4th June 2009

Why Bank of America Sucks

posted in Mortgage |

So, recently a Realtor I know told me of a deal that fell through 2-days shy of closing due to an idiotic lending policy, or at least that was the bank’s excuse.bank_of_america_logo

Apparently a buyer was in contract to purchase a piece of real estate as part of a short-sale. Granted, short-sales are not normal real estate transactions in that there are usually extra variables thrown into the deal which, more often than not, complicate things  sometimes to the point of insanity.

So while the buyer is in contract to purchase a short-sale property, the geniuses at Bank of America all but approve the financing, perform an appraisal, urge the buyer to have the property inspected and surveyed, and then, two days before closing, they kill the deal in underwriting because, and get this, the buyer’s daughter, for whom the buyer receives child-support, is enrolled in a two-year college and not a four-year college. This means that Bank of America allowed child support, for a “child” who is over 18 years-old, to be counted as income on the loan application….

….and then decided that, really that’s not what they want to do…two days before closing? All the while, not returning many multiple phone calls, for weeks, from the agents on both sides of the deal who were inquiring as to the progress of the financing.

I should mention that from personal experience, about five years ago, I swore never to do business with Bank of America again after my own bad experiences.

If these big banks want to say they’re in the mortgage business, they should at least act like it by catching issues like this in the application process and at least TRY to be professional in the process by keeping the people in the loop.

I tend to think that I’m not the only person in America who has a long memory for this kind of bad behavior. Due to my experiences with Bank of America, Wells Fargo and to a lesser extent Citibank, I’m getting to the point where I want to find some small, local credit-union and move all my business there. Mortgages, credit cards, checking accounts, lines-of-credit, the works.

Maybe they value their customers more than the “too-big-to-fail-but-by-the-way-can-we-have-some-TARP-funds” banks.

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  1. 1 On June 22nd, 2009, dudedoc said:

    Another story about how Bank of America Sucks.

    I don’t call BofA often, because I really don’t need to. However, i can’t but notice how pathetic their customer service is. First I spend >5minutes on hold before I get a rude representative. My call this time around was for unintentional overdraft charges. I never, ever run into overdrafts. I don’t quite know what happened, but I ended up with 6 charges totaling $210. Needless to say the transactions themselves were but a small fraction compared to the charges.
    I get a representative who offers me $86 write-off. I plead for additional mercy, then decide to talk with her supervisor. I wait over 10 minutes before the guy picks up. He then proceeds to tell me, in the rudest and most demeaning tone imaginable, that he can only offer me a $51 write-off and that the prior offer is withdrawn. Have you heard of a customer service representative withdrawing a ‘courtesy offer’ after the customer waisted a good 25 minutes just getting to speak with him? Perhaps, it should teach me a lesson that these banks are ruthless loan sharks.
    I have banked with BofA for over 9years, with an impeccable record… Bank of America really does sucks. I am not the only one with a extensive record that BofA has mistreated. http://www.bankofamericasucks.com.
    BofA carries its begging hat to the government for a bailout only to turn around and be ruthless and inconsiderate to even long term customers who are suffering from the irresponsible actions BofA and like entities.
    Please spread the word until BofA gets the message. I will be leaving the bank at my earliest convenience.

  2. 2 On June 23rd, 2009, Connie said:

    I’ve been having detrimental problems with BofA as well… Okay…two weeks ago I went to the bank and with a teller…NOT an Atm…made a payment on my bofa credit card for $100. I had $160 in the checking account…so I thought everything was fine and dandy. Well after that I stopped and got some food which was about $5 bucks then I went and got some gas, which was $20 bucks and then I stopped at two other places spending only 3 dollars at each place. Well two days passed and I got a phone call from bofa saying that I didn’t make my payment on my credit card and that it was due. Confused…I go online and check my checking status/ credit card status. Well… It showed that I still had the $100 dollars in my checking account and that no payment was made…so I just assumed that the teller had somehow made a mistake and didn’t transfer the money over. Well… In order to get the payment out of the way I made an online transfer and then it showed that everything was fine. Until 4 days later…I check my account again and low and behold i have a negative $240 dollars in my account. The original transaction went through and so did the more recent one plus I had for overdrafts for the purchases I had made almost a week before I got the overdrafts? Pissed…I called bofa and after waiting 20 min. they said that they would credit me back for one of my payments…but that they couldn’t do anything about the fees…not even one. Because it was my fault.. so I tried to reason with them that it was THEM who told me that I hadn’t made the payment…but of course they stood they’re ground. So Unsatisfied I went to the bank myself and tried to speak with some one face to face…and yet I was told the same thing…they couldn’t do anything about the fees. Now it doesnt end just yet… I check my account online just now…and guess what??? THEY ONLY CREDITED ME BACK $50 dollars of the $100 they were supposed to give me back from the payment…plus they gave me an EXTRA $35 fee for me having a negative amount in my checking account for 4 fucking days. FUCK BANK OF AMERICA.

  3. 3 On August 23rd, 2009, George C. Torres said:

    Does this sound corrupt?
    - Bank of America is an REO of VA properties.
    - Buyers get pre-approved from many different mortgage writers before looking at homes to purchase.
    - Buyer decides on a home. The property is a VA/BofA foreclosed home.
    - Listing agent’s instructions to buyer’s agent: “Offers need to be submitted with a pre-approval from BofA retail branch.”
    - During the BofA interview with already pre-approved customers from other mortgage writers BofA undercuts the buyer’s first mortgage writer by a point on the rate & APR with the caveat: “rates subject to change”.

    Is there something here that should be brought to a congressman’s attention ragarding VA foreclosed homes? Can BofA mandate that offers need to have a BofA pre-approval before being submitted?
    Also, why does it take so long (week to 10 days) for an offer to get rejected or approved for sale when submitting for a VA foreclosed home?

  4. 4 On September 2nd, 2009, Amie S said:

    Guess what BOA scumbuckets are doing now in regards to short sale properties? I have a short sale listing under contract. BOA held the first and second. Half way thru the short sale approval process BOA charges off the second trust and collects over $100K in insurance money (this was a month after the appraisal they ordered came in about $100K under what is owed on the first trust). Now we are in a situation where BOA and the new second are squabbling over $6000. BOA refuses to give it and the second refuses to give it up.

    Does this sound right to you? Jerks.

  5. 5 On October 18th, 2009, Why Banks Aren’t Foreclosing on Schedule » The Successful Landlord Blog said:

    [...] you, it could take the better part of a year for the process to come to a close. In the past I have made posts detailing some of the completely unprofessional behavior exhibited by the banks during the [...]

  6. 6 On October 21st, 2009, Alison said:

    Well I remembered what I was reading before I went to find an email address, I am sure this article about B of A is any better than wellsfargo. I just wanted to give this address so that these complaints can possibly be addressed

    “Jim Dean, Democracy for America”

    or try this one,
    media@democracyforamerica.com

    Last I heard they are not hppy with the banks and wanted investigations. i too would be looking for another bank. I suggest that you copy every word you write about these bastards at the banks and send it to the EVERY SINGLE DAY. I would also send it ot my congressman EVERY SINGLE DAY. MAYBE WE WILL GET SOME JUSTICE.

  7. 7 On October 21st, 2009, Alison said:

    That address for Jim Dean is wrong It did not print right,

    “Jim Dean, Democracy for America” IN MEMO

    info@democracyforamerica.com

    you should send it to this one as well, the more the merrier.

    media@democracyforamerica.com

    SCREW THE DAMM BANKS

  8. 8 On April 23rd, 2010, brad said:

    B of A customer service people have all totally been cool so far. Really helpful despite the quagmire of filth they have to work in. The whole b of a machine is just simply retarded. Seems like every month I spend at least an hour on the phone with them trying to fix something that they screwed up. Below I’ve put my notes, just from this year alone. By the way, as I type this, I’ve been on hold with B of A (see bottom log). I’ve been on hold off and on for over an hour, and my problem still isn’t fixed.

    1/13/10: Two hours and forty nine minutes!! 9:02 AM to 11:51 AM I was on the phone with a couple different b of a reps.
    (Shanel was the 2nd I believe – x9342).
    Spent the first 2 hours paying my green house mortgage. According to Shanel (the 2nd person I spoke with), it didn’t work.
    So, I spent the rest of the time (with Shanel) doing it again, and canceling my HELOC paymnet, and making my HELOC payment again.
    She tried to charge me fees for not doing it online (she was very professional and patient.)

    1/19/10: Fifty eight minutes!! Turns out, Shanel was wrong. A double payment was made and it overdrew the account. My request is to reverse one of the payments.
    9:22 AM First woman I spoke with didn’t believe me…she said one was a phone transfer, and the other was “other”. I assured her that they were both phone transfers…put me on hold multiple times… was on hold until my phone ran out of charge.
    10:20 AM Recharging… called (SAME NUMBER) back, speaking with “Tasha”. She said that I called the wrong department for reversals, and that I needed to do some faxing in order to prove that this stuff happened. I told her it wasn’t my job to fix b of a errors, but that I would do if if they hired me. She then figured out that the first woman (today) had actually put in a request to fix everything. Tasha said to closely monitor this crap for a couple of days to make sure it all works.

    1/23/10: It didn’t work. I spent a half hour trying to get through to someone

    2/5/10 Spoke to Fredtashi 11:31 to 12:12PM, 42 minutes! And, they charged me a $35 overdraft fee too. Now I’m trying to undo the $35 fee. She said that the 2nd part of the double payment WAS reversed on the 21st. I asked her why it doesn’t show up online and she is checking on it. After about 10 minutes (several hold times to boot) I think the lady (who keeps interrupting me mid-sentence) might actually understand what I’m telling her (she stopped and listened for a minute). She told me that the first payment was reversed. I said, I still have that amount of $ missing. She said they put it towards principle, then later said it was just GONE, and I need to prove that it came out of my account. Then, I reminded her that she said it went towards principal. On hold…. she apologized and said I was right, that both payments were made, one for Jan pmnt, and the 2nd towards feb, then reversed, then reapplied to principal. now, she’s going to try to have it moved to Feb. Payment. I’m on hold again. She said she was going to try to have the money switched and that she couldn’t see the 35 dollar fee. Then, she started reading a script — it turned into a sales call!!!! I didn’t get mad — felt bad for her – she’s a victim of the same dumb bank.

    2/5/10: 3:18PM (for 31 minutes and 35 seconds). Spoke to customer service. Told them to remove the 35 dollar fee, and told her the story. She wanted me to do some leg work, get a fax from the mortgage dept, and fax it to her for some initial investigative purposes. blah blah… I told her that my job is not to fix B of A’s mistakes. That I already have a job. She reversed it.

    3/30/10 Facebook: “Brad Currah spent my weekly 2 hours on the phone with Bank of America today. Maybe some day they’ll put me on their payroll.”

    4/19/10: 38min. 2sec. The April payment didn’t work, twice. The online pay app. wanted me to pay an extra 75 bucks for being late. The b of a gentleman I spoke to said that the fee didn’t show, but something from 2008 did show. He transferred me to a woman the last 5 minutes of the call and she paid my mortgage, AND set up a new auto withdraw through my original b of a site, rather than the old countrywide “b of a ” site. Call ended at exactly 11AM. I remember the 2008 issue. I was sent to collections by Countrywide for “not paying my mortgage for 2 months” even though I had, and they had to undo all the crap they reported to the credit bureau.

    4/23/10 Discovered that the 2nd payment acutally DID work! This has happened with B of A before. So, once again, they’ve been double paid, and I have overdraft fees for it. AGAIN!

    I called them at 2:59PM. Said her name, didn’t understand it… so I asked her name but she had already transferred me to the automated system for the claims department. That was at 3:01PM. I told the claims dept. Now I’m on hold. She came back at 3:24PM and transferred me to “Patty” with electronic claims services who would be able to help me. She wants to send me a claim form to fill out. I said I need my money today, and don’t care about their claim process b.s. because I have to pay bills and buy food. You know, that kind of stuff. Normal stuff. She’s had me on hold for awhile now…

    3:32. Patty informed me that she can’t help me. I need to go to the mortgage department instead, and she was trying to lay some groundwork for me. The call was dropped mid-sentence at 3:37PM. So, after 35 minutes, I’m starting over.

    3:40PM calling back. Got through to someone after being on hold. At 3:58 a lady in the mortgage dept. said I need to prove that money went from my checking account, by printing some stuff, and faxing it somewhere else. I said “no.” “I don’t have time to fix b of a errors, especially when this error has happened before. They need to fix their own errors.” I’m on hold now. Sent my wife to the bank to deposit some money since the bank screwed up. B of A lady who’s had me on hold the last 15 minutes just told me that the dept. that could fix my problem today is closed. Now I’m on hold so she can try to figure out another route to go. I still don’t know why i’m even on the phone! I feel like I have to babysit the b of a system or I’ll just be gang raped by the system. Alesha just came on the line from the payment research dept. She seems really helpful. Back on hold at 4:20PM. Seems endless.

  9. 9 On July 26th, 2010, Scot said:

    I have a home loan with BofA and called to refinance. Everything was going along smoothly until I received a call from BofA, a few months later, telling me my loan was denied because the “refinance names” are not the same as the “original buyer”. Yeah, I got married. Didn’t matter to them. I asked if this was the first time this situation as ever come up and the brain surgeon I talked with didn’t know. They did, however, withdraw the money to refinance. I’ve been calling & emailing and what’s amazing is only recently did I get a call back. I’m sure the “boses” were tired of my messages and told some low level idiot to handle it. Well, the check is in the mail!
    We’ll see!

  10. 10 On September 3rd, 2010, Connie said:

    OMG…..I have left email messages and voice mail messages for our asset manager in our shortsale mess. She never replies. So today I called corporate and complained. Needless to say, I finally get a phone call from the asset manager. She was rather snooty throughout the wholke conversation, and she finally said “you CAN’T be calling every day!” I blew up! I told her if I would just get ONE response from an email or voice mail message, I wouldn’t HAVE to call every day. she also said a foreclosure court date has not been scheduled that she is aware of. Hmmm… I guess this great Bank of the Universe waits until the last possible moment to allow a closing of a house??
    Iconsequently, I made another call to corporate to complain. If the buyer walks away, I hold Bank of the Universe totally responsible.

    Here is a great video for you all to watch…

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8b9mCAIwcU

  11. 11 On September 25th, 2010, Naomi said:

    Bank of America does suck
    Well, as a BoA employee I thought I should take advantage of the company’s benefits and get a mortgage of our first home with \my\ bank. After talking to few people we decided to go for a FHA mortgage. I’ve got a great deal with BoA: rate of 3.75% and negative 1.5 points plus a bunch of discounts and no fees. No one else could beat that. So we found a house, paid for inspection and appraisal and the deal fell through because \my\ bank made a mistake on the appraisal (even admited it) and did not accept an appeal. Between lawyer’s fees, inspection and appraisal we lost US$ 2,000.
    Not happy at all, we moved on. Less than a month later we found another house. We started the whole process again, the bank approved the financing, the house passed the inspection, the appraisal was ordered and paid one more time, no one (the bank) seemed to find a problem. Four weeks before closing, we were requested to send additional paperwork and order the title and the survey in order to have the loan finalized. Done. For three weeks after that we would call and e-mail and none of the \professionals\ from what’s called Associate Banking Mortgage Department would have an answer about the loan. ONE week before closing (and my house all packed ready to move) we received a phone call from the bank saying our loan had been denied because the house didn’t meet the standards of a FHA mortgage. Are you kidding me?
    First of all, didn’t they catch it right after the appraisal was done ONE MONTH before closing? Second, did they really have to wait until a week before closing to tell us that our loan haD been denied? Third, the so called professionals never even discussed options for another type of loan. Fourth, on the appraisal there is a note saying that there were no comps in the area to meet the FHA standards. That is a lie because our realtor gave the appraiser a list of at least 6 other homes sold within 6 months and the bank’s appraiser not only didn’t use any of them but lied on the report saying that there were no more houses sold in the area. Fifth, if that’s how they treat their own employees, how can anyone else expect a better treatment? Sixth, if we loose this second house we will be out at least US$ 3,000 more. No home and less US$ 5,000 on my account due to incompetence of a bank that gives their employees training on how to present solutions to their customers instead of creating problems.
    Bank of America is the worse bank in America and I’m sorry I work for them.

  12. 12 On November 2nd, 2010, Fox Fields said:

    If anyone is willing to compile a lawsuit against Bank of America please email me at dfoxfields@google.com

  13. 13 On December 2nd, 2010, Jerry said:

    BOA stands for:
    - Bank of America
    - Bunch of Assholes
    - Bank of Assholes
    - Bitches of Assholes
    - etc…. and what ever else you can think of…

    Hate them, hate them, hate them. The latest thing I am now going to try and fight is they are automatically withdrawing money from my checking account which from what I’ve been told from my credit union is something BOA did because they could not even delete it, BOA has to but that I am double checking.
    I DO NOT HAVE ONE PAYEE IN MY ONLINE BANKING set up for reoccurring payments and I sure the hell would not have BOA as one even if I did. Neither my wife nor I EVER called BOA up to set up a reoccurring payment, this I know. I also know this because I do ALL the bills in the house.
    There are other bad experiences but I am kinda getting tired of typing all these bad things all over the internet. Even posted bad BOA stuff on my Facebook. Wish there was a way we could all scream and yell and do bad things to BOA and give them a taste of their own medicine.

  14. 14 On December 5th, 2010, Opal Nestor said:

    I bought my home in 1982, I was 22 years old. At 13% interest I was never late making my payment on time. Through the years, sometimes eating popcorn and salad,I still made my payment on time.I have no kids and I like my toys, so I refinanced my house every 5 or so years, paying off my credit cards and starting all over again. Three years ago I made one of the biggest mistakes of my life. I trusted a tenent of mine to do the refinance for me, since he owed me almost a year in back rent. ROBERT GENE FORD (a loan consultant) said he would do it for free because we had been so understanding with his money situation.I later found out he put me in the worse possible loan I could be in, and made over $7000.00 on the deal.My credit score was 777 at that time Not able to make the payment that was almost doubled I went to BOA for some help. They told me that they couldn’t do anything because my payment record was flawless, that the only way to get any help was to NOT MAKE MY HOUSE PAYMENT FOR AT LEAST 3 MONTHS. So thats what I did. after the 3 months, I try to find out what to do next. They told me that I was in the system, that I didn’t have to make a payment until they finish looking over my paperwork. So 1 1/2 years later, my credit score is in the low 500′s, all my credit cards have been locked, and They STILL can’t make up their minds (after 8 months of making the modification pmt’s), if I qualify for the program or not. I’ve gottin papers 3 times saying I don’t, and nobody knows why! Here’s the good part… I just received a check from my insurance compony for almost $10,000.00 for the damage from a bad storm. I already had the roof appraised from a friend thats been in the business for over 20 years, but he isn’t licenced. it was for a little less than $10,000.00. I had 2 other bids, they were over $12,000.00. the check had BOA’s name on it, so I had to get them to sign off on it so I could pay in cash and have the 2 or $300.00 in my pocket for Christmas. NOT!!! when I took the check to BOA, everything was going just fine, the teller was almost to the vault when she got the word that I was in the loan modificatin program. pretty soon there were papers coming out of the fax machine like water from a hose. Telling me I have to send them the check, use a licenced contractor for my roof, and have an inspector look at it when it finished!!! Do you see what just happened??? I JUST GOT FUCKED!!! THEY THINK I HAVE THE $2000.00 SOMEWHERE UP MY FUCKING ASS TO PAY FOR THE ROOF??? IF I DID, DO YOU THINK I WOULD BE IN THEIR PEICE OF SHIT MODAFICATION PROGRAM??? So guess what my only other option is, thats right, send them the check, have a leaky fucking roof, and they will apply the money torwards my loan! THEY ALL ARE FUCKING CROOKS!!!

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