Months ago, Kim and I combined bank accounts. This meant I needed to close my accounts (checking and savings) at Bank of America. I used their online system to transfer all my money from the savings account to the checking account. Then I called the bank's 800 number and told them I wanted to close my accounts.
"No problem at all" they said. "We'll close your accounts and mail you a check" they said. Now, it's not much money (I'd taken most of it out already) but I never got a check. It never was at the forefront of my mind, but then I started to get statements for my checking account. Finally I go to the bank and managed to sit down with a service agent.
"I'd like to close my accounts with this bank" I tell the service agent.
Looking up my accounts, the agent says to me, "Sir, I don't see any open accounts".
"Then why am I getting statements?" I ask the agent.
"Ah, I see the problem." the agent replies, "You still have money in the account so the status was changed to CLOSING, not CLOSED. However, your savings account is actually listed as OPEN with a balance of -$6.00".
"Ok, I tried to close these accounts over the phone months ago. Why do I have a negative balance in the still opened savings account?" I ask.
"Well, it appears that when you withdrew the money from this account, some money had been in the account long enough to accrue a $0.02 interest payment. This was deposited in the account and then for two months we have been deducting our monthly $3.00 fee. I can refund these fees, not to worry." the agent tells me.
"Good" is my reply. "About the checking account. How about if I withdraw the money now and we set the status to closed?"
"Well, you can't actually withdraw the money because the status of the account is CLOSING. We need to set the status of the account back to OPEN before we can take the money out. We can't mark the account CLOSED until the money has been removed"
"OK - go ahead and mark the account OPEN for me, withdraw my $50.00, and then CLOSE the account" I tell the agent, slightly exasperated.
"Well, to change the status of the account from CLOSING to OPEN takes about two business days. We have to fill out and mail in these forms that the branch manager has to sign" the agent tells me, slightly embarrassed.
"You must be kidding!" I exclaim.
"I'm afraid not" the agent tells me. "You'll have to come back to a bank branch in two or three days to withdraw your money and then we can mark the account completely CLOSED".
"You mean to tell me that this isn't just some checkbox in your system that you can mark right now, in front of me?" I ask, actually able to SEE said checkbox on her screen.
"I'm afraid the system doesn't work like that" she says, even more embarrassed.
So I get up and leave without another word (well, I might have been polite and said "Thanks" and "Good-bye")
Who designs these systems? What were they thinking?
Banks are aggrevating.
-- Matt Ranlett