Bank of America Doesn’t Want My Business

Three weeks ago I called my former local Bank of America branch (Harper’s Farm Road, Columbia, MD) to open up another business checking account. The reason I called and didn’t walk-in was because I am stationed on a military base several hundred miles from the nearest Bank of America branch.

I could have opened an account with another bank, but since I already had six bank accounts and three credit cards with Bank of America, I figured it would be easier just to open up my new account with them. Oh how wrong I was.

The customer service representative told me that she couldn’t help me unless I could physically come into the branch office. I told her I wouldn’t be back in Columbia, MD until February 2015. She told me that an alternative would be to open the account online.

I went onto the Bank of America website to open the account. I filled out all of the required forms and hit submit. Several days later, I received an e-mail asking me to submit articles of declaration. I immediately submitted the forms via e-mail. A few days after that, I received another e-mail asking me to complete the required Bank of America form, sign it, and e-mail it in. Why these forms weren’t made available to me when I first submitted the application, nor were they mentioned in the first e-mail, I have no idea. Several days later, I received a third e-mail telling me to submit my articles of declaration. At this point I was furious. I resubmitted all of the forms via e-mail and wrote a note about how this was the third time I was submitting them and I had been waiting two weeks already for this account to be open.

At the end of the third week, I received an e-mail telling me that my account could not be opened and if I wanted more information, I should call them. So I called them. I waited on hold for 45 minutes and eventually gave up. Then I called several hours later. When I spoke to the representative, I was told that I needed to submit a utility bill in order to verify the address. I told them that I didn’t have any utility bills because I don’t have any utilities because I told have any checking accounts. The woman on the phone didn’t understand.

Looks like I’ll be opening my account elsewhere. As soon as I can, I will be closing my other Bank of America accounts and moving them elsewhere as well.