The following is a guest blog post by Aracely Panameño:

I have been banking since I started working at the age of 16. My first account was with Burke & Herbert in Crystal City, a small community bank in Virginia that has been in business for over 100 years. I started with checking and savings accounts. There were times when I was at risk of bouncing a check. I was lucky though, as the bank manager would call and tell me that I could authorize him to transfer the necessary funds from my savings and all would be fine, no insufficient funds, no overdraft, and no penalty fees. Yes, this was before PC banking, cell phones, text messages, and automatic overdraft protection plans.

A few years later, I moved to Woodbridge, Virginia where Burke & Herbert did not have branches and decided to transfer my accounts to another community bank with branches near my home. Through mergers and acquisitions, I ended up with Bank of America where today I am fully banked. There is something to be said about the benefits the bank offered me for agreeing to do more business with them -– free checks, no monthly fees, a safe deposit box, no-closing-cost mortgage refinance, and branch offices all over the country and abroad. The problem was I went from a valued customer at the bank where the branch manager knew my name and looked out for my interests to just being one in an infinite number of consumers who as individuals are insignificant.

As time went on, banking rules changed. I felt powerless every time I got one more bank notice in the mail.

Several years later, the ATM machine entered the market. I got a check card, then PC banking started, etcetera, etcetera, and etcetera. Suddenly, the bank had all the power over my money, the blessing of the Congress, and all I had was the burden of proof! I felt I was getting the shorter end of the stick and became angered about the unfairness of the banking system.

I work hard to earn my income, which now goes into my account as a direct deposit. Yet, the bank has been acting as though it is doing me a favor despite the fact that it makes profits off of my money.

Some time ago, I deposited a check into my checking account using the Bank of America ATM near my home. The machine returned by check card but without a receipt. Upon my return home, I logged into PC banking and was surprised to see there was no record of a pending transaction in my account. Within twenty-four hours, I filed a claim with Bank of America.

A week later, correspondence came informing me that “There was no deposit made at an ATM” within a period that included the date of my transaction. “Therefore, we are unable to credit your account, thus closing this dispute,” said the letter. I called the issuer of the check and explained the incident. The person automatically put a stop payment to the lost check, issued a new one, and mailed it to me.

Six days after the first bank letter declaring the dispute closed, I received a second notice from Bank of America. In it, the bank said that the item had been found and was being posted to my account. By the time I received the letter, it was too late to tell the bank that the issuer had put a stop payment on it. Fifteen days after the second letter, a third Bank of America letter arrived at my home. This time the bank was informing me that a fee had been charged to my account because the item had been returned to the issuer.

Wait, wait! This was the item Bank of America lost, did not post to my account, closed the inquiry on, later found, and tried to post to my account. How was it my responsibility that the bank lost my check resulting in a stop payment by the issuer?

Bank of America was messing with the wrong consumer. That evening, I called to ask for a refund to my account in the amount of the penalty fee and an apology for the four weeks of inconvenience the bank caused me. I got the refund, but the apology never arrived!

Between the original date of my deposit and the notice of the fee, I conducted over 60 transactions, big and small. I’m one of the lucky consumers who does not live close to the margin. I cannot fathom the snowball effect of overdraft and penalty fees that living on the edge would have caused and cost me. This is only one of the many unsavory and time-consuming interactions I have had with Bank of America over the last several years.

The truth is that even if my deposits, my savings, my credit card, and my mortgage are insignificant in the grand scheme of Bank of America, they are significant to me. The bank makes money off my money in overnight investment transactions. With my savings, for which I get less than 1% in interest, the bank makes loans available to others who need capital at significantly higher interest than what it pays me or The Fed. It charges me 10% interest on the balance of my credit card. It gets to keep an administrative fee for collecting my mortgage payment and distributing the proceeds. And the bank tries to hit me with other fees and penalties to squeeze even more money from me. Now multiply that times millions of consumers. Yes, sometimes I wish I was a banker.

The bank has been playing “ring around the rosey” with consumers, and bankers seemed to have forgotten that in the end “ashes, ashes, we all fall down.”

When I was a kid in El Salvador (more than 30 years ago), my mom kept her business revenue (hard, cold cash) in the safest place in our home, the freezer. She did not make any interest on her money, but no institution robbed her either. She was a founding member of the small bakers union in 1950. Today, my mom lives in the United States and still keeps a significant stash of cash in the safest part of her house, under the proverbial mattress! I did not understand this until now.

As a result of the financial crisis, I have regained control over my money. I call to complain and demand refunds from the bank when they are owed to me. Also, I am interviewing banks and credit unions in my community to see if they are interested in my business and my deposits. Three weeks ago, I visited the Woodbridge branch of Burke & Herbert and opened a savings and a checking account. I also met the manager and other staff there. That is right Mr. Global Banking Institution, I am an investor deserving of respect. I demand services and products at fair prices. If I don’t get what I need from my banking institution, I am willing to shop around and take my money to a bank where I am somebody.

Call you senators today and ask them to support real financial regulatory reform, including the creation of a strong independent Consumer Financial Protection Agency.

Aracely Panameño has worked on behalf of consumers on various issues including health, education, and financial services for more than 20 years. She holds a BA in business administration and public policy from The Catholic University of America and is an MBA candidate at Johns Hopkins University.