Bank of America is accused of exploiting Latino immigrant customers

[Liberal_in_LA]

Source: Los angeles times

Ex-employees, backed by SEIU, say working-class and immigrant clients are urged to sign up for multiple services that carry high interest rates and fees. BofA denies any wrongdoing.

By Tom Hamburger
June 30, 2009

Reporting from Washington -- Gabby Ornelas, a former teller at the giant Bank of America Corp., remembers the training sessions. And she remembers her marching orders: "Sell, sell, sell."

Ornelas was instructed to use her Spanish language skills and Latina heritage to sign up customers for as many kinds of banking services as possible, she said -- services that led to lucrative fees for the bank and financial entanglement for many customers.

"We were coached every day to push multiple checking accounts, credit cards and debit cards even when the customer didn't understand how to use them," said Ornelas, who lives in Landover Hills, Md., a town with a large immigrant population and a per-capita income of less than $19,000.

In one case, she described a Central American mother of three who came back to see her at the bank, distressed about $300 in overdraft fees incurred after Ornelas persuaded the woman to open a second checking account.

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Consumer advocate Fox was particularly critical of banks' practice of recording debits by order of magnitude, which half the country's leading banks do. Fox said the practice makes it more likely that even careful consumers will overdraw their account.


Read more: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-bofa30-2009jun30,...

[Greyhound]

1. Should simply read, "Bank of America is (still) exploiting". n/t

[nc4bo]

2. Link wouldn't work for me, found another one...

http://mobile.latimes.com/inf/infomo?view=page2&feed:a=...

I'm sure there will be more good deeds done in the name or under the name of BOA:

Solera National Bank >Countrywide >Bank of America

http://blogs.rockymountainnews.com/material_disclosures...

http://denver.bizjournals.com/denver/stories/2006/04/17...

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/jun/18/soler... /

http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&S...


BOA are predators. Where's the Change?

[strategery blunder]

3. Bank of America does this to EVERYONE.

They push this kind of crap all the time on me, and I'm a white male. It probably appears worse because BoA is trying to exploit cultural loopholes to pickpocket a population that is (if I am not mistaken) more cynical of banks than WASPs.

However they will gladly rip ANYONE off, regardless of ethnicity. Equal opportunity predatory lending.

[Somawas]

4. BOA: We're Equal Opportunity Corpsefucking Douchehammers.

[Gormy Cuss]

8. +1

Nothing in the article sounded different from anything I've experienced there. About the only products that they don't push at B of A are competitively priced mortgages and interest rates.

[Vidar]

5. Why not? They exploit everyone else.

[bushmeister0]

6. Oh, come on, BoA just wants to help!

By listing debit withdrawals by the size of the purchase they're just making sure your most important payments have priority.

Like when you think you've got $5 in your account and you buy something for $3, just to make sure you don't get too close to going over, and you get hit with a $35 charge anyway. And then you call them and tell them you had the money and they claim another charge must have been delayed and just happened to appear just as you were swiping your card.

Understand they tell the LA Times or any irate congress member it's all about helping the consumer "prioritize" their most important payments, but that's not what they tell you.

Funny, isn't it?

[Gman2]

7. They did exactly that to me. I had enough money to cover those for a time

then, when I no longer had that money in the bank, I got fees that triggerred penalties, that cascaded into many months of what I consider theft. I talked very bluntly to the teller. I was palmed off to the account person. I showed that I didnt know how to use those accounts they added, had never done so, and was mislead when I asked whether or not there could ever be a fee. They removed all fees going back several months that I had been charged. Jig must have already been going up. Not that I am not imposing, but it was rather logical and easy. Then again, I am no hispanic. Therefore, maybe I was an unintended victim.

[cagesoulman]

9. Two Words: CREDIT UNION

Fuck.

[county worker]

10. You cannot expect the bank to be your accountant.

You cannot expect the bank to keep a running total of you checking account balance for you. You have to do that yourself. Things post at different times. Someone could be holding a check and not deposit it for a while. The bank has no way of knowing you wrote the check.

If you have no savings to cover overdrafts you must keep a running total yourself called a bank reconciliation. You reconcile the bank balance at any time with your actual checking balance, your running total.

You are just asking for trouble if you go to the ATM to get a balance then go spend up to that amount. You don't know what has cleared and what hasn't by checking the ATM. You can go online and get a checking account history and use that to reconcile to. You take that balance on the statement, subtract items the bank doesn't know about and the things the bank has taken out that you don't know about and add any deposit not on the statement.

If that is too hard for you to do then close the account!