It's nice to see things haven't changed much regarding overdraft charges. I will take my report a step further:
I got a checking account but only for the card and never ordered checks, and i only ever used the card for doing debit transactions.
My bank has the ability to see pending charges and since POS (point of sales) systems are meant to be instantaneous, if I go online i can see them too. And even though they can see the pending charge, it won't always 1) reflect in my available balance, and 2) deny a charge even if i don't have enough funds to pay for it. What? Wait a minute...
Well, i've been waiting years for someone to explain to me how a bank can see a pending charge and know therefore what my resulting available balance is and thus be able to determine whether i should be charged a fee if the same said charge doesn't always show in MY view of the available balance and therefore might get approved even without funds... Well, no. Every transaction gets recorded and the available balance reduced. The difference is your bank may do you the courtesy of 'paying' for small items you can't cover - which they then charge you a 20 or 30 or even 40 service fee for because you're overdrawn you silly lay person!
There isn't a system in the world that couldn't effectively eliminate overdraft charges by using POS and recording debit charges and the only reason you don't see some pending charges is because they have some policy like paying for a portion of a transaction that might be rejected if you can't cover it. Which they won't tell you about, warn you against or otherwise deal with becuase hey - what i want my bank to do is pay for something for me that i can't afford and then chatrge 6 times the value of whatever they paid for!
The card knew about the pending charges in 11 of the overdraft charges i received. Without once writing a check i was able to overdraw my account 11 times simply by using my card for debit purchases. I disputed 5 of them and the bank did an investigation - they reversed the charges and refunded the money, including a charge that had posted to my account that caused the overdrafts.
Last week i went to deposit a check and was told there'd be a hold on my account for ELEVEN days because i had more than six overdraft charges in the last 6 months.
I told them i didn't, i had 5. They - the sunnyvale branch especially but everyone else i talked to - refused to acknowledge that they'd made a mistake in determining how many times it had happened.
So i couldn't deposit my check and get money - unless i used the atm! The atm let me get 400 dollars out.
The check i deposited put my balance at over 2000.00. But somehow, and this is after the check POSTED the same night I deposited it - i had an overdrawn account for which i got charged a service fee! What?
The hold won't be released until this wednesday, the 21st. This is after they extended the hold once already - for a check that i was able to provide proof of cancellation and clearance from wells fargo - i spent two days trying to get them to release funds i was desperate for - that were in my account - that i had opened because they said they made funds available the same or following day - a hold which they put on my account based on a history the did not calculate correctly!
As a side-note, not once has one of these checks EVER been rejected. So here i am starving and i'm still waiting... For my bank to act like they're human and at least try to help me. Somehow they're able to justify taking money from me by 'providing' me the courtesy of paying for items i can't afford and wouldn't buy if i were using cash and then charging me for it and calling it a courtesy.
Comerica, you guys are awful. I was this set you apart from other banks but unfortunately, not necessarily the case.
I hate you very much and wish only i had some legal recourse that would be feasible but i work for a living. I'd love to have just one person in a bank give me a GOOD explanation for how every debit transaction will adjust the available balance but not every transaction that overdraws your account will be declined. But we all know there isn't one.
0 comments