Jim
Anaheim,#2Consumer Comment
Fri, January 16, 2009
The fact you have overdraft doesn't prevent fees from being incurred if you take the account balance into the negative. It only means the bank will allow you to spend additional money (read their money) - without having the account stopped or placed on hold. Obviously, you then have to pay them back, plus the fee associated with the transactions incurred while in overdraft. From a fiscal perspective, overdraft only makes sense if your bank is going to cut you off the minute you get past zero. Otherwise, overdraft is worthless because you're only going to incur the fee anyway. BTW - if you went to other branches and they told you what you wanted to hear, why do you suppose they all told you that? They all work off the same operating system, so how would one branch treat your transaction differently than any other one out there? Answer: they don't. So why do they tell you what you want to hear? Because they want your account - it's a sales dupe. I don't know where your freelance checks are coming from, but a 3-day hold, depending on the size of the check, may not be unreasonable. It may be unreasonable as well - but there seems to be insufficient information either way. What I will tell you is that the bank has a max of 5 days to clear your check and if they're within the 5 days - it is considered reasonable.
Sid Icarus
Palno,#3UPDATE EX-employee responds
Fri, January 16, 2009
The uncollected funds fees you mentioned are ridiculous. You hit the nail on the head as far as how they work. If you do not have funds in your account to cover the cost of an item clearing your account, your fine, OD protection will cover it. However, if there is a deposited check that is floating on the account, the item will override the OD protection and you will be hit with an uncollected funds fee. However, the news here is that is not a new Capital One Bank policy. The uncollected funds fee was part of the North Fork banking system. I don't know for how long it was a North Fork policy, I was never able to get a straight answer from a NFB legacy rep. Its also worth mentioning that internally Capital One Bank refers to itself as Bank North and Bank South. Bank South being made up of mostly formally Hibernia Bank branch locations in Texas and Louisiana. Bank North being composed of formally NFB branch locations. I mention this because the uncollected funds fee was a NFB invention that was carried over during the conversion and only applies to Bank North customers. Bank South customers do not have such a fee and their OD protection functions as you would expect. I thought it was the stupidest thing in the world when I first heard about, and it is, but it was not a Capital One Bank policy, it was an NFB policy.