Once BB&T took over Republic bank, we got our new cards, and our new statements and terms, and conditions. Things seemed to be going fine with the transition. Then out of the clear blue our statements stopped coming to the house. When I called the bank to find out why we weren't getting them, I was informed the postal service was returning the mail, due to incomplete address.
For weeks I fought with postal service to find out why we weren't getting our mail, but they saw no problem on their end and said the address must be wrong, because they saw no other reasons for them to return mail. I called the bank again, now getting $5 fees apparently for my statements being sent back to them.
I confirmed the address on the account, repeatedly and
was told everything seemed fine, my statements should appear on time the following month.
Yet again same problem. Again I called the bank, first
I called the 24hr line, then I called the branch. Again I was assured the address was matching what I was telling them, and I should get my statement the following month.
This apparently didn't resolve the issue, as I managed to continue getting $5 charges, eventually totaling $19.20. My husband and I had a bad week, and were only able to keep $4.20 in our account, knowing we had a direct deposit going in on Friday which at the time was only 3 days away. We've gotten direct deposit the entire time we'd had the account, so we had no worries at the time.
Fast forward to April 18th. Another return statement, this time because we only had $4.20 in the account, that's what they charged us, for getting our statements back. Regardless of my countless phone calls confirming the address, regardless of that's all we had in the account, they took that money, leaving us with a zero balance and closing our account.
For reasons I still don't understand, When our direct deposit was sent to be deposited into our account, it was rejected and we were told they would most likely return the money to the company because we no longer had an account with BB&T since we were carrying a zero balance for 3 days.
I do not remember in the terms it stating that they will close our account if we have a zero balance for 3 days. And that any deposits made would be rejected. Apparently I missed that when I read the terms, I assumed no minimum balance was just that. I could understand if we had gone a month with a zero balance, but 3 days?
Anyways, I call the 24hr line again, cuz obviously now we have no money for the week. The 24hr line tells me to call the branch. The problem with that is that it's now Friday evening, the branch is closed and not available for saturday work. Now we have no food, and no money for food. We have no choice but to wait till the branch is open.
I call the 24hr line and a branch 2hrs away, in orlando, that is actually open on saturday. Still chasing down money that should have been in our account on friday. However, nobody seems to know where the money is. The 24hr line says the account is closed, the branch in Orlando says it's open, but there is still NO deposit in the account. No choice but to wait till monday,
in the meantime our family isn't eating this entire weekend, thanks to the bank.
See if the $4.20 wasn't taken from our account to begin with, for the return mail that I called repeatedly to confirm it's correctness, then our account wouldn't have appeared at a zero balance, and the deposit would have gone in as it always does every friday, and we'd all be happy campers. However, the story doesn't end there.
Monday rolls around, the company who makes the direct deposit has not gotten the money back. Meaning the bank has it, still. Regardless of our countless phone calls, and our family without food for 3 days we find out the bank had the money the whole time, just didn't give us access to it, because they closed our acct.
As for the statement problem. Apparently because it's a
joint account, but I'm not the primary, they were changing the address on my side of the account, but not my husband's side of the account. Therefore, my countless phone calls months prior, were apparently for no reason. Never once did my branch say to me "Your husband needs to add the apartment number to your address so you can get your statements." All the assurance they kept giving me that the address was fine, never once did anyone suggest or explain that just because my address was correct his wasn't.
We're married with a joint account, why is there 2 sides to the account? Why didn't someone say "your word isn't good enough we need your husbands word" No, instead they continued to charge us for return mail, causing this entire mess, and again leaving our family with no food for 3 days.
Ahh but it doesn't end there... I spoke to a representative at the branch.
She insisted that they will always close an account that reaches a zero balance. Regardless of how long it's at a zero balance, the account is closed. And she states, and I quote "If you had kept a dollar in the account you wouldn't have this problem"... No. If someone had made the correct address and stopped
charging us $5 every month. And didn't take out the $4.20 we DID have in the account for yet another returned statement. We wouldn't be in the mess. She proceeded to laugh. And I don't mean chuckle I mean a good hard laugh, at what I was saying.
She said there was nothing she could do till tuesday. Leaving us on day 4 of no food, no money to pay our water bill, and she refused to credit the account for the address problem, even though it was their fault it wasn't corrected.
I would have been more than happy to hand the phone to my husband if anyone there had asked to speak to him to simply add the apartment number to our address, which
obviously is what was missing, since they were getting our statements saying so. If anyone there had made even a subtle hint that my calling every month to add the apartment number, was not goning to correct the problem, I would have put him on the phone.
Apparently a supervisor at the 2hr center felt the same way I did since she was eventually able to credit our account accordingly so that our family could finally have food and water. However, because she was going above and beyond her call of duty, and our branch wasn't doing anything. We still didn't
see a dime until almost 4pm Monday afternoon.
Ahhh. But the story doesn't end there...
The $19.20 for the return mail, the branch said they couldn't credit the account unless we went into the branch. Well how do we afford to make direct deposits if we're taking an entire day off of work to correct again, what the bank screwed up?
Well guess what, the 24hr supervisor, called the branch to give them instructions on how to credit the account. However, the branch refused to do so. Leaving the 24hr supervisor holding the bag and having to call managers in other places, to get the credit adjusted correctly. If that's not bad enough, when I tried to file a complaint I was told they spoke to the branch and they feel the problem was handled. At the time it wasn't handled, as we still didn't have money that the bank had in their possession that had arrived on time to be available to us on friday, yet, we never had access to it till late monday.
In the mean time, 3 charges have been denied, causing
fees that I have to pay to other companies. Because the bank didn't want to accept my direct deposit on friday, regardless of us meeting the required time frame to have that money available to us.
0 comments