Complaint Review: BBVA COMPASS BANK - Birmingham Alabama

Some suggestions:

Take some personal responsibility. $60 in fees is one thing.  $6k in fees means you have no one to blame but yourself. 

Stop going off of the online "available balance".  It's never accurate. 

Keep a check register AND reconcile it every day.  I'm assuming you know what "reconcile" means. 

And if you don't want to keep a check register, than you're not responsible enough to have a bank account.  Work off of cash instead. 

Live within your means.  No eating out.  No Starbucks.  No beer.  No movies.  Food, gas, car & house payments should be it. 

To many bank defenders surprise...and without calling the poster names or being a condescending d****e bag...I do have to ask..

How do you get so many fees?? I know once I was aware of the banks tactics..I never overdrafted again..well at least not with intent..a defective ATM machine and a restaurant tip "hold" got me..I did recover the fees from the bank however on both accounts due to persistence.

The saying "fool me once, shame on you..fool me twice shame on me" comes into play.

Why did this ever happen to you more then once? Maybe you should give more detail since others here just assume you are an idiot..I on the other hand would give the benefit of a doubt until I know more.

OK, everyone makes mistakes and overdraws. Most of us only do it once, figure out how it happened, and then it never happens again. How on earth did you keep repeating the behavior such that they got you for SIX GRAND????? Didn't you think after the first time (or few) that maybe you were doing something wrong? Whoa....

Mud:

You should not be allowed to have a checking account.  When the bank shows you the available balance on your computer, the bank assumes that you have NO MORE CHECKS OR DEBIT TRANSACTIONS OUTSTANDING.  Do you comprehend what that means.

I will try to simplify this for you.  It means that the bank has no idea that you may have 4 or 5 additional transactions you made in the last week or two that have not yet been submitted yet.

In your case on Friday you had a available balance of lets say 300.00, but you wrote 150.00 worth of checks, and debit transactions on Monday and Tuesday (earlier in the week), and then you spent 250.00 over the weekend. 

the bank shows that you had 300.00 to spend, but in fact your balance was actually 150.00, because the bank did not know about your 150.00 in checks and debits  Too bad for you.  You should have kept a check register, and reconcilled your bank balance every time you check your balance on line.

In regards to your deposit, Bank Policies state any deposits made after 2:00 pm will be posted the next Business Day.  Saturday is not a business day, so your account would be credited on MONDAY!!!

Stop blaming the bank for your mistakes.  Reconcile your checkbook on a daily basis, as you cannot manage your money properly.  $6000.00 in NSF Fees?  Dang, how stupid can someone be..... 

If you have paid that much in fees...it means you are consistently doing something wrong..which is trusting your bank. DON"T EVER TRUST THE BANK.

The online statement is with INTENT, deceitful and unreliable...why do you think they use the term "available" when funds are actually NOT available??? So you go about spending YOUR money..and then they take it ALL and then some.

So you need to learn the way your bank operates..and take defensive actions.

One way is to opt out of overdraft "protection" all together..as that is also an extremely deceptive term. What did it protect??? Go on..tell us..what did it protect?? And when combined with the re-sequencing and manipulations and holds etc...is why you are getting fleeced.

The good news is..due to the many many many complaints..and pressure from congress..and pending law suits..the banks are starting to make some changes to give US the choice on how to better protect our money...

Now if you were opted out of OD protection..even if your statement says funds are available...if they are actually UN available..the transaction will be declined at point of sale..or at an ATM..saving you a potential bundle in excessive fees.

Here is what is happening so far..more will come...

Copied from recent news reports...

Last week, Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, U.S. Bank and Wells Fargo said they would no longer automatically enroll customers for overdraft protection.

Here is a breakdown of the proposed changes:

    * Bank of America will eliminate fees for customers if overdrafts are less than $10 within one day. BOA will also collect no more than four items of overdraft per day (previously it was 10 items per day).
    * J.P. Morgan will stop charging fees for customers if overdrafts are less than $5 in one day.
    * Wells Fargo & Co. plans to stop charging fees if overdrafts are less than $5 a day and also plan to collect fees on no more than four items per day.



Regions Bank on Thursday became the latest bank to ease its overdraft fees and policies, as federal scrutiny intensifies over the programs.

However, the Alabama-based company said it will continue automatically enrolling customers for overdraft protection the key practice that has come under fire in recent months.

Committee Chairman, Barney Frank (D., Mass), and Senate Banking Committee Chairman, Christopher Dodd (D., Conn.), are both planning to push legislation to change bank overdraft policies, such as requiring banks to request permission before enrolling customers in overdraft programs. The Federal Reserve is also considering strong restrictions on overdraft fees - this could be finalized by the end of the year.

Effective during the first quarter of 2010, U.S. Bank will:

    * Eliminate overdraft fees when a customers account is overdrawn by less than $10, regardless of the number of overdraft transactions that may have occurred.
    * Limit the number of overdraft fees to no more than three per day.
    * Offer opt out ability to customers who prefer that the bank decline or return any transaction on their account, whenever possible, when they are presented against insufficient funds.
    * Continue to offer free mobile, email and Internet banking alerts to customers so that they can become more aware of their available balance and manage their spending accordingly.
    * Provide new customers the ability to opt in to overdraft privileges with U.S. Bank. This choice allows customers to define how they prefer transactions to be handled by the bank when there are insufficient funds in their account.
    * Establish an annual cap on the amount of overdraft fees that can be assessed on any single account at the bank.


So..the ball is rolling. And I hope we don't have to save the banks asses anymore with our tax dollars. If those deadbeat bank executives don't pay theirs bills..they should be put in jail.

Because of banks and their greed and/or manipulation of the Check21 law...Congress has a bill getting ready to be passed to not allow the highest deduction first..ie..to not allow 21 NSF's on the lower amounts charged.

In my opinion, the USA banks have blatantly defied the Check21 law passed by Congress which was passed because banks were taking a week or longer to deposit the funds in consumer's accounts from checks deposited.

They now have terms such as "foreign" deposits meaning a deposited check from another banking institution...which they will not deposit timely as compared to a check deposited by you drawn on your bank.

Electronic banking has been around for decades, and banks have reaped billions of interest over that period by delaying giving you your money for a week or so.  Now they just manipulate the laws Congress passes to their benefit...until Congress is forced to close the loopholes.