Much like a day six Mondays ago, I had to make an urgent trip to my bank. I over-drafted my account my a mere 25 cents, which triggered a $35 fee against my bank account, so that had to be taken care of. Unlike my sortie to the bank in December, this time the fault was mine, as I take total responsibility for it. I went into the bank and used their ATM machine, which I like to do in case I ever have ATM issues.
Whenever I have a problem in life, I turn to the Internet when I can. One of the options I looked into when I discovered that I had discovered the over-draft was closing the account. I came across an article by Luke Landes in 2011 about how, in 47 states, you have to write a letter to get your bank account closed.
So, if you’re a BOA customer, it’s kind of like that old Eagles song “Hotel California” in that you can check out any time you want, but you can never leave. Or that episode of The Simpsons were they join a cult, but when someone wants to leave, they get a spotlight thrown on them and tell them they are free to leave if they divulge why they want to. I’m sure BOA did that to prevent a run of mass account closings as former soccer player Eric Cantona suggested back around 2010.
I have no desire to close my BOA account anytime soon, upon retrospect. But if it’s OUR money, why do we have to jump through THEIR hoops? I don’t get it.
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