We signed up with WAMU in April of this year. We thought they were a good company. So, we deposited 2 ESCROW checks (just like a cashier check) worth a toal of $7000. Approx. One week later, we left for vacation and we mailed out the checks for our mortgage and car payment before leaving. NOTE * WAMU's agent did say that they would place a hold on our funds, but she did not specify the time frame, only saying "long enough to verify good funds".
Okay, so we come home to our mortgage payment checks being rejceted twice ($92 in fees) AND late fees from our mortgage company of approx. $400 since the checks bounced! PLUS our car payment bounced (another $23 to WAMU, plus $129 in fess to the car company!). Now, there were letters from WAMU stating that we had "insufficient funds" in our mailbox. Two days later (mind you, this is 11 days after opening the account), we receive a letter from WAMU saying that they held our funds for 7 business days... This letter was dated two days AFTER all of the overdrafts! Okay, so we were mad about that, but we thought, "maybe we messed up".
My husband and I are both in real estate and the market here has slowed down, but we stil make a considerable income. With the slowdown, we are VERY tight on our budget, so we are careful not to spend too much. Just from doing business with WAMU, we have lost one of our vehicles due to a repossession (WAMU bounced 4 checks to the car company, 4 months in a row and we did not find out until month 3 and the late fees bad check fees to the car company were so extensive we could not recover with our tight budget).
This is not us floating checks, this is what they do to us; they hold our money EVEN AFTER THE FUNDS HAVE BEEN TRANSFERRED TO THEM FROM THE OTHER BANK, then they bounce everything until we have no money left!
Just in the last 4 days, I have lost $300 in overdraft fees and am now $1087 NEGATIVE! I deposited a check 10 days ago and I even verified with the other person's bank last week (before I started to spend anything) that the chack was paid and cleared! See, what is funny is they pay items when they are holding your funds, but charge you overdraft fees... But if they aren't holding your money, they will BOUNCE a $1 item and charge you $23.
I am not irresponsible with my money at all. WAMU bounced 4 of our mortgage payments, also. We are now in pre-foreclosure and had to rent our house out, cover $2000 in negative rent (and not even get to live in our home), and sell our belongings to keep from losing our home.
We were already on a tight budget and then they compound it by sucking up nearly $800 in fees plus cause a chain reaction in fees by the companies we made checks to. Then, once we lose all of the money in late fees and bounced check fees, we don't have enough money left to make the payments that bounced anymore! So we lose our money and our credit score and credibility goes down! It's a chain effect!
i bank online. I always check my balence before i spend! They still bounce everything!!!
I CANNOT EVEN TELL YOU HOW MUCH PAIN THEY HAVE CAUSED US, IT TAKES EVERYTHING IN ME NOT TO GO IN THERE AND YELL AT THEM, BUT I KNOW IT WILL GET ME NOWHERE. We have another account, but WAMU is our corporation's account and we want to change that account, but it is hard because they are our merchant account recipient, also. Not to mention it is always negative and we are always putting money in to the WAMU pit. And you cannot close a negative account. HMMM...
I am more than willing to join any class action suit against them. Right now, in any given month, we have approx. $1000 left for food, gas, etc. WAMU eats all of that money up by bouncing all of our checks and causing fees.
At least once every 2 weeks, I have a breakdown and just cry in anger over what they have done to us. We have had our other account for 4 years and have NEVER had this problem, so please don't say that we need to do better at watching our account, etc.
If they are holding a check and the money comes to them before 7 business days, they need to release the funds to pay what is coming in... Come on!!! Why would they purposefully hold money once the check is cleared, and then bounce everything that comes in? Why and how can they do that to hard working people? They don't ever say they are holding a particular check, they just do! Even cash deposits at the atm! It may be legal, but it is highly immoral and unethical.
They don't even know how they have destroyed us! Our credit is now ruined because when they bounce those checks, on top of the fees from WAMU and fees from the creditor whose check they bounce, by the time the company finds out, we already have a late on our credit. We had 0 lates on our credit before WAMU. Now every line of credit we have is riddled with 30 day lates... From bounced checks!!!
we even tried taking our money that is deposited into wamu and writing a check to our other acct, then spend from there... THEY COUNCED THAT CHECK, EVEN WHEN THERE WAS MONEY IN THERE AND WE CHECKED ON LINE TO MAKE SURE!!! Our other bank almost pressed fraus against us becasue it was our corporate account (bearing our name) and trhey thought we did it purposefully to "FLOAT" a check! We had no idea until we became $2300 negative in our other account (our other bank doesn't hold funds becasue we are good customers)!! When I asked the rep why WAMU BOUNCED the check, they just talked me around in cirles, no real explanation, sayign they were holding those funds, even though they showed as available on-line before we wrote & deposited the check into our other bank account!!!
By the way, I am contacting an attorney. I am so furious. I am now sitting in my home, trying to figure out where we wil move, because we have to be out of our home in 1 week to accomodate the tenants, and thinking about how WAMU has really taken a situation that was a struggle (less income) and mad eit our worst nightmare.
WAMU has and continues to completely destroyed everything we have worked so hard to build and preserve. I am not perfect, and I know that it is best to keep extra in your account, etc, etc. We make mistakes, but if you look at our statements and our deposit receipts, you will see that WAMU is purposefully taking advantage of people like us that are already struggling and stretched thin, already struggling, then they kick you when you are down for their own gain.
Say what you want about me, but I have never got myself into such a pickle as when I signed up with that crooked bank. WAMU cares for none of its customers and if you are on a tight budget; BEWARE!
Dante
San Marcos, California
U.S.A.
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