5 ms·

Every time I visit the US, I reserve one of my few days there as "fix whatever BofA did to my account" day. My English wife has an account with them, and they

Every time I visit the US, I reserve one of my few days there as "fix whatever BofA did to my account" day. My English wife has an account with them, and they have a habit of switching her account type without warning to whichever one has the highest monthly fees, thus draining the account from ~$1,000 to $32.50 by the time we find out about it. Then we spend a few hours in a branch, shouting at the manager. And it gets escalated up the line until somebody can do something about it. And we get a case opened to credit it all back and put us back onto the "Free, no fees, honest, we mean it this time" account. Just did the 3rd round of this last week. Their advice: "You should log on to your online banking on a regular basis to make sure your fee status hasn't changed." Because "our terms of service allow us to change fees without notice." Sweet. My bad then. We'll be sure to check in every few days to make sure your bank hasn't confiscated all of our money. Thanks for the tip.

brown9-2 15y ago
Maybe this is a dumb or too personal of a question then, but why not close the account and move to a more competent bank? I don't understand why people continue to keep their money in an institution that they don't even seem to trust. There are far better choices out there.
- jasonkester 15y ago
  US bank accounts are hard to get if you don't live there (and don't have a several-month history of living there currently), but they're really handy to have. So until we can get a new account set up for my wife with a better bank, we're sorta stuck with them. It's painful, but even if they didn't refund the annoying $20/month fees they keep tacking on, it'd still be worth it just to keep the toehold.
- mainguy 15y ago
  For me, the switching cost of changing my gas bill, electricity bill, mortgage, credit card, Home phone, Cell phone, dentist, AWS account, heroku, mysafari, spotify, napster, hulu, engine yard, ... I know I'm just hitting a few here... to a new bank/card is a big enough disincentive to have me locked in. I AM however looking at better alternatives because i'm tired of BOA.
  - dangrossman 15y ago
    It seems worse than it is. I've had to switch every recurring bill I have to different banks/cards multiple times, and it always ends up taking less than an hour, probably less than half. Just pull up one month's statement and you have a list of every business you pay on a monthly basis. Go to each website (or call) and fill in the new payment info.
    - cpeterso 15y ago
      Yes, switching is not as arduous as it seems, especially if you pay bills online. I switched from Wells Fargo to a regional credit union last year. I recommend keeping your old bank account open for a few months just in case you forgot to switch some bills or have trouble with your new accounts. Better safe than sorry.
  - Drbble 15y ago
    We need an antitrust suit to lead to payment account number portability.
- SkyMarshal 15y ago
  > why not close the account and move to a less desperate bank? FTFY.

brown9-2 15y ago

Maybe this is a dumb or too personal of a question then, but why not close the account and move to a more competent bank? I don't understand why people continue to keep their money in an institution that they don't even seem to trust. There are far better choices out there.

jasonkester 15y ago
US bank accounts are hard to get if you don't live there (and don't have a several-month history of living there currently), but they're really handy to have. So until we can get a new account set up for my wife with a better bank, we're sorta stuck with them. It's painful, but even if they didn't refund the annoying $20/month fees they keep tacking on, it'd still be worth it just to keep the toehold.
mainguy 15y ago
For me, the switching cost of changing my gas bill, electricity bill, mortgage, credit card, Home phone, Cell phone, dentist, AWS account, heroku, mysafari, spotify, napster, hulu, engine yard, ... I know I'm just hitting a few here... to a new bank/card is a big enough disincentive to have me locked in. I AM however looking at better alternatives because i'm tired of BOA.
- dangrossman 15y ago
  It seems worse than it is. I've had to switch every recurring bill I have to different banks/cards multiple times, and it always ends up taking less than an hour, probably less than half. Just pull up one month's statement and you have a list of every business you pay on a monthly basis. Go to each website (or call) and fill in the new payment info.
  - cpeterso 15y ago
    Yes, switching is not as arduous as it seems, especially if you pay bills online. I switched from Wells Fargo to a regional credit union last year. I recommend keeping your old bank account open for a few months just in case you forgot to switch some bills or have trouble with your new accounts. Better safe than sorry.
- Drbble 15y ago
  We need an antitrust suit to lead to payment account number portability.
SkyMarshal 15y ago
> why not close the account and move to a less desperate bank? FTFY.