This involves a banking question for a national bank.
I believe Bank of America's current overdraft procedures are illegal in nature. Per their website, overdraft fees areHowever their current procedure is to process overdraft fees whenever the "Available Balance" drops into the negative. I believe this to be illegal, because the "available balance" includes any holds or pending transactions and Bank of America is charging overdraft fees, which as defined above, are for payment of charges when your BALANCE is negative, when it is not. I know i can try to contact the bank to get the charges reversed, but i know of other family and people that also get these charges, and feel like a lawsuit might be the only way to get this policy changed, possibly with class action status, since it very well could be a nationwide issue, does anyone else agree?
What is an Overdraft Item fee?
An Overdraft Item Fee is charged when you write a check or make a withdrawal for an amount that is more than the balance in your checking or savings account.
If your account is overdrawn by a total amount less than $5 on a day, we reduce the Overdraft Item Fee and charge $10 for each overdraft item that day. (The standard Overdraft Item Fee is $35.) If your account has a negative balance for 5 consecutive business days, you will receive an additional one-time Extended Overdrawn Balance Charge of $35 on the sixth day.
Although Bank of America is not obligated to pay an item if your account is overdrawn, the bank will pay these items as a courtesy to you. If you are charged an overdraft fee, you can view complete details in your Online Banking transaction record by visiting the link associated with this fee.

