Although I have had relatively reasonable success in obtaining reimbursement of overdraft fees, I have continuously inquired about the method and system Wells Fargo uses in applying those fees. Recently I was charged 3 overdraft fees for each of 3 separate transcations. As those transacations were still pending, I made a deposit to cover the total of the 3 transactions as one of them would have overdrawn my account once posted. However, the the fees were still imposed. I was informed by a CSR that although the transactions and deposit were posted the same day, Washington state law allows for all transactions to be posted prior to deposits and that is the method that Wells Fargo uses.in addition, I was informed that all transactions, per bank policy, are posted (reordered) from highest to lowest.
The problem with this method is that, hypothetically speaking, if you have $100 available in the bank at 7 am and spend $40 at the grocery store, and then $50 at a gas statation at noon and finally $120 at a retail store at 8pm, and then are charged 3 overdraft fees, the bank has essentially retroactively taken your $100 and made it unavailable to you and then gives it back to you after they have used it to acquire 3 fees instead of the one fee you would have legally and rightfully incurred. Had I withdrawn $80 from he atm and then made a $120 purchase, I would have incurred only one fee.
It appears that the bank is applying a non stated policy of retroactively making all of the consumer's money unavailable once the account is overdrawn by a transaction and taking advantage of this by gouging the consumer for fees.
How can I have $100 to spend at 7am and because of their "transaction odering policy" have none to spend at the same time?
This practice is clearly for the purpose of imposing usary fees and must be halted. Essenially, Wells Fargo is saying that ionce a transaction overdraws your account, you lose the right to the prior access you had to all of your money initially. If the consumer choses to overdraw their account, then the fee incurred must be accepted, however, if they chose to use the first $90 of their $100 for whatever purcheses they would like, this should be the case.
This is the argument I have used with them twice and both times I was given back my fees, however, not before enduring the rude and evasive nature of the CSR's, who by the way, have emphatically insisted that there are no paper records to which I can have access to to verify the date and time transactions are being posted to my account. When asked if it were to become necessary to audit the banks practices how can it be done without a paper trail, the CSR informed me that only the processing department could answer that, but that they do not take calls from consumers and that the ordering of the transactions are not wrong because "Washington state laws have made sure that the transactions must be posted before deposits and that Wells Fargo's policy says that transactions will be posted from highest to lowest.
A class action suit must be started to stop this practice.
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