Bank of America - Are You Nuts?

[audreyh1]

I am a platinum level customer at BofA and cancelled an ACH last week for this reason. The disclosure was just before you got the submit button.

I think this is a new thing, and it is very annoying. I originated the ACH from the other institution. Bad business by BoA, I am likely to keep less money there now.

BofA obviously has a huge deposit base and thus doesn’t care about customer retention or gaining new customers. They pay tiny savings rates and their CD rates are laughable. Whenever a customer rep asks if we’d like to open a savings account I just laugh and quote the rates we get paid on our high yield savings accounts.

 

[Another Reader]

No, I said link I provided, post #4...

You are right! No one seems to charge for money coming in. A few banks charge for money going out. We will chat with what will likely be a very junior level branch banker this morning to see what is needed to transfer out of B of A for free.

 

[OldShooter]

Each bank has its own package of bennies aka lagniappes to attract and keep retail customers. For me at Schwab my favorite bennies are reimbursement of all ATM fees and no FTF on use out of the country. Apparently ACH transfers are also free, as I don't pay a fee when I transfer money to outside institutions from brokerage or Schwab Bank.

It costs money to run the ACH system, so someone has to pay. It's just a matter of who, not whether. When I was treasurer of our flying club we sent out about 80 statements a month and all but a few of them we (with permission) followed up by taking an ACH payment. I don't remember the exact numbers but we paid a fixed fee for access to the system ($5-10/mo IIRC) and a small (<$1 IIRC) fee on each transfer.

 

[Another Reader]

Each bank has its own package of bennies aka lagniappes to attract and keep retail customers. For me at Schwab my favorite bennies are reimbursement of all ATM fees and no FTF on use out of the country. Apparently ACH transfers are also free, as I don't pay a fee when I transfer money to outside institutions from brokerage or Schwab Bank.

It costs money to run the ACH system, so someone has to pay. It's just a matter of who, not whether. When I was treasurer of our flying club we sent out about 80 statements a month and all but a few of them we (with permission) followed up by taking an ACH payment. I don't remember the exact numbers but we paid a fixed fee for access to the system ($5-10/mo IIRC) and a small (<$1 IIRC) fee on each transfer.

I suspect there is a fee charged to the institutional user, probably a lot less per transaction for the big banks. The retail charge should be in the account fee disclosure document, which it is not. I will find a work around but I will register a complaint at the retail level.

 

[Sunset]

...

B of A is great for credit cards. Not good for mortgage servicing since the acquisition of Countrywide. Not interested in Merrill Lynch. No knowledge of their other products and not inclined to expand my relationship with the company at this point.

I agree their credit cards are good.
I feel you are missing out on some of the good due to lack of interest in Merrill Lynch.

I find BOA fantastic for their credit cards BECAUSE I put some $$ into Merrill Lynch by transferring an IRA there.
So I'm Platinum Reward Member, meaning on credit cards I get up to 5% rewards all year long on what category I want per month.
My other CC used for travel pays me 3.6% on travel, and 2.6% on everything else.
I have for banking with BOA a checking accnt with $2,000 in it, that's all.

 

[Another Reader]

Each bank has its own package of bennies aka lagniappes to attract and keep retail customers. For me at Schwab my favorite bennies are reimbursement of all ATM fees and no FTF on use out of the country. Apparently ACH transfers are also free, as I don't pay a fee when I transfer money to outside institutions from brokerage or Schwab Bank.

It costs money to run the ACH system, so someone has to pay. It's just a matter of who, not whether. When I was treasurer of our flying club we sent out about 80 statements a month and all but a few of them we (with permission) followed up by taking an ACH payment. I don't remember the exact numbers but we paid a fixed fee for access to the system ($5-10/mo IIRC) and a small (<$1 IIRC) fee on each transfer.

Thinking about this, it's likely the initiator of the ACH transfer is the party charged. That would make sense in the case you describe, as you initiated withdrawals from your members' accounts. In my case it's a "push" that is initiated at B of A while in your case it was a "pull" initiated by your club. The party receiving the request or the pushed money is likely not charged. Hence the indifference to fees on that side of these transactions.

 

[Spock]

Fire Bank of America and move your money to a credit union.

I have the opposite experience with the local credit union.
A wire transfer (not ACH) still takes 3 days! (and still costs $30).
10 day holds on deposits and ACH transfers even with balances 100x larger than the deposit.
EVERY teller window deposit I make requires manager approval as the amount is above the tellers limit.
Latest stupidity is they required all user ids for online account access to include numbers and special characters. So the user id has the same content rules as passwords.
Not a fan.

 

[Another Reader]

I agree their credit cards are good.
I feel you are missing out on some of the good due to lack of interest in Merrill Lynch.

I find BOA fantastic for their credit cards BECAUSE I put some $$ into Merrill Lynch by transferring an IRA there.
So I'm Platinum Reward Member, meaning on credit cards I get up to 5% rewards all year long on what category I want per month.
My other CC used for travel pays me 3.6% on travel, and 2.6% on everything else.
I have for banking with BOA a checking accnt with $2,000 in it, that's all.

I'm familiar with the Merrill pitch, but there are other fees with Merrill and it's difficult to close accounts from what I understand. I get some benefits at the gold level, but agree yours are better.

 

[jazz4cash]

I get free ACH transfers from BOA to my other financial institutions. The way to avoid the fee is to set up the outside bank account as a payee on BOA’s billpay instead of using the transfer funds tool. BOA sends some billpay funds by paper check at their discretion but most go by ACH. Out of 7 financial institutions, paper check is only used for one credit union and all the others are sent by ACH.
BOA changed the name on my account to ADV Plus Banking. It doesn’t say checking at all anymore. It’s free because I have direct deposit and the billpay is great.

 

[Sunset]

I'm familiar with the Merrill pitch, but there are other fees with Merrill and it's difficult to close accounts from what I understand. I get some benefits at the gold level, but agree yours are better.

I don't know of any Merrill fees as they don't affect me of course ALL brokerages have some fees. I only buy and sell stocks now and then, so pretty simple needs and no fees. I doubt I'll close any account as the Reward program is so great so I have not run into account closing issues.

 

[CoolRich59]

Easy solution. Dump BoA.

They treat their service providers like dirt, so it doesn’t surprise me that they do the same to their customers.

 

[Another Reader]

The banker assured me he had never heard of this and it was not in their fee disclosure. He promised to look into it. Got a call back this afternoon and the fee does exist and they will charge it. So, on to Audrey's method and we will see if that works with no fee.

For me, I feel that it's necessary to hold funds with the major banks. I clearly remember in October 2008 going to my bank, pulling out $3,000 in cash, and driving to B of A to deposit it in a contractor's account. I don't think anyone was really sure what was going to happen to the banking system that day or in the next few days.

Zelle is also an option. Several tenants pay through Zelle and so far it has worked well. I prefer the known quantity that's the ACH.

 

[RobbieB]

Three bucks wouldn't be worth my time.

 

[FANOFJESUS]

Talking about bank fees

 

[Dtail]

I agree their credit cards are good.
I feel you are missing out on some of the good due to lack of interest in Merrill Lynch.

I find BOA fantastic for their credit cards BECAUSE I put some $$ into Merrill Lynch by transferring an IRA there.
So I'm Platinum Reward Member, meaning on credit cards I get up to 5% rewards all year long on what category I want per month.
My other CC used for travel pays me 3.6% on travel, and 2.6% on everything else.
I have for banking with BOA a checking accnt with $2,000 in it, that's all.

+1
One of their best deals is with credit cards, provided one has 100k with ML/BOA.

 

[Midpack]

Three bucks wouldn't be worth my time.

I’ve never seen someone get so worked up over $3 either. And a few folks who would “dump BoA” for $3. I guess BoA provides no services or benefits to offset an ACH fee of $3.

 

[Another Reader]

It's not the dollar amount, it's the behavior. Their approach to ACH is sort of like that of a pay day lender. If you want/need (your) money in a hurry, you are going to pay a fee to get it. I also don't like that they do something the rest of the pack doesn't and that it is not listed in their fee disclosures. I do not feel very positive about B of A after this, and am less likely to do more business with them as a result.

ETA: I used Audrey's method and my problem is likely solved. The average bank customer might not understand the fee can be avoided. To me, that's taking advantage of less knowledgeable customers.

 

[Bamaman]

I use Wells Fargo because their computer system is so doggone good. Their bill payment service is also great. Wells also has a large credit line attached to my checking account if I happen to go overdrawn for a day or two. No charges on ACH or for the checking account.

When we travel out of the country, I cannot make a withdrawal on my ATM card because Wells charges a ridiculous $5.00 plus 5% service charge. I load up my credit union checking account whenever we travel and they don't have service charges.

My Wells Fargo bank location has desks for about 15 bankers. They staff it with 2 recent college grads that don't know anything about the finance business. Apply for a loan and they put you on a computer terminal at a desk--something you can do from home. And then their loan interest rates aren't at all competitive.

Why does our city of 40,000 people have 12 banks within 4 blocks--none of which do any personal loan volume? Who are all these banks' customers--since they're without foot traffic? All the personal banking business appears to be with an independent local bank and a very large credit union.

 

[Badger]

Fire Bank of America and move your money to a credit union.

+1


Cheers!

 

[RobbieB]

I got something good out of this thread. I checked out this platinum honors stuff and signed up. Didn't even know it existed. Should have free non B of A atms now.

Woo-hoo!

 

[Sunset]

I got something good out of this thread. I checked out this platinum honors stuff and signed up. Didn't even know it existed. Should have free non B of A atms now.

Woo-hoo!

It has a waiting period, but if you have been with them a long time (and we know you have a BIG accnt) perhaps they will waive the wait time or at least tell you when it's effective.

Check out the CASH rewards card - you can get 5% back on a category you pick. I pick online purchases.

 

[RobbieB]

Oh yeah. I went to the my rewards page and there was nothing. Said check back later. But hey, I didn't even know there was this rewards deal, so anything is better than nothing eh?

 

[NW-Bound]

I have been their Platinum Honors customer for a number of years. Never bothered to find out what the benefits are.

Just learned about the "no-fee transactions at non-BoA ATMs". It's only for ATMs in the US though.

And what is this 75% Reward Bonus? My wife told me to use Citi Costco card instead of other cards for the reward, but how does that compare to this BoA reward? I will tell my wife she needs to look into this.

 

[explanade]

Used to have a BofA account back in college because one of their branches was near campus.

I don't think the fees were too bad then.

For a brief time I worked for Wells Fargo and I recall reading in their quarterly reports that their fees exceeded other revenues. This was in the mid '80s.

I made sure to avoid the big banks for my personal accounts.

About the only time I may have wished for an account with the big banks is when they started rolling out EMV and then contactless ATMs.

But I avoid using cash as much as I can so not a big deal at all.


Of course I do have credit cards with BofA, Chase and Citi and they always try to get you to open bank accounts with them, take out loans, etc.

 

[audreyh1]

I’ve never seen someone get so worked up over $3 either. And a few folks who would “dump BoA” for $3. I guess BoA provides no services or benefits to offset an ACH fee of $3.

I would have been highly annoyed if I hadn’t expected this especially since it’s so rare these days. I had already a long time practice of avoiding initiating transfers from my BofA account as in the distant past they used to charge for outgoing transfers as did many branch type banks. I do care about fees even if small and avoid them - it’s my nature and part of the automatic “avoid unnecessary fees” mentality that many of us ERs seem to share.

I know that BofA can be aggressive about fees as revenue and keep an eye out. I once, just a few years ago, had my checking account type changed (upgraded?) without my request/permission and ran into a $25 charge one month because my account dropped below a threshold much higher than the original requirement. Had to go to my branch and talk to a banker to sort it out. He didn’t understand why that had happened as it didn’t match my usage and switched me back to the original type and reversed the charge. This was after the Wells Fargo scandal and reminded me of that type of shenanigan. A year or so ago I noticed that they changed the name of my checking account again, so I reviewed the checking account rules and saw that it was essentially the same as what I wanted, so no nasty surprises this time.