I've dealt with lots of banks but this one takes the cake. I balance my check book to the penny and check my online statement daily. On the weekend before Thanksgiving (11/21/08), I had $308.73 in the bank. I did some shopping through the weekend and spent 286.63. I wrote each transaction down in my register as I spent it.
On Monday, I called my Mary Kay representative and made a purchase of 44.63 that she was not to put through until Tuesday when I got paid I believe she thought she was doing the right thing by getting the payment authorized after close of business on Monday at 4:06 (or she flat out made a mistake). Either way this is what started my problems.
I got online to check my statement (like always) on Tuesday and was shocked to find I was charged $75.00 in overdraft fees, even though my purchases were not showing I had overdrawn anything. The only thing showing that overdrew my account at that time in my online statement was the $75.00 fees. I called the bank and they said (without pulling up my information), that I could come in and fill out a form to have the fees waived as a first time courtesy. My husband went up on Wednesday and filled out the form for a manager to review. Imagine my surprise when I pulled up my account online on the day after Thanksgiving (before I went shopping), expecting to see a $75.00 credit on my account, only to see an additional $185.00 in fees!!!
Still adding up my purchases I couldnt figure out what happened that would cause this amount of overdraw fees. I was due one overdraw fee as the $44.63 that hit my account was a legit overdraw to my account of -22.63. Well, I was even more surprised to later find out that Charter One's policy specifically states that "Charter One may pay any transactions in any order, determined by them, even if it results in an insufficient balance on the account and may pay them in such a way that the order will result in the imposition of additional overdraft fees." It also states that they "may change the order of the transactions without prior notice." It also states that "you must be aware that the order in which they decide to pay transactions may increase the amount of overdraft fees you have to pay."
When I called them to find out why the transactions were not taken out of my account in the order the transactions were authorized (the bank had given me a printout of all the overdrawn transactions and the times they went through - which matched my check book) she said they do not have to take them out in that order. They can take them out in any order they want. How bogus is this???
My other bank does not operate like this. My other bank takes transactions out in the order that they happen. They do not try to milk their customers for as much money as they can get.
They managed to waive $111.00 so far and I am hoping to continue to bother regional managers and divisional managers, etc, to try to get more fees waived. I agree to one nsf fee but the way they change the order of things to take more money from people is horrible.
This has caused me to be short on my house payment and have no money to shop for my son for Christmas. I am leaving next week to donate a kidney to my sister in California and will not have another pay before the holidays and this has really put me in a bind on top of all the stress from this and the upcoming surgery - and they don't care at all. I'm just a little person against a big bank.
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