Five years ago, I was the victim of bank account fraud. I worked with Bank of America to resolve the situation and correct my accounts. Now, five years later they decided to close my accounts based only on this fraud incident and charge me a $50 fee to do so.
In 2005, my Bank of America checking account was breached. I live in Seattle, WA and discovered a withdrawal from my account in Alabama. I immediately contacted Bank of America that told me my mailing address was changed in their system to an Alabama address. Apparently, someone was able to contact Bank of America, convince them that they were me, change the address on the account and issue a new debit card to the new address. We worked with Bank of America to close the account and issue a new checking account. The bank credited the account for the lost money and everything seemed resolved.
Over the next five years we were very good banking customers. We conduct most banking electronically; we did not run overdrafts, owned a premium credit card and even owned a savings CD. In 2010 we opened new business checking and savings accounts. Bank of America also issued us a business credit card. Everything seemed fine as we started using the account for a new business. About two months later, we received a letter in the mail concerning the business accounts.
The letter stated that Bank of America “has elected to close your account in accordance with the provisions of our Deposit Agreement and disclosures provided”. It goes on to state that Bank of America “may report the account to Chex Systems, Inc., an account verification service. This may adversely impact your ability to open an account at another financial institution for up to five years.” There was no explanation for the account closures; however it included a phone number for questions.
The only accounts affected were the new business checking and savings accounts. Instead of calling the number, I decided to go to my bank branch and speak with the manager that set up my recent accounts. She mentioned that everything appeared fine with all of our accounts and did not have any information why the new business accounts would have been closed. The manager called the Bank of America Risk Identification Center and the gentleman stated that the reason the accounts were closed was due to a 2005 incident involving “electronic transfers”. He did not know any details and said that “any time an account is closed by the Risk Identification department, the customer can no longer conduct business with Bank of America.”
I explained the event to him and he proceeded to tell the bank branch manager that she could try speaking with bank management. Two days later I received a voice message from the branch manager apologizing for the policy, but that they could not reinstate the accounts. I went to the branch and visited with the manager again.
She told me that the Risk Identification department has only been around for a couple years and was not even in existence when this episode happened. She asked if I had any paperwork about this incident from 2005 and I told her that Bank of America should have everything already. She stated that management would look at and consider any information I could provide about the 2005 incident. Apparently, the bank has very little information from five years ago and is asking that I provide it. Bank of America handled the matter in 2005 and did not provide me with any follow up correspondence as to the details after I reported it. She then stated that there was no risk to any of my personal accounts, the accounts I re-established in 2005.
I called the Risk Identification department again to ensure that there were no other reasons for closing a perfectly good account. The woman on the phone reassured me that the reason for the closure was only the event to my personal account in 2005 and it is their policy to close all customer accounts that for whatever reason, were closed by their Risk department. I told her that in 2005 I worked with Bank of America to close the account and reopen a new account. Again, she had no details about my specific event and indicated that the details did not matter. Obviously this department was not around in 2005 and they are creating blanket policies that affect all past customers with banking incidents.
The Risk department representative also had no idea about my current personal accounts (created in 2005 after closing the breached account). She was not even aware that I had other accounts. When I told her, she looked my personal account up by account number and stated that this account is probably in the stages of closure as well.
Bank of America is passing the blame to their customers. When criminals breach Bank of America security protocols and they decide to close an affected customer account, they will not allow you to conduct business again with Bank of America and will post a notice on the Chex system for all banks to see. The details of the events leading to closure do not matter and they may not even have any past records of the event. They essentially pass the buck to the fraud victim and even charge $50 to seal the deal.
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