Overdraft charges?

[CCsAreEvil]

Regarding overdrafts! Fi*@#ing banks always trying to scam the consumer (I mean their "important" customers).

I do NOT know if this policy is written anywhere, but I believe most banks do this. Take the following example:

Account balance: $100

Pending transactions that will post in the same night:

$5
$6
$7
$8
$9
$99

So, one would think... ok, $5 $6 $7 $8 and $9 will go through leaving me with $65. When $99 tries to go through, it triggers a single $35 OD fee. But NO!

The bank will pay the "highest" amounts first (thus screwing the customer). They will pay $99 first. This leaves you with $1 in your account. The $5 $6 $7 $8 $9 will all cause a $35 OD fee each, bringing the total OD cost to $175.

And then the banks will try to "look like the good guy" by saying they'll remove like 1 or 2 of the OD fees.. but they still screw you and make out big.

[BROKEDED]

Mine was with Wells Fargo, still branded Wachovia locally. Their customer service has gone to sh!t since Wells took over.

CCsAreEvil...Wachovia did just that to me several years ago but with a little twist to the knife. I had a balance of $400 and had an outstanding check for something like $500 that I forgot about but it hadn't cleared. I had several debit purchases that equaled maybe $200 when I realized the mistake.

I called the bank to ask if the check had cleared yet, they said, "No.". I made a cash deposit of $600 that day at the suggestion of the Wachovia CSR. Cash deposits were available for immediate "ATM" withdrawal so you would think that it be available for a check as well.

The next morning I check my account... 5 overdrafts, I think it was. They had taken the check first which made me overdrawn, then the debit purchases, then applied the deposit.

I immediately called customer access and dealt with an extremely nice lady that was having trouble, herself, trying to figure out why I had the charges. She confirmed some information with a supervisor and explained their process. She then removed all 5 charges and apologized for the inconvenience, their policy, and thanked me for being a customer.

Interestingly, during our conversation I found out that all eleven or so transactions took place in less than 10 seconds. At $35 a pop, that's about $63000 per hour... or over $551 million a year.

Sounds about right to me! That's where some of those bonuses come from!

[CCsAreEvil]

BTW, found this bit of info from myfico.com:

"14% of people generated 93% of overdraft fees, (according to an FDIC 2008 study) but under the new law you'll have to "opt-in." Banks earn an additional $12 billion by covering checks and recurring bills."

$12 billion? That's no small change.

[blessed]

We had to establish a new checking and savings because of cross-collateralization and I was so afraid that my checking (that I had for 10 years with account numbers memorized so I was sad to close it) would accept an auto payment and reopen, and end up negative without my authorization. The attorney said creditors were legally allowed to access my account 3 times if they had the info, no thanks I'll close it.

So, I ended up telling the bank "do NOT let anything go through because you'll not see a dime from me, I'm filing for bk" I hope they got the hint.

[jennordhavn]

jennordhavn,
How do you know that? Is it because they have too?

This is what happened in my case, sorry I wasn't more clear.

[Faust]

BTW, found this bit of info from myfico.com:

"14% of people generated 93% of overdraft fees, (according to an FDIC 2008 study) but under the new law you'll have to "opt-in." Banks earn an additional $12 billion by covering checks and recurring bills."

$12 billion? That's no small change.

I always hated how rude and mean they are about it if you call them about the od's. As far as I'm concerned they should be as sweet as pie to the overdraft people be cause it is $$$ for zero work.

But no, they have to AH's instead.

[olivies]

Mine was with Wells Fargo, still branded Wachovia locally. Their customer service has gone to sh!t since Wells took over.

CCsAreEvil...Wachovia did just that to me several years ago but with a little twist to the knife. I had a balance of $400 and had an outstanding check for something like $500 that I forgot about but it hadn't cleared. I had several debit purchases that equaled maybe $200 when I realized the mistake.

I called the bank to ask if the check had cleared yet, they said, "No.". I made a cash deposit of $600 that day at the suggestion of the Wachovia CSR. Cash deposits were available for immediate "ATM" withdrawal so you would think that it be available for a check as well.

The next morning I check my account... 5 overdrafts, I think it was. They had taken the check first which made me overdrawn, then the debit purchases, then applied the deposit.

I immediately called customer access and dealt with an extremely nice lady that was having trouble, herself, trying to figure out why I had the charges. She confirmed some information with a supervisor and explained their process. She then removed all 5 charges and apologized for the inconvenience, their policy, and thanked me for being a customer.

Interestingly, during our conversation I found out that all eleven or so transactions took place in less than 10 seconds. At $35 a pop, that's about $63000 per hour... or over $551 million a year.

Sounds about right to me! That's where some of those bonuses come from!

We used to be customers of Wachovia. After we had a situation come up twice where we got nabbed for $200-300 in overdraft fees because they #1- pay the largest posting charge first, #2- counter deposits made after 1PM will not be posted until the following day EVEN if it's CASH! Yet, I could go to the ATM and deposit the cash and have it post the same day.

Also- #3- They have all these little twists and quirks between their "pending" and "available" balances. They will let me use my debit card at a store and authorize the charge based on my Available balance, however when something gets presented against the account they use the pending balance to determine if I will get socked a fee. It's for "customer convenience" they say. This bit us in the a** this summer when a hotel charge hold stayed up for 3 days, but we actually paid for the hotel stay in cash. They just needed the card to secure the room for payment. So good ol' Wachovia charged me OD fees because I was "negative" (not really) but then that REALLY did put me negative. Then the hotel hold disappeared...and we were still left with a negative balance. The customer service rep said she couldn't do anything about the charge because we had 6 months earlier had a charge reversed (that's when I found out the cash deposit timing at the counter- I deposited enough money to cover my auto insurance payment that was supposed to post that day, yet because I made my CASH deposit after 1PM it wasn't posted until the following day...and I ended up with about $250 in OD charges that day, and they only reversed the FIRST charge).

We no longer use Wachovia.