Bank of America review: scam and fraud! 457

And the moral of this story is..."Don't put off till tomorrow what you can do today!" Also, don't buy a cup of coffee and put it on a charge card!

I have a similar problem with them as well. We have been trying to obtain a loan modification from Bank of America for over a year now. The whole mess started back in April 2017, when we received a foreclosure letter for being 4 months behind on our mortgage. They made sure they tacked on legal fees that are so astronomical it'll take a century to pay off, late charges, etc. there's a whole laundry list. To make a long story short, they escalated the full price of the house due or they would sell the house at public auction.

I managed to get in contact with one of these so called "agencies" that are set up to help homeowners facing foreclosure. I got no response from BOA regarding the letter they sent. I had to make daily calls to BOA and nobody, and I mean nobody, wanted to speak with me regarding the foreclosure. When I asked about loan modification, they snickered at me. The rep finally took my monthly expense info over the phone, and said that we qualified based on what was in the computer system, and that a loan modification specialist would be assigned to our account and we would hear from them soon. A month later, we were sent a package with papers to sign, including a loan modification agreement, stating our payments would be $987 starting on Sept. 1, 2017 and go through 2038. We had all the papers signed, notarized, and sent in the required funds ($877) in a cashiers check. All their documents were sent back to them certified mail. Someone in BOA signed for the papers, because the cashiers check was cashed. We assumed that our loan modification was a done deal since we had signed the agreement, sent in funds and didn't hear anything back from BOA. We have been making mortgage payments since Sept. 2017 according to the loan modification agreement we signed that BOA sent us. We have received absolutely NO other paperwork from BOA regarding this loan modification, other than our monthly mortgage statements.

Imagine my surprise when, a full year later, on 6/15/10 I get a phone call from BOA stating that they are just now getting around to doing our loan modification, and that they need updated financial information from us! I have asked at least ten separate customer care reps about the loan modification agreement we had signed, notarized, and the cashiers check funds we sent in to cover the modification a year ago. NOBODY CAN FIND ANY OF THE DOCUMENTS! or the money for that matter. I was also informed that the final decision for a loan modification doesn't lie with BOA, the final decision comes from either Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. BOA is just the loan SERVICER...sorta like the middleman. They asked that the financial information they need be faxed to them. When I declined and asked for an actual physical address to send the updated information to, it took the representative 15 minutes to find an address, and it doesnt go to the Loan Modification dept. It is just a general mailing address.

I have been making my monthly mortgage payments as per the loan modification agreement they sent me, and bypassing what it says on the actual mortgage statement, because it clearly states "IF you and BAC Home Loans Servicing have entered into an agreement to address your monthly payments, please make your payments in accordance with that agreement." I have been penalized with late fees for an entire year, and the amount we are behind has doubled as well.

The trouble doesnt stop there! I have made 8 payments that have not posted to my account, or brought my past due balance down. I called BOA when i noticed the discrepancies on the mortgage statements, where i have been sending in $2017 a month for the past 3 months to try to get the past due balance down, and my past due balance has increased and not decreased. The customer service rep told me just yesterday (6/21) they couldn't see where I had sent in a payment since Feb. 2017! They posted the payment for February in MAY! And in being so far behind in posting payments to my account, they have let me accrue unnecessary and outrageous late charges. I have proof they cashed the checks, because I have the bank statements showing they cashed them. After being transferred four times to Payment Research dept. at BOA, come to find out they are putting the funds in a special account called "FEES". They do not show record of this FEES account on the monthly mortgage statements, or how much is put into this account. I asked the representative if she could tally up and see just how many of my payments have been put into this FEES account, and she told me she didn't have that information, but she could see the dates and amounts in the account. UH DUH! She couldn't add it up and give me an amount. Just not that bright I guess, or didnt want to bother helping.

To me, as a consumer, this is very shady dealings. A consumer should have access to information such as payments that have been sent in, where BOA is putting those funds, and how much is there! This is the worst mortgage lender i have ever dealt with.
I will not be sending any additional information regarding my income, my bills, or anything else to BOA until I get a request in writing.

Got a better one? I really would like to hear it if you do. Are the threats you mention reason enough to keep letting them steal from me?

Notice how all of there employees are taught to say the same exact thing?

/// Not necessarily. It's easy to say "not overdrawing = no overdraft fees" but in practice it doesn't always work this way. It should, but it doesn't always. Here's my story...

I got paid on a Friday and deposited half of my check into my checking account and the other half into savings. Paid a few bills, bought some groceries and gas. On Saturday afternoon I took a road trip out of state. During the trip, I paid for a hotel room dinner and a few drinks at the hotel's bar. Sunday was breakfast and then the return trip. I filled up the tank and drove home.

I keep a written record of all my debits and after my last gas purchase my ledger showed that I still had $12.67 in my checking account. All of my bills were already paid and I still had half of my paycheck in Savings so I figured I was fine. I checked my account on Monday afternoon and everything was still A-OK.

Tuesday morning I stopped to get gas on my way to work. I knew from my written ledger that I had $12 in checking and since I was in a rush and didn't feel like stopping at an ATM to access my savings, I simply purchased $10 gas (enough to get to work and back). To my surprise, my card was declined. I checked my online account from my phone to find that at some point between Monday evening and Tuesday morning, I had been charged four $35 overdraft fees. I wondered how this could have happened when I kept such detailed records of my weekend charges and had not used the card since. This is where it gets stinky...

It seems that BoA not only held all of my weekend charges in a state of "Processing" even though the money had already been deducted from my account, they also held all of the authorizations ($100 for my hotel room, $1 at one gas station and $2 at 3 others, $1 for each of the 5 times I swiped my card at the hotel bar between Sat and Sun, $1 at the restaurant we ate dinner at on Sat night and $1 at the restaurant we had breakfast at on Sun morning - $114 total). The kicker, though, is that at some point on Monday, BoA finalized the largest charges (my hotel room, dinner and breakfast) but kept the state of the authorization holds related to these charges as "processing". At this point, those charges were finalized, but because the authorization holds were not removed simultaneously (namely, the $100 hold from the hotel) I became overdrawn. Then, on Tuesday morning, the authorization holds were released, but since I had already been assessed 3 overdraft fees of $35 each I was already way overdrawn when the remaining charges from the weekend were finalized. This resulted in four more overdraft fees of $35.

Of course, I immediately contacted BoA and was told that they "cannot control when authorizations are lifted or when transactions are finalized". Really?! So even though my charges were less than the amount of money in my account, BoA's clever way of "holding", "processing" and "rearranging" purchases is quite obviously designed to exponentially increase the likelihood that your account will become overdrawn. In my 5+ years of banking with BoA, I had never known them to finalize purchases without simultaneously removing the authorization "holds" related to them, but that is exactly what they did, resulting in $245 in overdraft fees. BoA did not deny that I was being charged for overdrawing, even though I did not spend more than I had. Instead, they informed me that this was the way their system works and there is nothing they could do about it.

Many people probably keep a healthy balance in their checking account and would, therefore, never run into a situation like this. I on the other hand, live check to check and usually only deposit enough into checking to pay my bills and other things that require a CC#. I firmly believe that this is a blatant predatory tactic used to exploit those who are most likely to come close to overdrawing... the working class. How else can you explain a finalized payment being processed on both ends, yet the authorization hold still showing as "processing" in my account?

Needless to say, I do not use my debit card for any purchases where it is not absolutely necessary and I try to keep $100 or so extra in there whenever I do. Unfortunately, keeping track of your spending and "not spending more money than you have" is not good enough to save you from ridiculous fees. I would expect that this "system" that BoA now has in place is one of their biggest revenue generators. If they can get me for $245 in two days when I spent LESS than I had, I can only imagine what they do to people who actually do find themselves a couple of bucks in the red. Too bad that they can always stand behind their BS claims that the way and order in which they process payments is out of their control. It is obvious that they have created a system that is intended to squeeze the maximum amount of $35 fees possible out of their clients.

All the health info isnt needed to prove what jerks BoA is...we allll know what idiots they are. Posting the pic is quite an add on too I must say. You certainly have a flare for the drama.
FYI...nothing you listed is just cause for you not to be gainfully employed.
Your diabetes being out of control is YOUR problem...take care of it and dont look to blame others for it.
Panic disorder ay? Probably what got you disability too isnt it?
Its no damn wonder that the hard working people like me and the thousands of others that read these sites are fed up with people like YOU! We work hard and pay our bills and yet get penalized with higher interest rates etc to cover for people like you who run up bills and then flake off and claim disability ! Sheeeeesh you irritate me and every other hard working American

They will NOT make out a check to you. Insurance makes the check to BOA. BOA pays to have house fixed. The only check you would get is for your personal property. The reason they will not give it to you is the house has to be fixed/rebuilt. They are not allowed to just pay off the mortgage with it and leave you with a half burnt house.

Run to your nearest credit union and open an account with them.
My MC card is only 10%, and has been for years.
For $25/year I can get visa for about 7.5%.

Ask around for best credit union.

I meant to add too, if you need further assistance just send me a message and I'll see what all I can do to help.

I agree that it sucks...very much. Unfortunately they are right. What you'll need to do is get in touch with Experian. You can file with them that the report is bad. I believe, in that case, they'll do research and update everything. The good news is that they'll take care of the other credit bureau's as well.

It sucks, but can be fixed!

We have a mortgage that was acquired by BOA when they bought out Countrywide. I contact them almost a year ago about my husband going out on disability because of knee surgery. We sent in all the appropriate documents and made sure to make ourselves available for any calls fromt the bank.
In August we were denied the Making Home Affordable program and placed into a modification request. We recieved paperwork from BOA the week after Christmas for the modification, signed and returned it the first week of January. The paperwork stated that the modification loan would begin in February. I sent in the February payment (which was supposed to be the 1st payment for the modification) the first week of February. I noticed online that our payment had not posted by February 16th so I called to get a status. I got ahold of my negotiator and found out that the paperwork we had signed and returned was sent to us in error. There had been some issues with several modifications being sent out even though they had not been approved.
I then asked my negotiator what to expect next. She told me several times that any further paperwork received she would notify us about. Stating that she would personally contact us about EVERYTHING that was taking place because of this error.
At the end of February (not even 2 weeks later) we received more paperwork. Again we signed and returned the paperwork. Now I have been contacting the bank only to get NO RESPONSE from my negotiator. She does not call me, does not answer my calls, and does not respond to ANY of the messages that I have requested to have sent to her. I don't know what is going on and just want a status on our modification. I feel like something shady is going on and am appalled to see that the LARGEST mortgage company is treating a customer like this. I have hired a cousilor to assist us with any further contacts with BOA and have also obtained a lawyer to help with the situation. I am sick of being jerked around by BOA.

To whom it may concern,

The foreclosure process is the worst experience of my life, I feel like a puppy in the middle of the 405 @ 5pm. I have no where to go and everywhere I go is the same answer no I can not assist you. Assist me ever since I can remember I have paid taxes on everything. I pay taxes at the end of the year and all year long and jet I can not qualify to stay in my own home. While millions of people are in welfare, what kind of massage is this you work hard and you get punish for doing so. I called bank of America was in hold over an hour transfer from agent to agent when my phone call was finally answer by an agent chewing gum, to be told “I apologize my system frozen and can not assist you, you must call in three days. What, it doesn’t make sense to me. You have an agent call me to refer me to another once you call they refer you to another and at the end of the conversation or sentence you are more confuse than what you began with. I am still upset, confuse and modified at the outcome of this situation. No wonder many do what they do is so frustrating to attempt to work with agents that do not know their left from their right. Our home is a home not just a house like the Bank of America sees it and I am just not a number I am a human being. No wonder they are getting sued left and right. Its sad because at the end I know my tax money is contributing to those pay offs and jet I can not get assistance, I called I do not qualify for any program well how would I qualify if they have the wrong information. This AMERICA for all

Bank of America can suck the fat one... Good for ###in you! There a bunch of ### sticks...

I would agree with this complaint, and this practice is still happening. Another tactic they use is to make it impossible for you to transfer funds in time to prevent an overdraft, I had this happen to me yesterday. I tried to transfer $100 from my savings to checking to cover incoming checks @ 7:00 am, but the on-line message was that I could not transfer. So then I went to a cash machine at 7:00 am, same thing. I had to go to work, so then I called, but got nothing but extremely long hold times. When I finally got a hold of someone at 11:00 AM, they said they would transfer my funds to cover the checks in time, and yet the very next day, that $100 I transfered to cover those checks was instead used as NSF fees and the items were returned instead!

Put a fork in me...I'm DONE...dealing with B of A!

Bank of America are liars. They don't give you your incentive. You spend HOURS talking with customer service with online chat and on the phone and still get no where. If I knew it was going to be this much effort I would have never signed up for an "incentive" program. More headache than the $ was worth. Closed my account and went to Wells Fargo. Their customer service is MUCH better. Couldn't be happier with Wells Fargo.

Maya882: I am certainly not a fan of seeing a credit line cut down as this does affect one's credit score rating. However, one thing I learned recently is that for ANY Credit Card to offer you a credit line, they have to set aside similar funds in case you use the card, so they can pay the merchant. Most of us don't understand this. For example, my card has a $20, 000 credit line. In this economy, the chances that any card issuer would just set aside $20, 000 in case I use my card, is slim. I would expect my credit line to be decreased as well. Most of our credit scores are messed up right now, and that is the only thing that keeps me from worrying about it too much.

With the downturn in the economy, my wife and I contacted B of A to renegotiate the terms of our mortgage. We have an ARM and wanted to refinance with a fixed rate. Like the other poster, we were never able to talk to the same person twice. One representative told us our loan was in workout review and to stop making payments during the review process. We did as we were instructed and discovered B of A was reporting to the credit agencies we were not making payments. We resumed making payments to attempt to salvage our credit. B of A continued reporting we were not making payments and did not credit any payments to our account. This nightmare has gone on for nearly a year. Even though a workout was approved and we have honored our agreement, we still have an ARM, payments are not being credited, and they are still reporting adversely to credit agencies. They have created a situation where our credit is ruined and they are the only company we can do business with. This feels like FRAUD to us. Are we wrong?

Good for the people who did not experienced it yet. The customer service are bad liars. We even recorded the conversation with them for evidence of how they are. I would rather keep my money in my bathroom, use it to wipe my butt and flush it down the toilet than put it in this bank again which was worse than a crappy, nasty and stinky toilet anyway. At least my toilet is nice and clean.

Good for the people who did not experienced it yet. The customer service are bad liars. We even recorded the conversation with them for evidence of how they are. I would rather keep my money in my bathroom, use it to wipe my butt and flush it down the toilet than put it in this bank again which was worse than a crappy, nasty and stinky toilet anyway. At least my toilet is nice and clean.

I am a bank of America prima account holder for 6 years. Have various accounts at B/a amounting to $62000, and also money in brokrage account above $100, 000 . I stared a loan with B/A in september My house apprised with my equity of over $ 400, 000 and a credit score for for tu 812, equ 808, exp 819. I am a female doctor with over $30, 0000 monthly income and bank of america has denied me a car loan and a house loan for mere $280, 000

I an over 64 years of age and from another country . What is the bank looking for ?

who can I complain to,

Since the bank is not posting transactions on the date they actually occurred, your check register becomes almost irrelevant. What you enter into your register is a real time account of when you made your transactions. But if the bank keeps things "pending" then pays and posts them at their discretion, your records will never align themselves with theirs because the dates are mostly wrong. And those dates make a HUGE difference! So, unless you keep a buffer of a few hundred dollars and spend in small amounts, there's a real chance you're going to get nailed eventually. I've heard of B of A employees actually telling customers they "manufactured" their registers and print outs of their online accounts. A snide Customer Service rep even once told me, "that's what your check register is for". He is so lucky we were on the telephone. And you know what? Before the computers took over, balancing my checkbook was a snap, if not a pleasure. Nowadays I don't know WHAT is going on with my account half the time.

it didn't come exactly 3 months but i went directly to the bank that i opened it with and they were able to get me the money so that's what i suggest you do

How to we get together and Do something ? all the stories are the same. Credit limit halved for no reason, interest hiked to 29.99 % despite 2 years of on-time and over minimum payment. Now I am unemployed and have used my savings to pay down the cards - all gone, soon I will be over limit and late - all concocted by B of A.

Has anyone re-negotiated their payments or found anything that WORKS.

Only one thing to do...make them offer up the original note...they own and are in no possession of any notes to forclose on anything...trust me ...been in my home 2 years and counting, , , make em show ya, they wont and they cant, because the only mortgage meltdown there was and what they got paid for was to try and cover up the fact they sold, misplaced and destroyed your note!

Actually, a finance charge will not cause another finance charge, and a drop in credit limit is never given without charge. If you are a responsible customer who pays on time consistantly, a credit card only benefits from your high credit limit. It is only when you become a liability that they need to drop your limit. While I agree that BoA's fees are too high, your story doesn't add up.

You're right. The company is filled with incompetants and a banking system that doesn't knw up from down.

Oh, Please! Keep track of what you spend and this won't happen. Why should a bank babysit your pending transactions when you should know better than anyone how much money you have available to spend? Keep a register...problem solved.

You are not entitled to cash advance checks. Clearly you are a high risk customer, and the bank has had to pull the reigns on some features of your credit card account. Because you were good for it when you signed up for the card does not necessarily mean you're good for it now.

I agree with Maggie try reading your statements...if you are not happen about current credit law...write your congressman not us!

BOFA San Diego, Ca I open a checking account due to being charged $5.00 everytime I try to cash my check that is drawn on BOFA. They told me the account would be free, because I had set up a direct deposit. Fees, why ?. Also the change back everytime the would put a quarter (25 cent) they would take it out for a fee being charged for .25 WTF. I have had this account open for only 2 1/2 months and everytime my direct deposit credits my account they take 105.00. BOFA RIP OFF..

Bank of America is a rip off, I have had a unsecured loan with them for over a year, when I got the loan, the interest rate was not what they sad it would be, I paid the interest rate for over a year before they lowered it to 18.9%, now I have received a notice that they are changing my fixed rate loan to a variable rate loan and they are attaching it to the prime rate, so if the prime rate goes up my payment goes up, I contacted them about this, and they say that they can do that, that in the fine print, it states that they can make any changes they want. I wanted to contact the head people in regards to this, but have had no success. Joe

I deposited a $400 MONEY ORDER, and the bank put a 20 day hold on it! Even a check will clear faster than that. When I wrote them, several times, I just got an automated email that talked about how it takes time to clear a check. I'm liking my local Walmart more and more for my banking needs!

I agree with you. I;ve just gone through a roller coaster with my account and dealing with 5 rep's. I signed up for alert notifications and after not being notified, I had several fee's assessed to my account. When I complained about it, I was told by the rep that their system has problems sending to a .net address (I'm with ATT). Its ironic that I did get notifiactions advising me of an updated balance then one day later, I get 9 fees assessed with no alert notification. There was no attempt by the rep's to correct what they said was "glitch" in their system. I suddenly began to hear a lot of "we'll our system is not 100% full proof of sending notifications...". What a crock of crap I got and this was from all rep's including a supervisor. I've been a customer for more than 10+ years and it is apparent that bofa has slid down the crapper shoot. I'm now moving all 5 of my accounts from them to a credit union where they care about serving customer's. I would not keep my an account with BOFA if you paid me. Their policies are focused on how they can profit at the expense of their customers. I wish them to hell!

I AGREE WITH ALL THESE COMPLAINTS. B OF A IS RIPPING US OFF WITH THESE OVERDRAFT FEES THAT THEY ACCUMILATE FROM THE WAY THE PROCESS TRANSACTIONS. I WAS HIT WITH 9 OVERDRAFT FEES WHICH WAS TOTALLY WRONG WITH WHAT I SAW. IT IS A LONG STORY I DONT FEEL LIKE EXPLAINING BUT THE STORIES I HAVE READ ARE JUST LIKE MINE. I AM CLOSING MY ACCOUNT WITH THEM AND GOING TO THE LOCAL CREDIT UNION THEY ARE FAR MORE BETTER WITH THERE PRACTICES AND THEY ARE FAIR.
BANK OF AMERICA IS EVIL AND THEY WILL GET THERES ONE DAY. ANYBODY WHO WORKS FOR THEM NEEDS TO GET OUT.

Rip -offs in TRAINING? Sweetie, BOA are the EXPERTS in rip-offs! I have a very low credit card balance with Bank of America, (and is currently a negative balance.) Each month, I have a REGULARLY scheduled, INTERNAL TRANSFER payment to cover the payment. Last month, without telling me, they SECRETELY CHANGED the due date so TWO $100 payments were made in August (making me make an EARLY payment) and (by ONE day) NONE regulary scheduled MONTHLY payment was made in September which allowed these rip-off artists to charge me a $15 late fee for an EARLY, yes EARLY payment - due to THEIR secret change! Then, the following month, they actually charged me a FINANCE charge on a NEGATIVE credit card balance. A charge for a NEGATIVE balance? How criminally low-life can these cowardly criminals get?
Our Congress needs to come down hard on these greedy banking criminals and reel in their unethical, country-destroying, damaging behaviors which results in ripping food money right out of the hands of hard-working citizens.

I am also a customer with Bank of America, and I have gone round for round with them about NSF fees. when you pull up your online banking and shows you the ledger look to the left hand side of the screen and it says something like (available balance details) or something to that effect...when you click on those little blue words it shows you exactly what has triggered a fee at when the purchase was made. BOA also gets you another way...they backward reconcile your account everyday, meaning if you have 5 charges and the largest one is 100.00 (just an example) and the rest are smaller they deduct the 100.00 first and then so on down the line even if the last 2 charges are for 1.50 each if those 2 put you in the negative then they charge you 2 seperate NSF fees totaling 70.00. They are shady in that respect.

Excuse me, I work in a call center for a bank, we just can't get up from our job and simply get in our car to come help you, it is something we can't do and that's that, if that's what ur wanting from a bank than you people have a problem,

Iwent through the same thing you did. I finally closed with the help of the manager of my local BofA.

There is a website you might want to use. It is help with my bank.com and is the office of comptroller of currency adminstrator. Good Luck...

This is an outrage! the same thing has happened to me, we are helping the banks recover, when we are not able to recover ourselves. someone needs to put a stop to this before we are homeless too : ))) (How can anyone recover from this)

Bank of america Should be stopped! the way they do " business " is shady and underhanded! There has to be a way to shut them down.