California unemployment: Lawmakers demand to know why Bank of America is draining EDD accounts

[ripcord]

Source: KGO (ABC)

7 on Your Side has been reporting on the latest difficulty facing unemployed Californians. Bank of America has been draining money out of thousands of EDD bank accounts -- leaving many with no money to live on.

"Bank of America has not provided any answers as to why this is happening. There's a bit of finger pointing going on and it's absolutely unacceptable. It's just another example of failure of our unemployment system during this pandemic and recession," said Assemblymember David Chiu (D - San Francisco).

Bank of America tells us it will respond directly to legislators, but in general would say: "We are working with the state and law enforcement to identify and take action against fraudulent applicants, protect taxpayer money and ensure that legitimate applicants can access their benefits."

It was not clear if the bank will provide any specific answers to all these questions.

"This involves a contract between the state and the Bank of America and from my perspective we're going to have to revisit that contract because it is clearly failing the people of California," said Assemblymember Chiu.

The letter poses a list of questions to be answered by Tuesday, Dec. 1.

Among them:


"Why is Bank of America taking funds and freezing (debit) cards?"

"What needs to happen... to have the funds restored?"

"Has Bank of America had to pay penalties... due to fraud on its cards?"


Read more: https://abc7news.com/bank-of-america-edd-empty-accounts-fraud-cases-california-unemployment/8396234/

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I hope the state lawmakers nail someone to the wall over this.

[MiniMe]

1. OK, I feel dumb. What is an EDD card?

[dogknob]

3. Unemployment Insurance. n/t

[Hekate]

4. It appears to be an unemployment payments debit card

Which B of A is freezing and draining.

This is terrifying.

[ripcord]

6. My sister had this happen and it is incredibly frustrating

She fought for months to get the money she was entitled to from EDD and three days after it was deposited in her account BoA locked her account and then drained it. They gave no explanation other than they were investigating fraud and to contact EDD, EDD said to call BoA and so it goes, no one will tell her anything and of course no one will take responsibility.

[stopwastingmymoney]

15. EDD stands for Employment Development Department

It’s the agency we pay our state payroll tax to in California

[Wellstone ruled]

2. Wells Fargo proved a Bank can

drain Peoples Accounts and get away with it until they are caught. The money taken is greater than any Fines paid.

[Heartstrings]

5. Having lived in Cali and having them as my bank I can firmly say

BOA sucks!

[More_Cowbell]

7. And EDD payments *must* go through B of A.

You sign up for unemployment, EDD sends you a B of A debit card that they'll load every two weeks, and you either use the card or link it to your own bank to get the money transferred. Now B of A has your banking information.

There's been a *ton* of fraud here, but I have no faith that B of A is the company to fix it.

[honeylady]

8. Bank of America stole $700 from my girlfriend's EDD debit card

On October 11, 2020 my friend had two withdrawals from her BofA debit card. One was for $350 and 1 minute later another $350 was taken out. She made numerous calls to the Bank. Went into the branch and no one would give her any help whatsoever. No explanation. Nothing about helping to find out what happened. Nothing.

She lost her massage therapist job with the Navy when Covid hit. Now she cleans houses and trims marijuana leaves from a local grower. She's constantly running out of money and doing everything she can to make a living.

I feel bad for her. How can they do something so cruel to people? Evil people.

[jmowreader]

9. EDD Economic Development Department

They handle the state's unemployment insurance system.

[Joinfortmill]

10. BOA doesn't need the bad press.

[roamer65]

11. Is BoA nearing insolvency?

That is one reason I can think of for stealing the money.

[Karadeniz]

12. This is not what one expects of America. Wouldn't it be lovely if the CFPB hadn't been gutted?

I'll bet Elizabeth Warren is fit to be tied!

[GopherGal]

13. Hopefully not.

I hope she's sharpening her knives. Or whatever tools she'll have under the new administration.

[dalton99a]

14. Kick