Just another example of how US Bank, and most likely many others, manipulate transactions on low balance accounts for profit:
This has happened to me before and I am glad to say that EVERYTIME it happens I've had to march into the branch, check the CS manager, and promptly demand that any and all fees be reversed or "credited" as they put it.
Last Friday the 18th I made 2 deposits. Account transfers so funds were Avail the same day.
The deposits totaled $100.00 so minus a few things I had 69.00 AVAILABLE bal on that Friday at COB (Close of Business) I went to the ATM that evening (my receipt says 18:53 (6:53 for those non-military) and took 40.00 from the ATM leaving a 29.00 Bal, ok cool. We were going to a concert.
Later that night (after midnight) we stopped to get a few things to eat and I over drafted my account by 8 or 9 dollars. No biggie, because today is now Saturday and I had no outstanding transactions come through on the 18th that would generate any NSF fees... Or so I thought. Lol!
Upon this notice via text mesg I promptly transferred another 100.00 to this account to clear and post positive any errors. Sunday comes and goes. All is well. On Monday I notice a 37.50 NSF fee for the ATM transaction done on Friday the 18th. WTF!
So I called US Banks customer service 303-585-8585 and was told that "Yes" as the online banking states "You" overdrafted your account when you took the 40.00 out of the ATM. I quickly rebutted the cs agent by telling her that "No" I have a receipt that shows a 29.00 avail balance at the time of this transaction and that "They" have made another accounting mistake, I will need this fixed ASAP.
Well after hearing the usual BS about how they can't do anything via phone, I understood and walked my paperwork (receipts from the evening in question) into my local Cherry Creek branch office. I was met by a man that had a CS manger sign on his desk who proceeded to review my account. He printed off some generic spreadsheet of transactions and agreed that "Yes" it was the 40.00 ATM that caused the fee, (Which by Monday had escalated to 186.00, due to outstanding auths that were now paid)
I asked him how this was possible and produced the ATM receipt that showed the accurate account bal at the time of this transaction. He proceeded to tell me that my account had xyz authorizations being held on the account "Prior" to my ATM withdrawal. I again asked him how this was possible for US Bank to claim that I made transactions "Before" they really happened!?
Now, I'm a collections manager and haggling is what I do for a living so I asked to speak to another person because he was not capable of assisting me. I spoke with "the next man up" and he tried to give me a "deal" I was to pay for 2 NSF's and they would "credit" 2
I told him to F*K that idea and to let me have a look at his generic paperwork on my account. He did and I noticed that every transaction I made on SAT the 19th was placed on the 18th thus making it "Look" like I did overdraft this account with the 40.00 ATM withdrawal. I produced my receipts from the food purchases that were all dated 12/19 and demanded to know why their accounting system had moved them to a day earlier!?
Needless to say he had no response for my paperwork vs his paperwork. It was a clear picture that US Bank has this practice of escalating authorizations on their books to "Create" NSF's. Any dummy with half a brain would have caught this but they talk a good game, and even will try to show you some generic spreadsheet that has the transactions placed the way "They" want them to be. Lol! I took the half and half deal off the table and gave it back to him, he credited ALL fees and sheepishly sulked back into his glass hole!
These Banks are amazing, and the funny thing is they just do it, with no regard to whom they may be doing this to. My advice to anybody that banks with them is to check your statements close but more importantly KEEP any and all paperwork you have. I tell this to consumers that I speak with everyday "Documentation beats conversation anyday of the week... Where is yours?"
You the consumer MUST have some form of this because the bank sure did! And no matter how inaccurate it may have been, if I had not had my dated receipts I would have been up the creek even though I was right and they were wrong!
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