Five years ago, I was the victim of bank account fraud. I worked with Bank of America to resolve the situation and correct my accounts. Now, five years later they decided to close my accounts based only on this fraud incident and charge me a $50 fee to do so.

In 2005, my Bank of America checking account was breached. I live in Seattle, WA and discovered a withdrawal from my account in Alabama. I immediately contacted Bank of America that told me my mailing address was changed in their system to an Alabama address. Apparently, someone was able to contact Bank of America, convince them that they were me, change the address on the account and issue a new debit card to the new address. We worked with Bank of America to close the account and issue a new checking account. The bank credited the account for the lost money and everything seemed resolved.

I have always been a very good Bank of America Customer. I conduct most banking electronically and do not run overdrafts. I own a premium Bank of America credit card and owned a savings CD. Earlier this year, in 2010 I opened a new business account and credit card. Everything was going well with the account until we received a letter regarding our new business accounts.

The letter we received said that Bank of America “has elected to close your account in accordance with the provisions of our Deposit Agreement and disclosures provided”. It then stated that Bank of America “may report the account to Chex Systems, Inc., an account verification service. This may adversely impact your ability to open an account at another financial institution for up to five years.” While the letter included a phone number for the Risk Identification Center, it provided no explanation for the account closure.

The only accounts affected were the new business checking and savings accounts. Instead of calling the number, I decided to go to my bank branch and speak with the manager that set up my recent accounts. She mentioned that everything appeared fine with all of our accounts and did not have any information why the new business accounts would have been closed. The manager called the Bank of America Risk Identification Center and the gentleman stated that the reason the accounts were closed was due to a 2005 incident involving “electronic transfers”. He did not know any details and said that “any time an account is closed by the Risk Identification department, the customer can no longer conduct business with Bank of America.”

Instead of calling the phone number, I decided to go into my local bank branch. The banking center manager told me there was nothing wrong with any of my accounts and did not know why the new business account would have been closed. The manager contacted the Bank of America Risk Identification Center and was told that the reason for the closure was due to a 2005 incident involving “electronic transfers”. They had no more information except to say that “any time an account is closed by the Risk Identification department, the customer can no longer conduct business with Bank of America.”

I explained the event to him and he proceeded to tell the bank branch manager that she could try speaking with bank management. Two days later I received a voice message from the branch manager apologizing for the policy, but that they could not reinstate the accounts. I went to the branch and visited with the manager again.

The manager told me that the Risk Identification department was formed only two years ago and was not in existence when the incident happened. She told me that if I had information from 2005 to show what happened, they could review it and possibly reopen my accounts. I told her that the bank investigated this back in 2005 and should have all of the information already. It’s apparent that the bank has very little information from five years ago wants me to provide it again. Bank of America handled the matter in 2005 and did not provide me with any follow up correspondence as to the details after. She mentioned that there was no risk to any of my personal accounts (the accounts I re-established in 2005).

I called the Risk Identification department again to ensure that there were no other reasons for closing a perfectly good account. The woman on the phone reassured me that the reason for the closure was only the event to my personal account in 2005 and it is their policy to close all customer accounts that for whatever reason, were closed by their Risk department. I told her that in 2005 I worked with Bank of America to close the account and reopen a new account. Again, she had no details about my specific event and indicated that the details did not matter. Obviously this department was not around in 2005 and they are creating blanket policies that affect all past customers with banking incidents.

The Risk department representative also had no idea about my current personal accounts (created in 2005 after closing the breached account). She was not even aware that I had other accounts. When I told her, she looked my personal account up by account number and stated that this account is probably in the stages of closure as well.

Bank of America is passing the blame to their customers. When criminals breach Bank of America security protocols and they decide to close an affected customer account, they will not allow you to conduct business again with Bank of America and will post a notice on the Chex system for all banks to see. The details of the events leading to closure do not matter and they may not even have any past records of the event. They essentially pass the buck to the fraud victim and even charge $50 to seal the deal.

Bank of America sucks moosecock.

It steals from its customers.

It funds payday loan operations.

It rigs bids on bond issues.

It cooks its books to appear profitable.

It treats its employees like dogs.

It must be dechartered.

America won't be safe until BofA is closed.

Here is one story of my bad experiences with Bank of America. I do not trust them as far as I can throw them but I somehow think in the back of my head that they may do the right thing. I am WRONG every time. A little background before I go into the complaint. I bought a house 12 years ago when the housing market still was inflating its bubble. Well, the loan that I used has bounced all over to different banks and finally landed at Countrywide for a while. Then Bank of America bought out Countrywide so my loan is now with them. I cringed hard the first time I found out about it because of having bad experiences before. So anyway, I am now in the process of short selling the house because of moving to anther city. I tried selling it but because of the obvious housing bubble bursting, the house is upside down in the mortgage. So now I have to short sell it and as we all know the only way to get the process started is to stop paying the mortgage for 3 months before the bank will take any offer seriously. So I am on my 4 th month now and waiting for the paperwork to go though to finish the process. All of this controlled by Bank of America.

Sorry for such elaborate backround but had to explain to get to where my complaint is. I got a credit card from Bank of America several years ago because of a ridiculous interest rate offer they sent me but I set it aside and used it once for a balance transfer and eventually paid it off and set it aside again. I get a balance transfer checks every month from them trying to get me to use the account more often. I finally reached a point where I wanted to use the 6 month 0% interest for a balance transfer from my Sears credit card. So I call them and initially they could not even find my account in their system but finally they found it. Well at the same time I guess the information showed up on my mortgage being behind in payments. The guy decides he must do an immediate evaluation of my income and grill me on what is happening with my mortgage. I am getting irritated by this since this should have nothing to do with my credit card that is in good standing and an offer that they sent me, but I go along for the ride figuring there would be some sense in the end and I would get my balance transfer. WRONG!!! They did an instant rejection of my balance transfer and the only reason they had to stand on was that it was company policy. They could never explain the connection between my credit card account and my mortgage account but somehow it is there. I could run up my credit card with expenses right now if I wanted but I can't do a balance transfer because they don't like the fact they are going to lose money on a short sale. Just remember that this was one of the banks that NEEDED to be bailed out with our tax money and so soon they forget the small guy coming to them for any kind of help. WELL FORGET IT. They have made it their policy to screw THEIR CUSTOMERS any way they can.

STAY CLEAR OF BANK OF AMERICA AT ANY COST, IF YOU CAN, BECAUSE IF YOU HAVE TO RELY ON THEM EVER, THEY WILL NOT BE THERE. PERIOD!!! but they will take handouts from the goverment any day of the week.

Bank of America continues to send me my bill late. This is a trick by them to be able to charge their customers "late fees" I have contacted them several times and they say they are required by law to mail the bill at least 21 days in advance. When I ask them why my bill continues to show up late they all have the same corporate answer "we have no control over the post office" I then ask them why I can no longer access my bill on line and they say "you can't?" Well I am tired of them stealing from me I am going to stand up and as I told them simply no longer pay my bill.

My son and I have a joint bank account with BOA. The reason for this is because my son is overseas. The Bank of America branch in Grapevine, Texas refused to let me deposit my sons Income Tax return. They asked all kinds of questions about who's check it was and etc. The manager was some mexican guy that hid behind a curtain out of full view and he was the one who wouldn't deposit the check...a government check! I wonder how many illegal aliens he asked whose SS# they had stolen and were illegally working under. I'll bet you not a one. Bank of America is the sorriest bank in the entire country. If you are searching for a bank that takes care of it's customers, stay away from Bank of America. I don't know if my son will loose his return, by the time he gets home the check will probably be void.