Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) had the opportunity for getting a positive public relations push on Wednesday on news that it would no longer be charging overdraft fees to its customers and instead deny transactions when customers didn’t have the money in their accounts, that is, until Bank of America foreclosed on a homeowner who was on time with her mortgage payments, stealing the woman’s pet parrot in the process.
The woman, Angela Iannelli is a part-time bartender and owns a small diner in Pennsylvania. Although she had not gotten behind on herm mortgage payments, she returned home one October day to find that the bank had mistakenly sent someone to turn off her electricity and to padlock the door. She’d also found that the Bank of America representative had taken her pet parrot, Luke.
In response to Bank of America’s misbehavior, Iannelli filed a lawsuit against the company this week, in part to provide compensation for the anxiety she suffered from being separated from her pet for more than a week.
Because of them massive number of foreclosures taking place in North America, it’s not an uncommon practice for contractors to mix-up addresses as appears to have happened in Iannelli’s case. The errors, although awkward and humiliating for everyone involved, should be a quick priority for banks to fix.
The press that Iannelli has received appears to be drowning out the news that Bank of America will be changing its policies on overdraft fees, which deserves a closer look from the press. Banks make substantial amounts of money from overdraft fees and will likely have to make up that lost revenue in the form of annual fees and other higher fees. Bank of America customers would be well served to keep an eye on any notices that they receive from the Charlotte-based bank.
