If You Like Aggravation You'll LOVE this Bank...

 

I know, ALL banks are aggravating.  But in my experience (and sadly I've had a lot of experience lately), Bank of America is the one that wins the prize.  Kudos to Bank of America for making my life and my father's life so much more difficult.  Thank you for adding extra hoops to jump through just to get MY money from one place to another.  When it comes to (NO) quality customer service, (LONG) waiting times and (LACK OF) compassion; turn to BoA.

My mother and father have accounts there.  I am the executor of her estate; and just got the paperwork from the court on Monday to prove it.  I had signed her up for on line banking last fall so that I could help take care of bills from my end.  Thank goodness I did and I'd been paying as many bills on line as I could.  (Some she got could not be paid on line which is a whole other ball of wax.)  At some point, they put a hold on the account; which makes sense as she is deceased.  I knew that I had to take her death certificate (certified of course) and court certificate (showing me as executor... or let's be sexist and call it what it is executrix...that just sounds wrong to me) and then I could close our her accounts and set up a new estate account to pay bills (and I'll admit to pay myself back for the expenses of the funeral and such) and disburse the funds as per her wishes.  (I know she wanted to give my husband a check for his birthday, but due to my waiting till his actual birthday, I couldn't do it.)

My mother had more than one bank account.  As BoA started to close down locations that were convenient to her when she was alive, she opened accounts with TD Bank.  There was one not far from the house at the shore and there also happens to be one close to my home.  So that's where I started.

I went in with my paperwork and had to wait.  The person who helped me, in turn needed help from her manager when she came in.  It took much longer than I would have liked (close to 2 hours).  But with my paperwork in hand and the EIN number that I had established with the IRS (thank you so much to the woman at the court who told me to do that) I was able to have an estate account set up and I had access to that money right then and there. (Although I will have to wait to get checks, but that is understandable.) I asked the manager if I would need to set up another estate account at the other bank and she told me no (makes sense), just to close out the account and get a check made out to the estate which could then be deposited.  Sounds simple right?

Based on the waiting time at TD, I decided to make an appointment at BoA.  First I had to decide which one (because the one closest to me closed), then going on line to do so was more challenging than it should have been because the site kept telling it "we're sorry, but we're having an issue right now, please try again."  So I kept trying again and again and maybe an hour or so later, I had an appointment for Thursday morning.  Perhaps the problem with getting an appointment should have been a warning to me.

I got to the bank a few minutes prior to my appointment and waited a good 10 minutes after my appointment time as the person was working with someone else.  (Why have times for appointments if you are going to keep someone waiting).  I had told them in advance that I was coming to close an account due to death, so they should have been prepared.  I was prepared with my paperwork, but I was not prepared for BoA.  I was told by person I met with (who did apologize for making me wait while she helped another employee with a problem) that I would NOT get a check today.  That I would be assigned case manager, this person would process my paperwork (Letter of Instruction and Account Closure Request as well as an NJ L-8 form, contact me by MAIL if they had any questions/issues and then would MAIL a check made out to the estate to me.  All of this should take a few weeks, but could take up to 3 months!  (I'd like to say that while these two accounts constituted a lot of money to me, to BoA it is chump change.)  I asked if this would have also been the case if I had used BoA for the estate and was told yes.  (So thank GOD I went to TD first.)  The whole process (which was upsetting to me topped off with other events of the day ) took just under an hour.  And now I wait...

Meanwhile, BoA has also decided to freeze part of my dad's accounts yesterday, which also had my mom's name on it.  I'm sure this is legal, but I wonder why they waited so long since they froze my mother's solo accounts 15 days prior.  So there's another issue that I have to resolve.  (I'm sure it WILL be resolved, but meantime, my father has no access to money that is his.)  

I am so fed up with BoA that I have decided to slowly move my accounts over to TD.  I TRIED to electronically transfer some money from the BoA checking to my TD checking this morning and it was a total shitshow.  They make it so difficult that I'm sure most people will give up.  I will NOT give up.  It might take me more time, but dollar by dollar I plan on taking my money out of BoA and moving it elsewhere.  (At this point underneath my mattress seems less stressful.)  I'm not saying that it will necessarily be TD; they are far from perfect, but when compared to BoA they may have saved my behind.  (Especially as bills start to come in.)

BoA, you've treated me like crap too many times.  (No) Thanks for the memories.

Update:  It seems that my posting of this blog and tagging BoA on twitter has "upset" them a little, as I received this comment:  "Hi Beth, we're disappointed to see this and are here to further assistance. Please click the link below and a member of our social care team will connect with you. ^sam"

How their social media team is going to help is a little beyond me, but here's what I wrote back to them:

 "you ask me to message your social media for further assistance.  Here's how you can assist me:  1.  You can actually process a check made out to the Estate of ************* in a timely manner so that as Executor of her estate (of which you SHOULD know as I was in your ****** branch with all the necessary paperwork, only they can only process the paperwork and pass it along to a case worker which to me says that you are just interested in making me, a grieving daughter, jump through more hoops to get money that rightfully belongs to the estate)  can pay bills.  (Somehow I doubt of BoA would be willing to wait 3 weeks to months for ME to pay them money that was owed them). 2. you can unfreeze the accounts that belong to my father but also had my mother's name on them.  You have taken more than half of his savings and checking and placed it and placed it on hold, which I am sure is legal in some way but is certainly cruel.  And why  you chose to do it nearly a MONTH after my mother died and did not reach out to my 86 year old grieving father to say you were going to do this; you just did it with no explanation.  And while he was on the phone with your "customer service" for over 2 hours your representative told him they would send some paperwork to him (in the mail, and we know how quickly that goes) and would need a death certificate.  (Why didn't you ask for that before you "held" the account?)  So help me.  Reach out to me with some answers/solutions.  In the meantime, I'm sharing this story with as many as I can because again, what you've done may be legal and covering your own backsides, but it is certainly cruel."

IF I get a response, I'll be sure to share it here or in a future blog...meanwhile, I'm NOT holding my breath.