Did you know there is a Payday Loan Rate Cap in Oregon? Why? Well, the government passed a bill capping interest rates and loan fee’s because its unfair predatory practices and ends up causing the consumer more harm then good. So, now my question presented is this. Why are the banks allowed to take large fees out of our accounts for breaking rules that apparently no one is governing? If you overdraw your account as little as $1.00 you can be charged from $15.00 up to $50.00 dollars? What is the interest rate on that loan? Oh yea, one more thing. You can’t tell them not to cover the funds. That is something they control. Who governs these practices?

Customers are upset and outraged at the way banks take money out of their account for "fees" as a form of punishment for spending more money then you have. I hear it over and over and over. Hundreds of dollars because of a chain reaction caused by one or two fees that was unexpected. And just as recently as a few weeks ago I have been a victim to the horrible ungoverned fee practices of Bank of America.

Banks have "processes" that they follow when it comes to paying checks and Debit purchases, which by the way are ever changing. Currently they pay the highest amount first on a single day. Basically this means if you have $120.00 in your account and you make an error in your register for $10.00 you think you have $130.00. This is a common mistake. So you write $109.00 check, $11.50, $3.00, $5.00, the bank will pay the biggest to smallest. Meaning you are now left with 3 NSF fees. So now you’re charged anywhere from $45.00 (lowest) up to ($150.00) or more for making a small error. If you don’t catch this error and write a few more checks, you can only imagine the horror on your direct deposit day when you check your balance.

I had a recent issue with Bank of America. First, I am a single parent and also in college. I don't need to tell you how tight things are, I am sure you already know by your own pocket book. Balancing finances has become an art of cents and not dollars. Every cent counts. So you can imagine my horror, right before Christmas, when I deposited $100.00 check and got the print out that my available balance was $18.00.

Believing this was an error; I went online and printed my statement which showed only one red balance .52 cents. I was told by reps at the bank that they would never charge me a fee for less than $1.00 (how generous of them). So, feeling this must be some type of error, I had to get it fixed.

My first mistake was calling their customer service line. I think they need to rename that the customer abuse center. I have never encountered so many rude customer service reps at one company.

The lady who answered the phone identified herself as "Ashley". When I tried to explain to her that I felt there was an error, she quickly corrected me, condescendingly informing me that I can't go by the online system. There are things behind the scene which caused my account to over draft for two small items. These items are not showing up on my balance screen. There is one for around $7.00 the other around $4.00. Sending the two $35.00 NSF fee's out of my account. When I told her I didn't agree and I would just go into the bank, she assured me she was going to note my account so that no one was going to assist me in this matter and that I was not getting my funds back. I was very angry now so I hung up and immediately called back. I then spoke with a guy who was polite and offered to credit my funds back to me. Problem solved? I thought so, but checking my balance the next day the money was still gone. Again, I called that wonderful customer service line. Now mind you, I'd rather drove to the bank but this was during snow storm and I had about 24” of snow, I was stuck and in very desperate need of these funds. The third call got me another female who informed me that I was not getting my money, that the other service rep who assured me I'd get it back was over ruled by his supervisor. I hung up and decided to go into the bank and talk to them.

Unfortunately, it was after Christmas when I finally got to a branch of Bank of America. I had to wait about 20 minutes to even get to speak to a "specialist". I was sure they would see the error and fix this. But to my surprise was met with the same resistance I was over the phone. I escalated my issue and asked to speak to the manager. Ironically, the same guy who greeted me and other customers at the door sat in front of me claiming to be a manager. I find this hard to believe. Apparently, they play the same games as they do in call centers when you request a supervisor (they simply hand the phone to another rep who has been there a few weeks longer). I amused him with my story. He informed me once I use that debit card funds are placed on “hold” and are no longer available. Ok, so if that is the case, how did Bank of America take the funds on “hold” from the other two transactions and apply them to the new “hold” and bounce the two older ones? It was a pointless argument. This bank employee went from “greeter” to “manager” and seriously lacks skill and even general understand of how to explain anything without contradiction. Frustrated beyond belief, I finally said, is this worth losing a customer and possibly a few business accounts? He response was simply, yes. So here I am sharing my story.

This is exactly how the event timeframe unfolded.

On 12/15/08 I used my debit card at two places totaling a little over $11.00. On that day after those two transactions, I was .52 cents short. (Common calculation error) The bank holds these funds so my available balance dropped to -.52 cents.

On 12/17/09 I was at a store and forgot cash, I had them use my Bank of America debit because I knew I would stop by the bank later and make my deposit to cover it. I did this because, I was told when I opened my account that I could make the deposit while a transaction was still pending status and not be charged (apparently that is a gray area as well). But, little did I know when I made that transaction Bank of America took the funds off HOLD from the transactions on 12/15/08 and transferred that money over to this transaction in pending status.

Sometime on 12/17, they finalized the first two transactions from “pending” to “completed” status but now due the HOLD on the new “pending” transaction I had NO MONEY to cover them. Remember these holds are what the manager told me I can’t use, because they are on hold for a single transaction and no longer available (apparently he meant they are not available to me, but the bank can move the money around however they wish).

On 12/17/09 Two NSF fees debited my account for $35.00. Oh but guess what? When those two fees were applied guess what happened to the money on HOLD on the “pending” transaction?? I bet you can figure this one out. I think you see where this is going.

I do have an attorney working on a non related consumer case for me, I am going to have him read this as well to see what laws are out there. I think there needs to be laws to govern this just as they enacted for payday loans and predatory lending. I know there are many more stories just like mine!