Bank Of America is unhelpful

You need to talk to the branch manager, not a personal banker. Reg E is federal law http://www.fdic.gov/regulations/laws/rules/6500-3100.html#fdic6500205.10

(c) Consumer's right to stop payment--(1) Notice. A consumer may stop payment of a preauthorized electronic fund transfer from the consumer's account by notifying the financial institution orally or in writing at least three business days before the scheduled date of the transfer.

Thanks, this is helpful! I will go in tomorrow, ask for a branch manager, and bring a printout of this section of the law as well.

If they deny me again, they're in breach of FDIC regulation, right?

I had an account w/ B of A for a very long time, when I got into this mess I went in to talk to a personal banker and was told the same thing. I withdrew whatever funds I had and stopped my direct deposit. When the lenders attempted to withdraw the monies, there wasn't any funds. However, I wasn't charged any fees.

As soon as my account was at 000000 the account was closed out.

Not attempting to counter any comments here but just wanted to tell you what happened in my situation.

While at B of A, I went to them and they said the same thing to me. I ended up just closing the account. Now at Chase, I did a stop payment but they (PDL company) came in under another name and took a lot of money out of my account.

When I tried to file fraud claims, they wouldn't do it because they said that in me signing contract, it made it valid. That they didn't dispute PDL. I closed account and opened another one. No issues since. It seems that the banks are attempting to protect themselves because they see so many of these PDL cases and make money as well (numerous fees). Honestly they (banks) aren't very helpful.

I say what SOAPLADY told me........CLOSE THE BANK ACCOUNT!!!

Well, on a whim, I hopped on to the Bank of America live chat and, wouldn't you know it, the nice lady (probably in India) didn't have any attitude and promptly put stop payments on my loans that are coming due on 3/1.
Apparently sometimes it's good to move DOWN the food chain to get someone to help you.

(And yes, I know that the companies can still debit other amounts on different dates, but this at least puts me on record as attempting to stop them from both sides.)

I'm still planning on closing my account, but unfortunately because I'm currently in the Chexsystem I can't get a new account anywhere else, which is quite frustrating. In fact, not even Bank of America will open a new one for me (which seems weird, I might go a different branch and try again). Although, even if they do open a new one for me, they've told me that there's no way to not have it linked somehow with my current account. So, in other words, a new account there won't really protect me anyway, especially if my balance goes way negative for a while because of returned item and overdraft fees.

I'm changed my pay at work to paper check, so nothing will be going into the account on the 1st and I can freely use that money to pay rent. If the BofA account goes negative due to any of these companies debiting from it, I'm just going to report it as fraud to the bank. I think that seems like the best route to go.

I can use cash and my PayPal debit card for a while if I need to.

What a pain, though I'm glad I'm taking care of it finally.

Open a savings account instead.

There are some banks that don't use Chexsystems so you may want to look into that. I have also read on a Chexsystem related forum that some of the major banks that use do use Chexsytems will overlook entries that are over 2 years old, although I don't know how true that is and having multiple inquires on your Chexsytems may be something that you want to avoid. I opened an account at a bank that does not use Chexsystems (as I have a couple of entries on it) and have had no problems.

Thanks everyone!

I found that USAA may be able to get me a checking account. I signed up for an account but have to wait until I have $25 to actually open it. I'll update here if I'm successful.

I am SO done with Bank of America.

I have run into the same problems with BoA. I lost my job and can't pay for a check loan that automatically comes out as a ACH (the loan was obtained online). I called the check loan as well as emailed and explained to them that I couldn't make anymore payments at this time and I was more then willing to try to pay it off when I get another job and to not send the ACH to our bank. They, the check loan, declined and told me they couldn't help me, they would continue regardless. I then explained the situation to the bank through the 800 line and the local bank. They were unhelpful and didn't educate or advise on what we could do to protect ourselves. We closed our account a week ago to try and stop the process so we can live. The account appeared closed but a direct deposit reopened the account, (my last paycheck). I looked up some information like on this forum and realized I needed to do a stop payment on the loan. I called the 800 line and explained the situation to another BoA operator and they suggested I go to the local bank and speak to a bank manager before putting a stop payment on the loan (because the check loan can change amts sent etc and mess things up). This operator seemed to be the most helpful I have had to date and also suggested other ideas. I went into a different BoA and explained the situation to the banking manager and gave her the information that was suggested from the 800 banking agent. I finally got information that I needed to put a "hold" on the account so nothing comes or goes from the account. Since any amount from the lender can reopen the account it seemed to be the best bet. I certainly couldn't afford all the fee's this domino affect could incur. Also this would save me the 30.00 stop payment fee. The banker withdrew the deposit and then placed a "hold" on the account. The check loan hasn't hit yet and we'll see how this goes. I'll post again with the result.