Complaint Review: Home Federal Savings

I am a disabled veteran living in Idaho. Last summer, when my VA Disability Compensation started, I opened two bank accounts with Home Federal Savings in Nampa, ID.
One of these was a conventional checking account. For some reason I was pursuaded to also open a "money market" account.

As I used the "money market" account for various purchases. naturally, the balance went down until it reached a "magic number" where Home Federal "blind sided" me with a "service charge" which put the account into a negative balance. They then started charging an additional $5.00 per day until they closed the account.

My only income, the VA Disability Compensation is direct deposited into the checking account, and Home Federal had made some sort of report of the "money market" account negative balance that prevented me from opening another account elsewhere.

On January 3, 2003, I was notifed that Home Federal had seized money from the checking account to pay off the "money market" account, despite 38 U.S.C. 3101(a), which provides that "veterans' benefits payments made to, or on account of, a beneficiary, shall not be liable to attachment, levy, or seizure", displaying a total disregard for Federal law.

If you are considering opening a bank account with Home Federal. please consider taking your business elsewhere, if you already have such an account, please consider closing it. If you are a member of a veteran's organization, such as the American Legion, VFW, or Disabled American Veteran's please make certain your friends are aware of this issue.


Ron
Nampa, Idaho
U.S.A.