Charter One Takes overdraft fees even when transactions are voided Dearborn Michigan
To Whom It May Concern,
On February 1, 2009 I rushed my wife to the emergency at Oakwood Hospital in Dearborn, MI. During that time she was given 3 shots of morphine and a volume for pain. After watching her for a couple of hours they discharged her. While I was standing her up out of the wheelchair she turned white and fainted in my arms. We had to rush her back in the hospital and it took her 2 to 3 hours to come back to reality.
During the first time there, registration came in looking for payment for out $100.00 co pay. Not thinking correctly I gave them my check card and they left. My wife asked me what I was doing since I was laid off that week prior to this. My mother-in-law, who was with us, offered to take care of it. We went looking for registration and when we found her she had already charged my card. We asked her to charge the co pay on my mother-in-law's card and to take the charge off of mine. A few minutes later she returned with a charge slip for me and a void slip.
On Tuesday, February 3, 2009 I checked my web banking for Charter One and was shocked to see that we were roughly $35.00 negative. Later that morning I spoke to a Bruce at the one eight hundred number for Charter One and was told that I should have called Charter One and had a conference call with them, Oakwood, and myself to have the charge reversed. The reason why we were overdrawn is because the charge came through, but not the void and we were going to be charged an overdraft fee of $195.00. I was also told this is not a bank problem.
The same day my wife and I went to our local Charter One and spoke to Hoodia there. She also said that this is not a bank problem, even though I had the receipts with me and showed her. She made copies and said she will see what she can do and call me the next day. Well no 2 days later and one phone call to her has not produced any results.
February 5, 2009 we receive the overdraft notice in the mail for $195.00. Clearly on the reverse side you can see the charge of $100.00 from Oakwood Hospital. I called Charter One to see why the $100.00 has not posted on the web banking as of yet. I was told that there was a hold of $100.00, but it dropped off and is not being charged.
So my question is if there was a charge of $100.00 and now there isn't should I be charged the overdraft fees? Charter One says yes and this is not a bank problem. Well, who's it then. They seem to refuse to want to work with me and I believe that I have a good case against them with evidence and will be taking them to small claims court over this matter along with Oakwood Hospital if I have to. Maybe then the three of us could have that conference call.
Any help in this matter would be appreciated.
Drew
Dearborn Heights, Michigan
U.S.A.
2 Updates & Rebuttals
Jim
Anaheim,California,
U.S.A.
Yes - The Fees Are Legit
#3Consumer Comment
Fri, February 06, 2009
Your report is an excellent example of why check cards/debit cards are such a problem for consumers. If you use them in the manner you did, you could have funds unavailable to you for several days. Let's also be clear about another thing here: the charge against your card was not an error by the bank - this was an error by the card holder in putting forward a card that had insufficient funds in the account for its use. The fact the funds weren't used is irrelevant; the fact you reserved money is relevant and that reservation is what caused the overdraft situation. Whenever the available balance in your account goes below ZERO - even if the money is not disbursed - you get hit with the OD charge.
Check cards are not the same as credit cards and when you use them without any consideration of their differences, this sort of thing happens. If the bank does ever reverse the charges out - you can profusely thank the person who did so, because they would be doing you a huge favor.....
Andrew
Dearborn Heights,Michigan,
U.S.A.
Charter One has taken care of my problem
#3Author of original report
Fri, February 06, 2009
After making another phone call to my local Charter One and basically telling them that I filed reports with our local news companies and with ripoff report I was told that they would take care of this matter.