I relocated from California to Arkansas and found that there were no Washington Mutual branches in this state. Since I had some money in my WaMu checking account, I wanted to close it out and get my balance. First of all, the bank personnel told me that I would have to go into a branch (over 2000 miles from me) to close my account. This is ludicrous.
So I decided just to write a check to myself for the balance of my account from my online checking. While out shopping that same day, I realized that I could have probably just have withdrawn the money from an ATM. I thought I'd give it a shot, since I figured if the check had already been recorded, they would simply decline the ATM transaction. If it went through, I'd cancel the check online.
Well, I was able to withdraw the cash, but then WaMu charged me for an "overdraft" due to the original check I had written, but I never cashed the check. Since the check had not been cashed, there was nothing to cover. I even told them I would return the un-cashed check to them. They refused, stating I had to pay for an overdraft.
My points:
1) If the check was never cashed, there was no overdraft to cover.
2) If the check had been "covered", then there should have been no balance available for me to withdraw from an ATM.
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