly large transaction being made and this amount ( {$7.00} ) would disappear from the entire account for 8-12 hours ( potentially causing new overdraft fees from processing payments ). I knew it wasn't just a keep the change issue because given how driven they are about getting fees ( see above ) they at times around this " error '' won't process overdraft fees as if the account had enough to cover at least that amount. When I laid out this issue I was again hung up on by the specialist. 

I have brought these issues up with the bank multiple times over the last year receiving multiple versions of the " weekend '' excuse ( on a Thursday ), the " blame the merchant '' excuse ( my favorite being that they are waiting for the merchant to give them a different amount from what I authorized and wouldn't acknowledge my removal of authorization to any charge over the authorized amount because it would be fraudulent ), or just told in no uncertain terms to just " eat it ''. This problem has led to me " eating '' hundreds of dollars in such charges throughout the year, snowballing into MORE of such charges, ever since I began receiving my paychecks on a weekly basis. I can't change how I'm paid, but I shouldn't have to just expect that my bank can't properly manage my money without trying to commit accounting fraud to skim money from me.

Company public response: Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with monetary relief