I know [a lot](http://www.jayallen.org/journey/2004/07/bank_of_america_sucks) [of folks](http://liberalserving.typepad.com/liberalserving/2005/09/bank_of_america.html) [have had trouble](http://www.rateitall.com/i-10199-bank-of-america.aspx) with [Bank of America](http://www.bankofamerica.com). So far, knock on wood, I’m not one of them.
We opened our accounts (both personal and business) in Connecticut when it was Fleet Bank before we moved and since BoA is *everywhere* it was easy to pick right up here. My accounts all switched over completely to BofA at the end of June and so far, I’m not disappointed.
First lesson: Don’t [talk to an online bot.](http://ponzarelli.com/blog/_archives/2005/9/25/1255721.html) Pick up the phone. Every time I’ve done so, I’ve spoken to a human being at BoA in under 3 minutes and I’ve never ended a phone conversation dissatisfied. If anything, I’ve been very pleasantly surprised at the level of service I received. Online chats for anything other that routine sales questions are a disaster. Not just with BoA, I’m talking about Dell and every other company that has tried it. Can you imagine having a conversation where you say a sentence…wait…wait…wait…the other person answers with a question, you answer the question…wait…wait…wait…they come back, you answer…wait…wait…wait… It’s maddening! It’s doesn’t work. Either send an email or pick up the phone, you’ll be much happier in the long run.
BoA’s online banking and Quicken integration is the best of any bank that I’ve ever been with. I’m comparing it to [Peoples](http://www.peoples.com), Fleet, [First County](http://www.firstcounty.com) and [Emigrant](http://www.emigrant.com) which are the other banks I have experience with. BoA’s website features blow them all away and work reliably. When I started with my new BoA account, they charged me $6.95 to use it with Quicken. I called to complain, as I wasn’t told there was a charge. The CSR reviewed my accounts and offered to move me to a plan that had free Quicken *and* a little better interest to boot without costing me a dime and she refunded the $6.95. What’s wrong with that?
As our personal and business needs have changed, I’ve called BoA to discuss our situation and each time, the CSR has guided me towards options that maximize our money for minimum fees. Minimal upsell. Like I said, no complaints.
Note: I don’t have any credit cards with them and I ignore all direct mail promotions. That probably helps my opinion tenfold.
Judi Sohn 
4 responses to “Bank of America doesn't suck. At least for me. So far.”
I have had no life-altering problems with Bank of America, but I do feel they are taking advantage of me. They are nickle and diming me to death. They sell my name to cedit card companies- I get 3 calls a week from people with “special offers” calling me a “valued Bank of America customer” (valued indeed). My credit score is 720 and my credit card rate was lifted to 18% (no i didnt miss a payment, had I done that- they would raise it to 34%). There are unanticipated transaction delays, they don’t show you the current days e-bills-nor do they mention their pending withdrawel.. so unless you know exactly what’s going on, it’s an accident waiting to happen. And their savings account rate is 0.5%. 0.5%?!?!?!?!? Well obviously they arent too interested in you having a savings account.
I found this site while looking for a bank that doesn’t suck, but offers a good online banking service. Top-notch online banking service just isn’t worth this feeling of being used ):
Just wait! Be VERY careful with BofA. We had 2 personal accounts, 2 business accounts, a boat loan and a mortgage with BofA. We found out(in 2004) that our bookkeeper was stealing money from our business. She had been stealing since 1998. She would alter checks that BofA accepted. She paid herself 2 pay checks a week, etc. No one at BofA said a word. For 6 &1/2 years, no one thought anything was odd. BofA repossed our boat, because of 1 payment being late. They did not follow the “rules” of repossession and when we went to claim it back and pay for it… they said it was already sold…3 days after the repossession! They also tried to foreclose on our home…twice! We were lucky to have my parents. When we caught the bookkeeper, I wrote all of BofA’s “top dogs” to explain what happened. I got NO response from the 8+ letters that I wrote. All our local branch (who cashed the checks) would say is “I thought she just made alot of $$. A bookkeeper does not make $60-80,000/ a year!
Watch out for this bank. They will never admit any wrong doing and they do not care about anything but the almighty dollar!
News for you, bofa does sucks. their employess, at least most of them, have tons of salary doing s***, and have no clue of customer service. if i were you, i would withdraw my fund before something do happen.
again, MOST employees, NOT ALL. also, avoid any investment products from bofa. their analysts are bunch of i-fund expert, who got rejected from other IB firms, like citibank, goldman and other real IB companies.
do you know why they tag you with hefty charges with small chump return??? ask their salaries, that’s why….
Bank of America will advertise on TV if you are having trouble with your payments just call us and we will work with you. THEY WILL NOT WORK WITH YOU. Because of health reasons my wife and I were not able to use our RV anymore and cannot keep up the payments. We called bofa and talked to them several times trying to work out an arrangement where we could give them a small lump sum payment and the Rv and they refused to even talk about it so we gave them back the RV quit making payments and they sold it at a small amount and now demand we pay the balance. Learn to whistle dixie BofA we have no income other that railroad retirement and have no assets to attach. I know they will try their dirty tactics , but we have a good lawyer.