I paid 165.00 to an A/C repairman on 5/15 using my debit card. Later that day I checked my account and the charge had posted to the account. It was not listed as a hold, it was shown as a finalized transaction in the account. The 165.00 was deducted from my balance.
A week later, I got a call from the repairman. He said he never received the payment. He didn't know how this was possible because he had swiped my ATM card, it was approved, and he had the receipt showing this. He thought I had put a stop-payment on the charge. I had not done anything, so I checked my account and sure enough the charge was completely gone. I checked the holds and the account transactions, it was not there. We both figured it must have been a mistake, so I wrote him a check dated 5/29 on the 21st. I post-dated the check due to some essential payments I had to make. The A/C man was fine with this.
My account balance did not drop below 165.00 until 5/26. I knew the check was dated 5/29, so I went ahead and payed my rent because direct deposit would go through to cover the check to the A/C man on the 28th. Then as soon as the balance dropped below 165.00, the fist thing in the morning on the 27th, this debit card purchase that had been completely gone for 12 days showed back up out of nowhere and overdrew my account. I was charged 35.00 for a NSF fee.
How in the world can something be invisible from me and the merchant for 12 days, and then magically appear as soon as there were not funds to cover it??? This reeks of fraud. The overdraft sent my account into a tailspin. I budget very carefully. The balance being 200.00 less than it should be is extraordinarily difficult for me to repair.
I called the 1800 number, and the csr stuttered and tried to figure it out, finally giving me the explanation that holds are "not visible" to my online account information after 3 days. The charge has never a hold! It went straight to the finalized transaction list, then went away for no reason. I am going to the branch now to attempt to get my 35.00 back, as well as a few other fees that this fraudulent act caused. If my account isn't credited, the account will be closed. I opened a Bank of America account this morning. NO EXCUSE for this.
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