Dayngrous Discourse

Let's start with Bank of America, a company I have come to absolutely despise. To make a long story short, I opened a Money Market account with them in April of 2007 and (like with all bank transactions) it took too much time and mountains of paperwork. Then, in Jan of 2008, Bank of America decided to convert my Money Market account into a cheesy MyAccess Checking account. This time though, they didn't consult me, get my signature or waste my valuable time. How can a bank convert my account without my permission but if I want to open an account I have to stand in line forever, fill out mounds of paperwork and hope they do their jobs correctly so all goes well?

I never received a notice that this was happening. No phone call was made to alert me, no email sent and no U.S. mail was ever sent to my home. I found out accidentally when I went to make a deposit into my Money Market account that week and was told I didn't have one. To make a painfully long story short, I thought I had cleared up all the confusion by closing the account (created by Bank of America, without my permission) and opening a new Money Market account. A few months later the MyAccess Checking account I had closed magically appeared again when I checked my online banking accounts. Once again I cancelled it out and moved forward.

Much to my suprise, I learned today that it's back again but this time masquerading as a savings account. At least that's what it shows up as on my online banking screen. I called Bank of America's customer service number at 1.800.432.1000 and spoke with Karina who advised me that this was not a savings account, as it shows on my screen, but rather the same MyAccess checking account I closed twice before. She also stated that she showed the account was closed but that a deposit of $400 had been made to the closed account which is what probably re-opened it. WHAT? Yes, it gets better. Then Karina went on to say that rather than cancel the deposit or direct deposit and send it back to wherever it came from they just accepted it and re-opened the account.

Uh, excuse me.... When did the bank get to decide it could re-open an account that I closed in person with my signature? Since when can someone make a deposit, direct or otherwise into a closed account? I'm willing to bet that, true to form, Bank of America NEVER followed through on their end and closed the account when I handled this back in Jan of 2008. How else could someone make a deposit into the account?

Through no help of Bank Of America's I found out that despite their claims, when I opened the new Money Market account, that they couldn't link accounts opened in different states to a single ATM card, they did. After a detailed discussion with Mr. Right I learned that they never closed out the MyAccess checking account they created because it was still showing as a linked account on my ATM card. Though the MyAccess checking account was created by Bank Of America in Florida and my original checking account was created in VA the two were somehow linked to my ATM card. When Mr. Right went to make a deposit for me into my account, he picked the wrong checking account thus depositing money into the account that I cancelled out and closed. Mystery solved.

I'd like to add that I do have a "personal banker" by the name of Rita Cabrera who works at the Hialeah Branch. However, Rita isn't much of a personal banker and has dropped the ball on more than one occassion on other account issues. Much like her ball dropping then, I contacted Rita about this issue on May 13th 2008 at 11:45 AM and again the same day at 3:25 PM and never heard back.

Now, once again, I will need to go to Bank Of America and sit down with a representative and close this account - for the third time. I think this time around though I will speak with a bank manager and have him or her close out all my accounts and my safe deposit box so I can find a bank that actually values and takes care of their clients.

Any suggestions on where to go?