Wachovia Bank NSF charged to my account when showing a positive balance Covington Georgia

When a charge gets approved for a merchant, and the money is on hold, the bank has guaranteed to the merchant that the bank will pay the amount on hold. So, even though the charge is only held and not posted, the bank will charge an overdraft for anything coming in that makes your available balance go negative. Once again, this is because the bank has guaranteed to the merchant they will pay the amount held. So, of course they're not going to clear items using the money their holding to pay the guaranteed charge.

For the original poster. You're right. The bank should not show the deposit as available when it really isn't. That is misleading (naw, they don't do thaaat). When you did the online transfer, it was probably after the deposit cutoff. Just as if you would have gone into the bank after the day's deposit cutoff and taken money out of your savings to put into your checking. They would have immediately deducted the money from your savings account (withdrawal), but not posted it to your checking account until the next day. I have never thought this was right. After all, who has my money? They do. This is why I switched to a credit union years ago.

I understand your frustration but the truth is those holds and that diffrent piece of paper managers show you are holds on credit card (debit cards) . Everytime that card is swiped it needs to go into your register. Too many people use online or the atm for an acurate balance. It cant possibly be acurate because when its swiped it puts the hold on the funds but the credit debit machine needs to batch out before it goes to visa who then sends it to the bank.Most businesses do that at the end of business.Alot of businesses even with a couple of days then batch their machine. The only sure way, is an old fashioned register. Write every transaction down. The truth hurts but your spending money that isnt there.

I had the same thing happen to me. I was looking at my online statement, and noticed a $70 overdraft fee no my account.

Today when I checked my balance I had another $140 in overdraft fees because of 4 transactions that posted to my account after I had incurred the $70 in overdraft fees. I went into the Wachovia branch, since my business uses the same bank and I know everyone up there. What I was told was really interesting, and I really wonder if it is even legal.

They told me that I had 2 holds on the account that I did not have the funds to cover, ($35 X2= $70)and that is where the first overdraft fee came from. At that point the two fees had put my account in the negative. I then had 4 transactions post to my account the next day (the total of the 4 came to less than $70) but because I had the overdraft fees my account went deeper into the negative.

It is my understanding that a hold is just that. The merchant has not received the money for the transaction and therefore it is still technically in the account. Not until the transaction actually posts does the money actually leave the account.

The following bank scam, which is an accounting scheme implemented to generate overdraft fees will display a positive balance in your account until the bank makes the payments. It's designed to take your account over and create a reason for the overdraft fees. Wachovia has been fraudulently changing the date when a debit card recorded an initial charge. They then try to explain it by saying the merchant doubled billed or some other ridiculous excuse.


The "Double Hold Bank Scam.

This is where a bank like Wachovia will change the date of your actual debit card purchase when they pay the charge to reflect a day or two after the actual date it was charged. This creates a temporary double hold on the available funds, which does not appear on the account but it reduces the available funds behind the scene not visible to the client.

When the bank posts the payment(s), they change the initial charge date to the double hold date. However, the account summary still reflects a balance and date of when the initial hold was applied. Since the client only sees the initial hold on the account summary, they are not the wiser.

After the double hold is applied on a specific date after the initial charge date, any additional debit card charges or checks posted on that specific double hold date may take the account into overdraft and overdraft fees are applied. When the bank makes the payment, the double hold is removed and the initial charge date is changed on the posted payment to the double hold date (The new hold date is then recorded on the right hand side of the payment).

If a client calls the bank to inquire about the overdraft charges, they are told that when charges came in on the double hold date (new charge date), there was not enough available balance to pay the charge. Therefore, they were overdrawn and thus the overdraft fees. If the client asks why the initial charge date was changed to the double hold date, they are told that the merchant double billed on that new date. However, there is no record of the double billing and the account summary still displays the initial charge date and balance.

The following example will demonstrate how the Double Hold Banking Scam can take a $100 bank balance and only $90 in charges and transfer it into a negative -$25 bank balance when the actual balance should be $10.

The Double Hold Bank Scam Example:

Starting Available Balance: $100
Charge#1 $60
Charge#2 $30

4/18/07 Initial hold of $60 - This is noted in the debit card hold section and the account summary reflects a
Posted Balance of $100 and an Available Balance of $40

4/18/07 Available balance $40

4/19/07 Double hold $60 - This is NOT noted anywhere on the client's account and the posted balance and
available balance remain the same. At this time, there is an actual hold behind the
scene of $120 NOT $60.

4/19/07 Available balance $40

4/20/07 Initial hold $30 - The account is taken into overdraft yet this is NOT recorded on the account at this time. Nothing looks out of the ordinary.


4/20/07 Available balance $10

4/24/07 Posted payment $60 (4/19/07) The date of the initial charge is changed to 4/19/07; but the account summary still reflects an available balance of $40 on 4/18/07.
If the client questions the changed charge date, they are told that the merchant double billed. Yet the account has no record and double billing and the account summary still displays a date and balance of when the initial charge was applied ($40 on 4/18/07).

In addition, the debit card hold section is deleted and there is no available record.


4/24/07 Posted payment $30 The bank pays this and charges an overdraft fee of $35.
If a client calls to inquire why they were charged an overdraft fee when they had enough money to cover the charges, they are told that on 4/20/07 when the charge of $30 came in, they had charges that were on hold that reduced their available balance to a level that took them into overdraft. When the client asks which charges too him over, the bank shows him the $60 fee that now has the new charge date of 4/19/07. When the client complains that there was enough to cover the charges and he claims that he made the charge on 4/19/07, the bank tries to give him some excuse like the merchant doubled billed, or they start blaming him for not keeping good records, etc, etc.

4/24/07 Available balance (-$25)


* This is how the scam works to generate bank fees. This is a simple example. If you have some problem understanding it, add 10, 20 or 30+ transactions and the holds to it and see how complicated it gets to an average novice. It's ingenious and extremely hard to detect in the middle of multiple transactions.

Since the bank does remove the temporary double hold and makes a single payment on the charge, the books even out. No client is the wiser and it would be extremely difficult to detect by any novice.

You can test this out for yourself. Get anyone with a Wachovia Bank Account and watch their accounts. It's best to use an account with lots of movement. I suggest you take computer snap shots of the "debit card hold" section because they delete them. When the bank posts the payments, compare the dates of the debit card holds you took snaps shots of to the date the bank notes they were initially charged. What you will notice is that Wachovia is changing the initial charge dates when they pay the charge. If you study it more carefully, you will see that they are temporarily double holding to take the account into overdraft.

This bank scam reminds me of the old scam cashiers play on people even today. You would give them $20 for something you purchased. They would ring it up for $10 and put the $20 in the cash register. Then they would give you change on the $10. Later, during their shift or when they close the cash register out, they would pocket the extra $10.

Since they only rung up a $10 sale on the cash register, the cash register ribbon that records the sale even out with the cash in the register (They keep a tally of the amount they took from people in their head or write it down somewhere. It can amount to hundreds of dollars per day). If a customer notices that they just got ripped off, the cashier or the store owner goes through the cash register's ribbon and looks at the charges. Since only $10 was entered, they can't see it from the ribbon.

However, if the cashier did not pocket it yet and the cash in the register is checked with the ribbon, it is uncovered. The cashier apologizes for the mistake and there is no proof of intent and there is no possession. They are simply looked at as bad cashiers and they are free to do it again and again, etc.

Hi. I have a recently had a similar problem with Wachovia.

They claim that I had a negative balance when I was showing a positive balance.

I just got slammed with $105.00 worth of overdraft fees for what looks like one charge on my account. They did the exact same thing a couple of weeks ago. And when you try to talk to them about it, they just say that they are showing something different than what you have. In other words, they have no real explanation.

Something isn't right with Wachovia and I plan on going to the BBB about this.

Hello Audra, Was your transfer done online, over the phone, or at an atm. If it was done at an atm then you would have had to have made the transfer by 4pm otherwise if you did it by phone or online you would have had to do it by 8pm. Any transfers after that time will show at the top available bal, but in the transactions will have the next business days date. Bank cutoff times are one of the many things disclosed in the banks Depositors agreement ( which agreeably no one reads). If the transfer was done after the cutoff time its not available for that evenings processing ( or any items posting that night). If you did make the cutoff and the bank neglected to transfer the funds then you certainly have a case. Best of luck to you. I would act quickly as you usually have 60 days to dispute a transaction.