Sovereign Bank took over a savings & loan with which I'd originally had an account. There hadn't been any overdraft protection, and I didn't want any because my finances were in danger, and I didn't want to have credit issues to add to my woes.
Someone printed checks with my checking account number. It had a different name and address. I went to the closest branch and reported it. They told me to go to the police. I did. They told me they didn't have jurisdiction over these kind of issues. I told the bank, and they told me they'd take care of it.
It took them over six weeks to restore my money. I had to get a different account. When they set up the account, the lady at Sovereign asked me if I wanted overdraft protection. I told her, "NO." As best I understood it, I didn't have that protection. They never told me anything to the contrary.
A year or two later, I moved to a state that Sovereign doesn't serve. I had some automatic payments being deducted from the account. What I thought I'd do is let the automatic payments continue until I ran out of money, and take the balance for myself. Once I received notice from the institution I sent the automatic payments to, that they were unable to continue because they could no longer withdraw from the account, I would retrieve my remaining balance, and continue those payments from an account I'd establish in my new location.
Two or three months later, I got a note from Sovereign saying that the interest and late fees on the overdraft were mounting up, and that I'd be charged $5/day until I paid them.
They refused to explain to me how it was that they were covering my overdraft in the first place. Of course they might have made it simple by simply saying that.instead they had me call a specific number and ask for a specific person who was unavailable and didn't return my calls. Eventually, I got that person, and they told me there was nothing they could do about it.
I then had to call the original 800 phone number, and they shut off those ridiculous fees. Remember I'm being charged fees for being late in paying for a service that they imposed upon me against my direction without my consent and without my knowledge.
I don't even know if I legally owe them anything, but I certainly owe them no interest and no fees of any kind. Sadly, I'm having difficulty finding work so I cannot pay them anything at the moment. These guys made a bad situation even worse, and I did what I could to prevent it in the first place.
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