In early November my 11 year old daughter, Breanna, made a $40 deposit to her previously empty Young Savers account at the Compass Bank branch in Tempe, Arizona. She told us she wanted to start saving now for a used car when she is 16. This $40 was the balance of $100 that she'd earned as a reward for getting straight A's on her report card. She spent the other $60 on Christmas gifts for her family and her pets, shes a sweet and thoughtful child.
The November month-end statement arrived and showed that she was charged a $5 fee. This happened with her December 06, January '07 and her February '07 statements as well. I finally got a free moment and called Compass Bank customer service to be told that the fees were dormant charges that were accidentally being charged in the system since and that he account was indeed active (since she'd just made a deposit in November) and that I just needed to go into the nearest branch to get them reversed. At the time I made this call we were in the process of moving so, being very busy, I put the branch visit on my TO DO list and I finally made that trip into the branch yesterday, March 14, with my daughter and my infant son in tow.
In the branch I met with Financial Sales Employee, Tom Hayden, who looked up her account in the system and made a call to another Compass Bank employee to figure out what was going on with her account. He got off the phone and told me that he was sorry but that there was nothing that he could do to reverse these fees. I asked why she was even charged dormant fees when she'd just made a deposit in November and he said that the employee he'd spoken with told him that her account was considered dormant because she hadn't made any withdrawals from her account in a two year period. (??) I explained to him that this policy didn't make any sense since it is a child's Young Savers Account' and traditionally, you are supposed to make more deposits to your child's savings account, than withdrawals. Additionally, I pointed out that making a deposit should have made her account active at any other bank in the World.
I then told him that I wanted a copy of this dormant account policy which (allegedly) requires a withdrawal every two years. He got very irritated with this request and said that it would take him a long time to find that policy, and I said that was okay, and that I had the time to spare... Begrudgingly he looked up the account terms and conditions and was nervously reading through it trying to find any mention of this policy when he gave up trying to find it on his own and made yet another call to another Compass employee for assistance. After getting off the phone for the second time he showed me the Dormant And Abandoned/Unclaimed Accounts' policy in the Consumer Deposit Account Agreement' and the service charges and fees break-down on the backside of the Truth-In-Savings Disclosure for Interest Earning Consumer Accounts' sheet, which showed a $5 monthly dormant account fee. Nowhere in these two documents is any two year clause mentioned, nowhere. I asked him how this two year policy was determined and by whom, and he got defensive and said he didn't know how it was determined and it wasn't his decision.
I then told him that I was very unhappy about this so-called policy that penalizes a child for not taking money out of their savings account and that it had effectively reduced my young daughter's savings by half, but only AFTER she'd activated' her account by making a deposit to it. (Are we wrong in believing that making a deposit makes an account's status active, by default, at any legitimate bank?)
I then told him she wanted the balance of the account (a measly $20) and to close the account. He left to get her $20 and returned. He said the account was now closed and had me sign a withdrawal slip. He then sat and glared at us in stony silence as I collected my daughter and my infant son and we left. No apology, no goodbye, nothing but a glare at us having the utter audacity to ask Compass Bank to explain their indefensible, and bizarre, fees and policies.
My poor daughter now thinks that this is what banks do, they unfairly take your money and glare at you when you require an explanation and/or documentation. I am at a loss for words to explain this to her and at this point Compass Bank cant make up for this by sending my daughter her stolen $20 and a flimsy apology, not worth the paper its written on...
I'm on a mission to let as many people as possible know what they've done and how they conduct themselves in their business dealing with children. Just shameful
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