Complaint Review: Wachovia Bank

D,

I seem a little confused???

Why should she have called the bank AGAIN? They told her they would CALL HER after the teller reconsiled. They never called. They never called because when my Mom called they already knew it was the $5 fee but they said nothing!

The $5 was a fee to cash the check. The teller should have said something before cashing the check. She should not have just deducted the money without saying anything! Then no calls would have been needed at all. I could have just went to my bank to cash the check. I wasn't given that option.

My brothers girl was also ripped from wachovia. She used her ATM to get $200 and no money came out so she tried again and the money came out. She got notice of an overdraft and went to the bank. There she saw the bank charged her account $400. She told what happened and was told she would receive a letter after they checked. She received a letter stating there was a malfunction in the machine but the machine reconsiled. She did not get credited the $200 or the overdraft fee. The letter basically said she was lying! She is closing her account and going elsewhere just like everyone should do.

All banks should have a high level of integrity and wachovia has none!

I know that in California and many other states, fines for not having a place to cash their paychecks "without discount" can run into quite a bit. Employers have to decide which is cheaper in the long run.. a few bucks more for bank service charges or fines and penalties to the state. Of course some employers may not care and may factor these in as a cost of doing business. Most do care, as the more fines they assess, the higher they get for multiple violations.

I don't bank in Calfornia (other than my CD and share account at a credit union)..my commercial bank is in San Antonio, Texas and I pay nothing for service charges. In fact, I get rebates for using my check card as well as up to $15 a month in ATM surcharge credited back. Now Wachovia did buy out my mother's bank in Georgia and so far she is okay with them.

I know that in California and many other states, fines for not having a place to cash their paychecks "without discount" can run into quite a bit. Employers have to decide which is cheaper in the long run.. a few bucks more for bank service charges or fines and penalties to the state. Of course some employers may not care and may factor these in as a cost of doing business. Most do care, as the more fines they assess, the higher they get for multiple violations.

I don't bank in Calfornia (other than my CD and share account at a credit union)..my commercial bank is in San Antonio, Texas and I pay nothing for service charges. In fact, I get rebates for using my check card as well as up to $15 a month in ATM surcharge credited back. Now Wachovia did buy out my mother's bank in Georgia and so far she is okay with them.

I know that in California and many other states, fines for not having a place to cash their paychecks "without discount" can run into quite a bit. Employers have to decide which is cheaper in the long run.. a few bucks more for bank service charges or fines and penalties to the state. Of course some employers may not care and may factor these in as a cost of doing business. Most do care, as the more fines they assess, the higher they get for multiple violations.

I don't bank in Calfornia (other than my CD and share account at a credit union)..my commercial bank is in San Antonio, Texas and I pay nothing for service charges. In fact, I get rebates for using my check card as well as up to $15 a month in ATM surcharge credited back. Now Wachovia did buy out my mother's bank in Georgia and so far she is okay with them.

I know that in California and many other states, fines for not having a place to cash their paychecks "without discount" can run into quite a bit. Employers have to decide which is cheaper in the long run.. a few bucks more for bank service charges or fines and penalties to the state. Of course some employers may not care and may factor these in as a cost of doing business. Most do care, as the more fines they assess, the higher they get for multiple violations.

I don't bank in Calfornia (other than my CD and share account at a credit union)..my commercial bank is in San Antonio, Texas and I pay nothing for service charges. In fact, I get rebates for using my check card as well as up to $15 a month in ATM surcharge credited back. Now Wachovia did buy out my mother's bank in Georgia and so far she is okay with them.

Sherri, since you hadn't been back to the other report about people complaining about the $5.00 fee lately, I'm going to cut and paste what someone else wrote there. Some of the information given WON'T have anything to do with THIS post, but I wanted to provide you with his ENTIRE response. I hope you enjoy and understand. Rebuttal UPDATE Employee ..inside information
Submitted: 4/22/2006 2:55:57 PM Modified: 4/22/2006 2:55:57 PM


Guess What dont blame Wachovia

Don't blame Wachovia they charged you. When you company signs up for their account they choose full service or cheap banking. Guess what they want it free. Yes your employer could choose to pay the fee. They could choose a fee based account that isn't simply based on analysis. But they want everything for free too. So why do banks charge you to being with? Well money doesn't grow on trees. And in order to have CASH on hand to pay that check it costs us money. On average its about three dollars per one thousand to have that money sit in our vault waiting for friday when you all come and cash your check. Also no they didn't enter your husbands bank card information that is illegal. They verified the name type and validity and issuer of the card. They enter that in the system, not the number.

Additionally lets say you work for Dell, Dell has thousands of employees. Now if you decide with all the other thousands to bring your checks to wachovia to cash your check then we have lines out the door of our branch and you are taking time energy and effort away from our paying customers. The end result is your company has choosen not to include you when they open your account. They are given the choice. Balme them, use your own bank or learn to deal with it

Allen - Charlotte, North Carolina
U.S.A.


One last thing just to let everyone else know, as of this date, Wachovia DOES NOT have ANY branches in California.

The payroll departments MAY know about it, but they certainly did not authorize the bank to do that, reason being that they could be subject to major fines and penalties from the state labor commissioner, for wages being "discounted", which is a MAJOR no-no. In fact, a few complaints filed against the employer, they will usually call the bank and ask them not to do it and some will find another bank if the practice continues.

The payroll departments MAY know about it, but they certainly did not authorize the bank to do that, reason being that they could be subject to major fines and penalties from the state labor commissioner, for wages being "discounted", which is a MAJOR no-no. In fact, a few complaints filed against the employer, they will usually call the bank and ask them not to do it and some will find another bank if the practice continues.

The payroll departments MAY know about it, but they certainly did not authorize the bank to do that, reason being that they could be subject to major fines and penalties from the state labor commissioner, for wages being "discounted", which is a MAJOR no-no. In fact, a few complaints filed against the employer, they will usually call the bank and ask them not to do it and some will find another bank if the practice continues.

One last thing I forgot to mention, the companys payroll departments KNOW about the fees and authorize the bank to collect the fees.

J, you seem to be a little confused. First things first, if your mother had got in touch with the branch again they might have found that the teller was indeed out of balance at the end of the day. But since she didn't do that, it's a moot point now. Now, the $5.00 FEE that the other reports are talking about here is for NON-ACCOUNT holders (folks who DO NOT have a checking or savings account with Wachovia) who are wanting to cash their PAYROLL checks. They come to this site and b***h and moan about how Wachovia is ripping them off and that there should be a law against it. But they don't realize that it costs the bank money to cash those checks. And when they complaine, I always ask them, then why don't you then just take it you their bank? The answers I get range from "Their bank wants to hold it for a couple of days" which tells me that either is an account less than 30 day old or that they have been doing some "BAD" things with their account. Like writing bad checks. To "They DON'T have an account anywhere". How in this day and age can anyone NOT have an account anywhere? One last thing, EVERY MAJOR bank in the country charges to cash a check from a business. Some will even go as far as to charge to cash a check from a personal account, which Wachovia doesn't do. Some banks even charge $8.00 to $10.00 to cash checks. Have a good day. One last thing. I look forward to any and all responses from people who say Wachovia is wrong by doing this. Even you Ken.

If you did not have an account with them and the check was writen out to you then the bank was actually charging you the fee not your mom.

They should have notified you of the fee before cashing it though.

You should have gone to the bank that you have an account with and there would have been no fee.

Most banks charge the same type of fee.

I hope your mom has or had an enjoyable time at the shore.