Cortrust bank in South Dakota is preying on your children and those unfamiliar with "new" services. Please supervise your children and the elderly that may fall victim to these practices!
I agreed to help both my children open checking accounts their senior year. I personally write checks for everything. My children however, wanted the new debit cards. I asked several questions about the card, and with my limited knowledge of them, was satisfied the kids could handle having them. Cortrust bank spends alot of money advertising that they do not charge ATM fees, and any ATM fees you may incur are credited back to your account.
After my son turned 18, I removed my name from his account. Never did I open his bank statement, etc. As the point was to teach him responsibility. Then, the overdraft notices started coming in the mail. I asked him several times about these notices. I knew they were OD charges by the envelope they were sent in. Everytime I told him he had an overdraft notice, he seemed surprised and on several occasions he complained about what a rip off the bank was. I personally have never had a problem with them, but... I dont have a check card. I told him I have never had a problem with the bank, but I don't write bad checks either! I just assumed he was not keeping track of his spending.
Last week I did happen to see one of his bank statements laying around and being the "nosy" mom, took a look at it. I could not believe the ATM charges on his account. Obviously, this explains the overdraft charges he has been paying for the last year that he couldn't understand! By the time the bank took out the fraudulent ATM fees, he was indeed overdrawn.
Now, the bank keeps sending overdraft notices, and they tack on another $25 dollars every time. He is now over $500 overdrawn. If the bank really thought my son was overdrawn by that much, why haven't they turned this matter over to the authorities? I see people's names in the paper for bad checks, etc. For far less than this.
How do you overdraw a debit card? How do you overdraw a debit card by $500 when your most expensive purchase was an $80 pair of shoes? I know my daughter at one time said her debit card wouldn't work because a deposit had not yet been credited. This is how I believed the card worked. No money=no purchase! I have also heard of people not having their check accepted at walmart, etc. Where the chekc is an electronic transfer (like a debit card). How on earth do these "debits" go thru if the kid doesn't have any money? And why does the receipt tell them their balance, that is not even true? If I made a purchase and the receipt said I had 50 bucks in the account at that time, I would assume I had 50 bucks! Especially if every purchase I made was with the debit card and there were no outstanding checks against the account.
On several occasions my children showed me the receipts that stated how much was left in the account and then the OD charge. I simply told them to double check, they must have made a purchase they forgot about. I had no idea my local bank of over 20 years would be doing something improper, and it didn't seem to start until after I took my name off his account.
Several times my daughter also complained about the bank, but when I asked if she needed my help with something, she said she could handle it. The difference between the 2 children are my daughter would go right to the bank and get in their face. I had NO IDEA the bank was doing this to my children. My daughter seemed to have her issues handled as soon as they came up, but After a few initial problems with the bank that were cleared up right away, she has had no further problems. I find it interesting that my name is still on her account.
In 20 years, I found one mistake in my account. I added a deposit wrong (two checks) and the bank did not catch it. I myself did not catch it until 3 months later. It was for less than 20 bucks and I didn't say anything about it to the bank. I just double checked my deposit from them on.
Parents... BEWARE! Please do not let your bank do this to your child. I also am so worried about any elderly people this may be happening to! Many places in our town no longer accept checks, only debit or credit cards. I certainly hope my elderly grandmother doesn't have one of these cards!
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