After reading davidseth's excellent advice, I decided to make my own attempt to recover funds "stolen" by Bank of America. My tale of woe can be read in the letter below the billfold:
Dear Mr. Lewis,
I am writing to you as a long term customer, in good standing with Bank of America. We have been using our local branch in NJ since before it was taken over from Fleet Bank several years ago and they have always provided us with good and friendly service. I am extremely upset and frankly outraged now however, with the way Bank of America has chosen to handle a problem with my son’s checking account.
Shortly before entering college, my son opened a "Campus Edge" checking account with Bank of America. He is a Dean’s list student and has been responsible with his limited funds, but recently made an honest error in thinking his account balance already reflected the deduction for a check that he had written for fraternity dues. They were apparently slow to cash his check and when it did finally clear, it put him into a negative balance without his realization. Since he does not like to carry much cash with him, he tends to use his debit card to make small purchases as needed. As with many busy students, he doesn’t always get around to checking his account balance as often as he should. Over the next 2 weeks he accumulated 21 overdrafts, virtually all of them in amounts of under $20. In fact the vast majority of them were less than 4 dollars each. Each event resulted in a whopping $35 fee being deducted from his account for a grand total of $730!
When my son realized what had happened, he called home in a state of panic. My husband immediately contacted our local branch to advise us on this matter and to deposit funds to cover the overdraft amount. They stated that they did not have the authority to reverse the fees and gave us the contact information for the customer service department. Customer service offered to deduct $175 from the $730 total in overdraft fees, which we did not feel was adequate considering that we thought the fees to be extremely exorbitant and in no way appropriate for the minor infraction of single digit overdrafts! We then contacted a customer service supervisor who deducted another $35 which still left more than $500 in fees charged to the account! We ultimately had to deposit this amount into our son’s account, as we were told by customer service that since my husband had co-signed onto it, that the bank had the authority to "take it" from one of our other accounts! That being the case, why didn't you grant yourselves this same "authority" to cover the overdrafts in the first place? I think the answer to that is quite obvious.
We are further enraged, as we had discussed with the bank, at the time the account was opened, our concerns regarding our son’s ability to use the debit card even with a negative balance. We were told that this was done for customer convenience, and that they didn’t have an option for us to decline this so-called "convenience". To make matters worse, we have since learned that the bank had recently changed this policy (before our son’s overdraft event) and now allows customers to "opt out" of this service. Unfortunately they neglected to inform us of the change, even in the overdraft notification that was mailed to my son! Had we known, all of this could have been avoided.
Considering that Bank of America is still operating, due only to funding provided by the taxpayers, you certainly have chosen an unusual way to express your gratitude. By no stretch of the imagination do we consider this policy to be a "convenience". Who in their right mind would be spending $37 for a cup of coffee?! Bank of America suffered no loss, as we replaced the funds as soon as we became aware of the situation, nor did you suffer any inconvenience as these transactions are all done electronically. As far as I can tell, this policy is nothing more than a sneaky, unconscionable tactic to extort money from your clients. I imagine that if you or any other major bank were to extend your hand for future funding, the pubic will not be nearly so accommodating. In light of our experience, and those of many others in our position, the phrase "too big to fail" is now meaningless. Bank of America has proven itself to be much more irresponsible than my college age son will ever be. The fact that banks are still paying generous executive bonuses on our dime, while we are struggling to support 2 kids in college, makes this an extremely bitter pill to swallow.
We are currently in the process of seeking legal counsel to attempt to recover our assets. I am including our contact information and account number, should you choose to do the right thing and reimburse us, and avoid any inconvenience and negative publicity this may otherwise cause.
Sincerely,
joy221
Wish me luck.....this loss of funds was particularly painful with the holiday/entertaining season just around the corner!
UPDATE: I emailed this letter to 14 BOA execs and also snail-mailed a hard copy to Ken Lewis (BOA CEO). I don't know which of these got someone's attention, but there was a message on my answering machine when I came home from work on Friday asking me to return their call regarding my "inquiry". Yesterday, I did just that and spoke to a woman who turned out to be the "consumer advocate" in the president's office. We had a nice "chat", resulting in ALL the money (minus $35 for the initial bounced check) being returned to the account!!!!!
My eternal gratitude goes out davidseth who provided the links with all the contact info and urged me not to give up so easily. A big hug and a huge sloppy kiss to all who encouraged me to pursue this. I'm sure I'd still be $730 in the hole without you guys!!!!