BEWARE of Bank of America - now going after MV owners in wiring of money...

[Augdog1964]

Hello All!

Hey I wanted to relay an issue to you, so you could also warn other vehicle collectors of a huge potential problem.

In early April I wired funds to the UK to pay for shipping of my BRM-1k (a rare BMP-1 variant). This was after the funds for purchase had been wired (which I think was about 2 weeks earlier).

Today, at least 3 weeks later, I get a phone call from my bank saying that Bank of America had held the wire, and was not going to process it until “questions were answered” as it may constitute a violation of their policies.

Mind you, this wire was for shipping of a vehicle, not the vehicle itself.

My bank is NOT Bank of America (nor would it ever be), but when I asked my bank (US Bank) why Bank of America was involved, they said most of the major banks use Bank of America for all International wires out of the US. US Bank does the same. BofA (according to my US Bank person) controls most of the international wire transfers…

SO, they had held my wire until they got answers to their questions… their questions?

1) Is this vehicle armored and/or can it have guns fitted to it.
2) Who is the owner of this vehicle.
3) What is the ultimate or intended purpose for owning this vehicle.

So I answered the questions, and now I wait to see if my shipping wire will go through for my armored vehicle.

I know BofA did similar things with gun shop owners, so now it appears they are extending their noses into vehicles too.

Incredible, that THEIR policy can stop MY money from going overseas, for a legal purpose, that came OUT of an institution that they clear money for.

Pass the word!

Augdog1964

 

[papabear]

I suspect it has more to do with the FEDS (HLS/FBI) than anything else.

Heck...just go to the bank and try to deposit more than 10K cash and watch the dog and pony show start!

 

[Recovry4x4]

Anything dealing with this bank stinks of wrong doing.

 

[Augdog1964]

No it was their "internal" review policies that stopped the money...

 

[ZiggyO]

I am glad I no longer have accounts with them...... two years ago at my first stint down at FEMA's EMI down in Emmitsburg, MD, I visited some antique shops on my free day and found something I wanted. I got the third degree from the local BofA bank because I wanted to withdraw cash from a location that was nowhere near my home branch-- they wanted to know why I was down there, and what I planned to do with the cash. That experience prompted me to close all accounts with them when I got home.......

FWIW, they can't legally demand personal info as to what you are doing with your money-- its none of their d*** business.......


Z

 

[papabear]

Well...several years ago BOA sent unsolicited ready to activate credit cards to my wife and I. We didn't need/want them so I just threw them in a drawer in my home office.

About two months later I get a credit card bill from BOA for a few thousand dollars!! There was a complete list of charges but none of them were in GA and I had never activated them. Now how does THAT happen??
I called their customer service rep and explained I hadn't asked for the cards, hadn't activated them, and hadn't been in any of the states listed on the bill or made any of the purchases.

She transferred me to the fraud unit.
A very nice guy got on the phone and I got the distinct impression this was happening to more folks than just us.

I had him cancel the cards and he said don't worry about the charges and offered to send me new cards overnight!! I said not only no...but heck NO!!

I'm convinced they had an internal problem and they knew it.

Haven't had any further dealings with BOA and never plan to.

 

[mikey]

Well...several years ago BOA sent unsolicited ready to activate credit cards to my wife and I. We didn't need/want them so I just threw them in a drawer in my home office.

About two months later I get a credit card bill from BOA for a few thousand dollars!! There was a complete list of charges but none of them were in GA and I had never activated them. Now how does THAT happen??
I called their customer service rep and explained I hadn't asked for the cards, hadn't activated them, and hadn't been in any of the states listed on the bill or made any of the purchases.

She transferred me to the fraud unit.
A very nice guy got on the phone and I got the distinct impression this was happening to more folks than just us.

I had him cancel the cards and he said don't worry about the charges and offered to send me new cards overnight!! I said not only no...but heck NO!!

I'm convinced they had an internal problem and they knew it.

Haven't had any further dealings with BOA and never plan to.

I had business accounts with BoA and debit cards that had many many automatic payments tied to them. One of my debit cards had a charge to a company in Ireland for $495. I called customer service and was passed through to the fraud unit and they refunded the money without any questions, but I had to get a new card. It is a PITA to get a new business debit card when you have so many automatic debits and credits on the card. Anyway, I googled this company in Ireland and came across a few forums with other users that had this fraud. Every SINGLE person on the forum had a BoA debit card. Yes, it was internal.

My ex wife is Dominican. A few of her friends and family work for BoA in the Dominican Republic. They work behind the scenes refinancing mortgages and under the loan modification program. Yes when you attempt loan modification or refi through BoA you get a nice American agent to coordinate the process and take your calls and emails, but what you don't know is that all the leg work and all of your personal information is handled by people in other countries, sometimes third world countries. The Dominicans that do this, that she knows, get paid approximately $500 US per month salary. And no offense to any Dominicans, but the country has a very high level of crime and corruption and I for one, would not want my personal information sent there.

Needless to say I have no bank accounts with BoA anymore and I will never have accounts or do business with them again.

Mikey

 

[Floridianson]

I have had a Bank of America since 1991 and no problems. I like they question something that looks funny or an over seas pull on any of my accounts. They also call me from time to time and I don't mind a bit. They have stopped two over seas pulls that were not made by me. The scam guys pulled one dollar out to see if the account was good then a pull for $800 but BoA did not pay it out and called me to double check. Agreed they do not want any ties to something that could come back to bite them in the news.

 

[juanprado]

I also can not stand them. My house mortgage got flipped twice and you guessed it, it is now theirs. They have no branches in LA, and a major pia to deal with on the phone especially in the years they bought countrywide and when everything crashed. They are terrible at customer service. I have been hit with late fees from them like clockwork since I can not bank face to face. To also add insult to shame, they charge me a $8 convenience fee to pay my mortgage every month.

I hope they are the next big bank to fail.......

 

[73m819]

Many years ago, I could not figure out why my checks were bouncing, I had been depositing pay checks every week, ???, so I went for a face to face, found out they had close the account a month ago because of something my X did, asked why they excepted deposits for a closed account, the answer was "in case your wife wrote checks on the account", I said "BUT the account is closed", "that does not matter" was there answer, I told them I went my money NOW, they gave me the money MINUS all the bad check charges for the checks that they refused to pay because of the account being closed, never mind that the closed account had about $8000 in it. By the end of our conversation, they, all the costumers, everybody on the street knew EVERY cuss word in extsistance and some new ones that I made up as I went a long, the guard was there with hand on his gun, telling me that I had to leave, I told him I had $8000 in this POS, ect., ect,. ect. bank and that I was NOT leaving without it, so shoot me, and you better kill me because if not ,I WILL be at every newspaper and tv station, telling how ect., ect,.boa CLOSED my ACCOUNT and still excerpted deposits, at the same time bouncing checks even though the funds were IN THE BANK.

Yes, boa is my favorite bank, just a blond hair above wells fargo, but that is another fun banking issue

 

[BenRoberts]

Cash in a coffee can in the backyard.

 

[Duce]

In 98/99 I was 18 living at home and had a BoA credit card with a self imposed low limit. I charged all month then paid the bill in full in an attempt to build credit.(I was told that was the best way to do it). My father pointed out a news article in a business publication about how Bank of America was sending out bills after the due date collecting 30$ late fees.
Sure enough a few months later I was within a few dollars of my limit they hit me with late fees that put me over my limit then hit me with over limit fees as well. I remembered the article my father showed me so I checked the post mark. The bill was post marked a week after the due date. I called got the run around argued ECT.. Cant remember I they removed the fees or not. I do remember I paid it off like every month then cut the card up and canceled it. A few months later a new card showed up in the mail with limit 3 times what I had or wanted. It was trashed as well. Never again.

 

[patracy]

As a FFL, BoA can pound sand hard.

 

[Recovry4x4]

And they wonder why folks want to hide their money in the coal shed.

 

[drivebymashing]

I have also had rough dealings with them. They are liberal as the day is long.

 

[LiveFreeOrDieTryn2B]

So I guess you can't mount a weapon on a mini van or a little gas sipper carthis from a company that didn't pay taxes in 2011 I think it was and frauded my my deceased father's mortgage.The nerve of these and other establishment company's.

 

[rhurey]

so, the Boa bashing is all nice and deserved, but the Op wasn't using BOA.

Anybody know how to send funds and not let them play middleman?

 

[reaper556]

BOA/PayPal best move I ever made was closing my accounts and moving to a local credit union

 

[Scar59]

Cash in a coffee can in the backyard.

OK, we now know where you find your money, so where do you hide your ammo???

 

[tcruwithme]

The OP said that BoA does virtually all the international money wire transfers. How do we know if this is a BoA policy/practice as compared to something imposed on BoA by government regulators (as papabear suggested)? Said another way, how do we know other banks would not have done the exact same thing, if they had the opportunity? I am not sticking up for BoA in any way; rather, I want to look at all sides of the issue before forming an opinion.