BB&T Inactive Account Fees: The Real Bank Robber Is the Bank Itself Winston-Salem, North Carolina

I had about $19 in a BB&T free checking account. I was out of town for five months, working a seasonal job, and BB&T began charging me $7.50 “Inactive Account Fees” without my knowledge. Pretty soon, the bank had withdrawn every last penny from my account – something I did not know till I got back to town and tried to make a deposit, when I was told the
account had been closed.

I explained my situation to the branch manager and to another representative at BB&T’s 800 number, but got no sympathy, though I had been a steady customer for many years. Both refused to reinstate my account with its measly 19 bucks.

This strikes me as poor treatment for 1) a depositor who is loaning the bank money in a checking account interest free and by 2) a bank that received $3.1 billion in taxpayer bailout money during the height of the last
financial panic and by 3)a bank that also received taxpayer money in its takeover of the collapsed Colonial Bank, where I had previously banked. My suggestion would be to avoid BB&T, which helps itself to other people's money, including that of depositors as well as taxpayers.

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