You could do that, but it seems like a lot of unnecessary work, #2 makes more sense, call them and get everything settled.

Sue? Do you know how much a lawyer charges? It will be much easier to just go into a branch a talk to a manager to get this issue corrected.

Obviously that would be easier. I'm just saying that's an alternative if it can't be worked out

#15 If they have all the proof they need they probably could represent themselves and thus not have to pay any lawyer fees. I mean having a lawyer can't hurt if you can afford it. and there are instances where they are more than recommended but yeah you can still go to court and tackle legal issues without one. People represent themselves all the time in traffic court for example.

He should have also gotten paperwork stating that the account it closed also.

@3 is right. I closed my BoA account and found out 6 months later that they never closed it. I talked to the manager and was told they fixed the problem. I then found out that by fixing the problem they just sent me to collections. I talked to a lawyer and since I never got paperwork I had no case.

BOA is the worst. They messed up my mom's credit when she "sold" our house to them (in lieu of paying the remaining mortgage off) and they basically said they couldn't do anything until she sent them some paperwork or something and she had sent it to them already and I think they, like, lost it or whatever. I think she even sent it to them again and it was basically the same thing, only they said that they never recieved it. My mom didn't stand for it - she argued with them for months about this because they were dragging their feet about actually getting what was needed done.

Banks don't buy back houses. They do deeds in lieu of foreclosure. This would hurt your credit just like a foreclosure would. If they do the deed in lieu they need back up as to why they are going to do this as it usually means they are taking a loss or you would have just sold your house. Why should this be easy if you got a mortgage and don't want to pay it back because the house is with less then when you purchased the property.

37, that's what we did but it was a while ago and I couldn't remember the name so thank you. We understood it would hurt her credit but it shouldn't have taken three years because they misplaced the paperwork for it.

*a lot*

Why do you assume the OP wants to avoid debt?

I work at a financial institution. That's not how it works. If an account is closed absolutely nothing can go through it. Including fees. It's closed. If stuff could still go through it, then anyone who had any sort of account compromise would be screwed. Thats like saying things can still go through on a closed debit card..

I also work at a financial institution (for over 10 years now) and she is absolutely correct! There is a difference between closing your account due to fraud and just closing it because you're switching banks. You HAVE to make sure you do not have any outstanding bills coming out. Keeping a register is really not that hard.

Then tell me #13, why is he getting overdrafts? That only happens if you or an auto debit is taking money from the account.

Well, I live in OR, and if I don't use my card 10 times per month, I get charged $12. If that happens and I thought I had closed it, then it would have been empty, so they would then charge a $35 overdraft fee after taking out $12 on an empty account, right? That's how I imagine it sort of happened to OP, anyway.

@25, because his account isn't closed and there's a monthly fee so for the last 6 months it's been charging a monthly fee to an empty account which has also caused over draft charges. Hints the $400 bill.

First of all, Where are you getting that it was from overdraft fees? It doesn't say that. It could be inactive fees, low balance fees, etc that banks use to rip people off. Or it could have been fraud. Second, even if it was an auto-debit doing it, if the account is completely 100% closed NOTHING can go through it.

mea culpa I guess I am blessed with a bank that has free checking. And also sends me notices in the mail and email when my account is overdrawn so I can take care of it immediately. Hopefully he can talk to the bank manager and get the fees removed and the account closed properly.

34, Op responded, it was overdraft fees.

That's not how that works

OR the banker simply didn't finish their job. When I closed out my BoA account the job wasn't completed. I paid cash to clear my balance to $0 then went to a banker who "closed" the account and cut my card. I had to go back 3 months later because I got an email saying my account balance was -$35. I still had all the receipts from the day I closed out so a banker was able to finish the process with no extra payment from me. (I had cancelled any automatic payments prior to closing the account) TL;DR Sometimes people are lazy

In addition to what 18 said, checks that are written on closed accounts these days get sent back to the FI of first deposit and adjusted from the payee's account there