I also agree this is absolutely ridiculous and would not pay any charges possible. Kind of related, I had a dispute with Verizon over ten lousy dollars of text messages I never did. On principle we argued over 3 discussions in 2 weeks with one drone after another. Finally I filed a BBB complaint, then I got a personal letter from some representative from Verizon with a direct phone number to settle the issue. Problem solved that day. It looks like companies will try to avoid points from the BBB and would rather settle. Maybe you'll have the same luck filing with the BBB.
You shouldn't spend MORE than what you have, and it looks like you did and that's why they charged you--three times. The only thing that could save you is if your history with them has been good, and you can say "I think I deserve a break this time, but keep this in your records." Don't let this happen again. ALWAYS think you have less than what you really have. CALL YOUR BANK's PHONE LINE to make sure you have plenty of positive balance before you spend anything. Where do the $115 come from? I'm lost. Please post the times of your "available balance" and the dates of each withdrawal and the fees they charged you? Can we do a little math here, please? You skipped around with the charges, fees and withdrawals.
I think there is some banking rule against levying a certain percentage of total funds in fees. Check with the 'Office of the Comptroller of the Currency' and then write them a letter detailing the context of these fees.
He didn't spend more than he had, unless you consider the amount he deposited to not be his. His account apparently starts with $415.75. He deposits $310 in cash. That same day, he takes $50 in cash out at the ATM. The ATM receipt shows his available balance to be $675.75 (the original balance of $415.75 plus the $310 cash deposit less the $50 he just took out). He pays his rent of $475, which would leave a balance of $200.75. He makes two other purchases totaling roughly $10, leaving him a balance of around $190.75. So, he never spent more than he had. The only hiccup was that Bank of America decided that the cash deposit should not post until some time after he paid his rent and made the two other purchases. Despite the fact that the rent and two other purchases were made after the deposit, they took out the rent and purchases immediately and held the deposit until later. This caused the account to be overdrawn ($415.75 balance less $50 ATM less $475 rent less roughly $10 in other purchases), so BofA assessed an overdraft fee of $35 for the rent transaction and the two other small purchases, for a total of $115.
I'm still trying to figure out how you pay your rent immediately?!? I always wrote checks to the landlord.
Lesson #1: Banks get the majority of their fee income from poor people. It would go against their policies and principles to refund your money. It's kind of stupid in your case, since you likely won't be poor some day and they lost a customer forever. I knew about the overdraft scam and covering from your credit card scam and showing more money available than is actually available scam. But the putting a hold on CASH that you deposited is beyond the pale. I'd try to go to local media and make them pay - it sounds juicy enough for someone to bite on it. Banks are the debbil - but Wells Fargo has always refunded any fees they tried to charge me.
We had $300 of overdraft fees during Christmas. We had lots of money in savings, so I thought over-draft protection included taking the money from there incase we didn't keep track with our spending. I learned my lesson! Learning lessons SUCKKKKKK!
Please post your checking account number dear sir. Please you have won the lottery of Nigeria. Sir Walter Kahn
I rent an apartment from a property management company. they don't actually own the apartments, they just handle the payment of rent, the actual showing of the apartments to prospective lessees, and the maintenance requests for the owner. They have a big office with lots of workers. Every month I go in and hand them my debit card, they go to a machine at the back of the office, scan the card, give me a receipt, and I sign it.
Tell them there is a mass exodus of Clutch Fans members leaving their scam bank and then see what they say. We're not exactly broke around here.
Exactly, I went through a dispute with Chase and they and their lousy manager wouldn't remove the finance charges. One letter to the BBB and it was resolved 10 days later with 2 different letters and a call from Chase to resolve the issue and to keep me as a customer.
I'm kinda upset so I've posted this without reading most of the other posts in this thread, but man I do believe there is a conspiracy going on with these banks on how they get you. if I or anyone can ever prove this and make these big banks pay, it will be epically awesome. Here's what I think they, and by they I mean Bank of America and similiar giant banks, do. Most middle-class, working, young, entry-level position adults work to make ends meet and often times find themselves living paycheck to paycheck with very little net balances on their accounts from the time period where 2 bi-weekly paychecks meet and rent+bills are due. I think the banks know this and strategically make all the larger charges and checks clear on your account specifically right before a paycheck would be coming your way so they have the greatest number of chances to reduce one's checking balance into the negatives before a paycheck can re-up the account. This way they hit you with overdraft fees first, then add the due paycheck amount afterwards. I know this is happening but just can't prove it on a wide scale but man do I wish someone takes legal action against this bullcrap one day.
i had a friend who was an assistant manager at a credit union. he said the banks actually pulls in tens of millions of dollars of these fees, and at really little cost to them.
here's two good article: http://www.sfbayview.com/News/Main/Banks_reap_huge_profits_from_overdraft_fees_on_free_checking_accounts.html http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A05E1D91030F931A15752C0A9659C8B63 if banks really wanted to help you out, they'd just wait just 3 days for the check to clear or bounce before they charge you... or better yet, get rid of overdraft all together. it's big business.
Yep, I was hit by BoA on this one a couple of times too. I guess you just have to be careful. The overdraft penalty is in their fine prints.
Yep BOA got me as well. They just have a really screwed up process and they do some sort of weird processing on Monday's so things don't always go in on a streamlined process - especially spending over the weekend. I also have a story that I went to the BBB for. I had $2500 in my checking account and was heading on vacation for the weekend. Before I left town on friday, I deposited a $9000 check. Since the check was bigger than my usual deposits, they HELD $3000 of it and told me the $3k wouldn't clear until 10 days, but the remaining 6K would as soon as the check cleared. I was angry while at the bank, but said OK I'll just deal with it because I didn't plan on spending any of that money within the next ten days. Fast forward to the next day (Saturday) while out of town I go to the ATM to get out 100 bucks and it shows that I'm negative $500 in my checking account. When they HELD that 3k it basicaly showed up as a withdrawal in their system and since I originally had 2500 in there, I was negative 500. I called BOA, the poor girl on the customer service line said it was the worst thing she had ever seen but couldn't do anything about it because thats how their computer system worked. I went to managers, executives and then the BBB. Everything eventually worked out but I had already left and went to WAMU. I love WAMU so far - I recommend them. That's my story
BOA sucks. Switch banks to Wells Fargo or a small bank. I was a BoA customer for a long time and eventually started paying attentiont to how much they were screwing me. Switched to WF and have never had problems.
