06/06/2007

Beware! Hidden Bank Fees
BB&T and Bank of America charge to cash checks
By Don Klein

There are some banks in the area that will charge a customer a service fee to cash a check drawn on one of its own accounts if the person receiving the payment is not an account holder himself. There are other banks that will not charge anything as long as the payee possesses valid identification.

An informal survey of eight local banks showed that only two assessed fees of $5 to cash a check for someone who does not have an account with them. Six other banks make no such charges, offering free check cashing for drafts written by their own customers to non-accountant holders upon presentation of a valid ID.

Bank of America and BB&T banks require the fee, called a service charge, while representatives of Bank of Ocean City, 1st Mariner, Calvin Taylor, M&T, SunTrust and Mercantile-Peninsula banks said they all offer free check cashing. 

Asked why a service fee is charged for cashing a check of an account holder, an official at the local branch of the Bank of America referred a reporter to the bank's media services. But that hardly helped explain the matter.

The telephone number given resulted in hearing a perplexing telephone recording of a series of convoluted directions, none of which included the extension for the media department. Eventually, the reporter started the sequence of calls again and finally reached someone named "Don" in customer services.

The reporter identified himself and asked to speak to a media representative. The consumer relations representative asked him to hold while he got the number. The line went silent for three or four minutes, and when Don came back on he said, "sorry for the delay but I am trying to find a number for you." It was hard to believe that someone in the customer relations office did not have the number of the press office at his fingertips.

Silence again for some time and finally after waiting on a dead line playing monotonous promotional sales recordings for eight minutes, messages designed to induce the listener to open an account of his own at the bank, Don returned. "I have the number for you," he said, "I had to get it from my supervisor. Sorry it took so long." After reciting the number he offered to make the direct connection for the reporter.

After another few minutes of waiting, a recording suddenly blurted from the headset. It announced that a Betsy (with a garbled second name) of the media relations department was the person to talk to, but she was busy and the reporter would have to leave his number and a brief message.  The reporter dutifully described the reason for his call and his phone number. She was supposed to call back soon but never did.

Meanwhile, it was learned from elsewhere that the $5 service fee charged to cash checks drawn on Bank of America accounts was initiated about four years ago only on business accounts. If you wish to avoid that charge you could by taking advantage of a promotion during the month of June dedicated to potential costumers who open checking accounts of their own.

That will hardly save you any money, though, because the personal account will include a $5.95 monthly service charge. There seems to be no way to avoid a fee to do business with this bank, one way or another, and there also seems to be no way to complain by telephone to anyone in authority if you don't like it.

Disconnected: A day after this story was written a Bank of America media rep called to say she was the wrong person to speak on this matter. She gave a different number to call in Massachusetts. When dialed a recording came on announcing that this spokesman was on vacation and gave the number of a colleague to dial if the caller wanted immediate information. When dialed, a telephone company operator came on the line to declare that the number was disconnected.

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