Hello, I am writing this report, not to file a suit, just to inform people about how confusing and vendictive this bank can get if you overdraft by as little as .01. I have read reports on this site as well as others, heard horror stories, and I agree that alot of these charges can be justified, however I was shocked when I looked at my account and it was charged to what seemed to be an unlawful amount of interest for using a debit card. I am a college student helping take care of my pregnant fiance' and a 5 year old and they showed absolutely 0 concern. Please take the time to read this report.
The first time this occured, I recieved a phone call stating that I had overdrawn in the amount of 0.29 and that I needed to make a deposit. I was ok with this and even though it was time to pay bills, I went and deposited my check to cover the 0.29 and the HUGE 37.00 overdraft charge, but boy was I mistaken. I came to find the next day that I was charged 185.00 in overdraft charges for going over 0.29 in my account. I can understand paying a fee for the one charge that caused me to go in the negative by 0.29, but they charged me for every transaction that went through that day! When I inquired about this 185.00 charge, they simply said that they take every charge that was made in that day and if it is overdrawn, they charge you for each individual card swipe. 185.00 on a .29 overdraft? I understand that when you do not have the money, it's like you are "borrowing" from the bank, but that is almost 1,000% interest! Didn't we make the loan shark business illegal quite some time ago? This kind of profit is insane for ANY company. I went into the branch office to try to talk to someone about it and noone would help me. I informed them I had a young family and asked for some kind of mercy and they told me NO. I had deposited everything I had and was still negaive 54.19. They told me to open a savings account so that I would have money to transfer over. That wouldnt stop the overdraft system they have, that would just insure them of the money they would get in the event.
I know for a fact people have had overdraft fees waived numerous times. I know one person that has proof that HER fees were reversed NUMEROUS times, but mine couldn't when I needed it the most? I guarantee every employee they have gets a free pass if they were to overdraft by less than a dollar! So how is it this paticular bank is going to withold such a standard with this policy, yet pick and choose who they help out? It just isn't right!
So back to my account luckily, and I mean LUCKILY, we came up with the money to save my account and put it in good standing. After it was all said and done, I had paid close to 300.00 in fees for 29 cents. I was in the good for about a week when 2 charges appeared out of nowhere with yesterdays date and caused me to overdraft AGAIN by .92. This overdraft was caused by 2 things. One was the 2 charges to a video store that just appeared after having the money in the account for 5 days. The other thing that caused this was a "pending" charge. That's right, they see your pending charges the same way they do the ones that have already went through. I went and made a cash deposit today, which you would think would have posted immediately, however they are still going to charge me a 37.00 charge for the "pending" charge and possibly, as it has went in the past, a charge for every transaction I made yesterday. There were 9 of them.
Thats where these magical charges come into play. When I asked about these, I found that they were charges that hadn't showed up yet. Why didn't they take these charges as soon as my account was right? It's almost like they waited until I had so much activity in one day before they put them through.
In closing, I would just like to say that I am closing my account with 5/3 and I just want to inform all other students, parents, and professionals what they are actually getting into before they find out the hard way. I am going to contact every media source I can about this and welcome your feedback as well.
Why file a report here? Ripoff Report is a permanent record! Other complaint sites copy our content then remove reports for money.
