I opened an account with B of A in early December 2007, way over 30 days ago. This month i have made a few of deposits, the first deposit I made was for 1250 all cash except for 200. The next day I have an extended hold on my account for 12 days. I got a little angry called them cusomter service is no help.. I get over it and go from there. Well then the following Friday i make a deposit for $6500.00 everything is fine my money is available to be on Sat. WEll this week I deposit another check for $6500.00 (just a basic typed payroll check from employer)and they decide to put another hold on this check. FOR 12 DAYS!! My account has always been in good standing no overdrafts besides the one i received when they returned a check because they wouldn't make my money available. Is this legal. I mean do they get to pick and choose which week looks like a good week to keep my money?

I will say that all my deposits were made through an atm after banking hours. But if i wasn't allowed to do this why was the first deposit for $6500 ok? Please help me I am a new mom I have no available money to me right now how can i get my money. I keep trying to contact them and they give me the run around that its a new account.. Its over 30 day old. Any help please.

There is nothing new with this BoA handling, they do it a lot and often, the argument is always the same:

a. first we need to wait till your check clears (forgetting to tell you that they will know latest the next day if you do not deposit a private check from overseas, which by the way could be cleared just as fast)
b. then they mumble something about policy
c. then they say there is a risk because you had some credit inquiries
d.
e.
f.
g.

The actual reason is just to put all the chips on their side and make money. That indeed is what banks are there for, to make money not to help you making money. The later only applies when they make more money when you make money, since you are just using a checking account and the money will pass through and since they already loose money on people which only use them for "normal" banking, you are not on top of their list.

The handling is usually easy, mostly a friendly customer service man or woman you can talk to face by face can be found which makes the call on the check and deposits it with sometimes immediate availability or at least tone it down to 2 or 3 days.

If you get angry, everybody will play by the rule books worse interpretation, which by the way is what it is when they put long times on the clearing of checks.(the BoA board will tell you just that something may have went wrong etc....)

So just as always dealing with people face to face be considerate and have your arguments calmly presented.

Another hint: BoA is not the best bank to bank with when you are not using their private banking