Wells Fargo All accounts through Wells Fargo Flagstaff, Arizona

1. Account balance fee listed on Schedule of fees and services

2. Excessive transaction fee listed on Schedule of fees and services

3. "Federally protected bank" not sure what you mean by protected. Yes your account is covered by FDIC but the bank itself is not "protected".

4. A savings account/credit card/line of credit can provide overdraft protection to one checking account. When the second account was set up, if you had OD protection established then your first account would no longer have protection.

5. Switching the account auto-pays come from is your responsibility not the bank's. You need a CPA if you don't want to do this yourself.

6. Every bank that I know of charges non-bank ATM fees. The bank that owns the ATM will charge you and then your bank will charge you. Try to use an ATM from your bank or make a purchase with your debit card and get cash back.

7. If a person exceeds the allowed transactions on 3 statements in a rolling 12 month period the savings account will be closed. If they have a checking account the money will be placed in the checking account and the savings closed. If they have no checking account (when I left the company, possibly changed by now) the bank would open a checking account (used to be a free account but no such thing now) then transfer the money, close savings and send new account info to the customer.

...I still remain firm in my statement...

The bank is NOT mandated to charge a penalty for this...

And that the reason so many customers do NOT find out about the fees for this..is because either A), it was NOT properly disclosed when they originally opened the account...or B) it is buried in the fine print.

Or maybe the bank defenders are correct...the banks do not want to find any ways to exploit regulations or their customer mistakes...so they make this very apparent and the customers who get this fee are simply stupid and irresponsible..yeah...that must be it. The banks would NEVER take advantage of a loyal customer now..would they?

Ronny you are correct that there is no part that specifically states a bank MUST charge a fee for excessive withdraws.  However, along the same lines, can you show me the regulation that says a bank MUST charge a monthly maintenance fee on a checking account?  My guess is you can't.  So are you saying that you feel unless a fee is specifically identified in a regulation it is a RipOff?

As much as anyone wants to spin it there really is no difference between those two fees because they are BOTH disclosed and not specifically excluded.  It is also not in "a zillion" pages of fine print. 

But if someone finds this Excessive Withdraw fee a "RipOff" why don't they take the same action they do when they don't want to pay the monthly maintenance fee?  That is either find out what they can do to avoid the fee or find a bank that does not charge the fee?

The OP and others are stuck on the FEE being assessed without looking at the reason behind it. Because even if you find a bank that does not charge a fee, you are still going to be subject to actions based on the requirements of the Fed Regulation D eventually.

Part of Regulation D

4 In order to ensure that no more than the permitted number of withdrawals or transfers are made, for an account to come within the definition of savings deposit, a depository institution must either: (a) Prevent withdrawals or transfers of funds from this account that are in excess of the limits established by paragraph ....(b)...For customers who continue to violate those limits after they have been contacted by the depository institution, the depository institution must either close the account and place the funds in another account that the depositor is eligible to maintain or take away the transfer and draft capacities of the account.

http://ecfr.gpoaccess.gov/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=ecfr&sid=21ca1decaa2de7d37a271b126192ad6d&rgn=div8&view=text&node=12:2.0.1.1.5.0.2.2&idno=12

-----------------------------------------------

Now, the way I read that is that if the person has another account at that bank that is "eligible" the bank has the option to transfer the funds to that account, but it does not appear that they can just "convert" it to a new checking account. So I am sure that the OP will not be very happy if one day they find the account closed or all of the funds "moved" to a different account. Another option is to have their ability to withdraw funds removed. Just how would this person feel when they had an ACH coming out of their account and the bank rejects it?

"I call shenanigans with that claim. Where does it state anywhere in any regulation that the bank is "mandated" to "charge" penalties for this?

You won't find it..I checked."

  That's correct.  The regulation specifies that the bank itself is charged penalties if activity for savings accounts is not controlled.  Every bank I've ever dealt with has used penalties to enforce Fed requirements.

"What the bank can do is close the account, or convert the savings account to a checking account. But NOWHERE do the Feds mandate the banks have to charge the customer a penalty. This is something the banks CHOOSE to do on their own. "

  Easier said than done.  Simply converting a savings account to a checking account opens up a huge can of regulatory worms.  Suffice it to say that this is not something the bank can do unilaterally.  The other option is closing the account, which seems a bit drastic for exceeding withdrawl limits.   I would imagine that implementing such a practice would generate just as many complaints as the $10 penalty.  Customers would find that their savings account simply disappeared and that a check was in the mail. 

"Surprise..exploiting a regulation for the purpose of profiting off the customers mistakes or failure to read or understand a zillion pages of legal fine print. Seen that once or 3000 times. "

 A zillion pages of fine print??   Come on, Ronny!  This is usually on the first page of any savings account terms.  Even a cursory review of the account terms should make the withdrawl limits perfectly clear.

by simply typing in 453956 and that will take you to it.

Write this up as a report and post it on this government watch-dog agency:

http://www.ftc.gov/reports/index.shtm

Flynrider is 100% correct.

I agree 100% with everything he stated..that is until this statement and I quote..

"...the feds actually mandate that the bank charge penalties for excessive withdrawls on savings accounts..."

I call shenanigans with that claim. Where does it state anywhere in any regulation that the bank is "mandated" to "charge" penalties for this?

You won't find it..I checked.

What the bank can do is close the account, or convert the savings account to a checking account. But NOWHERE do the Feds mandate the banks have to charge the customer a penalty. This is something the banks CHOOSE to do on their own.

Surprise..exploiting a regulation for the purpose of profiting off the customers mistakes or failure to read or understand a zillion pages of legal fine print. Seen that once or 3000 times.

  Savings accounts that pay a higher yield than regular savings accounts usually have a minimum balance requirement.  Otherwise, everyone would want the higher interest rate on their account.   You really need to read up on the account Terms of Service and know this stuff.  If you don't know the terms, you're going to get hosed with fees and penalties.   The account terms are available online or at the branch.  

"ALSO, if you make more than 5 transaction, you get socked with a $10 per transaction fee."

  This is also in the account disclosure information.  

"I cannot believe a federally proteced bank geta away with this kind of activity."

  Then it would probably surprise you to find out that the feds actually mandate that the bank charge penalties for excessive withdrawls on savings accounts.  Not just Wells Fargo, but all banks do this on savings accounts.  It's what differentiates a savings account from a checking account.