As if gas prices weren't high enough, the icing on our cake is the LACK of protection banks offer to their consumers.
Compass Bank recently "socked it to us", immediately after they allowed my husband's ex employer to WITHDRAW funds from our account. BEWARE! When you sign a release to authorize DIRECT PAYROLL DEPOSIT by your employer, you are also authorizing DIRECT WITHDRAW!
A few weeks ago, my husband switched employers. His previous employer submitted his final payroll check via DIRECT DEPOSIT at 12:01 A.M. On 9/2/05 (Friday of Labor Day Weekend) and then "accidentally" REVERSED the deposit sometime the same morning. Doing our part to be responsible checking account holders, we verified the deposit online that morning (yes the imaginary AVAILABLE BALANCE) and saw no signs of an deficiencies in our account. We proceeded to write out checks to pay our bills and throughout the duration of the extended weekend, we also used our check card to purchase GROCERIES/GOLD, I mean GAS.
Of course, neither the bank nor the ex employer bothered to make us aware of this mistake until $380 worth of NSF charges (all at $36 a piece, for purchases all under that amount a piece,) accumulated in our account. News FINALLY came to us via AUTOMATED voice message on my husband's cell phone the following Tuesday morning. "You are a valued Compass Customer... But we are sending you this automated alert to let you know that your ACCOUNT HAS BEEN SUCKED DRY!"
To add injury to insult, the ex employer won't assume responsibilty and the bank's REGIONAL MANAGER will only graciously refund $180 of our hard earned money... Oh, but our car insurance company now doesn't trust us with checks and will probably leave us uninsured. Not to mention, our grocery budget for the family is greatly impacted.
So eat up Compass Bank. I'm sure you are enjoying the nice meal that we have provided. Explain to me how this is fair.
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