Quick update for fellow Bank of America customers!
I called their customer service (again!) and had a heart-to-heart with an associate to find out any way that I could get out of the fee situation. Here’s what I ascertained from the conversation:
CampusEdge Checking: I asked if I could revert to the CampusEdge checking to do away with fees. This is a no-go. The CampusEdge account is good for five years max, at which point you gain a normal checking account. Once you’ve racked up five years on that account, there’s no going back. If you’re of a B of A customer that hasn’t had their CampusEdge checking for five years, this would be something to look into!
Direct Deposit: After September 30th, I won’t have any more paychecks being deposited into my account (sad…), so I wanted to find out if there were any other deposits that qualified as direct deposits. Yes — there are a number of items that qualify. If you have any monthly income that’s electronically transferred into your account on a monthly basis, the fee is waived. Aside from paychecks (which people our age will normally consider), there are things like social security income, pension, child support, alimony, veteran’s benefits, etc. So, for me this doesn’t mean anything because I’m not a veteran, I’m not collecting a pension or social security and (fortunately) I don’t have an ex-husband/baby daddy to deposit money into my account monthly. If you happen to be collecting alimony/child support, though, this could work for you!
Notice for Cancellation: Since I hate fees with a passion, if I end up cancelling my account, I don’t want to incur a single dollar in fees. I asked what kind of notice they need to close down a checking account. The answer? A mere 48 hours once there’s a balance of $0 and your account can be closed. You don’t need 30 days notice or anything crazy. You probably have to sign some legal documentation though, so check with your local B of A branch.
After giving it some thought, I think I may keep $2000 in my checking account to keep it open and active. Like I had mentioned earlier, Bank of America counts Barclay’s & Deutsche Bank as sister banks, which means that a withdrawal at any of those cashpoints can be done without incurring a single cent in transaction fees. You get the money at the exchange rate at that given moment in time. It’s really quite nice (and a reason that I love B of A). Traditionally, I would probably transfer all of my money to the UK as to not deal with exchange rate fluctuations (who really wants to think about that?), but after reading a lot of forex literature, it seems as though the exchange rate will actually be going down. If that’s the case, I will probably like keeping some money in USD so it can work for me. If I start to see that the exchange rate is going up (and the USD is weakening) then I’ll just withdraw all of my money, put it into my HSBC account and cancel my Bank of America checking.
Stupid exchange rates.
The Traveling Scholar 