On July 8, my roommate checked her account balance online to make sure that she hadn't overdrawn her account. Note: While it doesn't happen often, she has overdrawn her account a couple of times in the past and paid the fees without complaint because it was her fault! Well, as of 11pm last night (July 8) she was overdrawn. Her account had an "available balance" of -$8.81. She had 6 "pending transactions" that totaled $93.06, so her actual account balance was $84.25. Once you swipe your card the transaction is "pending", so US Bank's policy (according to Will Traber, CSM/Sales Manager) is that you have until the end of business the day you swipe the card to deposit money to cover the transaction. So, if today you have $99 in your account but you've made 10 purchases of $10 each, totaling $100, as long as you can get to the bank before they close at 5pm and deposit $1, you're golden! But, say you don't get to the bank today and those 10 pending transactions that total $100 put you at an available balance of -$1.00, did you know that not only will you have an overdraft fee for the last item that would put you negative, but you'll also have overdraft fees for the first 9 simply because your available balance including all 10 pending transactions is -$1.00. Seriously, that's how it was explained to me and my roommate. (I was back-up. Unnecessarily though because Will was excellent.)
You'd expect the transactions to be deducted from the acct balance like this. (The () is the balance after each transaction.)
Acct balance = 99.00 Pending trans - 100.00 Available Balance - -$1.00
Trans #1 -10.00 (89.00)
Trans #2 -10.00 (79.00)
Trans #3 -10.00 (69.00)
Trans #4 -10.00 (59.00)
Trans #5 -10.00 (49.00)
Trans #6 -10.00 (39.00)
Trans #7 -10.00 (29.00)
Trans #8 -10.00 (19.00)
Trans #9 -10.00 (9.00)
Trans#10-10.00 (-1.00)
Overdraft fee -35.00 (-36.00)
This would result in an ending balance of -$36.00. Right? But nope. This is "kind of" what actually happened.
Acct balance = 99.00 Pending trans - 100.00 Available Balance - (-1.00)
No, that way - Trans #1 of 10.00 (-11.00)
Overdraft fee of 35.00 (-46.00)
Trans #2 of 10.00 (-56.00)
Overdraft fee of 35.00 (-91.00)
Trans #3 of 10.00 (-101.00)
Overdraft fee of 35.00 (-136.00)
You see there, in trans #1 where I put the new available balance at -$11.00, that's not exactly what happened. Like I said, there was an acct balance of $99.00, so the balance after that transaction (#1) was $89.00. Yet, the overdraft fee is exactly what happened. Weird, huh? You're thinking, "but wait, that's not right! If she had $99.00 they couldn't have charged her an overdraft fee cause she wasn't overdrawn when those three transactions posted!" To which I will respond, "no, it's not right. But they did it anyway."
Luckily for her, she went to someone who, while fully representing US Bank, took the time to explain their policy and on some level sympathize with her enough to reverse the fees SO LONG AS SHE OPENED A SAVINGS ACCOUNT TO AVOID THIS SITUATION IN THE FUTURE.
US Bank is a business. Got it.US Bank is also a total effing ripoff. This has to be unlawful. If it isn't please, don't just let this happen to you. Stand up for yourselves. If they aren't willing to change this ridiculous and hopefully illegal business practice, then I hope they're willing to lose customers. Challenge them. Stay there all day if you need, to talk to whomever. The only reason my roommate is still banking there is because Will was able to help her and she has learned from this situation. I seriously do not recommend US Bank for any of your banking needs.
P.S. I'm not disputing whether or not she should have to pay an overdraft fee at all, just the number of them.
Meaninracine
Racine, Wisconsin
U.S.A.
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