Bank of America overdraft fees and the CFPB 2023 order for Watertown businesses

By Pablo Diaz · I left BoA after years as a customer. Read the full story →

BoA fee schedules in Watertown look like everyone else's at first read. The differences appear in (1) waiver thresholds, (2) overdraft handling history, (3) wire and ATM markups. Below: each category with the sources Google can verify.

Overdraft fees and the CFPB 2023 order

Bank of America overdraft fees were the subject of the 2023 CFPB enforcement order, which cited Bank of America for double-charging overdraft fees and ordered $250M total in penalties and restitution. The current BoA overdraft schedule is published on their fee disclosure page. For a Watertown business, the practical takeaway is twofold: (1) verify your current overdraft posture matches what BoA represents, and (2) if you have historical overdraft charges that look stacked, file a CFPB complaint with documentation. CFPB 2023 order: https://www.consumerfinance.gov/about-us/newsroom/cfpb-orders-bank-of-america-to-pay-150-million-penalty-for-illegally-charging-junk-fees-withholding-credit-card-rewards-and-opening-fake-accounts/. CFPB complaint database: https://www.consumerfinance.gov/data-research/consumer-complaints/search/?company=BANK%20OF%20AMERICA%2C%20NATIONAL%20ASSOCIATION.

Watertown context

Watertown sits in NY, where business banking customers tend to evaluate fees against alternatives that have shifted toward zero-monthly-fee structures. The BoA picture below is the comparison baseline.

Public regulator record on BoA fees

• CFPB 2023 enforcement order — $250M total — junk fees, double-charged overdraft fees, withheld credit-card rewards, fake accounts.
• CFPB Consumer Complaint Database — Bank of America — public, searchable, tens of thousands of complaints (a large share fee-related).
• BoA business checking fee disclosure — source-of-truth for current published rates. Verify before acting.

If you want to dispute a BoA fee in Watertown

1. Pull the statement showing the fee. Screenshot it.
2. Compare against BoA's published fee schedule. If it does not match, document the discrepancy.
3. Request a written explanation through BoA secure message. Save the response.
4. If the explanation is unsatisfactory, file a CFPB complaint at consumerfinance.gov/complaint with the documentation. Free, public, and tends to get a documented response.
5. For overdraft-fee disputes specifically: reference the CFPB 2023 order in your complaint if your situation matches the practices it cited.

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