PNC Bank Overdraft fees on paid items Pittsburgh Pennsylvania

Actually, no. Three of the four items paid (posted) to my account on Friday had originally showed up as pending on Thursday. The fourth was a check cashed through a teller on Friday and counted on the same day's business. The two check card traansactions still pending are both from Amazon, and first showed as pending on my account on the 17th, the day I made the order (although Iwas not aware they would be charged as two separate items, but I'm not concerned about that). My direct deposit was also scheduled to appear in my account on the 17th, with it posting on the 18th. As of the 20th, the last business day, it has still not posted. Yet a small direct deposit from the same company that I requested yesterday at approximately 8:00 am shows up as pending on my account this morning...it's just not enough to make any difference in the black hole of fees.

The "float" is neither my doing nor in my control, although I will be fair and admit I should have checked to make sure my deposit had "actually" appeared on the day it was supposed to before making my order since holding and losing deposits is something PNC has done before. I did, however, monitor my balance yesterday knowing that there were pending charges out there and saw the three smaller previously pending items post. I knew I had just enough in the account to cover the largest item, the check, should it post but made a deposit anyway to attempt to cover the Amazon charges should they post as well.

My direct deposit that should have appeared as pending on the 17th is still not there. My direct deposit ordered yesterday is there as pending. My branch deposit is there but pending. The two Amazon transactions that appeared as pending on the 17th are STILL pending, not posted. The four transactions from Friday were reordered and posted with $8.08 left in the account balance as of this morning according to both my online account and customer service. Having enough money posted to the account to cover the items posted to the account is not the issue.

The problem is, first, I have a direct deposit missing which is accounted for by the sender but not the receiver which is PNC Bank. They refuse to look into it until I wait 14 business days to see if it shows up. Second, I have deposits pending that as of yesterday were showing in my available balance both online and by phone, but are not being counted toward my balance for yesterday. Third, I have two transactions pending. The pending charges are being counted against my balance from yesterday as though they posted yesterday, the deposits are not.

In fact, I was told by customer service that if the pending charges had been made today, even though the deposits are not yet in my account, I would have been charged no fees. Why? Because the money was present in my account to cover the business posted yesterday. Which is what I was trying to explain to her makes no sense, and she asked me if I'm a d___ idiot!!

Because these charges have been pending, but not posted, they considered the pending charges as though they were already out of my balance but refused to do the same for pending deposits. So basically the "available balance" I was given online and on the phone was incorrect, and now the fees are assessed. I am more than moderately unhappy about this, and it's not an issue of "ignorance". I have never, ever had anything like this happen at any bank.

I will say that if you have proof that this is happening you need to contact the Office of the Comptroller and an Attorney.  However, I think this is more of a misunderstanding of banking.

The reason I don't think you have a total understanding of how banking works is because of this statement.

They will occasionally, but not always, credit pending deposits on Saturday so I logged in this morning to check my balance online

- There are two problems with thisI(the second problem I will mention in a bit).  First of all NO bank, credit union or Financial Institution POSTS transactions on a Weekend or Holiday.  Now, what you are probably trying to say is that you made a deposit on a Friday and it was posted overnight.  So yes it technically shows up on Saturday, but it was from a Friday Posting. 

This is very important as to your definition these 4 "paid" items on Friday.  Paid in your definition does not actually meet what happens.  They are actually not paid until they POST to your account.  If they were "paid" on Friday that means that it was received on Friday.  They are actually not Posted until overnight processing on Friday Night.

Your problem is that it appears that these 4 items put you into the negative on Friday and you tried to make up for it by getting the money in the bank. But again since you did this on Friday it won't be POSTED until overnight.  However, you already were negative and thus are charged the overdraft fees.  Then since you are in Overdraft you will again be charged an Overdraft fee because of the two more items that will be posted Monday Night.

If you want to avoid issues like this in the future you can not attempt to "float" funds.  That is unless you have the available balance at the time you attempt to use your debit/atm card or write a check you should NOT write it.  In the past you could "float" a check for a few days, but with Electronic Processing there is no longer any such thing as "float".  You have to assume that the second you swipe your card or write a check that the money is taken from the account.

Now, how do you know how much you have.  Well this is your second problem.  If you don't keep a written register you can't know for sure.  Only you know what you have spent when you spend it.  And while I did just say that a transaction could come through almost immmediatly you can't guarantee that the merchant will. 

One other thing.  If you haven't "opted out" of Debit Card Overdraft protection you should perhaps look at doing that.  What that does is if at the time you attempt to use your Debit or ATM card at an ATM or Point of Sale and there is not enough currently available it will be declined.  Now, this doesn't guarantee that you still can't overdraft as it does not apply to checks or ACH transactions which the bank had and still has the option to pay or return unpaid. 

Now, I am sure you are saying you must work for the bank or why are you defending them.  Guess what I do not now or have ever worked for a bank, and I am far from defending them.  I am telling you why you overdrafted and how you can avoid this in the future.  It is up to you whether or not you want to blame everyone else or take responsibility over you own money.  I could also care less what bank you bank with as you will find that the same thing I said here applies to just about every other bank as well.

This is what happens when you play the "floating" game and attempt to get funds back into the account AFTER you have already spent them.

I agree, this is far from common practice and due to my job and moving frequently I've dealt with a large number of banks. If an item is paid with a positive balance at the end of the day, it is paid. Not overdrafted. Anything that goes on the next day's business is not mingled with today's and yesterday's business. One of the deposits I was checking on is a direct deposit that is already two days late crediting, and the sender has confirmed it has gone through and been acknowledged on their end. I suppose I'll have to get them involved now, for all the good it will do. If their so-called customer service is willing to use profanity and abuse on the phone I don't hold out much hope they'll credit any deposit until they've milked it for every last dime they can!

Thanks for the reply. Closing out all accounts with PNC is good advice, I'll be switching banks Monday.

I had this happen also but in Illinois.  They tried to claim that it's common practice and "every bank does it" but that's not true.  I closed all my PNC accounts and went to a different bank that does not do that.   

I've had them 'hold' transactions in the hopes that a larger debit would come through so they could get more NSF fees, they will post your withdrawels before your deposits because it gets them more fees.