SWB
Senior Member
- Joined
- Apr 2, 2007
- Messages
- 167
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Last night I spent over two hours on the phone with a Bank of America rep trying to figure out why I was being charged over-limit fees that I couldn't actually see. Essentially it works like this: My balance at the end of the billing cycle was $2,079 (my limit is $2000). So, I realize I'm over my limit and need to pay it down. My next payment is due on the 18th of the month (four days before the end of that billing cycle), so on the 18th I pay $80 to cover the minimum payment and bring my account back under the limit ($1,999). No other transactions show up until the 22nd, which is the end of the billing cycle. Suddenly there's an overlimit fee, which claims to be based on my balance at the beginning of the cycle ($2,079). The problem is, it lists the "transaction date" for the overlimit fee as the 13th, but the fee itself was never visible on my account until the 22nd. If I would've known about the fee on the date it was applied (the 13th), I could've adjusted my $80 payment to cover it, thus avoiding the fee altogether. So I call Bank of America and ask why I wasn't able to see the fee. They tell me that it says on each statement that you have 20 days from the beginning of your cycle to lower your balance below the limit, in which case you will avoid an overdraft fee. Conveniently, my payment due date is always at the end of the cycle, and thus after the 20 day "grace period." I ask the rep why I'm not made aware of the fee when it is actually applied, and he tells me that it doesn't matter because they warned me about it on the previous statement. This completely contradicts my online statement, however, which claims to show me "All Transactions" for the current cycle. If I log in on the 13th and view "All Transactions", I should be able to see the overlimit fee (that eventually is posted with a "transaction date" of the 13th). Yet it isn't visible for 9 more days until the cycle ends, at which point my real balance is shown. I tell the rep that if I log in and it says I'm viewing both "all transactions" and my "current balance", then I should be able to see a fee when it is created, and I definitely should be able to see my real balance. Essentially this means that BoA is hiding the fee from me for over a week, not reflecting it on my balance, and lying about showing me "all" my transactions. The only answer the rep gives me to this is that they told me about the hypothetical application of the fee on my previous statement and therefore it doesn't matter whether I can see it when it actually happens. My question is, is this legal? Do I have any basis for taking them to small claims court? The problem is, if for 9 days out of every month I'm unable to see my actual balance or the actual fees being applied to it, then I lose my ability to accurately gauge what kind of payments I need to be making to keep the account under the limit. As a result, these fees just snowball. Ironically, the "late payment" fees appear instantaneously, whether or not they are "pending". The rep told me that overlimit fees are the only BoA fee that is not actually visible to the account holder when it is applied, despite the online banking menu's claim that you are in fact viewing all transactions.