Bank of America

Bank of America (BofA) was established in 1904. Since then, through the ups and downs of financial growth and crises, it has grown to become one of the “big four” banks in the United States (the others are JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, and Wells Fargo). Headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, Bank of America has operations in more than 35 countries around the world.

Bank of America offers a full range of financial products and services. Its personal depository banking products include checking accounts, savings accounts, money market accounts, Certificates of Deposit (CDs), and Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs). Its checking accounts, both interest bearing and non-interest bearing, feature online banking, mobile banking, debit cards, and available overdraft protection. BofA’s savings accounts can be used as overdraft protection for BofA checking accounts. Furthermore, the bank provides Health Savings Accounts (HSAs), which can be used to pay for qualified medical expenses.

Bank of America’s money market accounts offer higher interest rates to customers as a relationship banking reward. At the time of this writing, enrollment in the relationship banking program requires both a BofA personal checking account and a certain 3-month average combined balance in BofA banking accounts and/or Merrill Lynch or Merrill Edge investment accounts.

As for CDs, the terms range from 28 days to 10 years, with higher interest rates for longer terms. For the standard CDs, BofA does not allow any additional deposits until the CD matures, and there is an early withdrawal penalty. However, the bank also offers a short-term CD with no early withdrawal penalty, for customers looking to keep their funds relatively liquid.

BofA provides both Traditional and Roth IRA products, available as IRA money market accounts or IRA CDs , as well as brokerage IRAs through Merrill Edge. The bank also offers a variable rate CD IRA, to which deposits can be made at any time, and a short-term CD IRA with no early withdrawal penalty.

For business customers, BofA offers business checking accounts, business savings accounts (including business HSAs), business CDs, business IRA options (provided through Merrill Edge), and relationship banking benefits to higher-balance business customers. The bank’s business checking accounts vary by account balance and transaction volume, and they offer access to BofA’s business savings accounts, which are money market accounts with varied interest rates, depending on the account balance. Finally, as for business CDs, BofA offers terms from 7 days to 10 years, including a short-term business CD without an early withdrawal penalty.

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