Understanding your Bill from Bank of America

Bank of America is, shall we say, old-fashioned and usually send out bills with plenty of random nonsense and additional fees. If you ever check out your Bank of America bill and can’t fathom how and why they charged you such random numbers, not to worry; we can help you figure out exactly what’s going on and help you understand your bill. Let’s get started.

What’s On Your Bank of America Statement

The typical Bank of America statement is easily outlined and has all of your charges in a single space around the middle of the page or screen. The first line demonstrates your balance at the beginning of the month while the lines that follow explain what was added to the account or what was withdrawn over time. The very last blue line tells you the balance as of the end of the month.

What Are the Extra Charges You Might See?

Bank of America is (unfortunately) well-known for all the extra charges they love to tack onto their bills. Let’s go over the major ones you might see:

• Overdraft: this fee is charged whenever you make a withdrawal or write a check for an amount that is over the balance you have in the account and Bank of America pays for the item. The overdraft fee is normally $35 for every item over one dollar
• Overdraft protection transfer: this fee occurs when you make a transaction that overdraws your checking or savings account and Bank of America has to transfer other funds from a linked protection account to cover the transaction
• NSF: This “non-sufficient fund” fee occurs when you don’t have enough money to cover an item and Bank of America doesn’t pay for it
• Maintenance: Bank of America pays a maintenance fee that can vary by amount. You can only avoid this by meeting certain balance or deposit requirements as described by your agreement with the bank. In most cases, a combined balance of $10,000 or more each statement cycle negates the monthly maintenance fee
• Check enclosure: this fee is charged if you return canceled checks with your monthly statement
• Check image service: this fee occurs when you return images of your canceled checks with your monthly statement
• Stop payment: this fee is incurred whenever you initiate a stop payment on a check or a payment you make through Bill Pay
• Late fees: this occurs when you make a late payment for your credit card or account. The amounts can vary depending ZIP Code
• Non-Bank of America ATM: This fee occurs when you access an ATM that is not under the Bank of America umbrella. This fee is usually charged at the ATM, but it may also show up on your bill after the fact

How to Contact Bank of America

If you want to contest the billing charge or have another question we haven’t answered, you can sign in to your online banking page and schedule an appointment. You can also call them directly at 844-375-7028.