Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Banking Nonsense-Part I

If you are following my fiasco since the 3rd, you'll know its been rough.

I have debits scheduled to be deducted from my checking account. I also have debit card/savings OD protection. However, the bank can decided what they will pay and what they will not pay if I should  use my debit card with insufficient funds. (How stupid would that be if I knew I was overdrawn or didn't have enough and still used the debit card..duh!)

Also, if I overdraw, they are suppose to first transfer the money from my savings before the OD protection kicks in, at THEIR descretion. I think that is bullshit. Why have OD protection if its at THEIR DISCRETION? To me its like okay, she overdrew or she doesn't have enough, so lets put all the transactions in a hat and pick which ones we will pay.

Here are some of their "DISCLOSURES"
We do authorize and pay overdrafts for the following:
Checks and other transactions using your checking account number
Recurring debit transactions.

The very next line is: If we don't hear from you, we will not pay for the overdraft for the following reasons: Everyday debit card transactions.

Is that confusing or what?

Then it says: We pay overdraft at our discretion, which means we do not guarantee that we will always authorize and pay any transaction.

If we do not authorize and pay an transaction, your transaction will be denied (Obviously!)

Anyway, my insurance was scheduled to be deducted. The minute I saw my disability was not there, I immediately transferred my savings to my checking so the insurance wouldn't kick back. It was covered! It was before the bank opened. You would think I was okay, right? 

WRONG!  My insurance called and told me the bank denied it. I look at my account and I see a OD charge the same day I transferred the money in AND they did not pay it.  What the hell?

I called my bank and told them what happened. The representative who could hardly speak English told me it was midnight the transaction went through and I transferrred after that. I'm like so? She said the fee was because of the OD. I told her I didn't overdraw. I transferred the money! I told her also and I read it word for word but will shorten it here: You have until the end of the transaction day to deposit the money before OD protection starts or charged OD fees.

She says, "But you didn't?" I hung up on her. I was so upset that day and I felt it was a no win situation.  I had enough. I decided to let a few days go by, as I had deposited more money and I would go back and get my 34 back. It made NO sense to me and it still doesn't.

Let me explain my insurance history a little. When I first starting paying insurance as an adult, my parents transferred the policy to my name. It was the same company I have now but different city and agent. Someone hit me and totaled my car. Well the agent at the time called me at my job and harrassed me for months threatening they will cut me off next car accident. I finally had enough, changed insurance companies altogether and vowed I'll never go to that company again.

However, when MyLove and I got together and bought rent insurance together, I figured out if I would put my car insurance I could get a discount  which meant less money out of my pocket so I switched. The first 6 months was mixed up, I didn't get my insurance cards in time, when I changed my name, the corporate office got it mixed up so I was at the office several times highly irritated. It finally got straightened.

So when I arrived at the office, my rep greets me at the door. He remembered my name. Wonder why huh? LOL. I told him my predicament. I had cash on me.

He said in the office they usually don't deal with cash, they only accept credit cards, debit cards, money orders so they won't have to go the bank every day. As I think about it, what do they do with money orders? HOWEVER he saw my wad of bills and said he didn't have any change. So we made a compromise and he took my money and credited my account the difference.I asked him what was the NSF charge since it kicked back. He said, "Its all good. We're not charging you." I wanted to kiss his cute cheeks LOL. 

Stay tuned for Part II.--Interaction with the Bank
















 









4 comments:

  1. I worked in retail branch banking for over 20 years. I can tell you that those disclosures are NOT for your protection but for the banks despite what they tell you. You have to know what they consider a business day because all banks are different. Some business days end/start at 2 in the afternoon and some banks actually do not show you online the real current pending transactions. So if you're looking at your account online, there may be other pending transactions. Believe me, I've see and heard it all considering all the banks I've worked for. I would go straight to the branch manager and threaten to close out your accounts. They live for sales and customers. They will probably refund you a fee if it's the first time you ever had an error. It wasn't your fault the deposit didn't go in. Good luck

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  2. ugh.. credit card companies are just as bad. I paid off 3 credit cards last year.. called in and got my pay off.. and made the payment.. the next month i got a bill in the mail for two of them for interest fees for the time from when they told me my balance till when they recieved the payment. I called the one up and they knew why i was calling and credited my account for that amount.. the 2nd i owed 1.31. they wouldn't budge on it. the chic i talked to pretty much told me to f*off it was 1.31 just pay it. I said you are right its 1.31 write it off. Needless to say it didnt get resolved.. i still havent paid it.. becuase since it is interest- they can not charge you late fee or interest on it and can not take you to collects for it either...

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  3. I don't know what bank you're working with, but I know with Regions you can do transfers online, and they go through automatically, regardless of time.

    Oh wait...I just checked it, and it says the cut off time is 6pm. That's just silly. :-P

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  4. Barb, OT Mom and Girl,

    I emailed you OT Mom :). Thanks.

    Barb: It wasn't MY error. I had OD protection and besides I was within the window of business day to rectified it, which THEY should have done in the first place. I did close my savings. Stay tuned tomorrow.

    Girl: Do I know you? LOL. I was reading your blog last night and I read you had gone to LMSA. My daughter almost went there, her BFF went there. My bank is not Regions. Everything about the bank biz is absolutely stupid and as barb said, it doesn't help the customer..

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