BB&T Bank
NSF Fees on Pending Payments After Unauthorized $39.95 Charge

This is just one more of the endless round of never-ending charges BB&T finds to take money from my checking account. They do not care that my sole income is Social Security Disability and a set amount.

On 05/04/09 I saw a pending transaction that I did not authorize. It was one of those Federal Grant websites with the free CD where you only pay shipping. Okay, I am fine with shipping. What they did not say was that they were going to charge my account $39.95 a month afterwards. For what? I have no idea.

So I contacted BB&T to stop this unauthorized charge from coming out of my account. I was told they cannot stop it. Although I do know that once notified of a fraudulent charge, the bank can and is supposed to stop the action and investigate. They say they cannot do anything until it posts to the account. They would not even tell me where it was from so I could contact them.

I had 3 online bill payments going out that same day. They had not been received by the various utilities yet. However, the bank stated they had "ear-marked" that money for the online payments and that basically, if all the charges cleared that day, the account would be overdrawn. So they charged me $35.00 for the unauthorized charge, and then $35.00 for all of the authorized charges also pending, even though the actual money in the account was never below $0, since the money for the online payments was still in the account. It is hard to have payments clear the same day when they have not even been received yet. So the money for them, although "ear-marked", was still there.

The bank also knew that my little Social Security Stimulus check was being deposited in 24-48 hours. I did not know it, but they did and told me so. So on the same date the Stimulus check was deposited, the online bill payments hit. The money for them had been previously "ear-marked" and set aside, knowing they would be presented to be cashed. But for some unknown reason (the account is not overdrawn), each and every one of the 3 checks was charged a $35.00 NSF fee and paid. So we are up to about $180.00 taken out of my account now.

I finally got in touch with the internet crooks behind this (the people at www.federalgrants.com), demanded a refund, got a confirmation number, and called the bank back. They do not care. They refuse to do anything until 1) I allow them to cancel my debit card, and then they will "investigate" the fraudulent charge, or 2) the refund clears the account and I call them back to reverse all the charges, which from the call will take another 48 hours (and they can be eating $35.00 at a whack constantly).

At no time have they shown me an overdrawn balance, not online at their own website, and not at the ATM when I had to get a bit of cash. None of the amounts I have spent have added up on the calculator to be more than they have stated is in my account at any given time, even with their taking so much of my money.

I have several questions I am demanding answers to from them and would love to know elsewhere. How do you charge NSF fees for pending transactions that have not posted? How do you not investigate when you have been alerted the transaction is fraudulent? If you have "ear-marked" money for payments you know are coming, how can you charge NSF fees for them with the money sitting right there? Who is the regulatory agent of the US over banks that I can file a complaint with?

BB&T, like so many banks out there, will take your money, try to double-talk their way out of it, and if they offer you a correction, they will take their own sweet time about doing so. A sock under your mattress might be safer than a bank.

Company: BB&T Bank
Country: USA
State: Georgia
City: Lawrenceville
Address: Sugarloaf Parkway
Phone: 8002265228

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