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BofA closed my account - am I screwed?
 

This morning I found myself in a bad situation. Upon attempting to log into my online banking app I was notified that my online access to BoA has been restricted. I called in and after talking to a few reps I'm told that my account(s) have been closed, the decision is final, and that I may pick up the funds in my accounts at my local branch.

I only had 3 accounts open with them, all of which were attached to very active paypal accounts. The most active paypal was transferring about $4k per week to BoA. Needless to say, I'm extremely worried about this.

None of my paypals are limited, so do you guys/gals think I can just open a new account with another bank and attach the new bank to paypal? I know it is an option in paypal to attach another bank. But what worries me is my main paypal has taken in $125k+ in the last 10 months, and I don't want to make paypal suspicious by adding a new bank account after so many transactions.

I know I'm not the most popular forum member, but I would really appreciate the input of anyone who replies. I'm really worried about this.

Re: BofA closed my account - am I screwed?
 

Yes, add another bank account.

Was your bank of america accounts new like under 1 year old?

You can add bank accounts its not suspicious, i have 4 bank accounts on one paypal. You probably need to open a business bank account or the same will happen at a new bank

Re: BofA closed my account - am I screwed?
 

4K per week is not going to go over well on personal accounts or savings accounts. Not saying it cant but use smaller banks and credit unions. The smaller the better.

But in all reality, just open business accounts. Much better for a variety of reasons.

Re: BofA closed my account - am I screwed?
 

Yeah that's strange I have a couple BOA business accounts and never had any problems

Re: BofA closed my account - am I screwed?
 

Thank you guys so much for the reassurance.

DMshark - Yes, it was under a year old. It was opened 4/2015. Deposits grew slowly for the first few months, then I started withdrawing $999 3 or 4 times a week. I'm assuming the amount I was withdrawing is what got my account flagged. They may have thought I was laundering money.

Yankee - I've always been weary of using small banks, but if you say it will work I will open a few accounts with local banks. I thought the bigger banks that paypal lists when you go to attach a bank account were preferable. I've never had a business account but I do have articles of incorporation so that is an option. The growth of my business isn't slowing down so I guess business accounts are my only option.

123 - This probably would not have happened if I had went with business accounts from the beginning. When I opened the account I was literally starting again from scratch. Since I had 0 money coming in initially I assumed a personal account would be fine and would incur less fees. As revenue increased I considered switching to a business account. But since everything was working fine, upgrading my bank account was admittedly "pushed to the back burner," and was never done. Now I see that I should have upgraded when I had the chance. Hindsight 20/20...

Thanks to all of you for your replies, I mean that. I'm off to open new bank accounts. Will be checking back in a while.

Re: BofA closed my account - am I screwed?
 

Virtually no problems with small banks and credit unions for miss matched names, closing accounts or freezing funds.

They are WAY behind the software and upcoming requirements. More and more big banks are becoming problematic. TD being one of them.

Re: BofA closed my account - am I screwed?
 

Any small-ish banks you can recommend on the east coast before I go?

Re: BofA closed my account - am I screwed?
 

I will send you two of my favorites in the northeast.

Re: BofA closed my account - am I screwed?
 

Also if you go the business route you can use any bank as long as you put your business name in PayPal, rather than a person, your transfers go through in that name so no need to worry about mismatch names.

Re: BofA closed my account - am I screwed?
 

I do not think it would be the best idea for me to try to change the name on any of my paypals. They are all business accounts but the same name has been on the accounts since I purchased them.

Correct me if I'm wrong. That would be a bad idea, right?

Re: BofA closed my account - am I screwed?
 

They wont even allow it....

Re: BofA closed my account - am I screwed?
 

I do it all the time and that's with non business bank accounts, you can see my business name on each transfer that comes through.

Re: BofA closed my account - am I screwed?
 

What are you doing all the time?

I have never been allowed to change a name on a paypal account unless upgrading to business.

Re: BofA closed my account - am I screwed?
 

I went through the same thing last summer. Was running thousands per week into my personal. My bank didnt close my account but they called me inside asking all sorts of questions and made me open a business acct. It was either that or they were shutting me down.

Re: BofA closed my account - am I screwed?
 

Here is an update.

Went to Wells fargo, opened business acct (I appreciate your suggestions yankee, but I'm a few hundred miles south of you). That all went smoothly and I'm now the proud owner of a business account.

Problem is I'm getting a "device not recognized" message from paypal when I try to add the new account. I still have the tracfone used to create the account, but it was deactivated 5/15 and I can't seem to reactive it. When I go to purchase airtime or try to reactivate the phone on tranfone's website, I get an error message. I'm going to talk to the guy I got the account from but I'm afraid there won't be anything he can do to help. Honestly I can't figure out why paypal wouldn't recognize my laptop unless they are just suspicious about me adding a new bank account, because I'm using the same IP/browser/computer that I've always used for this paypal.

I know I didn't really ask any questions, but does anyone have any suggestions?

Re: BofA closed my account - am I screwed?
 

I am four hours north and 20 hours west or 20 hours south most of the time. Those just happen to be my favorite two.

Re: BofA closed my account - am I screwed?
 

I change the stealth name in PayPal to my business name, could be any made up name, in the shipping address section after that my business name shows up on my transfers rather than the original stealth name and I also recieve all my packages in my business name as well.

Re: BofA closed my account - am I screwed?
 

Any ideas on how I can get past paypal's "unrecognized device" verification? I can't add my new bank account.

Re: BofA closed my account - am I screwed?
 

If you wait and try later it'll go through, 1 time I had to wait a week before I could add it, most of the time it's 2-3 days and if you call they usually want a bank statement.

Re: BofA closed my account - am I screwed?
 

Just a little more info. Since I'm using Wells Fargo instant verification is an option when I go to add the bank. I've never done instant verification before, but I know some forum members say it is safe to use with stealth accounts. All I have tried so far is the "micro-deposit" method like I always do when adding banks to stealth accounts, and I got the "device not recognized" message immediately after entering acct & routing number.

Does anyone have experience with instant bank verification? Would I get the same error message if I used instant verification instead of micro-deposits?

Re: BofA closed my account - am I screwed?
 

Are you sure? These are all very active paypal's which I can't afford to lose. I was actually just reading your thread about having this same problem when trying to send money, but I didn't think I would get the same results trying to add a bank.

Re: BofA closed my account - am I screwed?
 

I just got through adding a Wells Fargo account and had the same error message, I called and they wanted a bank statement, which I didn't have so I just kept trying to add it every couple days until it went through finally and the instant didn't work either.

Re: BofA closed my account - am I screwed?
 

The same thing can happen when trying to add bank, make a purchase or send money, I use to run 100 accounts just by clearing cookies and changing ip so I've gone through this a lot of times.

Re: BofA closed my account - am I screwed?
 

So instant verification is not a viable option, and my best course of action would be to just keep attempting to add the account via micro-deposits?

Re: BofA closed my account - am I screwed?
 

You can try the instant to but you'll most likely get the same message, I just keep trying every 2-3 days and it eventually goes through. That's just how it's always worked for me on dozens of accounts.

Re: BofA closed my account - am I screwed?
 

Alright man I appreciate your input. I will go try instant verification but I'm not getting my hopes up. Hopefully it doesn't take too long to add a bank, and hopefully I don't mess up the paypal accounts. I still have money coming in but as of now I can't withdraw.

I transferred money from one of the paypals to one of the BoA accounts this morning before I realized BoA had closed my accounts. I'm a little worried about what is going to happen when the Paypal transfer fails also..

Re: BofA closed my account - am I screwed?
 

Instant verification failed as expected. Got the same error message.

So I guess I will keep trying, and hope for the best.

Re: BofA closed my account - am I screwed?
 

Try micro deposit, or you can wait it out.

But it looks like that you are moving money way to fast, you should really think about getting a credit union bank. When moving money of your volume you need more than one banking institution. The smaller the better

Re: BofA closed my account - am I screwed?
 

I think he might be saying from the start of the stealth paypal to use a business name.

Otherwise :eek:

Re: BofA closed my account - am I screwed?
 

No, I actually change it later in the shipping info section, as stated above..

Re: BofA closed my account - am I screwed?
 

We cross posted.

So :eek: stands.

:peace:

Re: BofA closed my account - am I screwed?
 

Tried micro deposit method before trying instant verification, both failed. My only option now is to keep trying until it attaches.

I do agree that I need accounts with more banks. I've always planned to spread my deposits to more banks but until s*** hit the fan the need wasn't urgent, so opening new bank accounts was always put on the bank burner. I thought my bank accounts would be the last thing I needed to worry about, until today.

You suck BoA risk management, you really suck.

Re: BofA closed my account - am I screwed?
 

Suxes worse you never bothered to upgrade from personal to business accounts.

That was the issue to the bank...

:peace:

Re: BofA closed my account - am I screwed?
 

Never saw the need. Everything was working fine until it wasn't. When I opened my account there I had not yet incorporated so a business account wasn't an option at the time. By the time I had incorporated I had regular deposits coming in from 3 stealth's and everything was great, so I left it alone. I had considered upgrading my BoA to a business account but I thought that would result in new account numbers, which I did not want.

Anyway what's done is done. I don't blame them for closing the account. I would have done the same if I were them. I'm just trying to work out where to go from here.

Re: BofA closed my account - am I screwed?
 

Aye, let's hope the new bank accounts attach sooner rather than later.

Re: BofA closed my account - am I screwed?
 

I certainly agree with you on that one!

:typing:

Re: BofA closed my account - am I screwed?
 

Dear Dog! Just had a thought....

Make sure you do not remove thoseBoA bank accounts at this point.

Leave them there until the new ones are added.

Be diligent when you do transfers etc.

Shall be following to see all is OK too.
:peace:

Re: BofA closed my account - am I screwed?
 

Thank you for your input GB. I was beginning to think you didn't like me :D

I haven't removed any of the bank accounts. I would rather have a paypal with a burned bank account than with no bank account, lol. What worries me is the transfer I sent this morning before I realized my BoA account was terminated. I know it would be transferred back to p/p once the bank declines, I just hope that isn't a red flag for p/p.

I will report back when/if I get results.

Re: BofA closed my account - am I screwed?
 

I'm just bumping this to the top in case anyone new has something to say about my situation.

As of this morning, one paypal has a little over $1k and the other two have right around $800. And of course, I have no way of withdrawing. Tried instant verification again this morning to no avail. Still "device not recognized."

Re: BofA closed my account - am I screwed?
 

Did you also try a new browser?

I had success doing clear cache, cookies,history ans using a new browser for one of these. That was in late October 2015, though.

I am holding off on other suggestions at this point.
:typing: