On August 18th my family made a deposit into my bank account around 2 o'clock. The deposit was for $200 Cash. Before the deposit was made I had $198 in my account. My family deposited the cash in the bank and called me to confirm that they had done so. I called Verizon to pay a bill for $250 later on the same day, August 18th. I thought that there would be $398 in my account.
Although there should have been $398 in my account I experienced an overdraft fee of $35. When I looked up the information on Online Banking the $200 dollars Cash was still processing, even on August 19th it still has not posted. My account has not shown me any negative balances.
I called Wachovia, the first thing the representative said when she got on the phone was she wanted to give me great customer service. When I told her my problem, the first thing they said was that the bank and my debit card run off of different systems and the error was on my part.
This confused me, because if the bank obtained my money in cash their accounting should have counted it for that day, and normally check card purchases normally take a day or two to be run.
The Wachovia representative then told me that since the deposit was made in Virginia any cash deposit after 2pm the money wouldn't be posted until the 19th. Although she said that if my family made it in Maryland it would have posted same day until 3pm.
The overdraft fee was of $35. Since I have had a couple of overdraft fees before (most of which were totally my fault and there is no dispute regarding them) I was told that they would only return 15% of the overdraft.
I asked if I could talk to someone else to hear my problem and the representative said she was going to turn me over to a specialist, the call was dropped after 5 minutes. I was very disappointed in how Wachovia handled my problem.
I am a full time student living on my own working a low paying job to survive. Once in a while an overdraft is bound to occur. Although I told Wachovia my situation, they were very cold and uncaring of my situation and they never once offered any extra help or understanding regarding my situation.in my opinion this was not great customer service.
I was a victim of ignorance and accounting. I was always under the assumption that my money would be posted to my account same day if it were before 3pm that has always been what I have been told. I did not know that every state is different. And I cannot see how a check card purchase can be processed faster than a Cash deposit.
When I had that problem, I started talking to family members and friends and they said they have had the same problem. Although I cannot confirm, it seems that Wachovia's accounting is always to their benefit. Purchases are held either several days after the purchase or same day if it will bring you to an overdraft. I have experienced this myself but I always gave Wachovia the benefit of the doubt. Too many people I know are being victimized by these unethical practices.
I beg everyone reading this, if they are debating whether or not to bank with Wachovia to take a second guess and look for other banks.
0 comments