Got my checking account statement today, and found a "check payment" that I didn't recognize that was debited from the account. I went to my bank and found it was FIA Card Services. I do have a B of A credit card account with them which I unfortunately haven't been able to pay as agreed. My checking account is with a different bank (not B of A).

The sent me a letter last month, "confirming my conservation agreeing" to a settlement offer with graduated, increasing payments. I have had NO phone conservations or other correspondence with them. I didn't respond or authorize them to take any money out of my account, as I can't afford the ballooning payments.

But they somehow faked a phone-authorized check, with my bank's name and account number on it, which my bank accepted.

I have been making small, "good faith" payments with them, but with money orders. I did use the checking account to make payments when I was able to stay current with payments. But I have another checking account, with another bank, that I had used as well and they didn't mess with that one.

I have filed a fraud complaint with my bank, and I may have to close the account there.

I have two other B of A accounts that were charged off and sold to collection agencies. I don't know why they are treating this one differently, except that it was originally a Fleet account that was taken over by MBNA, which was then taken over by B of A.

I have a credit card linked to the checking account with overdraft protection, on which I am staying current, and which has space available on it for the total amount they want. I suspect they must somehow know this?

I can't believe this is legal. My guess is that someone in collections was desperate for a commission and stepped over the line?

Do the creditors have a way to find out what bank accounts you have (even if you have never used it to pay them), and whether they are linked to credit cards with overdraft protection?

Any advice would be appreciated.

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I had a similar experience. I too am behind on credit card payments to B of A. Fia wrote themselves an unauthurized check from my account and used someone else's name with my last name (not me), my address and account numbers. When I called to file a check fraud claim they (B of A) transfered me to FIA, when they realized they goofed by using the wrong name they reversed the amount. I am still trying to get them to reverse bounced check charges that resulted because the amount they paid themselves exceeded what was avalible in my account. I wonder if I have legal recourse? Hopefully someone knows?

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beleive it or not .... at any time Bank of America can tap your personal accounts if you have a credit card thru them no matter if your late or not .... check paragraph 7 in the disclosures they just updated --- they just snatched $2000 from us when we were only behind to the tune of $470 ... but the bank continued to pay items leaving us in the negative to the tune of $1600 ----- wow they have some great accounting people --- even I can see they really didnt help themselves much --- if we nevr repay the negative ... they got $400 not even what we were behind .. sooooo AHAHA bank of america you just lost another customer ... BIGGEST SUGGESTION HERE I CAN GIVE IS never put money in a bank that you have credit cards thru --- if u own a bank of america card never bank with them .... casue this can happen at any time i was told ....

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I have been a Bank of America customer now for over 3 years. So far I am very dissatisfied with their service. Most of there tactics are deceiving and seem to trap consumers.

Here is my #1 problem with this bank. I got a student credit card with them and used it irresponsibly and quickly went over the limit. At first I was paying on time then after a few months I stopped paying. About six months later bank of America put me on a 5 year payment plan to pay off the balance of my debt of $46 dollars a month to be paid on the 21st of each month. I went about 3 months with no problems then all of a sudden they stopped automatcly withdrawing the payment out of my account. i called up and they advised me that I needed to reschedule my payment plan and thats why they didn't debit the $46 out of my account that month.

I got a letter in the mail about 2 weeks prior saying that i need to reschedule the payments. I called the number and they said to never mind the letter that it wasn't nessasary (witch apparently wasn't true). So two weeks later when the payment wasn't made I got hit with late charges and fee's. This did not seem fair I did everything I should have and I had to pay for a bank employee's mistake.

So after I once again rescheduled the payments 3 months later the same thing happened (this time with no warning letter) I got hit with late charges and needed to reschedule. Fed up and untrustworthy of this company I decided to call up and request a full statement outlining what my charges are and how they came up with my balance. They said they would send that in about may I would say. I still haven't received this or any other communication with bank of America.

Now on September 30th 2008 my checking account gets mysteriously debited $46 after not speaking with them for almost 5 months. I called and got the run around and gave up. Now on October 21st 2008 i get another charge for $46 so I called again today. I spoke to bank of america about the situation and they transfered me to a represenitive of FIA card services. She advised me that the reason these two debits came out of my account were because I called in and authorized them to do this on Sept. 30th 2008. I am 100% positive this never happened. i ask them to let me listen to a copy of the recording of me authorizing this and she said she will transfer me to the manager who can help me out with this. I was transfred and I got a voicemail, so i left a message explaining my situation. These practices are very wrong in my opinion and hopefully Illegal.

On a side note I asked them not to make any more debits from my account to pay this bill. They agreed and I asked them to send me written documentation verifying this and I was old this was impossible (she said they cant send a letter verifying something that is not taking place) this makes no sense to me why cant they send a letter saying 'no more electronic transactions will be debited from my account' So after i was told this I was asked for permission to record her saying that this will not occur, once again I was turned down. She also couldn't give me a straight answer of why the $46 was taken out of my account on different dates for the September and October payments.

My question is What can I do about this. I incurred a $35.00 overdraft free from this unauthorized transaction. Bank of America should not be aloud to steal money from there customers accounts and then give them the run around when the start asking questions.

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I have had similar experiences. If you don't watch them daily to see what their doing in each of your accounts, they will find some way to create transactions between accounts that result in fees. I don't think it's illegal, but it certainly is incredibly unethical. When I contacted customer service, I too was given the run-around -- transferred, conveniently disconnected, etc. The best recommendation I can give is to close your banking account and find a credit union. Re: the credit cards - transfer the balances to another card co.

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I noticed today when I entered my business boa credit card (that I payed down from 17k to 5k but now at 9 k that they reduced my credit limit to 8k (A LIMIT that is BELOW what amount was being used on a credit limit of 18k that I had reduce from 22k just recently. Folks it is time to mutinize the feds totally... BOA and other banks and the FED allowed system to LOAN SHARK needs to stop! I have paid over 100 in fines and increased interest rates over the past 7 years because of a LOAN SHARKING SYSTEM that our politicians seem to ignore. I have had the run arounds, disconections etc with them also.. they will provide little to no information about the corporate system other than faulty fax lines and PO Boxes! I think we should all write to the address and inform them that we are making changes to our agreements!!! and that if they do not reply with in 10 days that they are forefitting the agreement in it entirety and we owe them nothing. I think we should all just stop paying them but lets take the time to let people who have linked checking with auto deposits of thier hard earned money to get thier deposits into another bank...all in favor???

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OK , it is now time for all to take your money OUT of bank of America! Put into a Credit Union Account and NOT PAY YOUR CREDIT CARDS! Use the money to put back into the ECONOMY buy your self something! If every one does this it will crash BOA!!! (and other banks who loan shark) If it crashes, we owe them nothing...hell we don't anyway! I personnally have lost etimated over 100 grand to them through thier LOAN SHARK practices!
I will be doing it myself next week to set up an acccount else where for my retirement pay... then to stop paying them like I told them I would after they dropped my credit line from 18k to LESS than what I owe them AND gave me a OVERDRAFT Fee. After WASTING my time on the phone with them I think I will just make copies every day of action on my accounts If they want to come get me let them try! I have not opted in or out of the Class A LAW SUIT just yet, and I have my banking statements for the Past 7 years.... I hope eveyone takes some sort of NON PAYMENT ACTION at once!!! CRASH the Giant with a blow within a month they will no longer exist! UNITED WE STAND in this one! PS I am retired USAF returned from 7 years abroad with SOUND Credit Hisory... due to bank of americas practices, I am now struggling to keep afloat, while they continue to extort money out of me and YOU!

I really thin we all should just not worry and DO IT! Heck most of us do not have any credit left because of them any way...so what do you have to loose? Even if your credting is good, it is the debt to income ratio that lenders look at.

Just an idea... if you are interested in joining me begin the strategy with in 30 days of this post...LETS ROCK AMERICA...don't forget not to worry and spend those dollars on the economy, buy something any where but WAL MART!

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about an account I had someone authorized to use and had applied for my name to be removed after they ran up a 2k bill and have been making the min. payment for the past year.. The 1 st person said they don't do that, the second person said it "takes a while " for the transfer to occur the third person said it had been denied but the only thing they had on the account was my name as the primary card holder the rest of the vital info was hers and her as an authorized user. WTF?
I heard someone on morning TV talk/news say that for the next year they would be pulling out every trick in the book because next year the law actually does make all the crap they are pulling illegal but until then they can run amuck.

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I have had a continuing horrifying experience with FIA Card Services. I have a CC thru my credit union (who has now dis-associated themselves from this company). I used their promotional offer to transfer a balance with 0% interest for a year. I NEVER used the credit card. Several months ago, I started to use their autopay system, where they automatically withdraw the payment from my checking account. During the transition from pay-by-mail to autopay, they managed to get 2 payments from me in one month - one by mail and one by autopay. I called and they offered to send me my extra payment back. They did, and I cashed their check. The next month, and every month thereafter, they listed a finance charge and a new balance under "Purchases". Every month I complained and, after much effort, they reversed the charge. This has continued to this day. I still have the residual "Purchases" and ongoing finance charge in every statement. Again, I have NEVER used the card or made a purchase! They seem incapable of keeping their books. This week, they have started to refuse to connect me to a supervisor. I have been promised a return call in 72 hours, but no one calls. I now am told that unless I identify their billing error exactly, I cannot be connected to a supervisor. How would you like to explain to an agent what the problem is, when their own managers cannot explain why I am being charged?
Any help would be appreciated.

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I just hung up from the unhelpful FIA representative that advised "Sorry we can't take your interest rate back down to 7% on your business card account, because you were 2-3 days late on your payment." I travel, missed the cutoff and had my rate tripled. I just closed the account and will be paying them off. No customer service & absolutely no awareness of what's going on in the economy of the U.S. Never again.

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These crooks deserve to fail, they ripped me of ,late feed me to death .no matter what I say when they call they keep calling and late feeing me to death. Making an effort to even make a payment is pointless. After 20 plus years of great credit they destroyed me ! Screw them

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Almost got me too - luckily I have credit lines w/Chase and Discover and am using them to pay off lines I had open w/Bank of America, and an old balance w/SunTrust before they cut off relations w/FIA (contract ends 12/31/09 so still be wary). Luckily we still have honest bank tellers to tell you what's up & wise you up to be sure to ask the bank you are thinking of using a credit line with to send you an e-mail or letter stating that your account will be serviced "in house" and NOT Outsourced!!!! God bless America but it's up to us to help get some of these "servicing" companies out of here & get the government to take a stand for us!!!

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Pirates and thieves thrive in the credit market. FIA is the leader. Due to the current state of economics I am forced to reduce payments. Don’t ask this company for help. Now they are raising my rates because I am having troubles meeting the minimum payments. If I can’t make the current, what the hell makes this company think I can make the new payments? I am going to find a way to take legal action against them. This company is the same as AIG, GMAC, Enron and all the other THIEVES…..

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i just got a letter in the mail from FIA saying that they are raising my rates...They say i can reject this change in rate, but if i do, i cant use the account anymore or the rate will go up anyway...
thats just ridiculous..im thinking of rejecting this and then not using my account..

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In this current economic atmosphere I am appalled at how this monster of an institution stays afloat. I have a credit card account with "FIA Card Services" (AKA: Bank of America) which I have NEVER carried or used - it was simply an "overdraft account" setup by Wachovia (formerly First Union Bank) over 10 years ago. My payments have always been on time, I have excellent credit...and somehow the APR is 27.99%!!!!!! How this is legal I don't know. The mafia doesn't even charge that much! My credit line was $25,000 until I lost my job with an airline that shut down due to astronomical gas prices in September. When I called FIA Card Services to try and work something out in the way of a lower APR... they "promised" to help me... I was in tears on the phone. They transferred me to a supervisor who asked me several questions about our debt and other bills - she seemed so sympathetic. Well, she then quickly told me that considering some of our other bills... we were not in a position to have our APR lowered - but what she did say she would do is LOWER OUR AVAILABLE CREDIT FROM $25,000 DOWN TO A MERE $3,500!!!!! I felt like an absolute fool to believe this supervisor would help me. Our balance on this account at the time was approximately $3,200. Needless to say, I hung up. Two days later we received 3 letters from FIA Card Services, Bank of America and Wachovia - all with different letterhead... but ironically all signed by the same guy. Basically the letter said our available credit had been lowered. So when a person has great credit, pays their bill on time and is a good customer - this is what happens??? Would it not make sense to work with a good customer in hard times? Especially when people like you and me bailed their unsuccessful butts out?
Today is my due date for this credit card. I went online to set up an epay at 1:00p.m and when I got to the confirmation page it said my payment was scheduled for tomorrow! In order for it to take effect today (the due date) I would have to pay an additional $12.00 for "express pay". Heck, my payment is only $95.00 - why would I do that when I am trying to pay on the due date already? I pay some 13 other creditors online - NONE of them charge these unbelieveable fee's. I tried to pay by phone today as well and was told that would cost $15.00! I spoke to a representative and he told me the payment had to be there at least 2 days before the bill is due in order to be "on time". My next call will be to the Attorney General's office to complain... how these tactics are legal... I don't know. I plan to pay off this "BANK OF AMERICA" card as soon as possible and NEVER do business with them again. My husband and I will make it our goal to tell anyone and everyone NOT TO DO BUSINESS WITH BANK OF AMERICA OR ANY OF IT'S AFFILIATES! I hope people out there start "getting it" - this is supposed to be a great country - we are supposed to be fair and ethical. If this is the way they treat a great customer... I am horrified to think how they treat the average customer. Beware of Bank of America... I hope their day of reckoning comes very very soon.

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I had problems with FIA Card Services and I did not owe them money, and did not even know who they were. When I opened a checking account at Bank of America, I also signed up for their VISA card. From that point on, I received calls on my home phone that I would classify as harassment.

I received 2-3 calls per week for several months. On none of the calls would they leave a message on my answering machine. On three calls I was home and answered the call, and was hung on without anyone speaking to me.

I also complained online to Bank of America customer support, but the calls continued even after promises to stop them. At that point I took my emailed compliant and started faxing it to the local branch where I opened my account. Since that day
I have received zero calls from FIA Card Services.

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