Ask HN: Paypal + BOA lost $200+ of mine.. What should I do?
I closed my Bank of America account on 9/5/14. A few days later Paypal sent a refund to the closed bank account's debit card for $200. I was told by Paypal that if the account was closed the money should be rejected by the bank and will appear back in my Paypal account's balance. This they said could take up to 30 days.
I waited 30 days and the money never appeared. I contacted BOA and they claimed they never received any money from Paypal. Paypal claims the money is with BOA and BOA tells me the money is with Paypal. Both services refuse to help me further.
Does anybody have any ideas on what I can do to get my money back? Escalate to paper. My first letter would be to, take your pick, the CEO of BoA or their Investor Relations department. ("To whom it may concern,¥n¥n I'm a shareholder in Bank of America. It was therefore with great displeasure that... I would be obliged if you investigated this as soon as reasonably possible.") I happen to be a shareholder in Bank of America, and if you own virtually any mutual fund in the United States (perhaps in your IRA or similar), welcome to our exclusive club. There's a series of letters you can write after that one, but I'd give you 50% odds on that solving your problem within 2~3 weeks. The size of the dispute is too small to justify hiring a lawyer. If BoA continues to not play ball, then I'd send a followup letter, addressed to your local branch manager, and say substantially the following: "On XX/YY/ZZZZ Bank of America received a $200 electronic funds transfer from Paypal to my account, QQQQQQQQQ, which was closed on 9/5/2014. As my account was closed, I have not received the transfer, which is a clear error. The bank's representative $BOB said that the money had been returned to Paypal, but according to Paypal, this is not accurate. XX/YY is within 60 days of the posting of this letter. Accordingly, I dispute that Bank of America has properly discharged its responsibilities under Regulation E. You have 10 business days to investigate. After investigating, you have 3 business days to inform me of the results of your investigation. If you do not inform me of the results of your investigation by #{Date.today + 13.days}, you are in per-se violation of Regulation E. I seek the following resolution to this issue: a cashier's check, delivered to my address via your choice of courier, in the amount of $200, representing the amount Paypal attempted to transfer electronically to my aforementioned account. I have taken the liberty of sending this letter via registered mail, to make sure it comes to your prompt attention. [+] Regards, $YOU [+] This action does not need to be announced in the mail, but considering that it is intended as a threat and will be read as a threat, might as well make sure everyone is on the same page about the threat. The action you're threatening is to write the Federal Reserve Board a very well-documented complaint, upon which point a well-funded bureaucrat with very little to do gets to command BoA to pay attention by holding their feet to the fire until they do. @patio11. Thanks for your response. Why do you think its a BOA issue and not a paypal issue? Why contact BOA and not paypal? Playing the odds, plus BoA has a very clear higher authority to yell at and Paypal perhaps not so much. You can certainly try escalation with Paypal, too.