Complaint / Review
US Bank
Deposit Holds and Reordered Charges Used to Trigger $30 Fees

US Bank knows who to cheat and charge these fees to. I am guessing they do it to people who make an extreme number of purchases on a daily basis? I know I have been cheated because I check my account online at least 5 times a day, and I call their 1-800 24-hour member service number to confirm my funds and transactions.

Now, I am not well off, but I am able to vacation when time permits. So I am not putting this complaint here because this has just happened to me for the first time. I did not really think much of it before, because what is $30? Well, that could pay for a manicure, and $30 times 10 can buy me a pair of Chanel sunglasses that are on sale. But why give that to a multi-million or billion company when I can use it on myself?

Anyway, this recently came to my attention because I noticed something weird with my account activity. They will hold the funds you deposited for several days longer than they are supposed to and process your transactions faster than they normally do, so they can charge you their "overdraft" fees. I have seen them make a transaction disappear when I have more than enough funds available, and it reappears when they know you do not have funds to cover your transactions. Straight to the point.

They will switch your transactions around. For example, if you made a purchase a week or so ago, they would make it go through today if they knew you did not have the funds available. I know I might have lost some of you. But I make at least 20 purchases a day, and most (not all) of my purchases are online. Sometimes online purchases are not guaranteed, because items could be "out of stock," which would cause the order to be canceled. Recently US Bank will still charge for these canceled purchases so they can charge you their "fees," even when you call to say the transaction should be canceled and their rep confirms that they will remove that transaction immediately.

Then a few days later it shows up on your account again with their "overdraft" fee! The moral of this is that US Bank knows what they are doing. I just wish that every time I checked my account, I had printed out all the weird activity that was showing there. They can suspend your account without notifying you because of so-called "suspicious activity" when you have more than enough funds in your account. But when you make the same activity and have just enough funds available, and they know it is close to bill-paying dates, they will not suspend your account!

For those of you who feel helpless, my advice is Lieff Cabraser Heimann and Bernstein. Good luck, and switch banks fast!