BOA vs. Online Banking

You'd think in this day and age that companies would actively encourage as much online activity as possible. At least my current bank does - after all, it saves everyone time, money and effort. However, as Kim explains, at BOA they do things a little different...

"I bank online, one of the main reasons is because it is pretty much real time. You go out to eat, when you get home and check your bank account online - the transaction is already showing as pending (and deducted from your available balance). It's great, it completely eliminates the mundane task of reconciliation every month. At least it was great when it was Fleet. And before Fleet my branch was another bank and before that another bank. Through all of those banks over the 15 years that I have banked with that branch, I've never seen a bank do what BOA does.

With BOA those pending transactions suddenly disappear the next day and stay gone for 1-2 days. Then my some miracle they reappear! The reappear debited to your account on the day they first showed it pending, however. Now you tell me, what online bankers would think that they have to write down all of their pending transactions and keep it with them so they can know what their real balance is while those transactions are in limbo somewhere? I never would have thought I would have to - but apparently it is so!

Here's an even better example of their retroactive posting. I made an ATM deposit at 10:31pm on 1/17. According to the receipt the ATM printed out after my deposit I had enough $ in my account to cover a check that had not cleared yet. Now according to them at this point, at 10:31pm on 1/17, the check had not cleared yet. Amazingly enough, the next day it shows the check to have cleared on the 17th BEFORE the deposit. Want one even better? They made it the first transaction so that all the little electronic transactions that had happened that day overdrafted each and every time for $34.

BOA engineers your transactions to best benefit them. How is this even legal?? Hasn't anyone started a civil suit over this yet?"

I wish; I'd be the first to sign on. Any great lawyers out there wanna take this on?

In any case, thanks for the story Kim. One more example of them grubbing at every dime they can rip off, even when it discourage real advances in technology that can save them money. Dumb and greedy... no worse combo (except if you tack on "powerful").