I went to a Bank Of America ATM today to withdraw some money (I have a savings and checking account there). When I got my receipt for my transactions I noticed something at the bottom:
CHECKING AVAILABLE BALANCE $XXXX.XX
+AVAILABLE SAVINGS $XXX.XX
=TOTAL AVAILABLE $XXXX.XX
I was withdrawing money from my checking account so it’s nice to see what’s remaining there. What’s sneaky to me is the +AVAILABLE SAVINGS part. If I wasn’t paying too close attention I might only see the =TOTAL AVAILABLE not realizing that includes my savings account as well. This could lead to some serious miscalculations for some people!
Does Bank of America do this because they think it might be useful? I see this as a potential way to overdraw money. That leads to more fees, paid by the customer, paid to Bank of America!
The lesson here is that we always, ALWAYS, have to look carefully at receipts and make sure we understand what we are reading!
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
I don’t necessarily see it as being sneaky, or trying to pull the wool over anyones eyes. If I remember correctly (and I may be wrong), when your checking account is overdraft, BoA automatically moves money from your savings account to your checking account. But more importantly, your savings account is your money, and that does contribute to your total amount available.
You are probably like me, my savings never gets touched. To some people, their savings gets emptied every other week. I keep my savings account at a separate bank for this very reason. I keep it separated so I don’t get the temptation to easily spend the money in there.
Hi Robert,
I believe overdraft protection is something you have to sign up for and is not automatic with BoA. I think there are different forms of it as well (they can take from savings or checking).
I’m not sure what the intention is of BoA, it may very well be trying to help us, but it can be a misleading item on your ATM receipt and it wasn’t always shown that way. My main point is that we have to be very careful of how we read a bank statement.
I too have my main savings in another bank so I can’t touch it. What I keep in BoA is more for emergency overdraft and it’s only enough to not incur charges on the account.
Thanks for the comment!