LetGoOfMyGreggo said:ananthar said:I opened an NEA sponsored account on 8/21 and just got the transition letter.

Bottom line :

1. For NEA sponsored accounts the original interest rates (MFR+offset) will remain in effect after 9/21,
though the account name will change to Money Market Savings
2. No mention of introductory bonus rate for first 60 days, assume it will not apply after 9/21
3. Monthly fees are waived after 9/21 ($500 will remain the minimum to open an account).

On 08/15 I transferred my affinity sponsor from "The Motley Fool" to "NEA".
They said I wasn't eligible for the bonus rate because I received it with
the prior affiliation several years ago. I received the transition letter from BOA prior to this change. I wonder if I will continue to receive the
special NEA rate. My last statement reflected the new affinity relationship.
My statement date changed from the 25th to the 19th of the month, thus, I was
credited for only 24 days this period.

I plan on signing up to view my account online after 9/21. I can't wait to see what my interest rate will be.

So, does anyone know how to access the new BOA web interface?

bluechalk said:The policy on paying interest has changed for the worse now that the account is with Bank of America. When with MBNA, the account started paying interest the day that they received checks sent to them in the mail. According to the new disclosure, they now wait until the check is available for withdrawal to pay interest. For an out of state check, this is at least 5 business days. For checks of $5,000 or more, it is 11 business days. So you loose a half-months interest if you mail a check to them.

ACH transfers are credited the same day, so this is the way to go with these accounts.
Assuming they process checks the same way BOA does at local branches - the 5 days out of state hold is completally subjective by who processes the check (or maybe the computer decides), but either way it doesn't always happen.

Also, if the check clears first, before the 5/11 business days, they hold is released. This means if you are depositing a check from another account of yours, then you only really loose 1 day of interest (assuming they stick to that policy), rather than 3 days using the BOA ACH system. If you are making the deposit from Emigrant or another fast ACH bank, then it likely does make sense to use ACH (but then you wouldn't be depositing a check, as Emigrant does not have mail-in deposits or check-writing).

bluechalk I have a felling now that these account have been coverted over to BOA account they should follow the standard BOA policy which is interest start accuring on the day of the deposit not the day the hold is released but I tried to confirm this with BOA CS who said affinity CS was closed till Monday because of the merger and I would need to confirm with them about when interest starts accuring.

I spoke with a customer service rep last friday, both AAA and the NEA accounts still use the money fund reporting average until the end of the year. At that time you will receive a letter of the new rate structure.

Please be aware that if you are calling customer service, use the telephone number on your monthly statement. The NEA sponsored accounts number is 1-800-348-4632. If you call the general customer service number, they probably aren't aware of MBNA's affinity relationships.

The website for BOA is: http://www.bankofamerica.com
I signed up the Monday following the conversion. It takes about a week for them to mail you a passcode#. They advertise that they are a "technology" driven bank but I was a little dissapointed about their online site. It doesn't compare to E-Trade's online banking which is rated #1 by consumers.

LetGoOfMyGreggo said:I spoke with a customer service rep last friday, both AAA and the NEA accounts still use the money fund reporting average until the end of the year. At that time you will receive a letter of the new rate structure.

Please be aware that if you are calling customer service, use the telephone number on your monthly statement. The NEA sponsored accounts number is 1-800-348-4632. If you call the general customer service number, they probably aren't aware of MBNA's affinity relationships.

The website for BOA is: http://www.bankofamerica.com
I signed up the Monday following the conversion. It takes about a week for them to mail you a passcode#. They advertise that they are a "technology" driven bank but I was a little dissapointed about their online site. It doesn't compare to E-Trade's online banking which is rated #1 by consumers.

I called BOA and the CSR was fully aware of the AAA affinity account, and answered all of my questions and called me back within 5 minutes and gave me a passcode to access my account via phone. The phone access is much better than the old MBNA phone access. You can even transfer funds via phone. Online passcode is sent via mail for security reasons.
The AAA rates and NEA rates are found via their websites NOT the BOA website.
According to your post BOA is effectively ending these affinity accounts at the end of the year if they are ending the MFR tier structure. The CSR I spoke to did not confirm this for the AAA acct. so I don't know if the info you received is accurate.
I certainly would like to know if BOA is ending the MFR rate structure at the end of the year on these affinity accounts because the rates WILL drop dramatically if they do. If anyone can confirm this, please post that info.

I just got off the phone with BoA. After hearing some of the stories, I thought it would be wise to confirm my interest rate.

Of course, they quoted me 0.5% or something like that. I had to get transferred to an affinity banking CSR, who confirmed the 0.5% rate. Apparently, even though I used the NEA link in the OP, the account wasn't set up with the 5.08% rate. He put me on hold for a minute while he fixed it.

If you signed up for this account and haven't called to confirm your rate, I would suggest that you consider doing so!

Thanks, Xeon. I meant to post my message in the NEA thread. Going to go do that now...

Rec'd my BOA statement. The interest rate stated 3.0%. This was for a Motley Fool converstion from MBNA. I called and was told that the 3% was an error and the rate was 5.2% just as was stated to me over the phone a few days before.

Will wait and see if the statement is corrected next month. Anyone else have this error?

From today's Wall Street Journal: Bank of America is now offering 30 free stock trades per month to those with at least a $25,000. balance.

newgrannie said:From anyone's actual experience with nea account, did you earn interest on a deposit from the day of the deposit or the day the deposit cleared the bank? Would appreciate knowing from someone else's actual experience - thanks!
For my AAA account, I earned interest from the day of deposit (or maybe the day after, but no worse than that), and not the day the check cleared.

Although, it was the wrong interest rate (0.50%), but thats another story. They claim that I will be credited the missing interest and they fixed the rate. Guess we'll see in a month.