Bank of America checking bonuses can be very lucrative if you have a real direct deposit to redirect to them, and are pretty useful for a boost in credit card rewards.
But, under any given Bank of America checking bonus article, you might find a warning similar to this comment by Ferris because there’s a potential pitfall when opening (or closing!) a Bank of America checking account: their damn idiotic Bill Pay system deletes your existing, external “pay from” accounts and adds your new Bank of America checking account. While you can re-add your accounts, it’s a needless hassle and has the potential to leave you hanging if you’re scheduling your payments near the due date and aren’t expecting to not be able to pay them.
While the interaction between Bank of America’s Bill Pay service and new checking accounts is the direct opposite of good design and consumer-friendly, I wouldn’t say that alone elevates the Bill Pay service to damn idiotic.
No, it’s what happens when you close your Bank of America checking account, as your Bill Pay service enrollment is inactivated and, once again, all your external “pay from” accounts get deleted. (“Due to changes in the status of your account(s)” – but at least you get an e-mail this time!)
Where Bank of America really gets you is when re-enrolling in the Bill Pay service, which (obviously) is required to pay their credit cards sans another bank’s bill pay service. Common sense would indicate that someone re-enrolling in the Bill Pay service might want to add the same external account(s) they had previously used. To common sense, Bank of America gives the middle finger:
Be sure to allot some time after opening & closing accounts to deal with these issues – or maybe save yourself some hassle and set everything up with another bank’s bill pay service beforehand.
Questions? Comments? Drop them below!
