*WARNING* Do Not Rely On The Application "Bank Of America"

[PhixionFilms]

There is an app in the app store which you can use for your bank of america account, track your status, and balance your checking account along with see whats pending. Well while i was in Hawaii i was basically using this app to keep track of all my purchases and balancing my checking account. Well little did i know, only some of the purchases would log under "Pending" and some of them wouldnt show up. Well i get back home, and my bank of america app says i still have about 5.67 dollars left after everything is done pending. one week later i call my bank, and im over drawn $225 dollars, for purchases totaling up to 15 dollars. Well i come to find out 6 items that i purchased in hawaii didnt show up under "pending", but showed up on the website. Well those 6 items that didnt show up pending on my bank of america app forced me to over draw 6 different times. 6 x 35 = 210 plus the 15 dollars = -225.
So i dont know if i can fight this, since i know i didnt screw up, i balanced it just perfect, but the app glitched somewhere hiding 6 different purchases. Seems like BOA made the mistake and now im paying for it. I really wish the app would show some kind of disclaimer before it opened, and notified me not to rely on it as much.
But stay warned people, if your going to use this app, make sure you only use it to check your balances, and nothing else.

 

[admanimal]

Charges made to your bank account can sometimes take days to even show up as pending on your account (on the website or wherever) depending on exactly how the charge is made and how the business handles it. I would never rely on it to keep track of a tight budget.

When you got back and saw the extra pending charges on the web site, did they still not show up in the BOA app?

 

[brop52]

Not everything is immediate.

Anyway, isn't this what a credit card is for? What's the difference between a CC and debit card besides making a single payment once a month rather than multiple payments a month and worrying about overdrawing your checking account. Not to mention the fact that you build your credit with a credit card and reward points. Just pay it off in full each month and have as high of a credit limit as possible.

I'm sorry to hear about your mishap.

 

[PhixionFilms]

Charges made to your bank account can sometimes take days to even show up as pending on your account (on the website or wherever) depending on exactly how the charge is made and how the business handles it. I would never rely on it to keep track of a tight budget.

Yea, but the point im trying to make is that the website posted on x/x/xx but the app never updated. So if the website could update correctly shouldnt the application?

 

[Randman]

I've used the app since the beginning and had no issues with it. It's accurate in my estimation. It's just a wrapper for the mobile banking site anyways. So those pending charges would not have shown if accessed it via mobile site either.

Perhaps being in Hawaii, the charges were slower going to the bank (your home state) and being posted.

For example, my home state was New Mexico. I'm in Florida now. My paycheck is scheduled to post wirelessly at midnight every fortnight. But since it goes through NM, it doesn't post until midnight NM time, 2 am here.

The extra costs suck, especially on a holiday but better checkbook balancing would have helped.

 

[GoCubsGo]

Well while i was in Hawaii i was basically using this app to keep track of all my purchases and balancing my checking account.

This is your first mistake. Honestly, BofA is probably one of the quicker sites to update pending transactions but BofA will be very quick (and very right) to tell you that the pending transactions are only as good as the merchants you buy from. If they're not submitting the charges right away (even a day later) then it will not show in pending transactions because frankly, BofA won't know about them.

Well i come to find out 6 items that i purchased in hawaii didnt show up under "pending", but showed up on the website.

Can you prove they showed up on the website while you were away? Chances are you cannot because they weren't there. I've used the mobile app (which is indeed the App Store app that is a bit more raw) and I've seen the same pending charges on my mobile site as I have the full site. AND I am in NC and I have a CA account which means my account is completely blocked in all other states. It prevents me from doing things like make counter withdraws over $5k without higher level approval, withdraw more than $500 a day and other restrictions.

Your post reads that a week later the website showed the pending items, of course they did! It was a week later.

Well those 6 items that didnt show up pending on my bank of america app forced me to over draw 6 different times. 6 x 35 = 210 plus the 15 dollars = -225.

Apologies because this is about to sound harsh, but no. You overdrew your account and I'm going to venture to guess BofA is very covered with this because there is probably a disclaimer about how pending transactions are shown and so forth. Perhaps not easy to find but BofA did not "force" you to overdraw your account.

So i dont know if i can fight this, since i know i didnt screw up, i balanced it just perfect, but the app glitched somewhere hiding 6 different purchases. Seems like BOA made the mistake and now im paying for it. I really wish the app would show some kind of disclaimer before it opened, and notified me not to rely on it as much.

No offense but this is common sense banking. If you're going to use the online register as your way to balance your spending then you'd have to know exactly how pending transactions work and know that BofA's protection is to say that the merchant needs to submit by a certain time each day in order for it to hit your pending transaction. My guess is not everywhere is as instant as you'd think. Hell, I just paid Ford Motor Credit $1000 and it took 5 days to show up. Ford is not exactly a small operation.

But stay warned people, if your going to use this app, make sure you only use it to check your balances, and nothing else.

It is fair to warn people but it is also safe to say that if you were cutting it that close in the first place, you may have wanted to keep record of your finances elsewhere. You cannot and should not rely solely on a bank's website to tell you how much cash you have in the bank if you're spending day after day on vacation. That money comes out fast while on vacation.

I do feel for you, I think this will go down as a lesson learned for you, but I seriously doubt you'll be able to fight much of this. Perhaps if you get a warm-hearted person you can get some of the charges waived, but in the end, you relied on seeing all transactions right away and that never happens, no matter what state you're in or what browser you use to view your transactions.

 

[iGary]

Bank of America is the Satan of fees (USAA FTW), but I think you did yourself in on this one.

 

[xsecretfiles]

from what I read on the fine print, is that you can have two overdraft transactions removed PER YEAR. I was able to have three removed because I had never gone overdraft in my entire time with Bank of America, I was able to have them removed by talking to the teller face to face.

I would recommend that you do that.

Good luck

 

[fishkorp]

Yea, but the point im trying to make is that the website posted on x/x/xx but the app never updated. So if the website could update correctly shouldnt the application?

That cannot be possible. The app IS the website. All their app is is a UIWebView with the mobile version of bankofamerica.com loaded in it. Try it. Go to bankofamerica.com on your iPhone, you'll see the exact same screen as the app.

 

[yg17]

I've used the app since the beginning and had no issues with it. It's accurate in my estimation. It's just a wrapper for the mobile banking site anyways. So those pending charges would not have shown if accessed it via mobile site either.

Perhaps being in Hawaii, the charges were slower going to the bank (your home state) and being posted.

For example, my home state was New Mexico. I'm in Florida now. My paycheck is scheduled to post wirelessly at midnight every fortnight. But since it goes through NM, it doesn't post until midnight NM time, 2 am here.

The extra costs suck, especially on a holiday but better checkbook balancing would have helped.

Distance doesn't have much to do with it. I was using my BoA debit card in Europe and charges would show up on Pending instantly. Electronic deposit (how your paycheck is deposited) is handled differently than debit or credit card transactions. Those may be timezone dependent, but debit card usage is instant.