BB&T Bank
$675 in NSF fees after a month-long negative balance

I have a story that may sound familiar. As much as I hate that this has happened to so many other people, and I am sorry you (we!) all have to go through this, it makes me feel a little better to know I am not totally alone. So I am adding my experience to the archives. I am going to file complaints once I am done with this and talk with my law school friends and friends working in finance, looking for some actionable information if there is any.

I found out yesterday that BBT charged me $675 for NSF fees (fees ALONE), and that I "had a negative balance for a month now." I had deposited $800 and surely had spent no more than $600, so I was a bit shocked. Last week, after checking my balance (yes, I do that, despite the accusations of phone reps) and finding out I had gone $80 into the hole, I deposited $375 immediately and figured the difference would be sufficient. I am a PhD student and I cannot afford this, timewise or moneywise. It is finals!

It was a major lapse of fiduciary responsibility on their part on a few points. First, I had made several deposits and had 4 interactions with reps who pulled up my account and said this should do the trick, I was no longer in the negative, because I asked. Three of those transactions were deposits, and the last one was when I had to order new checks because the 1 year post-merger grace period was over and I could not use the first VA checks any longer.

That would have been an obvious time for someone to mention it. When I agreed to pay $14 for the checks, how come the nameless rep (I have her name but will save it for the official complaints) never mentioned the additional $35 that I was going to incur? She could have said that getting the duplicates feature for my checkbook would cost $50 in total and that I might want to skip it or wait. Or she could have asked how I proposed to pay for this, or said I needed to put more money in before we could do this. She was looking at my deposit slip as well as my account information so she could pull up my number. The slip had the amount of the deposit on it! And I did ask her if it would clear since I had just made my deposit. Sure, no problem.

When I checked my balance yesterday and called the customer service line, I got attitude from the phone rep, as if there was nothing odd about $675 in fees. So today I went to the branch and spoke with another rep who seemed to be trying to help me. Generally this part of the situation is the same as everyone else here. The rep went to a branch manager (in another branch, in Alexandria, VA, where I had opened my account), but the manager said it was not a bank error, so all they could do was forgive me $36. Thirty-six dollars?

But the straw that broke the camel's back came next. While I was waiting for the rep to call back, I got a hurried-sounding call from a "corporate headquarters/call center" who supposedly had no idea I had already figured it out and was trying to deal with the issue. She just happened to call because my account was overdrawn and I needed to make a deposit immediately. Why not call 3 or 2 weeks ago, or when I owed ONLY $300? I VERIFIED she was from a call center and not a branch. Later I checked my caller ID, and the call came from phone number 7032840515. I called back on a hunch, because 703 is my area code. It is not a call center. It is the Arlington branch. My mother even called and verified the branch part, just for fun, and the same lady with the same distinctive accent from "that regional call center" answered. I would have asked for a name, but I was a little flustered at the time.

I briefly worked as a stockbroker at a financial institution's call center, and here is what I know. First, you generally cannot call someone back on their outgoing line, because you probably will not be able to see it, which is why I found the caller ID number odd. Second, a call center and a bank branch are not the same thing, and the two cannot be confused. Third, outright lying and misrepresentation must be against FRB regulations. I know the NASD does not allow it. There are so many rules and regulations that you have to watch every word out of your mouth.

But it may be a mistake they are making, because people and institutions do not make up outright lies unless they are nervous and trying to cover things up. Maybe they were supposed to call earlier or something? That is a really poor thing to cover up. Maybe not, but I can hope. I just know that the credit problems this is causing are going to impede the background check I need to pass so I can get the kind of job I have been dreaming of for the past few years. I had pretty good credit for a grad student, till now at least.

Anyhow, I have to try to calm down and not flunk my finals thanks to BB&T. Good luck to everyone else. I hope we find their Achilles heel. If David slew Goliath, maybe there is some hope.

Company: BB&T Bank
Country: USA
State: Virginia
City: Woodbridge
Address: 13920 NOBLEWOOD PLAZA
Phone: 7035809246

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