Consumer complaint received 2015-06-25
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: MA
Product: Bank account or service
Sub-product: Savings account
Issue: Account opening, closing, or management

Complaint:
I am a long time customer at Bank of America. I currently have a savings account and a checking account with them and previously did not have any issues with transferring money to and from XXXX account to another until recently. I received a letter ( XXXX XXXX XXXX at bottom of letter XXXX that informed me that " Like all banks, we follow regulations that limit the number of payments and transfers that can be made from savings accounts. Your Deposit Agreement and Disclosures, available at bankofamerica.com, outlines how this transaction limit works. you recently went over the limit during XXXX monthly statement cycles in a XXXX-month period ( or during XXXX months in a XXXX month period if you recieve quarterly statements ). If you go over the limit a third time, we 'll automatically change this savings account to a checking account that does n't have this limit. '' The letter goes on to state that the letter is a XXXX notice to me, which I had only received this initial XXXX. The letter came in a normal envelope, not marked important or time sensitive even though it contained important information about my account and the status it is in. The following is what concerns me about this practice and the deceptive actions by the bank as a whole that they are attempting with this policy. 
Checking accounts at Bank of America, if normal have a monthly fee of {$8.00} a month to maintain it XXXX you have seen that commercial about fiscal lube and all XXXX, as well as a savings account does not have a charge on it unless you go over this XXXX actions a month " governmental '' regulation that they are imposing. That is a {$3.00} charge AFTER THE FACT of happening. The bank does not tell you this before hand as a representative told me as I spoke to their costumer service center on a phone call. I was " lucky '' and she did n't " know why I was n't charged yet for the actions. She proceeded to tell me that that is not " how a saving account is used and the bank will determine that ''. 
It sounds to me the bank is trying to say the government imposed this restriction on saving accounts to enforce customers use saving accounts as savings not money. What it actually sounds like is a way for Bank of America to fall back on a policy they slipped into play, I never received a notice or letter announcing this policy change about saving accounts, to make up for money lost due to not being able to charge for Debt Card fees. If you think about it, if you change the non money generating savings account into a checking account then that is {$8.00} more a month they are taking as " fees '' just to have an account. As opposed to getting no money for a savings account. Also, the letter i received never stated what charge I would be seeing if I had gone over the saving account transactions per month even though it would be changed without my notification of knowledge into a checking account to generate money for the company. 
In review I believe Bank of America is misrepresenting themselves with an accounting action against customers of Bank of America in the results of generating additional money for the bank as a company while disregarding the well being of their customers financial needs or unique conditions. This XXXX size fits all mentality is just another way Bank of America is trying once again to get money out of customers for services they are misrepresenting. Please note, if some XXXX people misuse their accounts, then it would be changed to checking accounts and charged {$8.00} per at almost an immediate {$1600.00} for the bank. Given how many customers this bank has I truly believe this is a deceptive practice and needs to be addressed.

Company public response: Company chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation