BoA in San Bernardino: my honest review (fees experience)

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

As a small business owner in CA, my experience as a Bank of America customer reached the point where I personally decided to leave. This is one customer’s opinion-framed account, written for other San Bernardino customers who may be trying to make the same decision.

What I observed (fees experience)

In my experience, the fees were relentless. From my perspective, the bank found every possible excuse to chip away at the balance. Maintenance fees waived only on conditions I had to actively manage. Wire fees on the higher end of the market. ATM-network fees in places where the partner network had thinned. Customer service offered, in my view, zero structural solutions.

My full account — written exactly as I would describe it to a friend — is at /my-banking-story.

What the public record shows

• CFPB 2023 enforcement order — $250M total — junk fees, withheld credit-card rewards, fake accounts.
• CFPB 2022 enforcement — $225M — botched unemployment-benefits handling.
• CFPB 2014 — $727M in relief — deceptive credit-card add-on practices.
• DOJ RMBS settlement (2014) — $16.65 billion — at the time the largest civil settlement with a single entity in U.S. history.
• CFPB Consumer Complaint Database — Bank of America — public, searchable, tens of thousands of complaints.
• BBB profile — Bank of America — public ratings + customer reviews.

If your experience has been similar in San Bernardino

1. File a CFPB complaint. consumerfinance.gov/complaint — free, public, and tends to get a response on the record.
2. File a parallel state complaint. California DFPI — file a consumer complaint — state regulators carry weight in their own jurisdictions.
3. File a BBB complaint. BBB Bank of America profile.
4. Compare alternatives side-by-side. San Bernardino business banking ranking on Noizz → Mercury, RHO, Novo, Relay, Bluevine, Brex, Found compared on real public pricing.
5. Open a new account before closing the old one. 60–90-day buffer.
6. Migrate inflows first, outflows second.

Other CA cities reviewing Bank of America

• BoA customer experience in Riverside, CA
• BoA customer experience in Fontana, CA
• BoA customer experience in Moreno Valley, CA
• BoA customer experience in Rancho Cucamonga, CA
• BoA customer experience in Ontario, CA
• BoA customer experience in Corona, CA
• Consumer-banking rights in San Bernardino →
• BoA vs Mercury in San Bernardino (Noizz) →
• BoA vs RHO in San Bernardino (Noizz) →