This Fall semester, (August) Houston Community College (Houston, TX) introduced the HCCEagleCard— esentially a pre-paid Master debit card onto which the college's Buiness Office now dumps all of a student's grant residuals and his loans. The hoopla was terrific, and it seemed we were going to get our anticipated refunds faster than ever. The hoopla was entirely misleading, and this new vendor is a nightmare!
The problem? Because "Higher One" orders the transactions out of the sequence in which they occur and then posts them, overdrafts fees — to the tune of $35.00 each — are automatically generated. Already, my account is $145.00 overdrawn — $90.00 of which represents 3 overdraft fees! When I do the math, the account started with $870.00, in September but the total amount of tranactions are less than that amount.
Clearly, HigherOne is using the same dasterdly tactics as their kinsmen slimebag financial institutions such as Wells Fargo and Bank of America, which have raised the ire of legislators for such brazen tactics to such a degree that Congress is now undertaking legislation to regulate and stop this unconsciable practice. This consumer pillaging has got to stop!
It gets worse. When I went to my school's Buiness Office to present alternative account info which they could use to directly deposit my next upcomming loan installment, I was told to go back online and handle the change in deposit preference through the EagleCard website.
I complied. However, EagleOne (clever foxes that they are,) has frozen my account because it's overdrawn, and will "unfreeze" it, when the account is in balance. That will happen in about 5-7 business days, when HCC released my next loan installment to EagleOne. They will get the $145.00 they've generated in overdraft fees and have "locked" my account until they do. What a scam.
I will be left $145.00 poorer at a time when I am unemployed in order to attend school and every penny counts. This is an outrage! I feel I'm being slowing raped.
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