Bank of America Can Charge You $140 In Fees In One Day

Bank of America can lift at least $140 in fees off a customer in one day if he or she doesn't have enough money in the bank.

That is the high cost of over-drafting a checking account at a cost of $35 per bounced charge. BofA caps at four the number of overdraft fees it charges in a day. Think that's bad? BB&T a regional bank in the Southeast, charges up to eight overdraft fees in one day for a total of $280 in fees. Let that overdraft roll over into a second day or more and the financial wreckage is considerable after additional charges and fees stack up.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is vowing to do something about it. This week the agency announced it is launching an inquiry into banks' practices for overdraft fees and is seeking public comment on a special disclosure box it has proposed to include in monthly bank statements to ensure that customers clearly understand the terms of their bank's overdraft policy.

Nearly 85 percent of overdraft fees are incurred by only nine percent of banking customers, and net billions of dollars in revenue for banks each year. Those who are repeat over-drafters tend to be younger and have less money than the average customer, say consumer advocates.

Is this is one more way to tax the poor for not having enough money?

What are your bank's fees? Take a look at this survey from Consumer Federation of America to see how your bank stacks up. If you have been unfairly hit with multiple overdraft charges, share your story with [e-mail].

"Overdraft practices have the capacity to inflict serious economic harm on the people who can least afford it," said Richard Cordray, the director of the CFPB, in prepared remarks. "We want to learn how consumers are affected and how well they are able to anticipate and avoid paying penalty fees."

Some of the biggest banks have already made settlements in class action lawsuits that charged that the banks purposefully manipulated customer transactions in order to maximize overdraft fees. But so far settlements from Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase have amounted to little more than wrist slaps.

Pressure from consumer groups to change overdraft policies could backfire. Bank experts say that removing or changing a fee in one place means a new or higher one somewhere else, like increasing A.T.M. charges or maintenance fees.

Comments

[msisco]

08:22 AM on 02/24/2012

Quite Simply- Balance your checking account and do not write checks that you do not have the money to cover. Fees are only applied if you let them be applied- take ownership America.

[nobodysgirl]

12:04 AM on 02/24/2012

Anyone who is still doing their business with BofA deserves every fee the masters throw at them.

enuf said

[smo1111]

10:29 PM on 02/23/2012

Dump the big banks...........enjoy the peace of mind.

[coffeebeaner]

09:45 PM on 02/23/2012

Overdraft accounts are high interest loans made to poor income individuals with poor financial management skills. Banks know there is big money to be made off of individuals who cannot pay off the high interest loans once they dig a hole too deep. The individual made the mistake of just being poor and ignorant. The bank didn't make a mistake. Their actions are intentional.

[h23154]

09:24 PM on 02/23/2012

It's not a charge for not having enough money, It's a charge for writing a check(s) you can't over from that account. It's not all right for them to manipulate timing of deposits, order of checks, etc. But the statements in here that imply people should be able to write bad checks are laughable. That it's just a relatively small % of people racking up these charges out to tell us that this is not a common problem and that there are people who can't manage their money or use bad checks as a means of delaying creditors.

[FoxIslander]

07:58 PM on 02/23/2012

....not me they won't...closed my accounts 8 months ago *does the "happy, happy, joy, joy" dance*

[cats530]

06:21 PM on 02/23/2012

P.U. There are a lot of bankster shills in the comments section of this thread.

[cats530]

06:21 PM on 02/23/2012

Anyone still doing business with this insolvent corrupt taxpayer-propped-up behemoth institution deserves what they get. They don't call it Bendover Amerika for nothing.

[J T K]

05:36 PM on 02/23/2012

After the BoFA settlement all banks are required to order their transactions first to last and overdraft has to be opt in with a disclosure before doing so. If people are still over drafting their asking for it and its their own fault not the banks'.

[cats530]

06:48 PM on 02/23/2012

I have to agree with you there...anyone who is still banking with a drug-money laundering, fraudclosuregate-involved, taxpayer bailed out, zombie, insolvent, Too Big To Fail bank IS DEFINITELY "asking for it" and it IS their own fault for doing business with these cr00ks.

[DUSAA-1775]

05:15 PM on 02/23/2012

Hopefully the CFPB will be able to get through to people who write checks they can't cover that the main reason for overdrafts is because you are writing checks that you can't cover.

Thank god we now have the CFPB to handle this part of education.

[Ed Baker]

04:51 PM on 02/23/2012

OD fees are self inflicted.

I love how HP again slams Warren Buffet's company. B of A actually has a cap - most community banks don't have one at all.

OD fees should be much higher - perhaps $100 per item.

[jack Winn]

06:33 PM on 02/23/2012

Not when banks manipulate the timing and order of deposits and charges to an account, after creating a variable charge policy that is impossible to understand or predict.

Presumably, banks charge to maximize their profit, not penalize ODers.

Class action suits are self-inflicted. If you don't want to be a named defendant, then don't give anybody a basis to say you're chiseling or defrauding an entire class of people.

[Ed Baker]

10:21 AM on 02/24/2012

Remember that account agreement you signed when you opened the account?

[CaitlinO]

03:12 PM on 02/23/2012

We'll never be ripped off by BOA, Wells, Chase or Citi because we have banked at the credit union for 3 decades. They order our transactions from smallest to largest and always put deposits ahead of withdrawals and charges. This means that we never have overdraft fees. There's no fee for checking, better rates on savings, CDs, credit cards and car loans.

Best of all, they always keep the home mortgage they make on their own books so every home borrower can sleep soundly at night knowing that the title to their homes hasn't been irrevocably clouded by MERS' and bank malfeasance.

Why anyone is still with a TBTF is absolutely beyond me.

[J T K]

05:33 PM on 02/23/2012

After the settlement BoFA and all other banks do as well.

[hoodie4u]

03:08 PM on 02/23/2012

Huffpo -- if BB&T can charge twice as much as BOA in one day, why is Bank of America in the headline? Kinda how Huffpo uses the name "Apple" in practically every Tech headline -- just pandering to the attention deficit readers.

[IDIOTA]

02:53 PM on 02/23/2012

Bank on America

[IDIOTA]

02:47 PM on 02/23/2012

Financial Aid is also a bank scam, but it wasn't this way 30 years ago.