I received a letter the other day from Bank of America telling me they were going to charge me $69 a year to use my credit card. This is the same bank that received a huge bailout and made billions of dollars this last year. They’re whining because the Obama Administration made it harder for them to gouge their customers.
I told them to shove it. I canceled my card and had my retirement check , which used to go to B of A, sent to my local bank, who was happy to have it. I used to pay my bills through B of A and I spent a few hours on Thursday, setting up bill pay at my local bank.
What I’d like to see is a few hundred thousand B of A customers do the same when they get their card notice. Sometimes the only way to fight back is to take a little time, quit bellyaching, and take action.
That’s really the problem with a lot of Americans today. They love to complain, but rarely take any action.
I feel proud that I moved my money, but I need to update this. My retirement check was easily transferred from B of A to my local bank. But the money from my annuity did not get transferred to B of A. I wanted it there to cover incidentals.
A couple automatic withdrawals came into B of A and fortunately, I had enough cash to cover them. The problem was I was left with a balance of $22 and wasn’t sure if I had some other unaccounted for automatic withdrawals. (This is the reason I like to set up the paying of bills by me rather than the company)
I needed to get money into B of A right away, but I live 70 miles from the closest B of A. I decided to make an electronic bank transfer from my local bank to B of A. Easier said that done. It wouldn’t arrive until April 11 and it was now the 7th. I called B of A and they said there was no way they could take money from me over the phone even if I used a credit card or a check number. They told me to call my local bank.
While the local bank wasn’t quite sure how to do it, they tried a bunch of ways and believe it or not, in this technological world, there was no way I could transfer money directly from my local checking account to my B of A account.
But I have to tell you, my local bank is awesome. The manager called a person at the a branch next to the B of A branch and asked her if she’d take a cashiers check over to Bank of America and deposit it in my account. She agreed and within 10 minutes the money was in my B of A account. This is what you call real personal service.
I guess I should also post this to the blog instead of leaving is just as a comment.