My checking account with Chase Bank was a Joint Account prior to my divorce in 2005. My former husband had very irresponsible spending habits that resulted in frequent overdrafts on the Joint and Business Checking Accounts. It was not uncommon for the resulting NSF Fees to total several hundred dollars in one month. He would call the bank and the NSF Fees would be reversed.
We divorced and our Joint Account became my individual account with overdrafts becoming a rare occurance. Overdrafts on my former husband's individual and business checking accounts continued to be a routine occurance as were the NSF Fee reversals.
I had legal custody of a teenage girl from age 15 to 18. She moved out shortly after her 18th birthday but moved back several months later. Shortly after returning to my home, she took my Debit Card and began using it without my knowledge or consent. I found out about her shopping spree when the NSF Notices began arriving in the mail 10 days later.By that time, my account was $1600.00 overdrawn, including about $800.00 in NSF Fees.
I accepted my responsibility in the matter... I had given her my pin and allowed her occasional use of my debit card for years. However, the bank had some accountabililty, too. I did not have overdraft protection, the frantic spending was atypical for the account as was the huge overdraft.
I asked the bank to refund the NSF Fees. They not only declined my request but claimed they never refunded NSF Fees because company policy did not allow it. After disproving that lie using my own past account statments, the embarrassed branch manager still refused my request.
I would like to know how the bank decides which customers are deserving of services like NSF Fee reversals and which are not? From my experience, it appears there are two possibilities:
1. Irresponsible account holders with frequent overdrafts deserve the service but responsible account holders who make a mistake do not.
OR
2. Joint accounts that include a male and individual accounts held by men get the service and individual accounts held by women do not deserve the service.
Chase employees would not comment on this matter except to deny any discrimination, including gender bias.
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