Consumer complaint received 2017-08-17
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: OR
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Problem caused by your funds being low
Sub-issue: Non-sufficient funds and associated fees

Complaint:
XXXX XXXX (2 minutes ago)

to CFPBOmbudsman, XXXX., XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, whistleblower 

On Thu, XX/XX/XXXX at XXXX XXXX, XXXX <
OK, this is absolutely ridiculous.  Look at these screenshots.  I was not overdrawn at all but you charged me 5 overdraft/NSF fees.

I want this corrected Immediately.  I have contacted the XXXX and filed a formal complaint.  These fees are unjust, and predatory.  This is ongoing repeat discrimination and harassment.

I will be contacting the media and legal counsel immediately as well.  I have attempted to give Bank of America the benefit of doubt, but it's clear I'm being taken advantage of here.

XXXX XXXX
AttachmentsXXXX XXXX (10 hours ago)

to Ombudsman, CFPBOmbudsman, XXXX., Ombudsman, XXXX, XXXX, XXXX 

Here we go again.  Tonight you are charging my other account  a $XXXX overdraft fee for my monthly maintenance fee?  This is fee structuring and not OK. 

Also I checked my XXXX account earlier and it was only $XXXX overdrawn.  Now I check and it's showing $XXXX overdrawn.  I had a $XXXX credit processing from XXXX but that's now a disappeared.   Why is the information not accurate and randomly changes?

I am formally requesting this be corrected Immediately.

Respectfully, 

XXXX

On XX/XX/XXXX XXXX XXXX, "XXXX > wrote: XX/XX/XXXX
From:  XXXX  
To:  Bank of America
XXXX XXXX,XXXX XXXX,XXXX XXXX & XXXX  XXXX
XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, NC XXXX (XXXX) XXXX

 
Dear Bank of America Executives,
 
Again weeks have passed and I am not being responded to for my request for help.  I'm not able to stop this cycle without your help.  I have reached out over and over and continue to be ignored.  I've made the account positive but now you have charged a fee on my other account.  How can I break this cycle unless you work with me on the 63+ overdraft fees you have charged me?  I've done everything possible to keep my account taken care of but until you work with me on the fees, it's going to be overdrawn again.
 
I must stress I have NO income.  My XXXX is being held until we get all the documentation they are asking for and they are really making it difficult to get extension of benefits.  I have repeatedly asked for help.  What am I supposed to do, just let it keep going and continue to pay almost $2,200 in overdraft fees?  Do you not understand that I am fully XXXX?  My account continues to bleed and I am powerless to do anything about it. I have done everything a XXXX person should have to or can do when experiencing multiple life hardships.
 
I have filed formal complaints with the FDIC, CFPB and the XXXX.  All I ask is my overdraft fees be refunded.  Bank of America started this whole problem with posting duplicate and triplicate charges.  Then the only ATM in town won't accept deposits which worsened my situation.  I've been asking for help for months and continue to be ignored.
 
I understand hitting an account holder with every fee possible if they just abandon and leave you holding the account to charge off. However, I really tried to work with my bank and make my account right.  After reaching out and asking for help to stop the bleeding, the fees should have been halted so I could take care of it.  However, everything I sold basically paid your $XXXX in overdraft fees but did nothing to help me catch up on my account.
 
I have spent so much time and effort attempting to work with my bank and selling my possessions to cover my account.  Almost every time I sold enough to put in the ATM, it wouldn't accept my deposit, showing "cash deposit unavailable" (see screenshot). Please bear in mind this is after my income ceased entirely.  I did everything in my power to cover the account, I kept my bank informed of my multiple life hardships by sending over 30 email requests for help. Only a handful were responded to, and my request for help to suspend future fees requests were completely ignored.
 
You can propose any data you like, the bottom line is your ATM outages started this domino effect because I could not do my banking in ways your "other" clients have accessible.  When I opened my accounts we had three branches here.  You closed all of them.  That's discriminatory in itself.  I do not have the convenient ways to bank as your other clients because YOU chose to close all three branches. That leaves an entire community with less than adequate recourse to do their banking.  Not everyone has the luxury of a car and can drive through rush hour traffic to find a working ATM in another town.  With the ATM here being the only way to deposit cash, it's unacceptable for it to be out of commission even one day.  I suspect because it is THE only ATM it gets full towards the afternoon/evening or constantly jams with so much overuse.  This only leads to more overdrafts and extended overdraft charges that most consumers can't recover from.  That's fee structuring as well.
 
I'm not trying to abandon the account, I'm trying to find a way to stop the overdrafts and get it out of this tailspin.  A tailspin mind you, that has significantly harmed me financially and Bank of America has significantly contributed to.
 
Additionally, there is also the issue and deceptive practice of posting of credits after debits.  In my attempt to get the account in good standing, I made deposits on several occasions.  Each time, lots of small charges were taken out the same night the deposit shows credited.  This is directly per your online banking information that the consumer sees (I have attached a picture of this).  When I bring this up, I am told by Bank of America that there is a trick to prevent this.  The customer should not need to learn special "tricks" to manage their balance.  Shouldn't the information on online banking be easily read by the customer?  Shouldn't it give as accurate information as possible without customers having to learn employees insider tips after the damage is done?  This is fee structuring and not OK.
 
I just can't understand, no help offered with this many hardships going on simultaneously?  I have XXXX income (my XXXX is being reviewed for extension of benefits), my XXXX XXXX problems, my mother and grandfather recently XXXX I'm dealing with child custody issues, lost my home in foreclosure and sold everything of value that I own to try and take care of my bank account.  If I do not qualify for help, who does?
It's most unfortunate that a long term, loyal customer has been treated with such a lack of care and communication.  This could have easily been handled early on if the care I received was prompt, and effective.  However, the majority of emails sent still appear to go unanswered for.  Please also bear in mind I sold my cell phone to cover overdrafts and couldn't afford to pay the bill in full, so email has been my only method of communication. This communication preference was also acknowledged early on in the process by Bank of America via email.
 
I'm absolutely outraged that my bank is not standing by a customer that is doing everything in their power to cover their obligations without income.  Not only that, but charging $XXXX in overdraft fees after repeated requests from a client experiencing severe documented hardships.
 
I formally request this injustice be escalated to upper management, to XXXX XXXX himself if need be.  I know that if you can help me I will be able to recover from this unfortunate series of events.
 
I have devoted tonight to getting what I have over to you.  This is very frustrating as its taken me a good portion of my evening to compile.  This whole situation could have been prevented had my plethora of emails and requests for help having been responded to in a timely manner.  I am out of work on XXXX XXXX, and have had no XXXX pay coming in since XXXX. My father is helping me by depositing money each month to help me until the XXXX folks make their decision.  I repeatedly send in what they ask for and they always ask for additional items.  My primary doctor and I have been fighting to get my XXXX pay extended due to extenuating circumstances with my health.
I have been a Bank of America client for my entire life and at one time even worked for the bank.  The majority of my career has been in banking so I'm pretty savvy on how to handle my accounts.  I have never had this much trouble with my accounts, but its basically been a perfect storm due to the following:

1.     We lost our home in foreclosure.
2.     I'm fighting a custody battle for my daughter who was recently moved away to Colorado without my permission and am still paying child support.
3.     My mom and Grandpa both XXXX XXXX unexpectedly.
4.     Ive struggled all my life with XXXX, XXXX and XXXX, but has become XXXX and XXXX to the point where I have been out of work on XXXX.  I have also recently been diagnosed with a XXXX XXXX that inhibits me from sleeping which significantly magnifies my condition.
5.    My XXXX income ceased in XX/XX/XXXX, right when my account began to have issues.  I had no income to get my account back on course and it just kept getting worse.  I am working on an extension due to my new diagnosis.  I haven't been receiving income since XX/XX/XXXX.  My doctors and I are working with the XXXX company to extend my benefits, but they are making it very difficult to get approval.  When this started in XX/XX/XXXX, my account got behind to the point where I could never catch back up and its been an ongoing chronic problem since happening and reaching out for help.

The local cash machine is constantly out of service for cash deposits and the only avenue for folks here banking with you, which explains why its probably full of cash deposits by the time I get to use it.  We used to have access to three branches here in XXXX, but they all disappeared and account holders are very disappointed.  Everyone that comes up to wait for the machine constantly gripes about Bank of America, the name is not a positive term in our community.
 
Ive repeatedly gone to the cash machine as I sold thousands of dollars worth of personal items to cover my overdrafts.  I sold my home theater projector, PC, cell phone, etc...  to cover my bills and overdrafts.  Every time I sold a couple hundred dollars worth I would make a trip to the ATM.  All bills were rejected and I always tried multiple times.  I tried the bills upside down, backwards, forwards, etc... didn't make a bit of difference.  I was convinced that it was full and couldn't accept any more cash.  Not sure who services the ATM, but it was apparent it was not getting serviced timely or properly.  I always attempted to handle this before the XXXX cutoff but I never had enough time to travel to another city and find another working cash machine before XXXX. However I had to do just that on several occasions.  Getting rides to the XXXX Branch in the middle of XXXX rush hour traffic.  I even had to go to XXXX  once and the same exact problem happened.  I have attached photo that I took.  The same error, again will not accept cash, however other transactions are possible.  Again, by then its past XXXX so I'm out of luck.  I do not have a vehicle and have to wait until after work hours to get a ride to a working machine, not the easiest thing to accomplish.  When you are out of work for a XXXX  XXXX XXXX, getting out of the house just a tab bit difficult, however I did everything as possible to handle this problem.  The customer shouldn't have to make getting cash into his account a daily job.  However, that's exactly what has happened. 
 
Contact with Bank of America took exceptionally long, and many times did not get a proper or timely resolution.  Ive sent more than 25 emails specifically detailing each issue and was never responded to for documentation until XXXX involvement.  Now Ive had to take days to dig all this up to prove that I indeed did have a lot of problems with Bank of America, so many indeed, that I do not feel these fees are legitimate and I should be make whole.  I tried to accomplish my cash banking, but was setup for failure from the get go with no branches here anymore and the local cash machine not working correctly.  Not on 1 or 2 occasions, but many.  I complained and it took weeks to hear that the machine was back up and running again.
 
As you can tell, I'm very frustrated and understandably so.  I should have the same opportunity other clients have to get their banking done in a reasonable manner.  However, when you close all three branches and the one leftover ATM is sporadic to be conservative, how can a person in my position be expected to pay $XXXX in overdraft fees since XX/XX/XXXX.  I've exhausted 2 sets of ink jet cartridges on this research which in itself has cost me almost $50 and 6 hours of my time, away from family and friends to document my case. 
 
The bank has been saying on all these occasions I could have avoided the fees by doing my banking other ways.  I completely disagree.  I on good faith tried to deposit money every time I was overdrawn and with my current financial, medical and transportation issues make banking "by chasing down a working ATM" very difficult if not impossible for somebody in my current hardship.  I feel extremely taken advantage of as a XXXX person that is struggling with many other hardships in life.  The last thing I should have to is worry so much about my banking.  I have never had issues to this magnitude and have always had my bank stand behind me.  Here I feel like I am a bother, nuisance and an easy target for the bank to get unwarranted, unearned fees from. 
 
I have attached a rather large file of email documents, fees, screenshots, pictures to show that this has been a "perfect storm" partially created by poor customer service, follow through and response times.  Once it got momentum, it never stopped and wont until this is properly resolved.
 
I'm hoping that you can assist with the fees that have gotten out of control due the local ATM not accepting cash for almost 2 months.  This was compounded by the fact that I reached out to your team so many times and was subsequently ignored.  If it was promptly addressed when I initially reached out we wouldn't be in as bad of shape as we are.  I'm asking for the $63+ overdraft/NSF charges be reversed and credited back to me.  I'm a lifetime loyal account holder thats fully XXXX with no income.  I have been taken advantage of by predatory banking practice and discriminated against by not being allowed to do my banking in a reasonable manner. 
 
Respectfully,

 
XXXX

(62 page attached document)

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 explanation