PGHIMC - Pittsburgh Independent Media Center

Bank of America Stole Our Food
by Trisha • Saturday, Mar. 06, 2010 at 11:35 PM

We're hungry because Bank of America stole our food.

I am so hungry I want to cry. Bank of America took my food away. Mommy worked hard this week to earn enough money to take care of us. It would have been enough to get by, but Bank of America changed that. Our rent was due yesterday. Mommy had saved up most of the money for rent and she got paid today and with the money she already had, it was enough to pay the rent and buy groceries. So what went wrong?

Mommy took the rent check to the apartment yesterday at 5:00 PM. She couldn't put the check in late because she'd have to pay a late fee and that would take away our grocery money, so she had to get it in yesterday. At 5:00, she slipped the check into the mail slot at the apartment office. The land lord always takes at least five days to cash the checks, so we knew it would be OK, the money would be there in the morning, so nothing to worry about. During the day, Mommy made three small purchases. She had a large enough balance and her balance was positive when she made each purchase. Then something unexpected happened.

Somewhere between 5:00 PM and midnight, the landlord electronically cashed the check. This never happened before. The bank account should have gone negative about $300.00, since there was already about $850.00 in the bank. That would have cost us a $35.00 dollar fee. We would have been out $35.00 from the $140.00 she planned to spend for groceries, but that is what should have happened, not what did happen.

Bank of America undid all of the purchases mommy made during the day, just for a few seconds, and then took out the rent check (which was cashed after the business day ended). By taking out the biggest one first (and rewriting history), Bank of America made mommy go negative four times instead of one time. That's right, Bank of America changed the past to make the biggest debit go first so that the account would be negative when it decided then debit the earlier charges, cause the debits to bounce four times instead of one time. This wiped out everything my mommy deposited today. Instead of charging us $35.00, Bank of America charged us $140.00 and now we have no money to buy food.

I am hungry and I am mad. I couldn't believe it when my mother told me what happened. She even called the Bank of America and they told her it was their policy to charge people in the order from the biggest charge to the smallest in order to maximize fees. Now some fat bank executive has our $140.00 and we cannot eat. I'm sad enough about this, by what makes me cry is that my little brother, he's only five years old, he can't eat too. I hate Bank of America. They stole my family's food. Will they do it against next week?

Please let everyone you know how bad Bank of America is.

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