At the age of 18 I joined the Air Force and decided to stick with Bank of America since they are located everywhere. When I was stationed in Georgia I assumed that banking with them would be easy since they had locations in the town where I was located. Yeah right. Since my account was opened in California, the banking locations in Georgia were useless to me. I couldn't deposit checks in the banks, I couldn't even go in the banks and get customer service. Every time I walked into the bank for helped they treated me horribly and were so UNWILLING to help me. AND I was serving my country!! I had to do everything via phone with their 1-800 number. Thank goodness I had direct deposit. I ended up having to open a Wachovia account in Georgia in order to deposit live checks.
When I got out of the Air Force, I returned to California to attend school. I had very little income during this time, but I did work part-time. During this time the place that I worked paid us every Friday. On Fridays during lunch I would head to the bank and deposit my check. During the weekend I would spend money on groceries, gas, etc. When Monday arrived, they would post my check first and my all my debits after. After I would be comfortable with this routine, one Friday they decided to hold my check for three days. Every single little charge I made over the weekend was an overdraft fee of $36. When I looked at my account I was $500 overdrawn. I was a college student, with no money!! I called them hysterical and begged them to give me my money back. They were cold, unfeeling and unsympathetic and said no.
I decided to go down to the bank and close my account. When I went in to close it the lady said she would give me 1/2 of the fees back if I agreed to stay. So I did. A year later, they did the same thing to me. But this time the damages were even greater. I called crying...again. They were cold...again. I went and closed my account. This time no offer to give me any of my money back. After being a customer of their's for 10 years, I finally left at the age of 25.
During my years of being a customer at Bank of America, I was continually charged fees: monthly fees, annual fees, membership fees, overdraft fees, non-sufficient funds fees, minimum balance fees, returned deposit fees, transaction fees, too-many-debit-card-transactions fees, ATM fees, etc. During my time as a customer it could safely be estimated that Bank of America stole no less than $5,000.00 from me. And somehow, I always felt like it was my fault -- like I was a poor money manager and irresponsible.
Bank of America's banking practices are predatory. However, they only target people with lower to middle income. They would never treat their millionaires in such a way. Last year I received a check in the mail from Bank of America for $11. They lost a class action suit for their predatory banking practices -- and I got $11 whole dollars from them.
I moved to Umpqua Bank (a regional bank in Oregon, Washington & California) in 2006. I haven't been charged an overdraft fee once in 7 years. In fact, I haven't been charged more than $6 in any given month since I have been a customer. And they pay ME back when I use an ATM that doesn't belong to them. They are always friendly, kind and willing to help. It's amazing how great good customer service can feel!
Make the change today people. Move your money from Chase, Citibank, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, US Bank...pick a small, local or regional bank. You'll be glad you did.
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