How is it LEGAL for the banks to do these things? After reading everyone else's stories, I'm glad to know that I'm not the only one dealing with this, and that I'm not crazy! I've been banking with Wachovia for about a year and a half. I have a checking account with them. During the year and a half that I've had the account, I've paid out around $1,000.00 in bogus "overdraft" fees to Wachovia.
I'll give you an example - say you have $200.00 in your checking account, and you make a $100.00 purchase using your VISA debit card. If you do not use your PIN, the transaction is run as "credit", the $100.00 is immediately deducted from your available balance, and the transaction is moved over to the "pending transactions", where it sits for 3-5 days. At this point, you have an available balance of $100.00. So now, let's say you make three more purchases - one for $10.00, one for $20.00, and one for $30.00. That leaves you with an available balance of $40.00...
A few days later, you look at your account and realize that you've been hit with several "insufficient funds" fees. You HAD an available balance of $40.00, and all your transactions were already deducted from your original available balance, so HOW can you be negative???
Here's the explanation I got from Wachovia...
According to them, when you make a purchase with your debit card - whether it's run as a debit or a credit transaction - the money is immediately deducted from your available balance, and the transaction is shown as "processing" or it sits in the "pending transactions". However, once the each transaction is posted to the account, they charge them against the available balance AGAIN. You are charged twice for each transaction you made - once when the initial purchase was made, and again when the transaction posts to the account.
So, with the example I gave above, here's what happens...
You have $40.00 in available funds in your account, and your transactions are pending, ready to be posted. Your total transactions are $160.00. Well, since your current available balance is only $40.00, it's less than the amount on hold, so they count it as a negative balance. WHAT??? They already deducted it from my balance... Why do they deduct it TWICE???
To get bogus fees, that's why. They are ripping people off left and right, and if you ask them about it, you get nothing but nasty attitude and excuses. No one at Wachovia can seem to give a reasonably intelligent answer as to why they operate this way. The only answer I've gotten is "that's just our procedure".
I honestly don't understand how this is legal. It's theft.
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