In Sept I left the city of Indianapolis do to a lay-off by one of the major employers there. I had a checking account with 53rd Bank.in approximately Dec I stopped using my checking account and left a Balance of $25.00 in the account. I never used or accessed this account again.
On Oct 16th I received a notification from 53rd bank that my account had been over drawn and the account had been closed with an amount of -$185.36 and had been turnover to collections. I contacted the bank at the 800 number listed on the website. (Their was no phone number on the letter) and I spoke to Eric who indicated that after talking to the branch that an auto debit of $29.00 had been presented in August, and had over drafted the account by approx $4.00 and had accumulated fees of $181.35.
I asked him why this had been turned over to collections and no one had notified me. He said that written correspondence had been returned and the phone had been disconnected. (Yet the bank and the collection agency had a my current and correct address and were able to find me)
I find this practice and the fees to ridiculous. I now risk a negative comment on my credit report and I believe this to be a violation of the Fair Credit and Reporting Act, in addition to what amounts to nothing more than poor business practices and customer service.
It is apparent that this Financial institutions primary goal is to exploit it customers with astronomical fees and strong-arm collections tactics. This incident occurred in August and in less than 60 days has been turned over to a Collection agency (Nationwide Credit, Inc sent me a that I letter received on 17th Oct) and I have not received any correspondence other than the collection notice. I have spoken to them about reducing the fees but was told that since it was turned over to collections I had to pay it.
I strongly urge anyone who is planning on opening a new account to consider any other financial institutions besides 53RD Bank. Their customer service, and business practices are poor at the least and border on extortion at the worst. For a $4.00 overdraft I incurred penalties and fees of 4550%. Wow who needs loan sharks when you have banks that do this!
I am disputing these charges with the credit bureau's, reporting this to the BBB (but don't expect to much) and notifying other government agencies.
Again, if you are looking for a new financial institution, I would strongly urge you to consider anyone (but recommend Credit Unions) than 53rd Bank.
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