About 10 days ago I received a life insurance check for roughly one hundred thousand dollars. My father passed away recently, and it took about six weeks to get the check in the mail. The afternoon I took my check to Wachovia, they said I would not be able to access the funds for at last two weeks (14 days). Their teller said this was because the check was drawn on a bank in Ohio (Chase Bank One). Upon depositing the check, however, my receipt told me the funds were being witheld because I had overdrawn my account within the last six months.
I have been a customer at this branch for six years now (formerly SouthTrust bank) which was recently taken over by Wachovia. I am not stupid - I know that Bank One is one of the largest banking institutions in America and it does not take 14 days for a regional branch to clear a check with them. My mother received her check on the same day and took it to another bank (Alarion, a small regional bank). Her check cleared Bank One within three days and the funds were immediately made available to her.
So, assuming that Wachovia is at least as efficent as some small regional banking chain, they had my money roughly 7 days ago and have been collecting interest on it ever since. Wachovia, however, has no intention of making these funds available to me for another 4 days.
A few days ago visited the branch and spoke with a manager. I explained that I needed access to at least some of my money - that I had bills to pay and would receive penalties if I don't pay them on time. I told her that I know the bank has my money and don't understand why they were witholding it. She explained that this is standard procedure for any checks a certain dollar amount over the customer's average balance.
I'm sorry, but I'm 27 years old and have never had much money before - why am I being penalized for having more than usual? I have been given three different reasons why they won't give me my money and none of them appear to be true. My perception is they are keeping my money in order to earn interest on it without paying me anything.
Basically I am giving them a short-term loan with no compensation whatsoever.
To their credit, the manager seemed very concerned about my problem and spent at least an hour or two working on it, but in the end she did nothing whatsoever. I asked her to check whether or not the check had cleared and she was unable to do this. According to this manager, the only thing she could do was see if it had been deposited in my account. She apparently tried to call Bank One and find out whether the check was valid - but explained to me that because of phishing scams the bank couldn't give out this information over the phone.
She had the nerve to give me the Bank One phone number - as if me calling them and finding out the check is valid (I already know the check is valid) would solve anything. I asked her to find out whether the check had cleared, not whether it was valid. She could have called her own regional offices to find out whether the check cleared, if that information isn't available at the branch office, but apparently this is not standard procedure.
I do not mean to denigrate the manager at all - she was very nice and seemed to want to help me out - only she didn't seem to have any idea how help me out or power to do so.
I am extremely upset about this - it has cost me money, disrupted my business, and wrecked my 4th of July travel plans. It seems the only reason Wachovia is witholding funds after this much time has passed is because they're earning interest on it, and they apparently do this as a matter of policy.
As soon as I get my money - whenever that is - I already plan to open an account at a different bank and transfer all my money over there. I will also revise this complaint, turn it into a nice letter how and why they lost my business, and send it to everyone I can find an email address for in the corporate chain of command. I would also like to participate in any class action lawsuit brought against Wachovia for same or similar practices.
William
gainesville, Florida
U.S.A.
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