I was on my lunch hour one weekday in Manhattan and walked passed a man who was "protesting, " for lack of a better word, certain policies that his bank was telling him he had to abide by. His goal was to draw attention to that bank's policy, which has resulted in his Checking Account being charged over $3,600.00 in overdraft fees in less than one year. Shocking right? But according to this guy, he's not making this number up. At his request, his bank did the research for him and came up with that dollar value and told him that was indeed how much they had charged his checking account for various overdrafts and insufficient fund fees. Feeling sympathetic to the guy's plight, I asked him if he ever considered Overdraft Protection. He said he has it and it has a balance in it, but this bank has yet another policy that, in certain circumstances prevents his funded overdraft account from covering automatic debits or clearing checks that may post to his account on any given evening.
After talking to this man for a while, I said to myself, he's got to be mistaken and he's just trying to pass the buck for carelessly managing his account and wants sympathy. What bank could charge such outrageous fees and this not be a widely publicized issue concerning the general public. I mean 3,600.00 in overdraft fees in one year, having an overdraft account but not letting the customers use it when they need it. That's absurd, and if this was true why just him. Why were they picking on him? I know my bank would never treat its customers that way. The Management would never blatantly change transaction data by chronologically altering daily transactions which eventually leads to providing false or misleading information on its ATM receipts as this man claims his bank is doing. I walked away feeling sorry for him. Well I hope he gets some assistance and I'm glad I don't bank where he does. I Bank With Chase.
But wait a minute, so did this guy. I do bank at the same bank and I can't believe it. After reviewing my statements for the past 12 months, I was charged over 3,500.00 in overdraft fees. As a matter of fact, I was charged an overdraft fee this week of 35.00 but I still have 106.00 in my overdraft protection. My Overdraft Protection should have covered the transactions. If you have not figured it out yet, I am the man protesting outside of your Bank
Yes everything you read above is true. I've got the documents to prove it. Chase has denied the validity of its own ATM statements that I have in my possession. I've got an ATM receipt reporting a withdrawal of 380.00 leaving positive available balance, Chase later charged me 35.00 for that transaction which, when it actually happened, posted against available funds and I've also got a statement to prove it. Why then would Chase Charge me an insufficient funds fee? As a matter of fact, I was charged 35.00 for a transfer to my ODP account that same day even though I have a receipt indicating that this transferred amount was also posting against available funds and did indeed get credited to my ODP account. What is happening? On this day, I was actually charged 105.00 in NSF fees for three different transactions. When actually initiated, all three of these transactions processed during business hours and against an account with a balance sufficient to fund each of them. At the close of business that evening, my statement balance printed from on line had 18.00 in it. How then, did that mysteriously change over night to reflect a negative balance appearing after I initiated each transaction that day? Well Chase Customer Service explains it this way. Later that evening on the day the three transactions in question hit my account a check was presented for payment. This particular check was indeed written for more than the current balance of 18.83, which appeared, on my statement at around 7:30 that evening. Without a doubt, this check was posting against insufficient funds. But instead of processing that transaction at the moment in which it came through Chase's nightly batch processing, Chase, knowingly changed the chronological order of each transaction that occurred that day and subsequently created account activity which now, 7 hours later, reflected a statement showing that the check for which there were insufficient funds actually posted before the 2 ATM transaction made earlier that day and also posted before the on line transfer I made to my ODP also made earlier that day. Once the night's processing was completed, 3 transactions which earlier in the day all reflected a positive ending balances now all appeared on my statement in a totally different transaction sequence, which resulted in a statement reflecting ending balances that did not match the balances from the statement printed the day before which had originally showed each transaction posting with more than enough funds to cover them. Yes, I actually have two statements printed on May 29th and May 30th and the order of and balances printed on the statements are completely different.in truth, the statement printed May 30th showed balances that never appeared in my account on the day in question. Chase actually altered the transaction sequence, as well as the actual account balances.in short, the statement as it appeared on 5/30 was not a factual representation of account activity that day..
Putting your titles and management positions aside, I ask you to think like a person, and not the head of a multi-billion dollar firm responsible for strategies that will increase the bottom line. Think like a father, a brother, a sister or mother, and imagine how they would feel as they have there money stolen from them because of a policy that justifies the altering of transaction data creating circumstances that are not based on fact but on the manipulation of the truth. Now, Imagine that this relative is unemployed, relying on 361.00 / week from unemployment benefits and watching that benefit disappear because of these outrageous fees that create and endless cycle of keeping any deposits that come in from ever making the account adequately funded because the bank takes it's fees first then starts to process transactions. At that point, the relative is starting off in the red and it just keeps happening.
How can you expect me or any reasonable person to accept that we requested money from the ATM or initiated a transfer of funds between our accounts for an amount that exceeded our available balances when we know and you know that at the moment in time when the transactions were requested, the funds were in the account and did not cause an overdraft. The Overdraft was caused by that one check and it's that item and that item only for which I should be penalized. Those are the facts and only this is a true reflection of account activity that day. The decision to institute this corporate policy can be described as nothing more than stealing from the very customers that have put their trust in such a well-known financial firm.
I made countless inquiries with customer service, that left me in despair because I begin to realize that Chase employees actually believe that Chase's policy of posting transactions not in the order in which they actually occur but rather by the type of transaction, the amount of the transaction and the daily ending balance, not the transactions ending balance is fair and justified. I thought I could call on their common sense and point out that you can't charge me an overdraft fee if the transaction for which the 35.00 fee is being charged did not put the account into a negative balance But my cries fell on deaf ears. Here is an example of what will happen to you when you become a Chase Customer. If you have 400.00 at the start of the business day and then you go to an ATM and take out 200.00, your ATM receipt will show that a 200.00 withdrawal occurred and will print your new available balance, which is 200.00. That night however, if you have a check presented for payment in the amount of 350.00, your new chronologically altered account activity will read that when you took out the 200.00 at the ATM, you didn't have 400.00, you only had 50.00. Huh? Yes this is what will happen. Your statement will show that there was a check for 350.00 that cleared during the day leaving you with 50 dollars remaining in the account, and then it will show that you went to the ATM and withdrew 200.00 and it will show that your available balance after you withdrew that 200.00 was now (-150.00). You are now guilty of taking money out of the ATM against Insufficient funds and it will charge you 35.00 for doing so. Oh and the ATM receipt you received the day you actually withdrew the fundswell that doesn't count anymore, and you should not rely on that balance. Well that's what the customer service representative told me when I questioned why I was charged an insufficient funds charge. And, she actually believed that she was right.in her mind, when I went to the ATM and took out 200.00, there was only 50.00 in my account and that's how she justifies the 35.00 fee. Yes, this is the policy at Chase that has cost me 3,600.00. A policy that defies reason, borders on fraud and is clearly not in the best interest of the customer.
Another example: On June 23rd, 9 transactions were posted against insufficient funds. Each was charged a 35 dollar fee for a total of 315.00 in fees. 2 of these transactions actually occurred on June 22nd. 2 others occurred on June 20th, and 3 occurred on June 19th. You do the math. 7 out of 9 transactions were posted to the account on dates other than the actual day I purchased something and paid the merchant, debiting funds from the account. Of these 9 transactions, only 1 of them was drawn against insufficient funds. But again Chase chronologically altered the transaction activity, moving some of them as many as five days past their actual transaction date, thereby ensuring that some of the transactions would appear to have processed and been drawn against balances which could not support their funding.
I have been a loyal customer of Chase Manhattan since I was 18 years old, I will be 40 in August. That's 22 years as your customer. But wait, our relationship goes even deeper than that. I owe Chase much if not all the credit for the career I am in today because I am a former graduate of the Heritage Chase Management Development Program, Class of 1991. If it wasn't for Chase, I would not have been able to land executive level positions at some of the finest Wall St. Firms.
Even when I felt Customer Service was being unreasonable, and sometime outright rude, my heart felt obligated to Chase. Chase and I went way back and had always done good by me. I could not abandon Chase because I truly believed I owed something back to the company, that I had to be loyal. But it finally dawned on me, Chase no longer cared about me or my well being and it was then I was determined to find out just what was happening and finally make preparations to close my accounts (Checking And Savings).
In March of this year, I lost my job. Living on Unemployment, barely getting by, Chase was still hitting me with fees upwards to 240.00. On one particular day, I begged for leniency and requested a reversal of the fees that had been charged that day because the unemployment payment would arrive the next day. This small amount was all I had and it was going to be deposited electronically into an account with overdraft fees that would essentially leave me with around 60.00. I begged the representative to understand. The response was so callous and so not my problem, learn how to manage your funds better, that I couldn't believe my ears. I was actually told that it's my responsibility to make sure I had the funds in the account before I wrote checks. I felt like I was being scolded for trying to make arrangement to at least let me have use of the unemployment benefit. The answer was NO. It was then I knew that my relationship with Chase was over. From that day forward it was one event after another. I dug deeper and deeper. I called day after day to get an explanation of how I kept getting charged fees for transactions that had positive balances.in one instance on or around 5/21, I made a savings deposit at a teller in the amount of 1,000.00 and then tried to transfer money to the checking account to cover debits for checks and automated payments that I knew would clear the following day from the checking account. I called the automated phone line and was denied this transaction. I transferred to a customer rep and was denied once again, he couldn't do the transfer either. I was told if I made it to the branch they could make the transfer. Well I was at work so that wasn't going to happen. The following day, even though I tried multiple means of transferring funds from my savings to my checking to cover incoming debits, the debits posted against insufficient funds and I was again charged 35.00 for 4 transactions. I was then told that the money in the savings was held because at the time of the deposit into savings, that account too had a negative balance and there had to be a review of the account to ensure the deposit made covered its present overdraft. It took Chase 36 hours to release those funds. How long should it take for a bank to realize that if there is an existing OD of 200.00 then a credit of 1000.00, the ending balance is 800.00. But chase needed 36 hours and this is despite the fact that the deposited cash was handed to a teller during business hours.
I have copied for you many of the correspondence and often different responses I have received from customer service. All of them seem to think they have overextended themselves because Chase did "as a curteousy" credit back many OD fees totaling over 700.00. I think they forget that Chase is a multimillion dollar organization, I'm not. I was charged over 3,600.00 for a checking account and in most cases the charges were not legitimate. Many of the charges for 35.00 were for over drafts that were less than 10.00 and some as little as. 89. A 35.00 charge for an 89 cent overdraft is the result of a greedy bottom line focused management team that has lost sight of the vision and values set forth by the company's founders. You are supposed to help your customers, not cheat them. Shame on you.
I simply ask you this.
1) Define the term Insufficient Funds and clearly Identify when Insufficient Funds Occur
2) Explain why on page 25 of the "Account Rules and Regulations" manual within the section titled "Insufficient Funds, " does your own policy contradict itself? That section opens with the sentence: "We have no obligation to pay or honor any item or withdrawal request unless it is drawn or requested against available funds credited to your account at the opening of business on the day the item is presented" It then ends with the sentence "We reserve the right to change this posting order without notice. We may assess a fee for any item or withdrawal request when there are insufficient funds in your account based upon the posting method identified above." Well which is it. Are you going to honor the transaction drawn or requested against available funds or are you going to change the order of the actual transaction activity to make it appear as if the customer didn't have available funds so that you can charge him for a violation of the rules and regulations when in fact the changed order of the posted transactions created the insufficient funds position and not the transactions that the customer initiated at that point in the day when he requested them.
3) Identify how many times an ATM machine gave me money when I requested it even though there was no money in my account to give me. Then tell me how many times you charged me an insufficient fund fee for this. (The ATM won't give you the money unless it's there). But Chase will alter the chronology of transactions so that it looks like you took out money you didn't have and then Wham, there goes more of your money in Chase's pocket. How many times did you do this and how much should you give back to me.
4) Find out why my overdraft protection carrying a balance of 130.00 did not cover the 36 and 79 dollar charges that posted on June 2nd against NSF resulting in another 70.00 charge. Had money from the ODP account transferred I would not have been charged these fees. The customer service rep actually told me that the funds didn't move because the total overdraft was more that the amount of both the 79 and 36-dollar transactions combined. Had the transfer taken place, it still wouldn't have been enough to cover the entire overdraft amount. I don't argue that fact but if you are going to charge me an overdraft fee for each transaction and not on the total transactions of the day then move my ODP funds to cover that 79 and 36 dollar transaction so that Chase can't charge me 35.00 for each of these posted items. Had that occurred then I'd have 70.00 more dollars, which you stole from me back in my account.
5) Finally, imagine this is you, your unemployed, and all the money you deposit into Chase is being held for days before it's released, and then when it is, you've paid fees for violations like posting against insufficient funds when in reality what happened is that the company you entrust your money to has changed or altered the order of the transactions in your account and created a new statement which came up with new balances that appear to leave customers in a constant state of overdraft with every transaction despite having ATM receipts that state otherwise.
6) Please, someone do what you know is fair and give me back what is mine and even more importantly change this procedure so that other struggling customers are not charged excessive and unnecessary fees for alleged violations that only exist after Chase Manipulates the actual facts and chronological order of it's daily processing. How can you sleep at night knowing that this is happening under your watch.
Dan
New York, New York
U.S.A.
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