Has anyone faced this issue? Karen Talley in my law school’s IT Department did. She received a notice from Bank of America, stating that “Your CD will be maturing soon. The account number, maturity date, and other information pertaining to your CD are listed below:

Account Number:    XXXXX
Current Product: FIXED TERM CD
Current term:    18 months
Maturity date:    April 23, 2011

The notice then said “You have 7 calendar days after the maturity date to make changes to your account. If no changes are made, your CD will automatically renew to the new term and maturity dated noted above. To make a change:  Come see us. Simply stop by the banking center nearest you to talk with us about your options…”

Karen appeared on April 30, 2011 to close this out and the bank said it rolled over the days before. The way I do the math, it should not have rolled over until April 30, the day she arrived to close and cash in the CD. This one day difference cost Karen $1026.04. 

Karen’s neighbor, a former Bank president, noted that there is a N.A. following Bank of America’s name, meaning that it is  a federally chartered bank (as opposed to state chartered), and thus regulated by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC).

With this information, on Tuesday, June 21, she went to the web site and submitted an Online Customer Complaint Form. She received a gracious phone call a day or two later from the Acting Bank Manager with whom she had previously spoken. The manager informed Karen that she would soon receive a call from someone about the resolution of her problem.

The next day, she received a call from Bank of America and was told that the penalty assessed for the closing her two CDs would be refunded to her account by the end of that work day. She was also told she would get a $400 gift card in 7 to 10 days. She took down the name and direct telephone number of the person she spoke to in case there are any further problems that need to be resolved. The caller said she should not have experienced that problem and agreed that she attempted to close the CDs within the proper time. Remarkably, the bank employee said there would also be in-house training applied to the local bank employees to keep this from happening to any other customer.

Thanks Karen, for telling other customers how to right this wrong.