Complaint Review: AmSouth Bank - Birmingham Alabama

First of all Mark, I'm sorry to hear about all the fees you were charged. It sounds to me like these were mostly Checkcard purchases you were charged for. Unfortunately, this is common with checkcard purchases when an overdraft occurs. The reason this occurs is that Visa places an authorization on your account for the amount of the purchase and those funds are held immediately. The hold is not removed until the item posts 2-3 business days later, after your bank recieves confirmation from the merchant's credit card processor reflecting the correct amount of the purchase and the validity of the purchase. Since these purchases are holding against your balance, they can cause other transactions posting to your account to not have the funds available to post and when the purchases finally post they drag your account down further with fees. My advice would be to set up overdraft protection if at all possible. Your bank can set up a savings account or credit card to protect your checking account. If the funds aren't available in the checking account to cover an item, they'll debit the funds from the other account and charge a very minor fee, by comparison. If you're unable to do this, you should at least try to keep a $100 or at least a $50 cushion to pad your account in case a merchant makes a mistake or you make a small math error. I know these fees are terrible, but every bank charges a fee for overdrafting an account. I hope this helps. To Rene', you may actually have a legal issue with the problem you were discribing. The bank has to notify you if they close an overdraft account either through the mail when they close it or in the account opening documentation. I've never heard of any other bank closing a (line of credit I'm assuming?) for inactivity of only 6 months. If you haven't been refunded the full amount, I'd make sure you fight this to the top and if they continue to decline your refund requests, I would speak with an attorney. To Faye, I'm sorry to say it sounds like you shot yourself in the foot. Any time you try to float a check, you're risking at least 1 overdraft fee. The vast majority of banks will process the largest dollar transaction first when items are posting to your account at night. For people who want their mortgage check to be covered over their coffee and a muffin at Starbucks, this can be a good thing. For people in your situation, its less than appreciated. The only way to keep this from happening is to not float or post date checks as most banks don't recognize post dating anymore. I hope this information helps, it may not be what you want to hear, but its the truth.

I too, have been ripped off by AmSouth. Yes, we all understand that overdrafts in our bank accounts are our own faults - however, if it is not a continual problem, you would think a bank would work with you. Read on...I made the mistake of "floating" a check to my babysitter thinking it would not be deposited until after I got paid. Well, the babysitter deposited the check the day before I got paid. I was $10 short in my account. So I was charged a $30 NSF fee. AND...I had two smaller transactions that went through and was charged $30 NSF fees for both of those as well. Had the bank simply put the smaller charges through first, and returned the larger check to my babysitter, that would have reduced my fee to one $30 NSF charge. Unfortunately, this happens A LOT. AmSouth customer service has told me that it is up to their discretion to choose what and when to "clear" the account and there is nothing I can do. They make a habit of putting the larger transactions through FIRST, then any smaller ones so that they can collect an NSF charge for each of them. Unfortunately, it's not just AmSouth. All "big" banks practice this same ethic. Bank of America, First Union, all of them. Take my advice and bank with a local, hometown bank or a credit union!!!!

I too, have been ripped off by AmSouth. Yes, we all understand that overdrafts in our bank accounts are our own faults - however, if it is not a continual problem, you would think a bank would work with you. Read on...I made the mistake of "floating" a check to my babysitter thinking it would not be deposited until after I got paid. Well, the babysitter deposited the check the day before I got paid. I was $10 short in my account. So I was charged a $30 NSF fee. AND...I had two smaller transactions that went through and was charged $30 NSF fees for both of those as well. Had the bank simply put the smaller charges through first, and returned the larger check to my babysitter, that would have reduced my fee to one $30 NSF charge. Unfortunately, this happens A LOT. AmSouth customer service has told me that it is up to their discretion to choose what and when to "clear" the account and there is nothing I can do. They make a habit of putting the larger transactions through FIRST, then any smaller ones so that they can collect an NSF charge for each of them. Unfortunately, it's not just AmSouth. All "big" banks practice this same ethic. Bank of America, First Union, all of them. Take my advice and bank with a local, hometown bank or a credit union!!!!

I too, have been ripped off by AmSouth. Yes, we all understand that overdrafts in our bank accounts are our own faults - however, if it is not a continual problem, you would think a bank would work with you. Read on...I made the mistake of "floating" a check to my babysitter thinking it would not be deposited until after I got paid. Well, the babysitter deposited the check the day before I got paid. I was $10 short in my account. So I was charged a $30 NSF fee. AND...I had two smaller transactions that went through and was charged $30 NSF fees for both of those as well. Had the bank simply put the smaller charges through first, and returned the larger check to my babysitter, that would have reduced my fee to one $30 NSF charge. Unfortunately, this happens A LOT. AmSouth customer service has told me that it is up to their discretion to choose what and when to "clear" the account and there is nothing I can do. They make a habit of putting the larger transactions through FIRST, then any smaller ones so that they can collect an NSF charge for each of them. Unfortunately, it's not just AmSouth. All "big" banks practice this same ethic. Bank of America, First Union, all of them. Take my advice and bank with a local, hometown bank or a credit union!!!!

I opened an account with AmSouth early in 2004. I applied for the overdraft protection and got a confirmation that I was going to get $500 in OD protection. I never used this protection as of 10/2004. I always carried a positive balance in my checking account, until 11/2004. In November, I was planning a wedding and as most know it can be costly. I decided to use my OD protection to help me pay off the vendors by the deadlines given. I wrote out $300 in personal checks for bills (had $320 in the bank at the time), and wrote out $480 in checks for the wedding to a few vendors using my OD. Amsouth decided since I did not use the OD in the past 6 months they were dropping it from my account and did not inform me of this. Needless to say, I was overdrawn on my account and also charged $29 per check that I wrote and charged a fee from the companies that I bounced checks with ranging in fees of $15-$30. When I tried to resolve this issue with the bank, with all the attitude and rudeness they could manage to muster up, they told me that I was responsible for the NSF fees and they did not need to inform me that they dropped my OD prtection. Remember this is not the OD that is given out of courtesy, but rather and OD protection I applied for with the credit card to pay those fees. Also in September, I did an electronic check with Amsouth to pay my car payment of $576. They debited the money out of my account, but the company never received the check. I went to the bank asking for some paperwork showing that this check was sent and debited out of my account. This was in order to not be charged late fee's on my car account. They told me they would investigate this and get back to me at a later time. When they did contact me they told me that they could not find the check but they did know that it was not cashed. I asked them to submit a new check and cancel the old check. They stated that I could pay a fee and have the check placed in stop payment. I paid the $25 fee and they issued a new check. In October 2 checks were cashed on my account for the car payment. This did not seem odd at the time since they resubmitted a new check and I also sent in Octobers payment. A week later another debit was taken out of my account for $576, this know became odd. I went back to the bank to question this. They told me that the check that was resent was cashed electronically over the phone as well as the original first check that was supposed to be cancelled that I paid a fee to cancel, and the check that I mailed myself. I asked them why they would pay on a check that was placed in stop payment, they said they paid all checks that come in a phone payments or electronics and cannot be aware if the check is a check on stop payment. I am now 1 month ahead on my car note, but did suffer many consequences of their actions. I not only had to make payment arraignments with other companies I owed, I also had to suffer having my lights turned out due to the fact that I did not have the money that I budgeted into my monthly budget. DO NOT USE AMSOUTH

As a mortgage customer of AmSouth Bank, I steadfastly believe doing business with this institution was a grave mistake! I have maintained excellent credit over the years particularly with AmSouth (and also through their servicer Dovenmuhle of Schaumburg, IL) but upon missing two consecutive payments the bank reneged on an agreement to accept the arrereage and returned a cashiers check stating the the payment was two days late and an additional month was required. Despite my property being sixty percent paid off AmSouth instead commenced foreclosure proceedings. They initially pledged great willingness to amend the loan by a few months and I complied with their request for full financial discloure only in the end to hear nothing from them other than a lawsuit! So basically over a few hundred dollars I can only assume this institution would rather foreclose than work through a simple solution. I am retaining a law firm and may ultimately have to resort to a bankruptcy filing in order to resolve the issue. This bank doesn't seem to care based on their actions and I have reason to believe this institution may be conducting unlawful practices against consumers in other banking practices as well. Again, my advice for what it's worth, steer clear of AmSouth Bank because there are so many other fine institutions to serve with integrity! I would love nothing more than to amend this posting with a positive conclusion, but at present I cannot foresee that possibility. In particular, take note that no Amsouth or Dovenmuhle employee, officer or director has rebutted my former posting!

I was just wondering, how much do you think the fee should be?