I am a responsible person who has not bounced a check in years, so let me start by saying this is not a rant from a 'crazy' person who is angry because I incurred overdraft fees.
One morning about 2 weeks ago I woke up and got the kids off to school, and sat down to check my bank accounts. I do this every single day online. I was surprised to see a wierd balance for my BB and T account. I knew I had only written 2 checks from that account, and the account showed that NEITHER of the checks had gone through yet, so I was worried. When I looked under 'pending transactions" I saw that an appliance store in Indiana was trying to put through a charge for 1300 dollars to my account. (I live in North Carolina.)
Immediately I called in a panic and explained that I had never purchased anything from that store and that they were already showing my balance as reduced to 1000.00 by this transaction. I was asked to confirm some personal information so that they could make sure it was me. When I gave them my address, I was told that it did not match the one on file. After some heavy discussion, I was told that my home address had been changed to a Brooklyn, New York address.
I told them that I needed to report my check card stolen because I did not order anything from that store, and that I needed to change my address back to my correct one. I asked how to proceed and was told that I was responsible to contact that store and tell them it was a fradulent charge. Wierd. But I thought, whatever it takes, I need them to put that money back in my account because I had written my rent check.
I called the appliance store and they graciously handled the issue, cancelling the charge. Imagine my surprise when I got back on the phone with BB and T and they told me that I would have to wait 3 or 4 or maybe even 5 days for the charge to 'drop off' my account, effectively forcing me to bounce my rent check.
I drove directly to the local branch and sat down with the branch manager who gave me the same story. I began to panic, and asked her to please explain to me WHY if the store had cancelled the order, they could not give me my own money back. She insisted that the store had to fax something to them so that they could 'release the hold'.
I called the appliance store RIGHT THERE IN FRONT OF THE MANAGER. They told HER DIRECTLY that the charge was cancelled, that they had no form they could fax over, that the order did not even exsist anymore. The customer service rep on the phone told me that they were not holding any of my money, that BB and T was holding my money. The result?
BB and T still refused to put MY OWN MONEY back into my account for several days.
BB and T did not protect me online, did not notify me of the changes made to my account, did not report suspicious activity, did not do any of the work associated with getting the charges cancelled, and, in fact, witheld my own money from me instead of protecting me.
They opened a new checking account for me but I am closing it and switching back to my old bank, who actually cares about their customers. NEVER use BB and T... If someone steals your information, they will hold YOU responsible and make you pay, instead of protecting you and your money. They are every bit as bad as the thieves!
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