Compass Bank Charges fees on accounts you think you closed Austin Texas

My wife and I opened an account 12 months ago to act as the joint account we used to plan our wedding. When we opened the account, the sales manager told us that we should be very careful not to incur any fees, because their staff would be very unhelpful if we ever tried to get them removed. He was right, we should have listened, and I'd like as many people as possible to know this before opening an account with them.

The problem started right after our Wedding Day, 11/8/2008. Things were hectic, so we accidentally let your account bounce. Totally our fault, we had a $290.50 negative balance. So I went in to the Guadalupe and 6th Street branch to close the account. I was told that a payment of $290.50 was all that was required to zero out the account and that it would be closed.

What I did not know, but what the teller DID know, was that there was a pending transaction on the account at that time. So I paid $290.50 to close the account, but it turns out the account could not be closed because of that pending transaction. The next day, that pending transaction hit, of course, which put the account negative. In fairness to Compass, an outstanding check we thought had been ripped up also hit the account 3 days later.

So, we were charged two $38.00 NSF fees. I have no problem paying the one associated with the check, but the one from the pending transaction they didn't tell us about is pretty egregious. But that's not all. They continued to charge us insufficient funds fees of approximately $6.50 per day for the next 30 days, on an account we tried to close. Add it all up, $277 in insufficient funds charges on an account we thought we closed.

I called customer service, which was effectively useless. They gave us a $78 courtesy credit. Leaving $199 in fees. Any other refunds of fees would have to come through my local branch. I went to the local branch on 6th and Guadalupe (near where I work), but they told me they couldn't do anything and I would have to call the specific branch where I opened the account (ok, that doesn't make any sense at all).

I called the Parmer and Mopac branch where I spoke to the branch manager. I explained that we tried to close the account, we have no problem paying the insufficient funds charges, but we don't think it's fair to pay the ongoing fees for an account we tried to close. She condescendingly explained that she would have kept track of the outstanding transaction and made sure all outstanding transactions had cleared when we tried to close the account. I said there was no way to know how much of the negative balance was due to fees and how much was due to transactions that had cleared. Because Compass's website is always one day late and not a real-time system, there is literally no way to know what has cleared, except for.... I guess you could talk to the teller!!! The teller didn't tell us.

"There's still the matter of the check that came in". I said "Ok, let's just pretend the check didn't happen, there is still the issue of a pending transaction the teller didn't tell us about when we were trying to close the account." The customer service rep on the phone even said that it was their mistake if the teller didn't tell me about that pending transaction. "I can't pretend that check didn't happen. It did happen." "I understand, but let's just say the check didn't come in, there's still the issue of the teller not telling me about the pending transaction." "Sir, I can't pretend the check didn't happen, it did happen."

At that point I began losing my temper. I began yelling that this was ridiculous and she responded "I don't see how yelling will help anything." Finally I asked if any additional fees had been placed on the account since my first contact with them over the issue on 12/20/2008? (Why didn't I contact them before this you ask? For starters, my online account was locked because attempts to reset the password failed because they didn't keep online access to my account open, second they were sending so many communications via mail and none of them clear that it wasn't until then that I understood that these were new charges not related to the previous NSF fees we'd already paid off). She responded that they only charge those fees for the first 30 days after the first NSF charge. "How nice of you!" I responded. "I don't appreciate your tone and I'm going to disconnect the phone."

That's where it stands now. I still have no problem paying $78 in fees for the two late transactions plus the amounts of the transactions themselves. But I will not pay ongoing negative balance fees on an account I would have closed but for the incompetence of their teller staff.

Mike
Austin, Texas
U.S.A.