This week when I checked my account on Weds. AM at 8:30 AM - Aug 13th - I figured out that I had a negative balance of $7. Now, it was explained to me, that as long as you had cash in the "Available Balance" you wouldn't be charged overdraft charges. I had a large payment that sat in "pending" for 3 days before it finally posted. I transferrred money from savings and thought I was in the clear.
The next day, Thursday, I had 2 $35 overdraft charges, which again put me in negative. Again, according to my record keeping, I had the money in there - and according to the way I made the transactions, I was OK!
But the way they posted them to my account, made me overdrawn. We're talking over a $2 charge at the copiers, and a $5 charge at a local market.
I went to my local branch to explain that the ONLY reason I was overdrawn was due to the overdraft charges (which was true!) and was informed that I had FIVE other overdrafts that had posted to my account at 10:30 that AM! I was shocked!!! I checked my account at 8:00 AM that SAME morning only had seen the 2 overdraft charges.
Here is what was explained to me - the branches don't post overdraft charges from your account UNTIL THE FOLLOWING DAY WHEN THEY OPEN at 10:00 AM! That means you can be overdrawn and will have NO VISIBILITY of it on your online account UNTIL THE NEXT BUSINESS DAY at 10-10:30 AM! What a convenient way to rack up overdraft fees!!! The only reason I was overdrawn was due to the fees!!! I pled to have those removed -had documentation - printoffs of my online account - but that was no good. I have recently moved to another city, and it was explained to me that only your "home" branch can remove these overdraft charges, as they are the ones rewarded with your overdraft fees. So it is up to them to remove them if they want to. My home branch graciously removed 1/2 of my $250 of overdraft fees. It is obvious that these overdraft fees are set up to screw the customer that is hurting to begin with. I am job hunting, and every dollar is I spend is very closely tracked.
The money that US Bank charged me, and will go to some CEO's spiff /1 Million dollar bonus is LITERALLY taking food of my table. I am going to the food bank this week in order to eat.
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