National City Bank - PNC Frequently Poor or Misleading Customer Service, Questionable Fees and Changes in Service Agreement Cleveland Ohio

With the number of questions that are raised about this site, I would like to state that my goal here is write a professional and objective report in hope that this type of thing is taken seriously. It is a simple record of my experiences with National City, which is now owned by PNC, for you to interpret as you will. In fairness, I will include the better points of my experiences and admit my faults where they lie. I would encourage anyone else to do the same if you do not agree or understand, but hope you can do it professionally as well...

That said, I should mention that I am quite an authority on the nature of this business. I have been with the bank (closing my last checking account next week) for five years now and had five different types of accounts with them: checking account, savings account, credit card (my only one until I got small Best Buy card while working Geek Squad in 2008, as I know better), CD account, and short-term loans (backed with CD collateral).

My relationship with National City goes back to 2004, which was my sophomore year of college. I had switched from my local Champaign, IL bank to National City because, at the time, they were the only bank I could find with locations in Des Plaines, IL (where I went to high school), Bourbonnais, IL (my hometown), and Champaign (where I went to college). Over the first three years, my experiences with National City were actually very excellent. I would like to point out Chris S. of the Bradley, IL branch circa 2005 as quite possibly the most real banker I have ever met. Most of them pretend to be your friend, but this guy might have actually been.

Things began to get bad about a year after I had moved to Chicago, IL after changing colleges. This would be summer of 2007. While I had found myself able to make it through my first four years of college without accumulating any debt, I found myself (very suddenly) in a situation where I needed college loans and had no income except for a part-time delivery gig in the suburbs. Over the couple months it took to get actual money coming in again, I had gotten my $3000 credit card to $3200. It went a little over 30 days past due and was shut down. Keep in mind that I was not notified of the account shutting down as I had agreed to "go green" with their encouragement and did not receive paper statements. No email or phone contact was made. In their defense, I had indeed not updated my address since my last move, but I am not sure that this is relevant with the whole paperless thing.

Regardless, that was my fault. However, the bad end of National City kicked in during my months of bouncing back. Upon getting my loans for school, my first duty was paying my credit card. When I called in (also when I found out about the cancellation of the account) to make a payment, I was transferred over to a gentleman in the cancelled account department. I informed him that I wanted to put down $1,700 on the $3,200 card because I would like to get it back to how it was. He replied that once it was paid under the card limit, I could call another department to have the card reopened, but to give the payment a couple of days to clear. I thanked him and got transferred to another department where they took my $1,700 payment. At this time I also updated my address.

About four days later I called the number he gave me to get my card reopened. I was told that I would have to make 6 months of on-time payments to reopen the card. I was pretty floored, as most of the $1,700 I had just given them could have been used to make the next few months of payments, in addition to helping with my monthly expenses. I inquired about what the man had told me and if the payment could be stopped or reversed, as that completely changes my plan of attack. I was told that the payment could not be changed and given no explanation for what the man had said to me. I asked to speak to a manager and was eventually given one who quickly told me the same thing, "You have to pay 6 months of on-time payments to reopen it." I told her about what I had been told before to no avail. I simply had the policy repeated back at me.

I gave up and decided to just try my best to make the next six payments on time. During the next month, my credit card was removed from my online access (either due to the cancellation or the latter rebuilding of their webportal, I assumed the former). In response, I re-enrolled in paper statements for my credit card. When my next payment came due, I still had not received a statement telling me when and how much I owe. I called in about it and was told the statement was sent well in advance, "It was sent to 414 (street) on (date)." Relevant to this point is the fact that my address was actually 2414 (street).

When I inquired about them removing the late charge on the grounds that they had made a clerical error, I was quickly told they would not refund any fees. I asked to speak to a supervisor. The lady that came on was very rude when I asked, "How can I pay you if I don't know when and how much?" She replied, "You have online access." I explained to her that no, I did not since they had randomly removed it. She snapped back at me, "Well you spent the money, you know you owe it!"

WHAT DO YOU EXPECT ME TO DO, CALL YOU AT THE BEGINNING OF MONTH TO WRITE DOWN MY PAYMENT DUE DATE AND AMOUNT BECAUSE YOUR EMPLOYEES CANNOT TYPE?

Get real...

They did not, but further issues ensued next month, as I again tried to make my payment on time. I called in the days my payment was due and processed my payment with the automated number-entry method since it is free. I made my payment and received my confirmation code. I checked my online checking statement and saw the payment and thought all was well. A couple days later I look at my online checking statement again and the payment is gone. I call card services and ask what happened. They explain the payment was reversed. I explain that I had enough money at the time, and that they can check. I am not given an explanation of why it happened and I ask to speak to a supervisor. When I talk to her, she explains that I must have entered "the number" wrong. But, if this is true, then how did I see the payment in my checking account? A wrong number could never show up there, as it has to match my routing or account number (I was never told which). I am told that I can make the payment, but it will be late and I will be assessed another fee. (I am fairly sure this was yet another clerical error, but cannot prove it like the last incident.)

Okay, enough of card services. I re-enrolled in their "new site" with its separate entity for credit cards, so this hasn't been much of a problem since. Moving on to their bank side, I should note that the service has not really been awful though getting worse after the Mid-America acquisition (for some strange reason). I have had overdraft charges here and there, most of them deserved. But, it is important to note that I have inquired about six overdrafts in the last 9-12 months because my online statement has not matched what is actually happening in my account. Usually I am given some explanation about how the online banking is not guaranteed to be an accurate source. But wait, you told me to "go green..."

However, two out of these six times I actually got the charge reversed. The bank actually admitted that their management system made an error calculating the dates and times of adjustment.

Wait... What? YOUR COMPTUER SYSTEMS MAKE MISTAKES AND I HAVE TO CAREFULLY EYE YOU TO NOT BE RIPPED OFF?

Get real...

But, they did not, which bring us to the last incident in my relationship with National City and my final inspiration for putting this report on their practices up. In January, I had to pay my rent about ten days late due to Christmas and such. I agreed with my landlord to pay his extra charge. Since he was working on my apartment the next day, I told him I could leave a check (for $825) and call him when it was okay to cash it since he lives in Winfield, IL (a bit of a hike from Chicago). Either he did not care or mistook me, but he attempted to cash the check the next day, when I only had about $300 in my account. I found this out when making a $400 deposit the day after that and being told I "still have a negative balance."

I immediately know what happened, but ask how they could clear a check that would overdraw me $500+. I am told it was done as a courtesy because of my long standing relationship with the bank. I am flabbergasted.

(Side point: you can argue about whether or not a post-dated check could have saved me here. I have gotten responses both positive and negative on this subject from different branches' employees. Why is this, National City?)

I spent the next two weeks talking back and forth talking between the office manager at my branch in Chicago (on Franklin) and rude personal bankers at my issuing branch in Bradley (where Chris no longer works, sadly) trying to explain that I believe this to be a questionably fair practice. My logic is that at one point in my relationship with the bank, this "courtesy" would not have been extended to me. However, now it is. When did this change? Did you inform me that I had been added to the "courtesy list" of people you can clear ridiculous checks on to collect overdraft charges for $5 transactions? I think not.

I proposed that they refund 4 of the 6 charges, as that is how many would have occurred had they bounced the check (one from them, one from my landlord's bank). I got nothing but the same policy-repeating-without-real-explanation garbage, in both friendly and rude tones, depending on which branch and who I was talking to. In the end, they would rather let a customer go than play fair. Be wary folks - their inept and misleading staff, and unfair or questionable manipulation of policy detail could leave your stack shorter and your credit damaged... I know they did mine.

(P.S. I have had their debit policy explained to me that it is a check. Therefore, it can be cashed up to six months after the transaction. However, contradicting this explanation is the fact that the debit transaction retro-acts and calls against your balance on the date of swipe, unlike a check. Fancy that, huh?)

commonmanthemes
Chicago, Illinois
U.S.A.