Worst Practices: Bank of America Online Banking
Posted on December 2, 2006 | Tags:
[NOTE: Since posting this and emailing the customer support unit, some of these concerns have actually been addressed. Kudos to Bank of America for listening to their customers and actively developing their online banking system.]
As part of my move from Brooklyn to the remote State of Jefferson region of Northern California — see the video below — I’ve had to change banks. I’ve been a nonplussed Citibank customer since they got me when I moved to New York City for college, but there are no branches in my area. Since Chapter Three banks with Bank of America — after Washington Mutual let us down, I might add — it seemed it would probably be advantageous to do the same myself.
Over the past month, I’ve been incredibly frustrated with their online banking system, especially as an individual who designs and builds web applications for a living. It exhibits numerous worst practices, and although I’m sure they’re dealing with a lot of complexity, legacy issues, and other concerns, I find it hard to believe that a Fortune 500 company with over $200B in market capitalization which is heavily marketing their online banking service would provide such a lackluster tool.
Here are some specific examples that have been driving me batty:
The Messaging System
There’s a sort of in-site messaging system which allows you to communicate with customer service. It’s a good thing to let your customers communicate with you, but Bank of America’s system is very poorly implemented.
Essentially, when I receive a communication from the customer service staff, I get an email that tells me there’s a message waiting. It doesn’t contain the message which is annoying, but could be a security measure. However, it also doesn’t contain a link to a login form which redirects to the message. Essentially, the message is just a note that something has happened, and encourages me to log in to the system.
Then, if I do that, there’s no notification when I log in that there’s a new message. There’s a small “mail” link in the header, easily missed in B of A’s cluttered interface, and not in anyway highlighted when there are unread messages. The same link is also buried “read messages from customer support” link in the customer service section, where I was going to find it before I realized it was in the header as well.
This is not how you communicate with your customers. Indeed the cynic in me thinks this may not be accidental — less communication means less customer support costs — but in any event it’s something to learn from if communication is something you’re after:
- If you’re sending email alerts, put the message in the email if possible.
- If users need to log-in to read the message or reply, supply a direct link in the email alert.
- Notify when they log-in if there are unread messages. They may not have even seen your email alert.
Input Munging
Any online banking system is going to require you to input a lot of account info, and a well-designed system will help the user out when dealing, for instances, with spaces and dashes in account numbers. Their system utterly fails to do this.
When trying to set up an automatic payment from my Bank of America checking account to a Bank of America-owned credit card, entering my 16-digit account number (which I shouldn’t have had to do in the first place, more on that later) as XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX doesn’t work, and the error message doesn’t alert me to a possible formatting problem, just to check my paper statement. I’m wondering if maybe there’s a second number (other than the one on my card) that I’m not aware of.
But no, a little trial and error shows that the system requires the account number to be entered as XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, the reverse of what most online merchants ask for when you’re paying for something.
The point here is that it’s a fantastically simple operation to analyze the input string and normalize the data before trying to match it against whatever system they use to set up the payment. Whether a user enters the system as 16 straight digits or with spaces or dashes, the app should be able to figure out what’s going on.
Account Integration
Bank of America’s online banking system is full of crossed wires, likely a result of poorly managed systems integration efforts as they’ve acquired new accounts. Integrating legacy systems is one of the most difficult things to do, but it’s still no excuse for doing it poorly. Here are a few examples:
- Clicking on one of my accounts on the overview page sometimes brings me to the details screen for a different account.
- An auto-payment created under a previous system is still functioning, but not listed anywhere in the new system.
- Creating a new payment from one account within the system to another requires re-entry of all account information when it should be a 1-click exercise.
The first point is just sloppy. Clicking on one account and landing on another is probably some kind of keying error at the interface level. It doesn’t happen every time, but more often than not. This is the sort of thing that should have been fixed right away in a QA or beta-testing cycle.
The lack of successful integration on the payment system is both a major flaw and an example of how not to manage a systems migration. One of the worst things you can do in these situations is have critical activity going on that is hidden from the user. In my case, I have an autopayment that seems to be out of my control, which could lead to an overdraft on my old checking account.
This also illustrates one of the cardinal rules of integration: if it’s not broke don’t fix it, and if you’re not improving things don’t kill the old system. The previous system I used to create my autopayments was easy to understand and well designed. The new system is clumsy, requires re-entry of account information (another sloppy oversight), and glaringly doesn’t show previous autopayments which are still firing.
Since the old system is offline, I’m stuck communicating with customer service through a sub-par messaging interface (my first point) to try and work things out and prevent a future overdraft.
RRRRAAAAAAAAAR!
Conclusion
To be fair, there are a few nice features in Bank of America’s system. They have an innovative anti-phishing system which displays a custom photo and tagline when you log-in. This doesn’t mean much to me as I’m savvy enough to spot phishing attacks, but for the average user it’s a nice touch.
The breadth of the billpay system is also ambitious. There are many many options here, and if the interface were better I might use it for all my bills. However, until the system improves, I’ll stick with using my debit card or checking account+routing number directly with the folks to whom I own money.
Unwittingly, I’ve given B of A a monopoly over my financials: they recently bought out MBNA — celebrated with a rocking executive jam session — issuer of my Linux Fund credit card, so I’m stuck with it and have to learn to use their tool. Hopefully my pain can be your gain!
Oh my god.. this craziness
Oh my god.. this craziness still continues.. they suck.. boa has the worst online experience int he world..
1. their balances are never current!!
2. they keep routing I spoke to 6 people over 2hrs trying to solve access to my credit card statements!! they suck big time.. I am going to shutdown my BoA credit card!! and ask everybody to stay away from these guys..
Very very frustrated BoA (exBoA) customer!!
do any of you have
do any of you have suggesstions for better banks i hate bank of america too!
BOA has the worst online banking system bar none
I am a web application developer for IBM and graduated w/ honors w/ a degree in Comp Sci. I have some 8-9 credit cards (way too many, I know) and do ALL of my banking/bill-paying online. I experience more problems and outtages w/ BOA’s online systems than all the other ones combined. I haven’t had the overdraft/interest-rate problems others have had, but I am paying off the account and closing it to avoid all the problems with their website. (and by the way this statement is current of today 12/12/07.. I need to make a payment and it’s down again.. it’s gotten better over the past 12 mos… but it’s still the worst).
deception proved to be true
So, in efforts to “test” bank of america’s suspected deceptive banking practices, I did a little experiment. I kept $70 in my checking account and made 6 random purchases all totalling about 30 dollars, leaving $40 in my account. All of these charges were purchased between 10 am and 4 pm on a wednesday. I deposited a check for $100 into another account at a different bank at about noon that day, knowing it would take at anywhere between 3 hours and one day to clear. So, I kept checking my balance all throughout the day, and all 6 purchases were covered. Here’s where it gets interesting.
Apparently the check cleared some time after 8 pm that day, because that was the last time I checked, and until then it hadn’t cleared. I check my account the next morning, and low and behold I see 7 overdrafts on my account. I couldn’t believe it!!! I called and asked what the procedure was on debiting accounts and the guy explained that they take the highest purchase of the day and take that out first, then the rest. So, even though you have money in your accound and make 15 purchases that are COVERED, if you make one that is not, you get charged for all of them. I had him write a statement that said their practices are deceptive and BOA is losing a long-time paying customer because of it. He was really nice and was sympathic because “he is a banking customer as well” and he understands the frustration. He then said that corporate would be contacting me, and if there was anything else he could do for me. So we’ll see. I CAN’T BELEIVE IT!!!
Me TOO!!!
Finally, someone who understands my frustration.
So, it’s not just me that’s being taken advantage of by Bank of America!
We’re in the middle of our conflict with BOA right now.
It took months for us to pick up on their practices. But, this final episode was the last straw.
Our “latest” saga begins with four overdraft fees. For those of you who pay bills like we do, that amounts to one water bill and a cell phone bill being paid. :)
We made a deposit at our beloved BOA-cash mind you-on a Saturday. And, for some reason, this particular deposit was held. (I say that because this isn’t typical. Normally, they’ll allow us to have all of a cash deposit, and $100 of other deposits.)
Meanwhile, we made four transactions with our debit card. All went through fine. But, later that day, a check cleared taking our account into the negative. (Cash Deposit held :( )
So, because of the way in which BOA posts “important” transactions first, the check cleared first (even though it really didn’t) and all four of the debit/ATM transactions were charged overdraft fees.
This is the story of our life.
And, believe me, they’ve done this to us on five or six different occasions during our year plus of banking with them.
I didn’t think they could get by with this. But, what do I know?
For the sake of all that is good in the world, I’m contacting the Office of the Comptroller to see about filing a complaint. And then, who knows, maybe a class action lawsuit!!!! Na, those things only work for other people.
bank of america worst place to work for
I worked for Bank fo America for approx. 1 year. After exceptional employee performance reviews I was terminated for making a complaint about an atm machine. For about 1 week our building’s atm machine was not working. I called the associate banking department to advise them of the situation since I was trying to deposit money all week and had bills to pay. Several of which I had mailed already one morning (mailbox right outside the bldg walk 5 feet through the door and there is the atm) but every time I went back to the atm there was a sign saying be back at 5pm, will be fixed in am, coming back at 3pm…etc. After the second day of this non-sense I felt I should be proactive and let someone know what was going on incase one of my bills was presented for payment. I called the associate banking department and spoke to a Chris Salazar. Not only did he accuse me of floating checks (which is not the case because I told him the mailbox is outside the bldg I work in then you walk into the bldg and there is the atm machine) he was totally rude, refused to let me talk to someone of authority, and sat there in silence for almost 5 minutes until I requested to be transferred to the survey in which we can overall rate our satisfaction of the call. Finally when I asked for the survey he transferred me to his manager. (obviously because he knew that what he had done was totally unprofessional) When I talked to his manager she was very nice and just told me to go to a banking center…(as if I didn’t know what to do at that point..seriously)regardless I still asked to be transferred to the survey. When I got back to my desk and told my manager what had happened he reply was “those bastards”! Two days later my manager and the VP of the department said I was being terminated for using profanity with the associate Chris Salazar and his manager. I tried to explain again what had happened and was told not to go any further that this was done and over with!!! My manager didn’t say one word about how I told her what had happened. I told them I wanted proof of this because they monitor their calls in this department. They couldn’t provide any proof of course ( because I never acted this was and there was no tape of the conversation) the kicker is that my manager Margaret Bailey brought me to her cubicle three days earlier for an employee review. HA she told me that I actually exceeded expectations when it came to interacting with other departments. BANK OF AMERICA IS A JOKE. THEY SCREW YOU WHEN YOU ARE A CUSTOMER AND AN EMPLOYEE!!!!!
B of A is Terrible at helping their customers
I started with B of A because they were the best at customer service and would deal with things as if they were human. Boy have things changed. I get charge all kinds of illegitimate charges, I have had my interest rate on my credit card raised into default with no reason (34%). I am sick of corporate America thinking they can steal from the little guys constantly because they put it in some 4 pt text in an agreement, that for all intents and purposes is impossible to read! B of A doesn’t care if you go somewhere else, they don’t care about their customers and will not until they have none left. Boycott Bank of America. Don’t let them make a victim out of you!
BoA Online Banking Debits
Here is what I am looking for and I am wondering if Bank of America offers: My current bank will try to debit my account for an online bill pay that is scheduled. If the money is not available to pay that bill the bank charges me $30 for each bill scheduled. I get VERY busy sometimes and have a LOT of automated payments and sometimes don’t get these deferred when I need to. But if the funds are not available I want the payment to just NOT BE PAID rather than my account charged for an “overdraft” that I did not commit. Any thoughts?
Oh yeah, they'll charge you.
Find another bank.
Bank of America- shoddy practices, unfair dealings
Whatever you do, don’t rely on BOA to resolve your bill payment without overdrafts. They changed that after doing a sweetheart transition year after purchasing the Fleet banks. Now they change policies to keep up with the consumer catching on. If you adapt, they’ll adapt again. It’s fees, fees, fees.
Online Banking messages?
I have been trying to send (well, they are supposedly sent successfully) messages through their online message system, but after a week and 6 messages sent, I have had utterly NO REPLY whatsoever. Anyone PLEASE post an email address for me? I am out of the country and cannot call them at the moment. Their 100% lack of response (they promise to reply within 12 hours) is driving me mad!! My interest payments depend on being able to contact them.
B of A
Another basic deficiciency in B of A’s practices isthat it provides different answers to the same questions depending on whom one happens to get on the phone. Something that is impossible for one bank representative is seen as routine and doable by another. This reflects a problem with basic employee training and competence. As competence errodes, B of A can expect to lose customers.
sad bank customer
b.o.a is killing me with fees also.
i keep a good eye on my checking account.but this bank seems to love to give 35 dollar fees .like the other day for example.
my paycheck was direct deposited into my account at 12:01 am $600.00 dollars,wich gave me a balance of 602.00
dollars.at 4:00 am a $16.00 dollar check and a $37.00 dolar check went thru. the bank returned both of them and
charged me two 35 dollar fees.
i called the next morning to see why this happened, and they said even thou my money was in there. it wasent officialy in there. until 9.00 am. so basicly from what there are telling me i officialy had no money in the bank to cover the checks.and they bounced them.Oh yes the lady on the phone was a bitch. all she kept saying to me was.
IS THERE ANYTHING ELSE I CAN HELP YOU WITH with a very nasty tone in her voice
i hate this bank
dont bank with them
Bad design of online bill pay
I have been a BoA customer for the past 3 years. In Feb I paid my BoA Visa card using BoA online banking. It was the first time I used their online bill pay. Two months later, I logged back into BoA and was surprised to find out the credit card balance in March was not paid and there were finance charge and the late fee. For as long as I owned a credit card, I have always made the payment full and in time. I then realized I did not receive my Visa card statements for the months of March and April. I called customer service and was told I selected “e-bill” in Feb, the same day when I made the first online payment. I told them I DID NOT do that, otherwise I would not forget to pay my bill. They told me the only thing they can do is to waive half of the late fee and transfered me to online banking department. The support person explained that in order to make an online payment, the payee has to be added to e-bill and obviously the system does that automatically without notifying the user! He makes it sounds like I should have read the “instructions” (which are not there) more carefully instead of admitting it’s a bad design. I made the decision to cancel my Visa card with BoA right after I hang up. I don’t want to deal with a system where everytime I submit a transaction I have to check if everything else is intact! And guess what? When I called back to cancel the card, the rep did not ask one question! They sure don’t care about their customers.
Unbelievable!!!
I just received a bill where my last payment was $91 and my finance charge was $93! How did this happen? They raised my interest rate from 9.9% to 21.9%! My previous payment was not late (nor did I have any late payments with any other companies). They said they raised my “fixed” rate because they review their accounts annually and decided that it should be raised. (Based on income to debt ratios and the sort.) Well, I have had the card for 2 years and have gone from a single income to dual income household. So, they don’t know anything about my income to debt ratio. Also, I had a fixed rate! Their customer service rep explained to me that fixed doesn’t mean that they can’t chage it when they feel like it. The small print says that the have the right to chage any of the terms. Unbelievable!!!
this happened to me as well
This is so crazy…This same thing happened to me! The excuse I received was not debt to income but that I have has a few deliquincies from other companies on my credit report…This seems completly unfare when I have met all my agreements w/ B of A. I had two past due payments about 2 yrs ago. At that time they raise my interest to 34% for 6 months. I made ALL payments on time for the scheduled period, my interest went back down to the original interest rate, then 3 months later goes back up to 21.9% Is there anything we can do about this?!?!
I know what you can do about
I know what you can do about it. You can not have a credit card with them. I guarantee once you stop doing business with them, your interest with B o A will drop to zero.
Stop Payment on ON LINE CHECKS
I have on line banking. I made a on line bank check to some one for some thing they were to send me. When I didn’t get it I put a stop payment on the check. This cost me $32.00. Ok so far so good. 6 Months later the sent me a letter asking for another $32.00, to re-instate stop payment on that check. I said wait a min, I thought the check becomes no good when you do a stop payment on it. Noooo. The bank can’t make money that way, so what they did is make the check good for ever. This way every 6 months they can ask you for another $32.00. Can you believe that. It is a legal bank extortion pay every 6 month or we pay your check. You loose both ways, but the bank gets more.
B of A has the WORST customer service!
I have the misfortune of being a Bank of America customer for over 15 years. Over this period of time I have witnessed the errosion of their customer service department. I can say one thing for sure, they don’t care about their customers. Example I deposited thirty thousand dollars about a week ago, yesterday I went to the ATM to take out $40 bucks and it said that there were no funds available…..Mind you about a week ago I deposited 30K and Bank of America will not even loan me forty bucks. I called their customer service and it turns out that they put a two week hold on my deposit, I asked if they can somehow expedite the hold time to 5 business day and they acted as if I asked them to find a cure for cancer. This is just one of several upleasant situations I’ve had with custmer service. If you have a problem you can count on them to find ZERO solutions. Their “banking associates” have the I don’t care what your concerns are and I hate my job attitude. The only reason Im still a customer is because because they have ATM’s everywhere.
ripped off
I was charged overdraft 9x on my account in less than 4 days. Bank Of America held the deposits and let the debits post. Deposits including cash given to the teller is still in pending status. They have unfair practices. This should be illegal.
Excessive fees and Unfair banking practices
Bank of America charged me for (2) $35 fees because 2 items were pending, I put the money in the bank before they cleared. I then had two direct deposits. When I went to the bank to ask the Manager to refund them he said the system wouldn’t allow him.
But 3 months ago Bank of America lost—-yes I said lost a $280 CASH deposit taking to the teller. For 1 week all of my money was gone out of my account. And all they said was I am sorry. I am really pissed because I am a full time graduate student working with very little and $70 is alot to me right now. I really do something to get them to stop these practices….What to do?
Excessive fees and Unfair banking practices
Bank of America charged me for (2) $35 fees because 2 items were pending, I put the money in the bank before they cleared. I then had two direct deposits. When I went to the bank to ask the Manager to refund them he said the system wouldn’t allow him.
But 3 months ago Bank of America lost—-yes I said lost a $280 CASH deposit taking to the teller. For 1 week all of my money was gone out of my account. And all they said was I am sorry. I am really pissed because I am a full time graduate student working with very little and $70 is alot to me right now. I really do something to get them to stop these practices….What to do?
Bank of America
My credit was not good a few years ago. I paid $300.00 and opened Visa credit card account with B of A. I paid on time and they allowed me increases from $300 to $600 to $1500 to $2100. My annual interest rate was 8.2%. Recently I got a letter from them saying that because of my credit report they were raising my interest rate to 29%!
My credit is much better now than it was then. B of A is nothing but a modern day ‘loan shark’. I would love to file a law suit against them. I sent them a certified letter telling them not to change my rate. With this option I can no longer use the card - if I do the interest rate will go up to 29%.
Enjoy your new bankrupcy laws
This kind of practice is going to become more common, I’m afraid. I recently paid off the last of my lingering high-interest debt. My advice to all others is not to get started.
Bank of America's deceiving banking practices
Bank of America’s banking practices are draining me dry. 1st incident was when I needed some money on a Friday night. It was 11:30 PM and I knew I didn’t have much in the bank, so I checked the balance and took out some cash and left a balance of $400. I had some checks not cleared yet but I’m in the online business, it takes 2 working days for my charges to go through to my checking account and I knew a deposit of over $2000 was to be deposited on Monday. So I figured by the time the other checks I had outstanding would get deposited they would be covered. by the Monday deposit. Well when Monday rolled around I saw through online backing my deposit had gone through, but I somehow bounced 4 different checks. I went down to the bank and asked, if I hade a balance of $400.00 on Friday night and the deposit on Monday morning how could I have bounced any checks. The told me the do the deposits in the morning and do the debits at night. So everybody knows anything done after 4:00PM goes on the next banking day, but not so with checks.They don’t post them till midnight. So if you go to the bank anytime between 4:00 PM and midnight it misleads you and it tell you you have a positive balance, but you really don’t, it doesn’t take out the debits till later. So they bounced 4 checks but paid them charging my account for 4 overdraft charges of $35.00 each totaling $140.00 .The checks were for these amounts: $1000.00 $200.00 $46.00 and $12.00. Now I had enough to cover 3 of the smaller, of the 4 checks ( I had $300.00) and 3 of them should have cleared and one bounced, so I asked why they bounced all 4 checks when there was enough to cover 3 of them and not just the one for $1000.00 and they told me they put the largest amount through first and the descending one after. Well Howard, this is just wrong. I feel they should have cleared the 3 checks they could and just bounced the $1000.00 check for an overdraft charge of $35.00 not $140.00. This is kind of like a scam. They have to know by cashing the largest check first this very thing can happen. It’s just a way of penalizing you more then actually helping the customer. They shouldn’t be allowed to do this and I’m sure many other victims have fallen as of these unfair bank practices.
2nd incident: I have my BOA credit card as overdraft protection. On my December credit card bill I noticed that my overdraft protection credited $171.03 to my checking account saving me from another overdraft charge, but when they used that $171, it put my credit card account over the limit and was charged on my credit card bill a $39.00 over the limit fee, plus a $10.00 transaction Fee. So by saving me the $35.00 fee for a bounced check, I get to pay $49.00 in fees. They should not have charged my card and put it over the limit. They should have just bounced the transaction in question. Not only that , I get to pay a higher % rate for that money deposited as a cash advance. This is a very scamming way for BOA to make $$$ and it’s not right. It should work that whatever they do, It should cost less to the customer and not generate more income for the bank. And if that’s not bad enough, on my December credit card statement it tells me that I’m over the limit and should bring my account balance below the credit line, so I do. They tell me my minimum payment is $146.00, so I figure I send them in $200.00. That should do it, but on my January bill I’m still over the limit by $95.00 because my finance charge of $113.00. I went to know why my December minim payment didn’t include enough to cover the January finance charge.They knew by just making the minimum payment, I would be over the limit the next month also. Why didn’t they make the minimum payment high enough to prevent this. This is not the way banking is supposed to work. It is deceptive. Is there any way these banking procedures be challenged and why isn’t there any government protection from these kind of practices.
3rd: Just last week I deposited a Bank check for $2000.00. I know check have to clear and a bank check should clear in 1 or 2 days. Also you can see with your online banking how much is available. So I see a have a balance of $2800 so I go ahead and do some bill paying. The next day I’m being charged another $140 for 4 overdrafts. A $17.00 atm purchase, a $7.00 bank debt from my online charges and 2 bill pays I made through BOA bill pay . Now I’m supposed to have $2800 in my account so I go ask them why they bounced the transactions, and even though my online banking says I have $2800.00 in available funds in it I was still charged the overdraft fees. Now it doesn’t show anywhere on my statement anything in the red. My statement shows I had a positive balance all the time and I still don’t know why they charged me the overdraft. I Think BOA uses unfair bank practaces and should change them in faver of the consumer.
I never had to do with Bank
I never had to do with Bank of America and now reading this has put serious doubts in my mind. If a notorious bank like this has such practices what can we expect from other banks? A customer relations service should be based on trust and people are starting to loose trust. We also have to be realistic and understand that not all the banks are the same and it’s all just a matter of choice. I just got no fee balance transfers at my current bank and I never had the opportunity to feel mislead and now I realize this is very important for my bank and for me.
Maybe they listen...
This is possibly too good to be true, but since I posted this and complained via their little customer email thing, they did make a positive change: the “mail” link in the header now goes bold red and says “new mail” when I’ve got new messages.
Wow
They also re-linked the old MBNA autopayment system. I wonder if they found this blog after all…
My favorite
is that they don’t have their various branches linked properly. I opened my account in DC. Thus, my account is in DC. Even though I moved to MD and then CA, I still have to login as having an account in DC. I have experienced problems similar to yours. The worst was signing up for an online bill pay and their failure to pay properly. I will say a big improvement is not taking the money out of your funds until it is actually sent. They used to take it out as soon as you signed up to pay a bill.
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