To Bank of America, in the immortal words of Bart Simpson,

"EAT MY SHORTS!"

Regretting my decision to keep my accounts with them rather than opening accounts with a local credit union in Anchorage since BofA does not have a presence in Alaska.

Received first pay check and sign on bonus Friday, physical checks rather than direct deposit. Decided to use the BofA mobile app to deposit. So open the app, usual notice of deposited funds not available until next business day, blah, blah, blah, ok I can live with that. Go to take pictures on my phone of the check to deposit, should be easy right?

But no!!!!! Repeated attempts ending in messages of unable to capture image, please use different background, lighting, etc. blah, blah, blah... Woodgrain table in break room, nope. Checkerboarded tablecloth in break room, nope. Fake granite countertops in break room, nope. Epoxy floor in locker room, nope. Fake leather chair in exam room, nope. Finally after going into an open trauma bay laid my check on the stretcher and turned on both overhead operating room lights that are brighter than the glare off of Mr Clean's head during the summer solstice in Phoenix, their app is finally able to capture the check image. Does this qualify my paycheck as a Level I Trauma?

Check online balance last night; $200 credited to account with the remaining balance to be credited on Friday, November 9th. WTF? One week does not equate to next business day.

Call customer service this morning. Politely explain the situation and ask if anything can be done about the hold placed on my deposit. Laquisha in South Carolina (no, I'm to making this up), states that she can sympathize with my frustration of having to wait because she gets frustrated having to wait in line to get her chicken at Popeye's, but there's nothing she can do about it since it's the weekend and asks that I call back in a couple of days. Then I asked Laquisha how frustrated she would be when she couldn't wait in line at Popeye's because the Man was keeping her money. Laquisha had no answer.

Yes, actually introduced herself as Laquisha in South Carolina. I guess this is Bank Of America's way of dealing with negative stereotypes of overseas call centers. I'm sorry, quite the opposite effect with me. I'm listening to her and having mental images more politically incorrect than Apu in Quickie Mart and June Cleaver in Airplane.

So stranded in Anchorage without access to my paycheck. Think I'll go out to Three Bears Alaska Outpost, buy a hockey puck and name it Wilson.

I have felt your pain.

I tried banking with BOA several years ago by transferring several thousand dollars from my Pennsylvania CU into a new BOA account in Tucson.

But...BOA kept changing the rules I had agreed to. Kept charging my account for "Maintenance fees" and for other surcharges.

6 months of that and I had enough. I insisted that BOA wire transfer all remaining monies back to PA CU.

That too was hassle.

Went to BoA once. Wanted a money order to send overseas and the Post Office was closed. It cost me $6 and 15 minutes.

I asked the teller why in the world would I join their bank if their service was that bad?

Wells Fargo is no better. I keep $1,000 in Wells to Access while traveling. The balance of my cash is in a small regional bank that has great customer service but may not be accessible everywhere. It’s easy to ach dollars to Wells with no hold.

When BOA started issuing credit cards to illegal aliens I decided I was done with them. On occasion I do have to drop off deposits for my employer though. The last time I did I went by the closest branch and found that they had closed all the drive through lanes permanently, even placing coverings over the windows. Anyhow, I walked in and stood in line for more than 15 minutes to see the single window attendant. She looked at the deposits and rang a bell for some other douche to come take a look. He counted them out and say " you have nine deposits and we can only process five at a time at this branch so you'll have to bring the other four back tomorrow" and slipped them back through the slot. I shit you not. It's like they're doing customers a favor by taking they're deposits. But hell I'm on the clock so I just drive over to another branch and finish the deposit. The experience did reinforce my decision to never again conduct personal business with these fools.

I still can’t comprehend how ANYONE banks with BOA. They’re garbage. And I’ve never even used them.

Credit unions are the answer.

Years ago, when I bought the V-Tail, I arranged the loan through AOPA (Aircraft Owners & Pilots Association, think "NRA for Pilots"). Their affiliated bank was MBNA.

I never had a problem with MBNA. They were always professional, courteous, did not aggravate me.

That all changed when Bank of America acquired MBNA. Things went downhill in a hurry.

They finally annoyed me to the point where I got the money from another source, get a cashier's check, and sauntered in to a Bank of America branch. I went to the branch manager, told her that I was there to make payment in full, and I would like a receipt.

She started to give me all kinds of crap. Once I thought it through and realized what a problem it would be if I shot her, I did the next best thing. I whipped out my phone, took a photo of her, took a photo of the cashier's check on her desk next to her nameplate, and told her to either process the check or shove it up her ass, I didn't care which, and I turned around and walked out, leaving the check on her desk.

She called after me, "You can't do that!"

I turned around and said, "I just did," and continued out the door. A week or so later I received the loan satisfaction documents in the mail.

I typically will find another bank when I encounter these kinds of issues. If you are going to be in Anchorage for more than a few months I would open an account with a local bank or credit union.

Ask around and find out who the locals use, and what the policies are on the things you care about. Most branch managers can waive fees and make exceptions.

Dumped them years ago when they took weeks to replace my credit card which they claimed was a subject of fraudulent charges. They outright lied to me when they claimed as a Preferred Customer the CC would be expedited. After claiming it was sent they could not supply a tracking number. In the end I found it was sent via First class mail.

I soon dumped them. They closed all of their drive through They closed a few branches so they became less valuable to my wife and myself. The only reason we stayed that long was a teller was a next door neighbor.

Most of my banking is now done with a credit union. Only downside is that they have few branches and recently stopped refunding ATF fees for a non connected withdrawal.

In Michigan:
Michigan National Bank was my bank for many years. Independence Mortgage was their housing lender.
Michigan National sold off Independence to Norwest Bank. Norwest Bank sold their mortgage holdings to Wells Fargo. What a joke that was. Tried to do a re-fi with them in 2003 and they refused because the amount of the mortgage was "too low" their exact words even though I said we were house shopping. So I went with another mortgage company. Just before the closing for the new mortgage W-F called and asked why we did not use them. That was an very fun call for me to answer, don't think he expected me to unload on him. And as a P.S. six months later we found our new house and the mortgage was not through W-F obviously. Guess he did not believe me.

Now to the Michigan National Bank debacle. They were a great bank all of the years we used them until they merged with Standard Federal Savings and Loan and became Standard Federal Bank. Service went downhill and fees went up. They sold out to LaSalle Bank out of Chicago. Never though service could get worse, how wrong I was. Final straw to break the Camel's back was an attempt to charge me $28 to cancel an automatic withdrawl for the house payment on the re-fi house when it finally sold. A condescending branch manager's very loud remark was the final blow, I cited that about a month later after waiting for all checks written on that account to clear. Since that, B of A bought out LaSalle. Great, they deserve each other.

They bought my mortgage from Countrywide years ago. I had made double and triple payments for years, and had about 3300 left to payoff. The assholes sent the sheriff a notice of foreclosure. Took about 80 hours on the phone to get it corrected. I finally got a letter of apology and the deed with no further payments. Idiots.

quote:

Does this qualify my paycheck as a Level I Trauma?

Sure but you can expect the bill for the trauma case.

"Mahk" doesn't like Bank of America either.

https://youtu.be/Jl-XVqcJA7s

I do my banking through USAA and Pentagon Federal Credit Union but I do keep a Chase account open as there are numerous branches all over. I can't imagine having to deal with BoA or WF.

Mobile deposit for Chase and USAA are excellent.

I think it's time for you to switch banks.

I had BoA prior to moving to Anchorage. The website showed they had 1 branch in all of Alaska and it was 3 minutes from my house.

I pulled in the parking lot and it was a Countrywide branch (i.e. the mortgage company BoA was strong armed into acquiring by the Fed and Bush Administration). Zero traditional banking at that branch.

I walked in Northrim's HQ (it was on C Street last time I was in town), and opened an account by writing a check from my BoA acct. I had a good experience with Northrim.

I finally dumped the big name banks last year and went to a local credit union. So happy. They offer me everything the others could without the BS.
If you're in NoVA and looking for a credit union, I highly recommend Apple FCU (nothing to do with Apple computer). Let me refer you and we both get a $25 bonus.

Just assume this will happen each time you make a mobile deposit.
Time to change banks.

BofA recently closed without warning a checking account I had with them. It had been dormant for a few years, and had less than $10 in it, but I'm still a little pissed that they gave me no opportunity to get my money out of it.

When they started opening accounts accepting Mexican Consulate ID cards as proof of identity (when even the Mexican government didn’t consider them as valid ID) I closed my accounts and told them why.

Never looked back.

Now every time I hear a BofA rant I just smile and think to myself folks ought not be surprised.

Anyone who says “BofA sucks, but for x,y,z reason I stayed with them...” deserves what they get, they knew better but did nothing about it.

Finally got my wife to close her account with those criminals. She switched to a local credit union and says she wishes she’d listened to me years ago. The mob wishes they could get away with the shit BoA and WF do.