If you’re living in California and thinking about banking with Bank of America, then you might want to reconsider if you plan on moving any time soon. When we started Infinity Box Inc. about a year ago, we created a business account with Bank of America in California. About four months into the business, when YCombinator was completed, we packed our bags and moved back to Florida. Much to our surprise, it seems that the computer systems for the West Coast branches do not play nicely with the computer systems on the East Coast branches.
Basically, when we went to a local branch in Florida to make a basic change to the account, they told us we’d have to open up brand new accounts out of Florida since they cannot communicate with an account opened up in California. This becomes a pain in the butt when you are working with Quickbooks, automatically deducting from one account, and automatically depositing into on account.
I’m not posting this to only rant about on Bank of America since their East Coast branches have been pretty good overall, but if you’re planning on moving across the country, you might want to hold off on starting a new account with Bank of America.
My personal opinion is that if banks switched to OFX these kinds of problems would iron themselves out.
It’s not just banks. In moving from Connecticut to Indiana, we had to restart cable, telephone and all sorts of other things even though we were staying with the same companies (Comcast and AT&T, respectively for the cable and phone).
It amazes me that companies don’t have a single network for their customer and account information.
Had a similar thing happen to me with BofA when moving from Pennsylvania to Texas. I still have the account I opened in Pennsylvania, but have to remember that whenever I lookup my account, it’s not the state I live in. To me it was a bigger pain to change my direct deposit, and bill payment info than to open the new account, so I didn’t make a switch. You’d think people move all the time, so why make this difficult?
It’s probably federal banking regulations, which are finicky about state lines. I suspect Bank of America in FL is legally a different bank than that in CA.
Bank of America seems to suck across the board.
Everyone needs a hug.
I just wanted to chime in and say we had a similar problem with US Bank (What is it with patriotic sounding bank names?). Anyway, we now bank with USAA and couldn’t be happier. If you’re able to get your foot in the door there, I’d highly recommend it. High return on savings account, repaid service charges for ATM withdrawals from other chains, and the ability to use a scanner to upload paper checks, rather than mail / go to the bank.
Anyway, didn’t mean for that to sound like a commercial, but it’s the first bank I’m actually happy with.
We live in California, and on a recent trip to Virginia needed to reimburse someone with a relatively large amount of cash. We figured we’d just hit the local BofA after leaving the airport and withdraw the amount from our checking account. Nope! We were limited to the $300 withdrawal limit (same as if we’d just used the ATM) and were told that even though the teller could see that our account balance was more than enough to cover the larger withdrawal, that we weren’t allowed because the accounts were “different”. No one could quite explain to us what the differences were, or why they mattered, but all were adamant that the differences were indeed there and quite insurmountable. Frustrating.
Yep, I’m dealing with the same issue concerning BOA. The main reason I went with them was the “seeming” portability of the account. When I was in India and saw a Bank of America, I was convinced. Now I would happy switch to someone else if it weren’t for the time involved.
This actually is a common problem, not only with BoA, but with many other companies, like Cingular or Comcast.
However, in this case, I know for certain that BoA has databases that are separate California and (I believe) “Indiana” from the rest of the country. That’s why when you call in to handle certain items, you’re prompted on whether or not you live in California (or that wildcard state) before you can continue. Same goes on their website, or if you were setting up online banking with Quicken or MS Money.
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p>But yeah, it sucks. Sorry you had to deal with it like that. :4a7d3d609129a9296bf7ac0608c2097
Sorry you’ve had a crappy experience. I’ve been banking with BoA for a long time. I also move across state lines a lot. Originally, inter-state banking was a real pain. I kept my accounts with a branch in Missouri, but would make deposits in other states requiring special deposit slips and state codes. But in the last few years it’s gotten better. For the last seven years I’ve had no real problem moving between Missouri, Arizona, California, and Texas. Prior to 2000, when I lived in Boston, I don’t remember seeing BoA anywhere on the east coast. That’s probably changed via aquistions. I imagine it will get better - which, of course, helps you bubkis now.
I’ve had the worst experience dealing with Bank of America. They closed my account without any explanation or notice, which I later learned to be a check I deposited. The check turned out to be perfectly valid and fine, but it took them a month to reopen the account. Throughout the process, they were rude and unresponsive to my requests for help. I finally went with Washington Mutual and what a world of difference.
Everyone needs a hug. Convenient bank is bank of America.