So today I was charge a $35.00 over draft fee by Wachovia for a PENNY...thats right ONE FREAKIN PENNY. Customer service refused to help stating it was not a bank error. I am so fed up with their crap-tastic service. I am done with them and I hope everyone spreads the word that their execellent customer service rating that they advertise is a crock of crap. Seriously $35 buck for a penny. This is the worst bank with the worst customer service ever. I hope one of their "poll" takers call me to rate their service. Not that they will actually use the bad rating but it sure will make me feel better!
why dont you people keep better track of your balances? then maybe you wont have these problems. I have been using wachovia bank for over 10 years. I bring my account down to under a dollar at times, i live paycheck to paycheck as well. and i have never once had to pay an overdraft fee. it is called responsibility of maintaining a checking account!
I absolutely hate this bank, and that is an understatement. I have for the past 3 to 4 months been battling with these losers because their "system" does not "recognize" dates that money post to their account. I deposited (with a bank teller mind you) a total of 660.00 one friday evening and had to wait til WEDNESDAY OF THAT NEXT WEEK AFTER 12' OCLOCK to see it post....to SEE IT because apparently...the "system" didn't read it as available until Thursday. I withdrew 100.00 from my acct after reviewing my account on the ATM that Wednesday stating all my money was available to me. Then Saturday (today January 17, 200 These fools send me a "overdraft protection" statement saying that they took 35.00 out of my savings to put in to my acct because I had no money in my checking acct Wednesday. BULLSHIT! The ATM said I had it, now you expect me to know that your corporate office has errors updating their account and I HAVE TO BE CHARGED FOR IT? CRAP. I called that bank, spoke to some manager (will not include name for security purposes) and I raised ***, and I told her I want all my money - $35 dollars put back in my savings. Here's what this chic says, "we can't just put money back" I said you "can't just take money out!" The *** is wrong with you guys. I HATE WACHOVIA WITH ALL MY HEART AND HARD EARNED MONEY. It isnt the amount its the principle...I asked her how much of a fee their crap *** institution would charge if I withdrew/closed my account. She said nothing. I told her to document that I WILL BE FINDING A NEW BANK and then CLOSING MY ACCOUNT.
IF YOU HAVE GOOD SENSE DO NOT OPEN A WACHOVIA ACCOUNT.
3. Written by Jessica in South Carolina, on 16-12-2008 19:52
It is Decemeber 16, 2008 and I've had one of the worst days ever. I made a deposit a bit after 4:00 p.m. on the 15th at a local ATM of 260.00 and when I checked my account this morning I had overdraft fees of 175.00 from this crooked bank.
I called customer service for an explanation and all the rep could say was that it was my fault for depositng the money after the 4 o'clock cut off! I then stated you mean you are taking 175.00 of "MY MONEY" becuse of a cut off time and becuase your instituition decided they want to post the purchases on hold prior to the deposits! I was livid, all the rep could get her superiors to agree with was a return of 15% of the 175.00, of course I did not accept.
I went down to the local branch and I was a mess, keep a mind that I am a graduate student and I work full time and make less then 700.00 every two weeks. Also, it X-mas time and I had made that deposit of 260.00 for my X-mas trip back home! Well needless to say I went down to the branch in vain becuase the service banker who took care of me didn't offer any help and stated her manager wasn't in that she would take the message and have her manager call me back.
I cried on my way back to work, it was all so fraustrating, I waited all day and nothing, finally at 3:30 p.m. I called the bank and asked for the manager and when she got on the phone I asked if she had gotten my message and she stated that she had not. I went through my entire story and explained to her that it was a slight oversight that I had not realized that there was a cutt off time on the ATM deposit and that it was my X-mas cash. She lectured me on reading the material given to me when I opened the account and stated the only amount she could return was 100.00 dollars, better than the 15% previously offered I accepted.
Her reasoning for not being able to return all the money was that I was previously relieved of NSF fees when I missed the cut off time for drive thru deposits by 15 min 6 months prior to this incident.
After today, I have decided to close my account, they will not keep one more cent of my hard earn cash! Cut off time are ridiculous and I am going to a financial institution that I can trust. I want my money to be there when I place it there! Is that too much to ask for?
I will never advise anyone to bank with them, their insensitive and rude!
I have been banking with Wachovia for 3 years with two business accounts. I lost two contracts because Wachovia was placing holds on my deposits (cash and checks) and I knew nothing about the holds. It took me to lose these contracts to finally make a decision to choose another bank. I should have left months ago because I have had many other problems with Wachovia. I search at least once a month to see if anyone is having the same complaints I have about Wachovia. It is really devastating to see all of these complaints and it appears that we can do nothing about them. Will someone please assist me with this question. How can we all file a complaint against Wachovia and its practices? Does anyone know? Please submit suggestions to I have read most of the complaints and some people really have a legitimate complaint and we do have several witnesses.
I have so much to say very bad about this company and its business practices. I have expressed this in an email to the company which, I know will do very little, from the blogs Ive seen. This company just does not care about anyone or anything except their investors and the all mighty dollar.
Wachovia's practices regarding NSF fees are getting out of hand. Here's the rundown:
Prior to Friday, 6/20, I made three small purchases ($7.76, $7.72 and $4.90). The balance in the account prior to making the purchases was $24.16.
On Friday, 6/20, at 4:45 PM, I made a deposit of $600 at an ATM. The receipt showed an available balance of $103.78 (the original $24.16, minus the three purchases, plus the $100 made available immediately for ATM deposits). I also called Wachovia to verify this amount and was told that yes, $103.78 was the correct amount.
At 5:20 PM, I went to the grocery store and spent $44.26. Later that evening, at 8:16 PM, I went to the store and spent $32.29.
The next morning I checked online and found that I had been assessed $105 in NSF/Unavailable funds fees. According to Wachovia, these fees are the result of the three small purchases being made after the holds for the $44.26 and $32.29 purchases had been placed on the account, but before the deposit had been credited.
One of the rationales offered by Wachovia for all this was that there are different cutoff times for deposits and purchases. That is, any deposit made after 3:00 PM would be credited as of the next business day, whereas a purchase made after 8:00 PM would be debited as of the next business day. However, holds against debit card purchases are immediate. This means that the holds for the purchases brought the available balance into the negative, thus justifying the NSF fees, even though the actual posted balance was still $3.78. In addition, the $100 that is made available immediately for ATM deposits is for cash withdrawals only and does not apply to check card/debit card purchases.
So, according to Wachovia, the sequence of events was:
Purchases of $44.26 and $32.29 made against account via VISA check card. These funds were put on hold against an account that had a balance of $24.16, bringing the available balance to -$53.39, even though the posted balance remained unchanged.
Deposit of $600 made. $100 of that made available immediately, pursuant to Wachovia policies for ATM deposits. This brings the available balance to $46.61 and the posted balance to $546.61. However, since the available balance applies to cash withdrawals only, the actually available balance at this point for debit card purchases is still -$53.39.
Purchases of $7.76, $7.72 and $4.90 posted against this negative balance, bringing the available balance to -$73.77 and the posted balance to $3.78.
NSF/Unavailable funds fees of $105 assessed against the account, bringing the available balance to -$178.77 and the posted balance to -$101.22.
However, the actual sequence of events is:
6/18/2008: Three purchases made for $7.76, $7.72 and $4.90. Holds placed on the account, bringing the available balance to $3.78 and the posted balance to $24.16.
6/20/2008: Three purchases from previous day posted to account. Available balance and posted balance are both $3.78.
6/20/2008 4:45 PM: Deposit of $600 made at ATM. $100 made available immediately, which is reflected on the ATM receipt. A subsequent call to Wachovia customer service verifies this. At no point is it mentioned that the $100 applies only to cash withdrawals.
6/20/2008 5:20 PM: Purchase made at Genuardi’s grocery store for $44.26.
6/20/2008 8:16 PM: Purchase made at Acme grocery store for $32.29.
6/21/2008: Checking online shows the $105 NSF fees. A call to Wachovia (over an hour on the phone) gets only lengthy explanations as to why the fees are justified, and an offer of a courtesy refund of 10% ($11) of the NSF fees. This offer is refused.
6/23/2008: A visit to a local branch and a discussion with the bank manager, resulting in an offer of a refund of ½ of the NSF fees ($53.00). This offer is accepted, even though I am not at all happy about it. When the branch manager is told that we will be closing the account and taking our business elsewhere, the response is basically “So what?” (NOTE: this is not a direct quote).
To summarize, Wachovia has perfected the art of collecting usurious fees from its customers by tweaking their definitions to avoid violating the precise letter of their own customer service agreement. By any reasonable standard, the fees charged against us are not in any way justified, yet we spent three days arguing with Wachovia in order to get only half of them returned.
Wachovia’s practices cannot legally be defined as fraud, as they have covered themselves by putting this in the fine print of the “Welcome Package” we got five years ago (it’s our own fault for allowing this document to be in our basement when it flooded two years ago … assuming, of course, that we still had it after moving three times). This allows Wachovia to take the legally defensible position that we were notified of these practices beforehand and entered into a relationship with them with eyes wide open. However, these practices are definitely not designed in the interest of maintaining good customer relations.
If you are currently a Wachovia customer, my advice would be to run, not walk, away from them as fast as possible. If you are not, but considering it, then think again.
It's called an overdraft protection account...they'll still nail you for at least $5 a pop but that's a lot less than $35! We lost our overdraft protection account because we were unable to keep the balance above the required amount and an accounting error on our part, in the amount of $64 caused over $800 in overdraft fees in one day! When I called them in tears I was given a credit of $130. Better than nothing I guess but I was hoping for a little more forgiveness since we've been faithful customers for over 7 years...but hey, greed is more powerful than compassion in this industry and Wachovia is all about filling their pockets in any way possible...even if that means charging ridiculous amounts for overdraft fees. I think their should be a cap on the fees than can charge!
Comments
Comments (9)
These fools send me a "overdraft protection" statement saying that they took 35.00 out of my savings to put in to my acct because I had no money in my checking acct Wednesday. BULLSHIT! The ATM said I had it, now you expect me to know that your corporate office has errors updating their account and I HAVE TO BE CHARGED FOR IT? CRAP. I called that bank, spoke to some manager (will not include name for security purposes) and I raised ***, and I told her I want all my money - $35 dollars put back in my savings. Here's what this chic says, "we can't just put money back" I said you "can't just take money out!" The *** is wrong with you guys. I HATE WACHOVIA WITH ALL MY HEART AND HARD EARNED MONEY. It isnt the amount its the principle...I asked her how much of a fee their crap *** institution would charge if I withdrew/closed my account. She said nothing. I told her to document that I WILL BE FINDING A NEW BANK and then CLOSING MY ACCOUNT. 