Fifth Third Bank Excessive Overdraft Fees Cincinnati Ohio

Hello,

I just looked over the fee schedule at 5/3 Bank and it looks like they are in set amounts. There is an $8 daily negative balance fee. The first overdraft results in a $25 fee, the second through fourth occurrences result in a $33 fee and any overdrafts beyond result in a $37 fee. This should be in your terms and conditions that you received when you opened the account.

I don't see anything about a $178 fee. More than likely this was a number of separate overdraft fees that were assessed at once.

Generally speaking, there is a cap on overdraft fees - one fee per occurrence. Thus one incident result in one fee and seven incidents results in seven fees.

This company has gotten away with excessive overdraft fees for a long time. I have contacted a lawyer who is interested in bringing a class action case against fifth third bank. Please contact me for more info.

I just experienced a similar, ridiculous problem with Fifth Third -- much of which has been documented in other Ripoff Reports. I have filed a complaint with the Federal Reserve and plan on contacting my state's attorney general as well. I have also contacted a lawyer about a Class Action lawsuit. If the government isn't willing to regulate banks and their predatory business practices, then perhaps enough of legal complaints will lead them to choose smarter business practices where they make money because consumers benefit from doing business with them and vice versa. Customer service is still king. The banking industry will realize this soon enough. I look forward to that day. Until then, I've moved to cash only for all previous debit transactions. If I go on vacation, it's a traditional credit card only. For all of the naysayers who keep telling people they need to better balance their checkbooks, please tell me how it is remotely fair that a bank can use a pending charge, to charge overdraft fees for transactions made as many as 3-4 days before the "pending" transaction even showed up. I was keeping track of my balance. The money was there. But Fifth Third figured out a way to screw me out of it. Shame on them.

Nice attempt at using a rhetorical device there.

"For all of the naysayers who keep telling people they need to better balance their checkbooks, please tell me how it is remotely fair that a bank can use a pending charge, to charge overdraft fees for transactions made as many as 3-4 days before the 'pending' transaction even showed up. I was keeping track of my balance. The money was there. But Fifth Third figured out a way to screw me out of it. Shame on them."

It's not a practice that I'm wild about, but obviously you thought it was fair because you used the account under those terms and conditions. If you thought it was unfair, the logical thing to do would have been to close your account.

As long as you stay within your available balance, you won't be charged overdraft fees. I'm not particularly good at math so if I can do it, you can to.

Seville, if you really gave your post ANY thought at all, your check register doesn't record pending transactions. You track them as if the transaction cleared the same day. If you keep an accurate check register, you would never need to worry about such things as pending debits - ever.

The ONLY thing you should be using online balances for is to (a) record items to your register that may have been missed, or (2) any fees or credits issued by the bank. There is no basis for a Class Action lawsuit based on your post. However, I have seen banks settle some of them; the members of the class received about $70 back from the bank after waiting 5 years....your lawyer would love to file a class action because the bank and the lawyer stand to make the most out of it; the lawyer because he gets 40% and the bank because they simply give it to their insurance company. You'll give that $70 back in higher fees at the next bank.

I too have had the same thing happen to me just two days ago.  However, I must add that I have read the terms & conditions, fee schedule, etc. and nothing says specifically that overdraft fees are applied to pending transactions.  It only states the fees for overdraft not "specifying" pending charges!  If i missed something, please let me know because they have me for $132.00 even the same day of my direct deposit.

Many months ago I, too, was taken advantage of by Fifth Third.. but I just dealt with it and moved on, forgetting about it until recently when the media began talking about all these overdraft fees..

Here's what happened to me:

I had a personal checking account that paid the usual kinds of bills everyone else has.. One week, I had a utility bill and a State Farm insurance bill coming out. So I deposited $500 in cash through the ATM at 2:30pm to cover both..

When the utility bill came out the next day, the bank said I didn't have enough money in the bank - but they paid it and charged like a $30 fee. (A familiar story these days)

I went in to the branch, WITH my deposit receipt from the ATM. The teller told me that I did not get the money in on time for it to be considered the previous day's business. I reminded her that the banking day changes at 3:00pm and my ATM receipt clearly says 2:30pm.. she said yes but deposits at their ATMs actually change business days at 2:00pm. Not 3:00pm.

Therefore since the cash deposit was not in "in time", when midnight struck they paid the utility, charged me the fee, then credited my $500 deposit - which covered the utility payment and the fee and had plenty of money left over.

Thieves, I thought. But what could I do? They said there were stickers posted on the ATM stating the 2pm rule (one day I need to check) so I just let them have their money and CLOSED the account ON THE SPOT. Ten minutes later, I leave the bank with the rest of my money that was in the account, head to State Farm and give them cash to head off the payment they were going to process. All was well and Fifth Third was out of the picture and I'd just move on.

About a week later I get a letter from Fifth Third saying I owe like $250 (I don't remember the exact amount). State Farm didn't stop the charge in time or something and they tried to process it.

Rather than Fifth Third reject the charge because the account was closed, they RE-OPENED MY BANK ACCOUNT, paid State Farm, and charged me another $30 (or so) fee!! And that if I didn't come sort this out immediately I'd be charged $8/day or something until I did.

So - I had to go BACK to Fifth Third, PAY THEM THE MONEY THEY GAVE STATE FARM, pay them their fee, and once again CLOSE MY BANK ACCOUNT. The thing that surprised me the most was the workers at Fifth Third - who are people (presumably) - actually responded to my questions as if this all made perfect sense to them. That this was what was easier for everyone. To re-open a bank account that had been closed was the right thing to do.

I'm not kidding about any of this.

Again, this was all months ago and I've long since moved on and Fifth Third made their sixty bucks or whatever it was.. But with all the news about this I figured I would share this story, for whatever it's worth.