I have been a customer of Wells Fargo for several years. I am not a sophisticated bank client but an honest one. I have several business clients who regularly use my services and process between $20,000 and $60,000 dollars a year through My Wells Fargo account.
In this day of electronic banking I would think that a check could clear in a matter of seconds, yet even though I have had repeat business with the same clients and they have NEVER given me a bad check, Wells Fargo bases the deposit availability on My current bank balance. At times they will process these checks in a matter of hours and other times it can be up to 10 working days.
Being self employed I rely on the constant rotation of cash through my business yet Wells Fargo's random hold policies have cost me THOUSANDS of dollars in overdraft fees. They charge $30.00 per check regardless of amount of the check and charge twice in a 48 hour period costing me $60.00 per check written. They also will post debits prior to deposits which sets You up for a financial fall. I believe their policies are tantamount to robbery and also fall into wire fraud.
When I first asked them about the delay in releasing deposits I was told it was because I used their ATM. Subsequent to that I would make my deposits at the counter and would be subjected to the very same hold policies.in addition the notification of overdraft would arrive by mail which takes an average of seven days making it impossible to know You are in an overdraft situation until You have of course written several checks each incurring a cumulative $60.00 fee. What happened to the days when a bank would call You and tell You to come in and make a deposit to cover checks?
Another interesting way to create overdraft income for the bank is to allow You to "Quick cash" a $40.00 withdrawal which may or may not show Your balance, and will allow You to make this tranaction even if Your balance is less than $40.00, thus that $40.00 dollar withdrawal makes the bank a tidy and rapid $60.00 profit.
Wells Fargo realized some time ago they could
profit enormously from the delay in mail notification and in processing debits before credits. They also charge higher fees to the most vulnerable of clients which includes students, low income wage earners and the self employed business owner.
If You are a business owner and as pissed off as I am at Wells Fargo, I urge You to write this website, Your Congressman and the banking committee to voice Your displeasure. I am filing a class action lawsuit against these greedy bastards and will watch Your posts on this site as a barometer of interest in this case. I also urge students and those of low income to submit complaints as well to better gauge how far reaching these overdraft practices are.
I would like Wells Fargo to post to this site exactly how much they have earned in the past year on overdraft fees, if they have the balls. If they don't post which I expect them not to, a subpoena will help those figures along.
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