REGIONS BANK I'm just another nsf rip off victim Chattanooga, Tennessee
I've been a custome with Regions Bank for a couple years, I've always had my suspicions about their business practices, but this last fiasco takes the cake for me.
Just about everybody now days I'm sure is familiar with how debit/credit cards work, you swipe, the charge usually instantly comes off your bank balance as a pending transaction. If that charge leaves you with a positive balance you are in fine shape right? Well that's what I thought, but apparently it's not so. Another charge comes through that was swiped days before but "for some unknown reason" never came through as a pending charge, it goes straight in as a hard post and puts you in a negative balance. Then, remember your pending charge that has already been pulled from your balance? Well it hard posts right after that charge that put you in a negative balance, and guess what? you get 2 nsf charges, one for a charge you either didn't remember or thought had already been taken from your balance if things were running the way you've gotten used to expecting them to. And the other from the charge that you already knew had been covered.
I tried to get them to explain to me how this was right, and they tried to give me some baloney about pending deposits or something, which is a whole other subject about how banks can not let you at your own money, but whatever. I just know that a charge came through, left a positive balance, another charge came through, left a negative balance, I should only have 1 nsf charge, not 2. Other similar things have happened with this bank but I never looked too deeply into them, just tried to remember to be more cautious, its so much trouble to change banks ya know? I guess they count on that, on us being lazy or too trusting of the institutions we are forced to deal with to do our day to day business. They have too too too much power over our lives and it comes out in the service that I'm sure a lot of us have noticed is not what it used to be.
I just wanted to get this out there, I see there are a lot of other reports about Regions already on here, too bad it doesn't seem to be doing any good.
Thanks for reading. Good luck with your banking endeavors. :-)
4 Updates & Rebuttals
brownsong
culpeper,Virginia,
USA
You can have power
#5Consumer Comment
Thu, February 11, 2010
You say that it cleared and left a positive balance, but what I am trying to get you to understand is that it DIDN"T clear. That is what pending means. Pending means, "We acknowledge this charge, but it has not been cleared from this bank until it is completely processed and off of pending status". Just write everything in your register and you won't have any problems.
I didn't mean to sound harsh. I have been buried in snow for a week and can get a bit cranky at times. I also don't mean to sound like I am a financial guru who has never bounced a check. I have, many times, especially when I was younger but I learned from it. I learned that no matter what, the only way it will work is if I dust off my register and buy a little calculator and record every single transaction at the time that I write the check. (We didn't have debit cards back then) Having debit cards makes it harder because you have to really go out of your way to record it. But with a checkbook, the register is right there, so it becomes a habit to record it. And every month when your statement comes in, make sure to balance it. Directions for doing this are on your statement or online.
I do believe that the banks have made it much harder for young people, or anyone for that matter, to keep a positive, accurate account, that is true. But don't let the banks win. Record, calculate, balance. Then the only one with the power is you. Good luck.
laurab00
Opelika,Alabama,
United States of America
missed the point
#5Author of original report
Thu, February 11, 2010
Yea I did screw up, the charge that put me in negative wasn't what my complaint was about. I didn't think I should have been charged a fee for a transaction that cleared and left a positive balance, no matter how or when the merchant verifies the transaction, the money was there. I think they have a lousy way of doing business and they don't care.
brownsong
culpeper,Virginia,
USA
Keep track
#5Consumer Comment
Thu, February 11, 2010
I have said this before and I will say it again. Maybe one of these people who think they have been ripped off will listen. It's plain and simple. If you cannot write every transaction you make down in your checkbook register, you should not have an account. As long as you refuse to do this, you will have overdrafts.
What happened is this. Your pending charge was not complete, hence the word "pending". That's what pending means. So you call the hotline and it says pending, and you think you have money left, but what really counts, is when the charge completely goes through, and is not pending anymore. When that happened, your other charge had already gone through, leaving you with a negative balance. Then your first charge went all the way through, making your second negative.
Do not blame the bank for charges that don't go through right away. Once you swipe, it's gone, and it is your responsibility to write it down in your register and make sure you don't forget it and subtract it from your balance. If you can not do this the only advice I have is to close your account and pay cash, cause it just won't work. Close it up and forget it. Or stop being lazy. It's your choice.
Robert
Irvine,California,
U.S.A.
Enough with the Victim mentality...
#5Consumer Comment
Wed, February 10, 2010
You are NOT a victim, you caused this by your own actions. What are those actions..by NOT taking PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY for your account.
I guess they count on that, on us being lazy or too trusting of the institutions we are forced to deal with to do our day to day business
- We have a winner..you were LAZY. You were relying on on-line banking that was NEVER meant to replace a written register. There are many reasons that your on-line banking can be inaccurate. One is that the merchant may not even request the authorization when you make it. Either because they do the process in a batch mode at night, or their network was down and they couldn't send in the request. Where if YOU had written down the transaction when you made it you would not have to worry about "forgetting" it. If you never go negative it does not matter how the post transactions.
Now, you will have people posting here that will tell you that in fact you are a "victim". Unfortunatly since they are telling you exactly what you want to hear you will ignore the advise and probably keep doing what you are doing.
They may even go so far and tell you how the banks are changing some of their polices, various class action lawsuits, and how the government is holding hearings on changing the regulations. What they won't tell you is that of the very few Class Action Lawsuits that have gone anywhere the people got enough for about one or two overdraft fees. They also won't tell you that no matter how many regulations the government puts in, it will not keep a person who does not practice sound account management from overdrafting their account.
So you can listen to the people who are going to tell what you "want" to hear, or the people who tell you what you "need" to hear. But think about which ones will actually help you in avoiding these fees in the future.