Tell us has your experience with this business or person been good?
Compass Bank Visa Check Card and NSF Fee Scam Austiin Texas
I am self employed and have both a personal and business account with Compass Bank. In my business, I make numerous purchases on the Internet and particularly enjoy the benefits of using a Visa check card to pay for my purchases. Compass Bank has a 3:00 cut-off time at the bank and 6:00 cut-off time for online transactions. In an effort to maximize my operating funds for business, I tend to keep most of my money in my business account and only transfer money to my personal account as I need to for personal purchases. Regardless of the time of day that I make an online transfer to my personal account, my available funds balance is immediately increased reflecting the transferred funds. If I make a transfer over the phone when I'm away from my computer, the customer service rep each time states that the money will be immediately credited to my account. In reality, this is a costly lie on their part.
Those funds are not available and subsequent purchases can result in $35 NSF fees for each transaction made when a transfer is made after 6:00pm or on the weekend. This may sound normal to some, but when you stop and look at the example below, you will realize that this is a complete scam based on outright lies.
Compass Bank has redefined the words "available" and "immediately"
Webster's Dictionary defines available to mean "present or ready for immediate use" Compass Bank defines available to mean "after the close of the next business day and processing of the books"
Webster's Dictionary defines immediately to mean "without interval of time". Compass Bank defines immediately to mean "after the close of the next business day and processing of the books".
I have asked experiences of both friends and family members with other banking institutions and they all say that their banks truely make transferred funds immediately available. Of course that is based on Webster's definition and not Compass's.
I have asked Compass to correct their online screens that customers use and they say that they cannot. They add that despite their use of the term available that they will not refund NSF fees despite their mistatements. They point to a disclosure that describes their policy in crediting funds. Their actions totally ignores their incorrect use of the English language which they continue to this day.
This is outright thievery and they must be stopped.
Example: I have a $50 book balance. I transfer $200 to my personal account after 6:00pm or on the weekend. Immediately after comleting the transfer, the Compass Bank screen says Balance $50 and Available Balance $250. Now sometime after I have completed the transfer, I go out and make 3 purchases with my Visa check card. 1st - $55, 2nd - $45, 3rd - $50. All 3 transactions are processed connecting to the banks network and are given approval authorizations. At the close of the following business day, my account is now overdrawn $5 and I was hit with 3 NSF fees totaling $105.
In real life, Compass Bank has stolen hundreds of dollars from me when no items were returned and I only had a negative balance after NSF fees were stolen out of my account.