A Couple Now Claims A Big Bank Stole Their Money

December 28, 2023

A couple now claims a big bank stole their money after their funds were used to cover a line of credit without consent.

Karen and Lindsay Leveen of Sausalito, California – about 30 minutes north of San Francisco – found out their Bank of America checking account had been drained of $2,000 when they tried to use their debit card at a store.

“They said this card won’t cover your purchase, and we said, ‘Why?’ We thought they were joking,” Karen told local ABC affiliate KGO-TV.

“There should be plenty of money in there.”

“We had just made deposits into that account,” her husband said.

“Karen’s social security went into that account, my pension.”

Karen and Lindsay have been victims of bank fraud before, so they thought that was the reason behind their missing money.

Yet when they went to the nearest Bank of America branch, they learned it was not a thief’s doing.

It was confirmed by a manager at Bank of America that the company was the one who withdrew the money.

“We were shocked,” Karen said.

“We said, ‘Why would you take this sum of money from our account, particularly this large sum?'”

Without their consent (or so they thought), the bank took the money from the checking account and used the money to pay off their line of credit.

However, Karen and Lindsay already had a plan in place to pay off their line of credit with automatic monthly debits.

But Bank of America said the couple failed to renew their payment plan.

The couple showed proof to the bank that $92 was taken from their account every month for the past 11 months, and that that bank had failed to collect the last payment of the year.

The branch manager called Bank of America’s corporate office in Delaware to resolve this issue.

According to Lindsay, a representative said he sent them letters notifying them that they were due to update their payment plan and that they had called several times.

“We never got any certified letters, and I have never blocked anybody from calling my phone,” Lindsay said. “I was outraged. This is not the way you treat a customer.”

The bank refused to return their money and renew their payment plan, so the couple went to the Sausalito police and filed a report, but had no luck.

When the police refused to help the couple, Karen contacted KGO-TV, who contacted Bank of America.

Bank of America reviewed the couple’s case and agreed to restore their funds.

“We ascertained that the customers had not renewed their payment plan…so we worked with them to set up a new payment schedule and returned the funds we had offset,” the bank said.

Also Read: A US Bank is Now Denying Customers Access to Money

Other Banking News Today

New York gets hit by an unexpected wave of bank closures according to the latest data from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.

A new list of bank branches that will be closing in New York has been released.

So far in December, the following nine locations in New York have recently been listed to close, majority being Citizens Bank.

Valley NB. 579 Fifth Ave, New York
Webster Bank. 865 McLean Ave, Yonkers
Webster Bank. 40 Church St, White Plains
Citizens Bank. 3500 Main St, Amherst
Citizens Bank. 2101 Elmwood Ave, Buffalo
Citizens Bank. 6150 South Park Ave, Hamburg
Citizens Bank. 184 South Cascade Dr, Springvale
Citizens Bank. 700 Thurway Plaza Dr, Cheektowaga
Citizens Bank. 6363 Transit Rd, Depew

These locations are the latest bank branches closing in New York, according to the latest OCC data.

Below is a list of bank branches that were listed during the last week of November to shutter in New York:

JP Morgan. 500 Joseph C Wilson Blvd, Rochester
Bank of America. 72 Second Ave, New York
Citizens Bank. 2345 Buffalo Rd, Rochester
Citizens Bank. 4250 McKinley Parkway, Hamburg
Citizens Bank. 301 Meadow Drive, N. Tonawanda
Citizens Bank. 5150 North St, Canandaigua
Citizens Bank. 3865 Union Rd, Cheektowaga
Citizens Bank. 4777 Transit Rd, Depew

Between 2017 and 2021, nine percent of all branches — almost 7,000 locations— shut their doors, and New York had the third most closures of any state.

The increase in bank closures is leading to ‘banking deserts’, which results in people having to travel further to reach their nearest bank, primarily impacting vulnerable and older customers.

Also Read: Wells Fargo is Now Freezing Bank Accounts in New Scandal

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