I've had accounts with Southtrust for almost 3 years now. When I married, my husband and I opened a joint account and I helped my 81 year old father move his account there as well so i could help him with paying his bills.
My name was on the account so that i could write checks for his bills and transfer funds as needed for him. However, after separating from my husband, I needed to close the joint account and open one in my name only. This in and of itself was a HUGE hassle and the bank was NOT very helpful. It was so hard to get everything changed over to a new account - so many of my bills my husband had signed up to have paid automatically. So i paid a few overdraft fees as i tried to figure out which bills needed to be taken off automatic payment. (The bank couldn't possibly transfer any funds from my other account to cover them!) But that isn't the problem! I paid those and went on my way.
No, after that I was keeping very good track of my account and made sure that I was putting in enough money to cover the bills going out of my new account. I had just put in money the day before to cover a bill I was paying and due to the bank's "opportune timing" they charged my service fee before my check cleared (same day) and therefore the check bounced - it only got worse from there - fee after fee - and i tried to go in and speak to someone. She refused to see anything except what the computer showed and said the fees were valid - I told her I would NOT pay those fees so they could close the account - with a negative balance and I would accept the negative on my credit history - because the charges were WRONG!
For the next month the balance stayed the same - a negative amount. They continued to charge monthly fees - which i ignored - I refused to use their bank at this point. Finally, I was helping my father balance HIS account and found that they had debited his account - which only has his social security check deposited into it - for the negative amount in my PERSONAL account! I know this cannot be legal - I did not authorize this transfer and neither did my father. I did not agree with those charges and so they debited my father's account for my negative balance - simply because my name was listed on his account.
This bank is guilty of predatory banking practices and I intend to file complaints with everyone I can.
PS: I have since begun banking with World Savings and if you make a deposit - even one minute before closing - it is credited that same day and credited before ANY checks are paid out of your account. Not ALL banks are created equal (ly crappy)!
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