BoA - another bank to avoid

If I recall correctly, I thought BoA was moving a bunch of jobs over to India. I have to say, I sure do appreciate speaking with someone in America when I call a company's customer service line. Nothing against foreigners culturally, I just appreciate American companies creating and preserving American jobs.

As I recall, Discover reps actually announce the location of their call center.

Maybe FIs can add another option to their menu:

Press pound to speak to a U.S. call center for a $1 surcharge ;-)

Bob

At this point I would appreciate ANY warm body with a clue.

The damned website enrollment is broken. I have been 'transferred' 3 times to 'someone who could help'. After being transferred the first time, there was a 45 min wait and then a disconnect. The second disconnect occurred much more "quickly" after ONLY 20 minutes.

The coup de gras? After call 3 the turkeys told me the joint account *I* applied for and *I* set up is listed with my hubby as 'primary'. They refused to go further until I can get him on the phone. Of course, they could not hold for the time it took till he got back to the office, so now I am on hold again.

The false security frosts me. Especially as any male voice can claim to be my hubby - so long as they have the info. So, since *I* have the info, why can't they work with me? You know, if hubby were unable to pay the flippin bill, you damn well better believe they would come after me for it. If I am liable for the bill, I should be able to retrieve the balance.

I had the identical problem. However, mine is now all straightened out. Try asking for the credit card department. I spoke to a wonderful woman who used to work for MBNA and has been transferred to BofA; her name is Eve Thompson, and she was extremely helpful and efficient in getting my name onto the account as a second "primary". Prior to speaking to her, I'd been on the phone for most of three days with no results.

Indeed I *hate* BofA as they were one of the creditors that I called for a payoff figure *and* a date that that figure was good for and then promptly wrote a check to pay my card off in full. I transfered all my balances to a "Cleansweep" account and have been making much progress in reducing my debt though there. Later, of the 4 credit cards I paid off in full that day. 2 of them claimed that I owed additional money in finance charges. I protested. The other company said "OK sure" and zeroed out and closed my account. Now remember I called and explicitly asled for the amount that I needed to pay off the count in full as of that moment *and *how long that would be good for and immediately wrote

4 online checks that were to arrive way before these "good 'til" dates - and arrive in time they did.

BofA insisted that I owed more due to "finance charges" and I refused to pay. I spoke to a rep and their supervisor and they insisted I owed more. I told them flat out that I asked for the pay off figure and the good 'till date and they said that I must have been told the wrong thing. I said "Good, then you'll have no qualms collecting the missing amount of money for your employee who made the mistake but I refuse to pay you anything more!". They told me they could not verify what happened during the phone call and I told them "Well I can verify it because unlike you - *I* was there!".

This went on for about 6 months. I composed a letter explaining the situation and wrote the big 3 credit reporting agencies to include my explanation and refusal to pay in my credit file. Then each month after that when I received a bill from BSofA (and I used that pun meaningfully here) I would simply included a copy of that letter and send them back their bill.

After about 6-8 months of this bullshit some other BSofA supervisor called me asking me why I wouldn't pay and I figured I'd relay the story one more time to this person. The "balance" had grown from some claimed $20-$40 of supposed finance charge to that of a $200+ figure. To my surprise this supervisor said that they'd reduce the balance to $0 and close the account to which they finally did. But quite certainly not without a good fight and a lot of annoyance on my part.

Of course recently I got a letter from BSofA stating that they are the proud owners of MBNA and thus my Cleansweep account is now managed by then. I am looking for other financial institutions to move my account to because I will no longer tolerate dealing with any f****ng lame assed and dishonest company such as BSofA and I recommend that everybody else do likewise. They are a complete and utter f****ng piece of crap financial institution and should be boycotted by all financially astute people, IMHO. They may be "treating you right" currently but IMHO it's only a matter of time before you receive similar treatment. Then again, perhaps you're not a person concerned about getting rammed up the ass by some corrupt financial institution but I will not let such companies do that to me!

I've been happy with Wells Fargo for several years.

"L" wrote in news:ODJ1h.5$ snipped-for-privacy@newsfe11.lga:

When I have problem with a bank's phone support, I walk into my local branch and get them involved. Usually they can contact the proper person without wading through the VRU. If they can't/won't I ask them why I should remain a customer if they can't fix a problem like this. That usually gets their attention.

Fortunately my bank, Wachovia, has been very good at getting a few minor glitches fixed, even though they are the 4th in a long line of mergers and acquisitions.

222 12780 body "L" wrote in news:ODJ1h.5$ snipped-for-privacy@newsfe11.lga:

When I have problem with a bank's phone support, I walk into my local branch and get them involved. Usually they can contact the proper person without wading through the VRU. If they can't/won't I ask them why I should remain a customer if they can't fix a problem like this. That usually gets their attention.

Fortunately my bank, Wachovia, has been very good at getting a few minor glitches fixed, even though they are the 4th in a long line of mergers and acquisitions.

It is nearing 2 weeks now, and I think it time that SEC auditors walk in unannounced to seize control.

I had 2 perfectly functioning MBNA credit card and one BoA. Since the MBNA website shut down:

- all 3 accounts are on the traditional BoA website.

- The Billpay tab shows only the MBNA accounts and banished the BoA account. Several long phone calls with tech support have yielded no results.

- The Account Detail tabs often show details from one of the other accounts.

- The servers are down more than they are up and I can see nothing of interest.

I will gradually start shutting them down by month-end in favor of HSBC, then maybe Fifth Third Bank, and will let all 3 credit rating agencies as well as FICO know why.

It is a mess, and email to BoA has gone unanswered.

Does anyone know how to add an MBNA acct to the BoA site? I lost my emailed instructions.

p.

For Billpay, that's just it, you can't. You have to Add a Merchant, but the list of merchants are only external companies or BoA subsidiaries.

Those who had both BoA and MBNA are having the most trouble. They are made even worse if your names did not match up exactly, or SSN's were at one bank and not the other, so they have to manually "combine profiles".

Ironically, cust service said they are going to change my BoA card number, though I have yet to get a new card. They also reissued one MBNA card in their name, but not the other. No consistency. None of them were anywhere near expiring.

A lot of their upper management needs to get fired. I can forgive this for a day or two, but not 2 weeks. Probably too much IT sent to India. It is one thing to send day-to-day operations and maintenance there, but not a massive conversion effort. There is not enough institutional know how.

Another probably was the simultaneous spin-off of their credit card operations to a subsidiary.

Thanks. That is the email they sent. I've run through the paces and it simply takes me to the BOA site. I still see no way to add the MBNA card. Still no answer to my email of 4 days ago. Just sent another.

p.

Yeppers. This, indeed, was the problem with getting online access.

I had TWO cards accessible on the MBNA website.

BoA acquired ONE of the cards. When I "re-applied" for online access, the BoA site came up with the message that there were additional account(s) with BoA. And, it stopped dead until details were provided for that 'additional account'.

The second CC evidentally was not the account that was wanted.

Hubby and I wracked our brains trying to figure out when BoA had opened an account for us. We certainly weren't ever BoA customers (at least, not by choice).

SIX HOURS into the whole process (including 4 phone calls with 45 minute wait times) we *finally* got a service representative on the line who was willing to do a bit of research. Evidentally, the account number BoA needed was an account created years ago. An account that has had no activity. An account that did not belong to BoA at the time. An account where the statements are mailed to a joint-trustee (who is the primary on that account). BoA linked that account internally with my mastercard (which is why they needed my husband in order to undo the mess. The mastercard belonged to both of us, the estate account shared between him and a second person).

It could happen. But it would take a lot of folks cancelling their accounts before BoA would even notice an issue.

Yeah, I suspect there is a ton of accounts that even though opened with one institution, in reality belong to another. My Sears account is suspect. It has become a MC. When I chose my id for online access (one I use for other accounts) it came up as already used. The representative said they 'shared online ids' with another FI website. And the website has disabled online statement viewing for two weeks (suspiciously at the same time as the BoA takeover of MBNA accounts).

I had 2 perfectly functioning MBNA credit card and one BoA. Since the MBNA website shut down:

- all 3 accounts are on the traditional BoA website.

- The Billpay tab shows only the MBNA accounts and banished the BoA account. Several long phone calls with tech support have yielded no results.

- The Account Detail tabs often show details from one of the other accounts.

- The servers are down more than they are up and I can see nothing of interest.

I will gradually start shutting them down by month-end in favor of HSBC, then maybe Fifth Third Bank, and will let all 3 credit rating agencies as well as FICO know why.

============================= I concur .. I'm glad I'm not the only one having problems.

My accounts with MBNA included three credit cards, three money market accounts and two IRA CDs. I've been with them for years and have always been delighted with Customer Support .. easy to reach and changes could be made quickly and easily.

Okay, I've got a bad attitude toward BoA since a former employer for went bankrupt and BoA (who had made a loan to said company) confiscated all company accounts, including those holding employee FLEX funds, costing me over $1000 .. so I wasn't happy about the transfer to start with.

Within days of the initial takeover of accounts (right after having been notified by a 10-page booklet spelling out new fees and restrictions on my credit card accounts) one of our credit card accounts was accessed by someone with inside knowledge (enough to be able to change all info on our account online). Only found out when I logged onto the site to check balances and transacations (okay, I'm a little anal about credit card security) and found new addresses and several new (large) charges on the card. It took over three weeks to get a replacement card and involved calls nearly every day. The first replacement was sent to one of the bogus addresses (even after I had confirmed what the real address was twice). They said it had gone to my current address .. only found out when UPS called me becuase they were unable to deliver to the other address. Everyone seemed very friendly and helpful (after long waits on the phone) but nothing ever got done right.

Have been closing down IRA CDs as they mature. Each requires phone calls, long waits and transfers and a letter requesting rollover closure. It took them three weeks to get me the funds after one IRA was closed and I'm waiting to see how long the second one will take.

FedEx'd letters to the address given for account closures in order to close the three Money Market accounts and BoA signed for the delivery on 10/24. As of the end of last week (and after long holds and several transfers on the phone) no one had heard of my request and they put it in requesting that it be "expedited." Two accounts have now disappeared from online banking and I'm waiting to see how long it takes before the checks come in. The third is still online. Spent over 45 minutes yesterday getting transferred around again only to find that the account is still open and no one can tell me why since the computers "just went down" and I should call back again tomorrow. I'm ready to write a check for all but $1 of the account balance just to get it out of there and re-invested elsewhere.

I've never dealt with such incompetence (and I've been dealing with banks and investments for a long time now). I've been documenting daily and will be happy to share that info with the credit agencies and FICO as well.

Have gotten a credit card from another bank and cancelled the one that started all of this (at least I could do that on the phone .. interestingly they won't let you do it by letter (as required for account closure) because "anyone could send in a letter"). Wachovia has taken their credit card servicing back in house (thank God). Only keeping the third card right now because it's in my name and I want to have one that I'm "primary" on just in case anything happens to my husband. When I can line up another one (card, not husband ), that one's gone as well.

I'm running away from them as fast as I can, but they sure don't make it an easy (or quick) process!

Deb

I have had some success with Nations Bank tonight. I completely disabled all 5 accounts (one Bank of America and four MBNA). I then went to Nations Bank website and found statements on 4 of the accounts which had transactions. One by one Quicken helped me build the cross reference. The fifth account has not had any transactions for the last twelve months. So basically I have Web Connect working, but I am still not able to get Web Connect to work through One Step Update.

Cheers!