Woodforest National Bank Committed fraud and got a big fine Keller, Texas

Madam, with all due respect, banks are not Non Profit Corporations. I hear things all the time like "They stole my money." Or, "they had no reason to bounce my check since I've been a long time customer."

Sometimes, people hear what they want to hear. Which is why banks explain their disclosures to customers on the spot. And then after they explain them, they give you the disclosures to take home with you, in case you need further clarification. Stating that Woodforest told you they had "Free Overdrafts" is one of those things you may have chose to hear the way you wanted to hear it.

The truth is, Woodforest Bank has a free Privilege pay program, that if you never use, you never pay for it. However, if you use it, you will be charged. Privilege pay gives you a limit that Woodforest will allow you to overdraw your account. When you opened your account, you either initialed the paper to opt in for Privilege pay, or opt out. However, it sounds like you may have opted in.

So what is privilege pay? If you miscalculate in your check book, and miss by a few dollars, Woodforest will pay the check for you WITH a $34 non suficient fund fee. By doing that, they actually helped you out. How? Well, there's 2 options when you bounce a check:

1) Woodforest can return your check, and charge you the $34 anyways for NSF. That will cause embarrasment to the person you wrote the check to, and cause a fee from the other bank where the check was deposited in.  
OR
2) Pay your check, charge you the $34 (which you would have been charged either way), and save you the embarrasment of bouncing the check, and save you a fee from the other bank.
As far as charging you another $34 because of the first $34 fee, that is not true. Something must have tried to post to your account while you were negative, and charged you another $34. Banks don't do stuff like that. That would be the easiest way for a bank to be shut down.
I hope my explanation helped a little.

Woodforest National Bank is dedicated to providing quality customer service and we would appreciate the opportunity to speak directly with you.  Please contact our Customer Care department toll free at 1-888-224-0132 or email your contact information to customerservice@woodforest.com.