Some American Savings Bank customers may have plenty of cash in their bank accounts but their checks may still bounce.
Some GS readers may remember back to October of 1997 when Bank of America sold 29 of their branches in Hawaii to American Savings Bank. At that time, the two organizations agreed that BofA customers could still use their BofA checks, even though they would be banking at American Savings Bank branches.
Well, that all came to an end on March 7. Effective March 8, American Savings no longer processes BofA checks. As of that date, BofA checks now go to BofA's headquarters in Charlotte, N.C. If the check has a BofA and an American Savings routing number, it will be returned unpaid, even if there are funds in the account.
"We asked [former BofA customers] not to write any BofA checks after February 15 to help avoid any problems," said Peter Sanchez, vice president and manager of internal audit for American Savings.
This may not seem like a big issue, since it has been well over a year since the acquisitions took place. But, there are quite a few BofA checks still in use. In fact, in November alone American Savings processed more than 151,000 checks from 20,423 BofA customers.
"If you're a merchant, and you accept a Bank of America check on the 7th, or certainly the 8th [of March 1999], you may not get paid," said Sanchez. Merchants should be aware when accepting BofA checks drawn on accounts from Hawaii.
