On October 30 I had logged onto my online banking account to check my account as I do each morning. This morning I noticed that my account was negative! I pulled out my check register and it said that I should have $5.18 left. (not a lot, I know but it's the day before payday). I checked my transactions and they were all accounted for. I used an adding machine and went back through a months worth of transactions and still came up with $5.18 including pending transactions. What made my account have a negative balance of -$25.82 was the $31.00 NSF fee. Why was I charged an NSF fee for a positive balance?
I called my branch and was transferred to the corporate office. A lady there listened to my story and said that she was going to reverse the fee. She then told me that she was unable to reverse it because I have had fees waived before. (an incident that was my fault at least 5 years ago and they took pity on me.) She said she would transfer me to a department that would be able to over ride that. A man got on the phone and I explained my situation (again). He began to coach me on how I need to keep track of my transactions and so on. I again explained that I did keep a register and that along with the printout of my online banking did not have my account balance negative until the NSF fee was deducted.
He kept on telling me how pending transactions worked and treated this like it was my fault. After about 15 minutes my patience wore off. I told him that the person that transferred me only did so because she could not waive my fee herself. He then said that he was unable to waive the fee because I have overdraft protection on my account and I chose to not keep enough money in there to cover this. The computer apparently does not allow fee waivers for those with overdraft protection.
Thier overdraft protection consists of a savings account that you can link to automatically transfer money to checking should you fall negative. They charge you $10.00 for every $50.00 that they transfer so it's not free to use your own money but it's cheaper than $31.00. My savings account happens to have a very small balance in it right now.
I explained to him that even IF I had used the OD protection I would still be making this phone call and asking for my $10.00 back because my account was never negative. He then said (I'm sure just to get off the phone with me, I had now been arguing with him for 1/2 hour) that he would waive 1/2 the fee. I did not accept because this is not my fault. He also just caught himself in a lie because he said previously that the computer would not allow a refund of fees to someone who has overdraft. (I knew that was a lie when he said it but it's funny that he contradicted himself)
I told him I was going to my local branch after work today and taking the printout of my account with me. I refuse to pay an NSF fee if they cannot show me proof of where my account went negative.
Oh, and a lesson that I have learned here is to not ask them to waive NSF fees as a courtesy because they will hold it against you for the rest of your life even if there is a bank error.
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