BajaNomad - Bank of America/Santander Serfin CHECK YOUR STATEMENTS!!!

Bank of America/Santander Serfin CHECK YOUR STATEMENTS!!!

bajabound2005 - 8-8-2007 at 06:57 PM

Sometime in July erroneous charges for ATM withdrawals for BofA customers started incurring all those ugly charges when using Santander Serfin ATMs. These charges include a non-BofA ATM fee (% of what you withdrew) and the $5 int'l transaction fee. We've gotten them all reversed on our acct, and BofA blames it on Santander for changing a code they used in the transaction. However, the problem persists! Stay on top of it; they haven't corrected the "coding" issue so as recently as yesterday people were still getting the charge. Make sure you check your statement (on line or on paper!!) and get those fees reversed. And be sure to tell them to bring this to a supervisor's attention. Having been a director of customer service for years, I was shocked to learn of credits reps would give but never bother to figure out why it kept getting charged month after month --- because it's in the programming, my dear. Your crediting it does nothing but appease the customer for that month; but when it continues to happen month after month, you look for a new provider!

CaboRon - 8-8-2007 at 07:21 PM

This kind of indefferent BS is what Bank of America is famous for in the US. You notice BofA will require you to do all their work to fix this.

oxxo - 8-8-2007 at 08:44 PM

Thank you BB05! As a result of your post, we checkec our BofA statement and sure enough, we were nailed for Santander withdrawals too!

We are bringing the fees to the attention of Customer No Service to get the charges reversed.

Thanks again.

bajabound2005 - 8-8-2007 at 08:54 PM

Oxxo, plan on it taking 7 emails to get there; if needed I can email you my "case number"....

oldhippie - 8-9-2007 at 06:37 AM

I too saw something suspicious on my last statement. Non BofA transaction fees of $1.83 and $5.00 that seem to be connected to a Santander withdrawal. All on the same day, 26 July. Is that similar to what others are talking about?

To complicate matters I just received a letter from the President of Certegy Check Services saying that an employee had stolen and sold confidential identity information about my BofA account. He probably got the whole database. They provide check authorization services to "U.S. Retail Merchants".

Fun and games!

bajabound2005 - 8-9-2007 at 07:25 AM

Yes, Oldhippie, those are the charges to be aware of and have BofA reverse.

bajamigo - 8-9-2007 at 08:09 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by oldhippie

To complicate matters I just received a letter from the President of Certegy Check Services saying that an employee had stolen and sold confidential identity information about my BofA account. He probably got the whole database. They provide check authorization services to "U.S. Retail Merchants".

Follow up on this issue, too. One day I tried to use my BofA ATM card at a Santander machine, and it didn't work. After trying it at other banks' ATMs, I concluded that the card was defective (sometimes they lose their "magnetism"). Then I found out that the card was arbitrarily deactivated, WITHOUT informing me, because someone had stolen some data somewhere somehow. Customer Disservice is right.

oldhippie - 8-9-2007 at 08:20 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by bajamigo

Quote:

Yikes, I'll have to spend my wife's money. That's going to be more difficult than finding someone to talk to at BofA.

oldhippie - 8-9-2007 at 11:57 AM

Just spoke with BofA. They refunded the money. I asked about the 1.83 charge and that's associated with the processing required to transact in pesos and dollars. I remarked that's bit high to multiply two numbers.

To get to a real person fast, just start pounding the zero when the Steven Hawkins sounding mechanical man answers.

They have no clue whether or not the problem will persist.

bajabound2005 - 8-9-2007 at 12:00 PM

ALL the charges on our were reversed; ditto for others we know in the same boat. Keep pushing them. And keep checking your acct for future fees that should be charged.

oxxo - 8-9-2007 at 02:35 PM

We contacted BofA via email early this morning and they responded almost immediately. They said they would reverse all charges. Soooooo, we used the ATM at Santander this afternoon to test the system. We are watching our account to see if more charges show up.

Mil gracias BB05 y ViejoPetho

On another note, I received an email from "BofA" last April saying that our account had been compromised. The email had the official BofA logo and the email was from bankofamerica.com. It said to click on the link to go to their "customer service" site. Although it "looked" official, I was very skeptical. I took the email into my local BofA branch and they said it was a scam, trying to get my account numbers. There was nothing wrong with my account. They said that any logo is esy to lift off the internet. The branch manager said that BofA would never contact me via email for official business. If there is a problem, they will send me a postal letter or direct phone call instructing me to go into my local branch for assistance. They will respond to emails sent by customers, but they will not initiate them.

Be very careful out there, scammers are lurking everywhere.

bajabound2005 - 8-10-2007 at 09:50 AM

The fees are still being charged. I just shot them another email. It's a simple programming function! How long can it take them to fix it while they put their customers and cust svc reps through hell.

Don Alley - 8-10-2007 at 10:13 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by oxxo
The branch manager said that BofA would never contact me via email for official business. If there is a problem, they will send me a postal letter or direct phone call instructing me to go into my local branch for assistance. They will respond to emails sent by customers, but they will not initiate them.

Be very careful out there, scammers are lurking everywhere.

I frequently get emails claiming to be from various banks, and especially paypal, suggesting there has been a security problem. It's called "phishing" and I used to forward them to the banks but I get so many now I just trash them.

I got one from Bof A saying our credit card they issued had an alert for "irregular activity." Turns out that was from BofA, and it's a new (but buggy) system they have of managing all the times they shut off our card for the "irregular activity" of using it. Recently the guy we had to call told us we had to give them the actual dates we would arrive/leave Mexico, months in advance. :lol:

oldhippie - 8-10-2007 at 11:34 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by bajabound2005
The fees are still being charged. I just shot them another email. It's a simple programming function! How long can it take them to fix it while they put their customers and cust svc reps through hell.

Perhaps the error is being initiated at the Mexican bank ATM. I've been hoping Santander upgrades their system and maybe they have and flubbed it. BofA also has an agreement with Banamex, anybody using their ATMs?

I've watched the Santander ATM I use reboot several times. It's NT4, service pack 6. An OS that is about 13 years old. It runs a bunch of DOS executables in a DOS window and all the .exe filenames start with "CSC". So I'm guessing they were written by Computer Sciences Corporation. If so they have probably been hacked at by dozens of programmers over the years. After DOS finishes the NT4 desktop is briefly displayed prior to the ATM welcome display. Pretty wild.

If only I could hook up my laptop while it's rebooting 8^).

[Edited on 8-10-2007 by oldhippie]

bajabound2005 - 8-10-2007 at 01:27 PM

BofA said that the code that Santander used to identify itself changed and BofA did not know about the change.

I'm not sure that they have a relationship with Banamex -- Citibank owns Banamex and we can use our Citibank at Banamex without fees.

bajasammy - 8-10-2007 at 01:32 PM

Is that true about Banamex OH? The Serfin on the way out of Ensenada is a bear to get in and out of. Isn't there a Banamex on one of the Tolls?

oldhippie - 8-10-2007 at 01:39 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by bajabound2005
BofA said that the code that Santander used to identify itself changed and BofA did not know about the change.

I'm not sure that they have a relationship with Banamex -- Citibank owns Banamex and we can use our Citibank at Banamex without fees.

So Santander did flub a change. Small mistake, just changed their identity.

I was told by a BofA rep on the phone yesterday about Banamex and the BofA. I too was surprised.

Someone give it a try and let us know.

bajabound2005 - 8-10-2007 at 02:03 PM

The Commercial Mexicana has ATMs inside (open 24 hours BTW) -- HSBC, Santander, Banamex. Have never had a problem with any of them.

Quote:

Originally posted by bajasammy
Is that true about Banamex OH? The Serfin on the way out of Ensenada is a bear to get in and out of. Isn't there a Banamex on one of the Tolls?

DENNIS - 8-10-2007 at 02:07 PM

BB .....

24 hours? Really?

bajabound2005 - 8-10-2007 at 03:02 PM

yeah, I'm pretty sure Comerial is open 24 hours. I know the Super Gigante is for sure (but they don't have the ATMs).

oxxo - 8-10-2007 at 05:12 PM

MEGA stores are a branch of Commercial Mexicana. They have several ATM machines, including Santander, but the MEGA store in San Jose is not open 24 hrs.

There is a story in this weeks Gringo Gazette about a Mexican gang who is targeting ATM machines to steal your account number and passwword. I believe you can read the story online. Be wary of anything out of the ordinary at the ATM machines. If something doesn't appear to be right (like one machine is out of order but a hand written sign says use the other one), don't use it.

oldhippie - 8-11-2007 at 11:47 AM

I just spoke with BofA again and this time they said there is NO affiliation with Banamex, only Santander.

bajamigo - 8-11-2007 at 01:06 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by oldhippie
I just spoke with BofA again and this time they said there is NO affiliation with Banamex, only Santander.

That's my understanding, too. Besides, Banamex is owned by Citibank, so an alliance with BofA would be unlikely.