Imagine my shock when I discovered that a company I did business with charged me $862 instead of $162, putting me overdrawn (on a Friday) and Key bank didn't process the deposit that was made the same day (showed it as pending however) till after hours on Monday, This caused about a dozen small transactions (between $5-$30 each) to incur a $28.50 overdraft fee AND an "Excess Overdraft fee" of another $4.50 each, for a total of over $400 in fees. Had they not manipulated the order of the transations using their "biggest first" program I would have incured ONLY a single $28.00 fee.
The company I did the business with cleared up their mistake right away, however they did not feel they were responsible for anything other then one overdraft fee (for their transaction). While the bank and the company exchanged phone calls (with me in the middle) another half dozen automated charges hit the account. Before it was all sorted out there were $680 in overdraft fees. Thankfully I ended up getting the money back from my vendor, but Key Banks actions in this matter are at the least imoral and IMO criminal.
They love to try and excuse their actions by saying "We do this as a service to you so your mortgage payment won't bounce". This fails to pass the intelligence test since they don't bounce any payments because they want you overdrawn so they can rack up these excessive charges.
How any business can look a customer in the face when they charge $32.50 in fees on a $5.95 charge is beyond me.
I am preparing to take legal, political, and media action regarding this practice. It's time that these outrageous fees are eliminated and a regulation requiring them to use "smallest first" and limiting the fees to a percentage of the transaction.
At the least the customer should be allowed to opt out of the program, having them refuse to accept any transactions against overdrawn balances.
0 comments