Overdraft fees

BOA has always been notoriously not customer service centered. Change
your account to a credit union. You will get much more personalized
service from employees that actually care about you.

Ah, yet another example of BoA's "creative banking". I was in a
similar situation awhile back. I saw something online about to
overdraft, immediately went and deposited cash to cover it, and
relaxed. A few days later I noticed my balanace suddenly dipped much
lower than it should have been, although I had cleared everything up
that day and owed them NO overdraft fees. They had juggled some
transactions around and tried to say that a certain amount of money
was being held for an automatic payment that was to come out a WEEK
later. After speaking with the branch manager and getting a refund, I
closed all BoA accounts and moved to Wachovia, who are much more
customer friendly. Like you I don't mind paying the fees when my
account is actually in the negative at the END of a business due to a
POSTED transaction that overdrew my account. But I will no longer put
up with jugglign and nonsense. You are correct in stating that this is
theft.

OP I suggest going to your local branch and talking to someone so you
can state the facts of your situation in person. I believe you will
have better luck.

"I will not tolerate my money being stolen from me"

YOU stole money from them when you spent money that wasn't there.
They don't tolerate it either, thats why YOU got stuck with overdraft
charges.

Be more proactive.

are typically one time things. The fact that you are requesting the
bank forgive 6 overdrafts when you indicate that you have asked them
to forgive overdrafts before is a big reason why banks DO NOT extend
these "courtesies" any more.

And if you are tracking daily as you say and reconciling against your
receipts, you should be able to see that charges you know you made are
not posted and need to be in the account before they do.

Putting money into the account once the payments have bounced is not
"fixing the problem," it is paying back what you didn't have to spend
in the first place. It's already too late to avoid the fees.

They are not "stealing" any money from you, they are taking fees that
you were rightfully charged per the terms of your account agreement
that you received when you opened the account.

"She refused to "extend the courtesy" as it has been done in the past
to refund the overdraft fees."

My experience has been that a bank may be willing to refund fees if it
is a one-time situation. After that, they're a lot less likely to do
so.

If overdraft fees are an ongoing issue, you may have to look at other
options besides relying on a "courtesy" refund of fees. I know what's
it's like to live paycheck-to-paycheck - a lot of people do these days
- but if you're playing Russian Roulette with your funds, it stands to
reason you're going to lose at some point.

The bank is correct. You are incorrect. I suggest you switch to cash
only.

Or stop using the internet to manage your checking account and use the
darn check register to track how much money you ACTUALLY HAVE.

Your money was not stolen, you authorized debits without having
sufficient funds to cover them. Since most banks process debits
before credits, you can't deposit funds after the fact. You cannot
rely on your online balance, you need to maintain a paper check
register since, by your own words, this has happened before. If they
have overdraft protection which links a savings account to your
checking, you should look into that. They will transfer the funds for
a fee if you overdraft.

I have always had good luck with BOA and overdrafts. I used to have an
account there, and due to an accounting error on my end, I got an
overdraft. I had my savings account linked for overdraft protection.
They charge $10 to transfer $100 from savings to checking through this
protection service. I would recommend speaking with a banker to get
this set up as it sounds like you have a problem managing your balance
properly. It could save you money in the end.

The problem as I see it is that you have been relying on on-line
banking to track your account instead of maintaining a paper check
register. This method may seem old fashioned but to me it is the only
thing that works.

And fixing problems as soon as they arise will result in overdraft
fees. You need to have the money available in your account before
authorizing debits. It appears that you had charges that were pending
on the day before you made the deposit so unfortunately BofA was
correct in charging you overdraft fees. If you had maintained a check
register then this problem would never have occurred.

BofA did not steal your money - - you did not have sufficient funds
available on the 27th to cover pending charges.

Banks are looking for ways to make money and it is the account
holder's responsibility not to give them one.

if used incorrectly. You don't fix problems "when they arise" with a
checking account, if you want to avoid overdraft fees. You have to
prevent the problem in the first place.

You do need to learn what you refer to as "personal finance". If you
open yourself up to the idea, it will save you a lot of money. I had
two overdrafts in my life, and I learned my lesson. Here is one tip -
they typically forgive one (1) overdraft. That is it. They keep good
records.

I'm not going to try to teach you, because you obviously aren't ready
for it. But I'll give you a hint - it is positive and negative
numbers, a piece of paper and a pencil or pen. No internet, no phone,
no ATMs. Just grade school math and your brain.

The bank doesn't owe you money. You need to figure out how to avoid
overdrafts. You can start now, or later after hundreds of dollars
more in fees.

You can always give up and use cash. There are no fees with cash.

You mention that you have had fees refunded in the past by BOA, so I
have to wonder if this is an ongoing issue for you?

You can't totally go by what you see on-line, and you do say that you
saw your account overdrawn. So I'm not sure why you think the charges
aren't valid?