Print the value of index0
Wells Fargo Bank 4pm Cut-off Overdraft Scam Excessive Overdraft fees, deceptive deposit policy, fraudulent dates on transactions. Ripoff Pahrump Nevada
Wells Fargo has done it again, taking deposits on one date, and counting them as happening a day later because of a deceptive (ought-to-be-illegal) date change that occurs after 4pm. I'm sorry, but if the bank has my money at 4:30pm, then a transaction goes through at 11:59pm, they cannot then say at 10am the following morning that I have to pay them an overdraft fee of $34. Here's the scam: you deposit money after 4pm on a certain date. The bank counts it as occurring on the following business day. You buy something on a debit card or something that evening, and it counts as that exact date. A purchase made after 4pm counts as the exact date, while a deposit made after 4pm does not get processed until the following day. This way, they take your money (in advance) then lie about when they received it so they can extract an overdraft fee from your account. In many cases, the overdraft itself (since it is a whopping $34) will cause another overdraft and so on and so on. Even though the date is CLEARLY wrong on the deposit, Wells Fargo refuses to waive the overdraft, claiming that it was not a bank error. Well, I say that no matter what their "account contract" states, a date cannot be legally changed to another date. I specifically asked Tammy Phan, of Orange Phone Bank, "what do *you* think would make my bank pay, rather than return unpaid, a $734 check that would cause my bank to go hundreds of dollars in the negative?" She would not answer the question. She dodged, stating the corporate bank policy that "because we can choose to do so." I didn't ask whether they could choose to do so or not, I asked why they would choose to do so. The answer is that they KNEW they had already collected my deposit to cover the item. They collected the money, but counted it as having been collected the following day in order to collect an additional overdraft fee.
They do not call the changing of a date a "bank error" because of some legal technicality that they have in their contract with the consumer, and they will only refund dollars due to "bank errors." Your error, and mine, is banking with Wells Fargo, a corrupt, money-thieving scam of a bank that should be run out of business.
Ron ferraro
Pahrump, Nevada
U.S.A.
4 Updates & Rebuttals
Chazworth
LA,California,
U.S.A.
Disceptive practices desguised as buisness procedure
#5Consumer Comment
Mon, December 28, 2009
Did the same to me!
And piled fees on top of fees after i tried to pay off the fees and they kept slipping a new one right under the time limits! even after i canceled the accounts they kept fee piling and calling ten times on a Sunday to harass me! I told them to stop calling and they refused and would not cancel the accounts! They would not listen and repeated there rhetoric like checked out drone monkeys! I told them i will abandon the account!
Who do these people think they are? And why do they get to get away with it?
It was like paying protection money to the mafia!
DO NOT DO BUSINESS WITH WELLS FARGO ON ANY LEVEL!
In my opinion they are a rip off lying cheating corrupt corporate entity!
Bairn75
Providence,Rhode Island,
U.S.A.
Cut-offs have a Purpose
#5Consumer Comment
Mon, August 27, 2007
First off, I want to clear the air by stating that I'm not an employee of Wells Fargo Bank nor an ex-employee, but I have worked in a couple major banks on the branch level. It's unfortunate that the representative you spoke to gave a "that's policy" answer to your problem. If you contacted the call center of this bank, most likely the employee has never been in an actual branch and doesn't know the real reason for many policies on the branch level. (Judging from the types of calls we received, we often wondered what kind of training the phone reps were receiving).
The purpose for cut-offs in a large bank is not to make life difficult and steal your money. Many people do not realize that the transactions received by customers at the branch are NOT processed in the branch! They are batched and sent to a processing center where they are run through a machine and/or keyed in by data-entry. Because of the enormous work-load, banks have a cut-off time when tellers begin batching the last work of that business-date and reset their stations to the next business date.
This is to ensure that transactions for that date are efficiently processed and credited. Also, it should be known that there are fewer processing centers to bank branches and that these processing centers are not only doing your bank's transactions, but may have other banks they processs. They have all the regional branches of your institution plus all the regional branches of other banks as well.
Before consumer demand continued to push the hours further and further out, banks would close at 3 or 4pm and the issue that you are experiencing would not have existed. For banks that do close at this time, there's no need to do a cut-off. When you walk into your branch, you should look around the counter in front of your teller.
If that teller has "cut-over" for the day s/he should have a sign stating that your transaction will count towards the following business day. If you notice that other tellers that do not have this sign, it's likely that they haven't batched for the day and if you are polite, they are often very happy to take your transaction if it's imperative that it be counted for the same business day.
I hope this helps.
Nighthawk
Cincinnati,Ohio,
U.S.A.
Recommendation to avoid NSF fees
#5Consumer Suggestion
Wed, August 22, 2007
Many of the larger banks are enhancing overdraft fee income by using one or both of these techniques:
1) Debit Card and other electronic activity is "deducted" from the account balance the moment the bank knows about it, even if the item takes a few days to clear. The bank has authorized the transaction, so they are on the hook for the money. Anytime you draw on those funds, they're gonna ring the register.
2) The availability of deposited funds is reduced by "float" -- that is the bank won't credit you for the deposit until they get the money. If you're being paid electronically though, there is no float. In most cases for deposits of checks the bank collects from the other bank in 1-2 days, but that availability is not always passed to the customer.
The best way to avoid this trap:
1) Use cash or checks and avoid debit cards.
2) Check the website -- pay attention to the available balance - not the ledger or account balance. A $1000 deposit may show as $1000 ledger but only $100-200 available.
3) Find a small local bank or credit union and move your account. They tend to be less sophisicated and work off ledger (actual) balances.
I hope this helps.
Sarge
Maple Lane,Indiana,
U.S.A.
overdraft
#5Consumer Comment
Sat, August 18, 2007
I see what you are saying but unfortinatly all banks do that, most always they will have the deposit date on the reciept and the date the funds are available its a system that none of us average joe's will ever understand or will ever get a straight answer. take it as lesson learned. they have you on the fees because using your debit card is the same as writting a check except faster. I had to learn the hard way too. always check your reciept. the bank that I bank with has signs posted when funds are available. the banks will also hold any checks deposited that is over a certain amount until it clears on the other end I learned that one the hard way too. but it only made me smarter.