Last week, my mother was hospitalized. She's 75 and has been suffering from COPD and heart trouble most of this year. We've consolidated our accounts at BB&T to make them easier to manage.
My paycheck is directly deposited into this account, so things are normally okay; however, last week, I had to stay with my mom at the hospital and had no access to the Internet to keep up with my running account balance, and my paycheck was shorted by $200. Since I've had to take FMLA leave to help mom this year, there was no margin for error and around ten checks, all of which were of the 5-10 dollar variety, were paid in overdraft.
The problem with that was that on Friday, I finally had a chance to look at my account balance. At that time, it was $142.62 but had an available balance of -76.08. I IMMEDIATELY called BB&T Phone 24 and made the represenatative aware of the situation and that I needed her help to avoid being punished to death with overdraft fees and that I would even borrow money from a family member if needed to avoid these.
She said "If there ever has been a case for reversing charges due to extenuating circumstances, this is it. You'll have no problem at all. Just call a local rep on Monday."
I did, but by Monday, this account was showing overdrawn by $404 and it still is. What happened was that my paycheck went into the bank but these charges were processed first, resulting in a $360.00 overdraft fee, which, when added to another $280 overdraft fee to go along with it, not only wiped out my paycheck but sent the account into the red and us with no way to buy groceries, pay bills or anything else.
I faxed an urgent plea to a CSR at the bank who we've known for years, but there was absolutely no response. This bank should be ASHAMED of leaving good customers like us out in the cold.
I wish this bank had never come to South Carolina.
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