"BEWARE OF THE BANKING FEE SNOWBALL EFFECT!"

 

Hello and Happy New Year to one and all. I know it has been a few days since my last post, but to know me is to know that I can't go to long without something to bring to the attention of the numerous people who grace our planet. So as you can tell by the title of today's blog, something or someone in the banking system set me off today. Yes, I am going to use myself for today's topic. For the past 9 years I have been banking with SunTrust Bank. I have to say, that I am very pleased with how the bank, that used to be called Crestar has made some fantastic changes to their banking products, with the best one being ATM cash deposits that will post on that days business until 8:59pm. Holy Crap that is awesome! Last night was the first night I ever used it and it was FANTABULOUS! As much of my deposits are small amounts of cash here and there for my crafting business. Cash works for me and now it works even better if I get paid after the bank closes.

My gripe is with M&T Bank. My husband opened an account with them about two years ago because the company he works for has an account with them and was told that he should because any employees being paid more than a specified amount, have to have an account to deposit the remaining funds in. For example, say the bank had a cut off that they would not fully fund any checks over $900.00 that anything after that amount had to be deposited. Hum???? I understand that there are employers in this world that don't always have the funds in the account to cover payroll until a large deposit comes in from where it may be coming from, but I've been a teller before and you can see how much is in the account from which a check is being drawn from and if the funds are or are not available to be paid out.

Now, the company my husband works for goes out of their way for their employees and as a courtesy will cash the checks for their employees if they wish. Whoa hold on...Relax, they only have about 20 on the payroll, if it were anything more I'd be yelling hold on right along with ya. Smile. So now, we have the actual company owner going over to the bank and cashing checks, so why in the Hell would a bank enforce a set amount, that clearly all of the paychecks go over, and not allow all the checks to be fully cashed if an employee chose to have it that way? This was a red flag for me, but this really isn't the spark that set my undies a blaze, it was a conversation that I had with Laura, a customer service phone rep about our checking account that had been charged for overdraft fees on an account that was never overdraw until they assessed two $38.50 fees. OUCH!!! AND FOR WHAT!!!!!

Together over the phone we were both looking at our account on the computer. She went on to indicate to me that my check that I had made a deposit with had been placed on a one day hold. Of course you all know what my next response was - WHY!? I was informed that ANY PAPER checks can be held up to 5 working days and that I should consider direct deposit. Why, when this is an account only used if my husband makes more than then the bank will cash in his paycheck and we have four ACH debits for this account - which is an automatic payment that is drawn from our account on a set series of dates every month. Knowing the funds in the account were running lower than usual due to short work weeks for the last three weeks I decided to transfer the funds from my VA deposit in our SunTrust account (That is our primary account for everything under the sun) to cover all the pending payments. But the joke was on me, and I didn't find it funny in the slightest when I got up this morning and saw red numbers instead of black ones for our bank balances in the M&T account. I had specifically asked the teller if the funds would be available the day I had made the deposit if I write a check or should I go to my own bank and cash it first. She assured me it would be available because it was deposited before 2:00pm.  Here's a question for you...do you think what she told me was true?  If you answered yes, you are so very wrong.

But the shocking part still had nothing to do with being overdrawn as my statement does not show that at any time that any transaction that came against our account caused us to be overdrawn, The shocking part is that these so called fee's have been charge against us twice in less than a week, and WE WERE NEVER OVERDRAWN!! Three days ago I had gone in there for the same reason as  today.  That was only one fee and they reversed it as they could not explain why it was there, but as for today’s fee’s, I have already been informed that I was S.O.L. (Shit out of luck) even though there is no reason again for the fees to be there! Lovely hua? Somehow I feel like I have been set up so that the bank can skim some cash from me and I am just some pawn in the whole deceptive plan. Yes, I agree, that was a bit dramatic, OK, so I’m not a pawn, but I Just don’t have a good feeling about any of this and with this economy…something is very wrong.

Of course Laura didn’t say those exact words - that I was S.O.L., her words feel into place like this, “I’m sorry there is nothing I can do for you, Might I suggest going back to the bank where this happened.”  Hum, like I haven’t already tired this? Do you think I like trying to handle matters like this over the phone? I’d rather be face to face with some, then go ahead and try to feed me long lines of BS – good luck. And what makes this worse when you’re being charge $79.00 - getting another $79.00 for two ACH’s that drafted, ten days before they were due, on an account that I didn’t know was overdrawn until after the 2:00pm cut off time so any funds deposited now won’t be available until tomorrow.

Want to know what Laura’s answer was for the new style ACH deception in the world? “I can’t tell you how many customers are dealing with this same type of problem. I get calls about this all the time. Companies are processing payments earlier than when customers have indicated they can be withdrawn from their accounts.” Wow how flippen sad. Her answers were not what I wanted to hear. It all sounded more like one excuse after another with nobody willing to take responsibility that clearly an error had been made somewhere. Needless to say, I thanked her for her time and nicely indicated that I would no longer be doing any business with them. That the account will stay open only because it has to, but the money will be immediately removed after each payday.  

So to all of you out there who entrust the banks to be the guardian of your hard earned money, do your best to check you accounts frequently – daily if it makes you feel better, I know it makes me feel better. Check for fees and don’t take the answer “The payment posted before your check did on the same business day. It is all a matter of timing and the computer is in charge of it.” If you hear that – FIGHT IT! Computers make mistakes, because the computers cannot operate without the information provided by a human hand. If I was the cause that my account was overdrawn, then fine I earned the fee but accounting to my statement, I had enough money to cover all the debits that were posting to my account, yet for some reason the snowball effect took over my account and turn into a raging avalanche.

 

Just watch out for yourselves people, read the fine print and question anything that doesn’t look right, because sometimes the simple mistakes, that you think won’t be a problem, can have costly consequences, that again makes money for your bank. To quote my husband in regards to banking issues like this, “they got to make money somehow.” To me the next thing I will be dealing with is the agonizing math problem in my head that with the $158.00 in bank fee’s that I’m stuck with that at $3.00 for a gallon of milk, I could have purchased 52.66666 gallons of milk or I could have filled my truck up with gas. CALGON TAKE ME AWAY!!! UGHGHGH!!! 

 

Thanks so much for taking the time to read my words as I vented away the negative event of my day. I promise to be livelier in my writing endeavors. Thanks so much for stopping in and keep sending those emails…I love hearing from you. If you have a topic that you’d like me to write about just send it to my email address and I’ll do my best to talk about it.  Until next time – Blog ya later alligator.