Complaint Review: Fifth Third Bank - Naples Florida

the customers wrote a check on Sunday, which was cashed on Monday. They put a non-cash deposit in the bank on Monday to cover it, knowing that it wouldn't clear until Tuesday. Now they want to blame the bank for their mistake.

People, quit trying to "beat the float". Make sure the funds are clear in your account when you write a check. We're not talking rocket science here; it's common sense. 

You made your bed, now sleep in it.  

alright--i know what you did here----your writing checks for funds that are there but not there yet---your not really doing anything wrong but your not doing anything right either-----regardless, this is what banks do so just do what you got to do to avoid it---the following may help

1--take it one day at a time(wait for things pending to clear before another transaction)

2--reduce the amount of transactions(withdraw cash for daily stupid crap)

3--don't spend to the last 0.17 in your account and say but i had 0.17 left(if you follow rule 1 and 2 you can be skilled enough to disregard rule 3)

let's not give the banks what they want anymore----let's all slow down and it may be a better world in general-----ME FOR DICTATOR

I do not get the joke. But I want to. All I read is "ha ha ha " in response to something from back in 2007 and a case link left...."Schulte v. Fifth Third Bank Case No. 1:09-CV-06655"...which is nothing but a date for a hearing scheduled in mid March 2011. Why is this funny? I am really curious. Did I miss something?

Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!

My thanks to you Estyle is for responding. You have my respect just for that. You've done more than others, that's for sure. And your rebuttal is hard for me to argue. I give you credit. You make some pretty rock solid points. Thanks for the wealth of information. Although we're on different sides of the aisle, I respect your position and opinion. One parting shot. I just wish we had employees like you around a few years ago to explain things like this to the Mortgage check bouncers, so your bank and others would not have felt compelled to adopt the new Largest-To-Smallest posting order. :-) Great Post!

Apparently I wasn't clear enough when I posted my last comment, so here's my effort to clear it up. OK, as to the funds availability. The reason that we make the $100 available that day, and then give you full availability the very next day is because the government REQUIRES all banks to make deposits available within 5 business days. Fifth Third has chosen to make the funds available for our customers within 1 day. It is a CHOICE that we have chosen to do as a courtesy for our customers. As I stated before, checks are NOT cash, and we do not have that money from the other banks. We are allowing you to spend the money earlier than we get the cash, again .. AS A COURTESY. As for your statement regarding the funds availability, "Once you do make those funds available on that next day, the damage has already been done from the previous day for transactions that could have been covered it ALL of the funds were made available." The bottom line is, the funds are not in your account, and you should not be spending the money before it's available. Plus most of the time, you've already swiped your debit card the night before thinking you could "catch the float and it would be ok if you make a deposit the next day." Wrong. It doesn't happen that way. Almost everything is being processed REAL TIME these days, and soon it will come to the point where we will be getting money from the other banks that business day. However that day has not come yet and we are trying to speed up the process. If you want full availability to your deposit, go to the bank the check is drawn on, cash it, and then bring the cash to your bank and we will deposit it and it will be IMMEDIATELY available. If you decide that it is too much work, deposit the check, you will then have $100 available, then wait until the next day to make purchases off of the rest of the funds. Going to the other bank is the only way to guarantee that the check is good. Believe it or not, I've cashed a check from my own aunt, never thinking it would be bad and was wrong. You never know about ANYONES check unless you are the one keeping accounting records for them. I guess my question to you is would you rather us put a 5 day hold on ALL checks (which the government will allow us to do) and not allow any access until we get our money, or would you like the funds available the next day? There are banks who are currently processing items this way, First Merit being one I can say off the top of my head. Now why would a bank want to do that. Hmm.. well after taking a $4.1 million dollar charge off for the quarter because of what... you guessed it check-kiting fraud. It's a fact, there are people who try to kite themselves money, wait for the float to fall off of a deposit and then immediately withdraw the whole amount. Then the check comes back bad and the BANKS take the hit from it. Want to know what's even better, if a teller lets them withdraw from their account... you got it.. it goes against them and they will be fired. The whole thing comes down to everyone as a whole thinks the banks are out to get them and yada yada. No one ever really stops to think about the real problem here. As a nation we are so concerned with instant gratification or satisfaction when we want it, not when we can afford it. Most people live out of their means, and this is why overdrafting is such a problem. Overdrafts would not be such a problem if everyone took five minutes everyday and balanced their checkbooks. If you know the money isn't in your account, it's simple DONT SPEND IT. There is absolutely no float time anymore on transactions you make. If you write a check that day, it could come through your account the very same day if the business banks with the same bank you do. Debit card purchases are going through immediately. They may show that they are pending, but the bank has already gave the money to mastercard to pay for what you bought. As for your "ironic find" ... Technically your Mortgage check WOULD bounce if you do not have overdraft.. and YES it WOULD bounce if you don't have ENOUGH overdraft protection to cover it. The thing is, there are so many customers who DO NOT have overdraft protection on there account, which is why there are complaints about the high overdraft fees. We OFFER the overdraft protection, we do not GIVE overdraft protection to everyone. If you cannot meet the requirements of the credit application, then we cannont offer the overdraft protection in that form. However, we can open up a savings account, allow you to put money into that account, and that can serve as overdraft protection as well. Again, the funds must be available in either the credit card or the savings account to pull for overdraft protection. If they are not available, then you will go into overdraft status like everyone else and will get charged the regular overdraft fees, and like I said, if it's too high, your MORTGAGE CHECK that you thought wouldn't bounce.... WILL BOUNCE. I've seen it done to people who have never missed a payment in their life and didn't even remember how much was coming out of their account and then they have to deal with their mortgage company because they bounced a check. ANY ITEM CAN BE RETURNED so "Who do you think you're fooling?" is the real question. I've heard of the best Overdraft protection ever. It's really quite simple, if you can't manage your checking account, you should only deal with cash. If you get a check, take it to that bank, cash it, then pay for everything with cash. Then there's no overdrafting ever. Best plan i've heard of yet. I'm not hear to FOOL anyone. I'm simply explaining the process and hoping that people will understand what's going on. If you have QUESTIONS, then I will gladly help explain them to you so that you don't get caught in a situation where overdrafts ruin your life.

It's always nice to have an actual employee show up once in a while to clear up a few things for us. To Estyle. You state that when depositing checks, you only make $100 available the first day because you don't know if the check is good or not. But you do make it available the next day even though YOU STILL don't know if the check is good. Why is this important? It's obvious. Once you do make those funds available on that next day, the damage has already been done from the previous day for transactions that could have been covered if ALL of the funds were made available. Then after the damage, you make the remaining funds available the next day, knowing full well you're going to get them right back in OD fees because of the previous day. Who do you're think you're fooling? Simple question? When a check deposit is made on Monday, why hold that check and not make it available until Tuesday, even though you yourself state you still don't know on Tuesday whether it's good or not? So if the end result MIGHT be the same, why not just release the funds on Monday? The answer is clear. As for the transaction clearing order. I find it ironic that you ask whether we would prefer our Mortgage check bounce in favor of the McDonald's Happy Meal. The irony is the Mortgage check WILL NOT BOUNCE. Do you know why Estyle? Because of the nice Overdraft Protection you offer in the very next sentence of your post? Again - Who do you think you're fooling?

I work for Fifth Third Bank, and I find that everything you have said misses the point. When you deposit a check, it is not immediately available. We don't have the money from the piece of paper you deposited earlier in the day. We are being nice enough to give you $100 of that check available IMMEDIATELY. However the funds do become available the next day, and 9 out of 10 times, we still dont have your money from the other bank! We are required to make deposits speedily available, from legislation passed down from the government. But the point is we don't have the cash from your deposit, we don't know if the check is good, and if we pay for items coming out of your account, who knows if we will get that money or if you're going to be a charged off account. The only way that a deposit is immediately available into your account is if the deposit is all cash (or the check is less that $100). If you know items are to be coming out of your account then you need to deposit the day before. AND I don't mean deposit on a Saturday if you think it's going to come out on Monday, because Saturday is Monday's business day... As for the "before 4 pm rule". NO if you make a deposit inside of a bank before closing time, it goes into the account that day. If you make it through an ATM it is 2:00p.m. As for the way items clear your account, Deposits go in first * remember cash is cash and checks give you a total of $100 available.. not $100 for each check. Then checks that are coming out of your account come out in the order of largest to smallest. Reasoning behind that, CUSTOMERS felt that they would rather have their mortgages come out first before little checks came out in case of overdrawing and bouncing the checks out. Which would you rather have? A Bounced mortgage or a bounced check for a happy meal you bought at mcdonalds? As for the fees, we do offer overdraft protection. If you chose not to use these products, it's your own personal choice, and the fees should rightfully be yours. Lastly, do you keep an actual register for your account. Where you write down EVERY transaction, checks, debit card purchases, automatic payments, etc? If you don't, PLEASE do. Its so important to keep track of your money so that you don't get charged all these fees. If you need a register, just come in the bank, TRUST me, we'll gladly give you one.

No matter which bank you go to, they will all convert to the policy you've run into; they all are. It has nothing to do with politics, nothing to do with who's President or whatever jibberish you spoke about. It all has to do with profits. The 1st policy change you referred to simply brough 5/3 into line with Federal Regulations that have been in existence for more than 30 years. The President back then was Jimmy Carter - a totally irrelevant fact, but since you think being President of a country has something to do with banking policy.... there you go. Can you see how irrelevant your statement blaming the President for changes in an individual bank's banking policy? In any case, if you deposit any check into the bank, only the 1st $100 is supposed to be available. The remainder is on hold for a period of about 3-5 days, though it normally doesn't take that long to release the hold. The 2nd policy change is something all banks will eventually convert to. Despite what others might believe, all banks will eventually convert to this policy, be purchased by a bank that will convert them to that policy, or they will shut their doors and go out of business. Now, if you want to change institutions, you should try a credit union first - before you change over to another bank. The CU will have better terms for you because you become a shareholder in the institution instead of just a customer. I don't know whether they clear checks like other banks, but they will give you a break on occasion if you incur an NSF. Best of luck to you.

Hi everyone, my first time posting here. Be gentle. I have also been recently scammed (my preferred word) by Fifth Third (F3), as many posting here have. I have also contacted the BBB and went 'round and 'round with them for the past two weeks. Last night, the BBB business informed me they would be dropping my case as the complaint was resolved to THEIR satisfaction (not mine), despite the fact that i had rejected F3rd's "proposal" of no refund, no nothing. Anyway. There are two things this bank (and a few other banks - PNC, Republic Bank, and National City Bank) are doing that I have not seen talked about in the thread above. Here goes: 1. Starting just a few months ago, in late summer of '07, F3 made a critical change with how they process deposits. Basically, unless you deosit CASH (and it must be with a teller, not through the ATM machine), your deposit is limited to ONE HUNDRED dollars until the next day. Did everyone hear that? If you have $1 in the bank, deposit $1,000 from another (local) bank, and a $102 check goes through tonight, the check will bounce. Unfair? Definately. A profit grab? No doubt. The bank's excuse is that there were "a lot of bad deposits" being made. But if that's true, why change now? Why didn't they implement this, say, 50 years ago? I have a theory as to why: because it's still the Bush era, and everyone knows that both the government and large corporations have been running roughshod over the working class for years - and CEO's know that there is no way this president will ever reign in a corporation on his watch. Sorry, I'm rambling. In times past, checks, and even debits that posted while the recent deposit was in "stadby" mode (or whatever they call it) would be withdrawn without a problem, UNLESS your recent deposited check bounced (which has never happened to me). SO, in order to get around this, we must now all head to the bank the deposit was written from, CASH the check, then DRIVE over to F3 with a wad of cash in our hand, and deposit the cash, in order to get around this ridiculous change. It's a security risk for me, as I don't like to carry cash, and it wastes time and gas. But the thing that makes me laugh is, when I'm standing in the other bank, I'm thinking, why do I need to go to F3 when I'm already IN a bank? 2. In spring of 2003, F3 and the other banks I mentioned changed the way they "apply" debits and checks to your account. Here's how: REGARDLESS of the DATE a debit or check was written, IF they arrive to be processed at F3rd's processing center AT THE SAME TIME, F3 will DELIBERATELY process the LARGEST one FIRST. Again, they spin it like "well, it's so that the largest check is less likely to bounce in the event of an overdraft," but the real reason is of course, profit. Under the old system, items were processed in the order they arrived in their processing center. Now, they look at a "stack" of items, and select the largest, as I said. If you are even ONE cent short on the largest item, and have several smaller items, guess what? Overdraft city. Imagine that you wrote some checks to buy some things at the mall during the week. A total of 4 different checks were written. You write your rent/mortgage payment the FOLOWING week - it always takes a while to go through. Come next week, the mall/shopping checks and - oops - your mortgage, hits your account. Under the old system, the 4 small checks would go through, and your rent would bounce (sky high), but you'd only get ONE overdraft. Nowadays, they would put the large item first on purpose, causing - yep - FIVE overdrafts. What's so insidious about this is that when this policy is stacked with the new "deposit" policy, in "1" above, the cumulative chance for overdrafts skyrockets. I refer to these two policies as "Forcing Overdrafts" because that's exactly what the purpose of these rules are - to make a profit, apparently, off of the working poor. I have thought about contacting an attorney on this matter, but he'd probably charge a fortune, which I don't have (otherwise, I wouldn't be getting overdrafts, lol). Maybe there's an agency in town that can help me with this. THE GOOD NEWS! Check around town, you should be able to find several banks (usally smaller banks, not national chains) that do NOT have these polices in place. They handle your money the "old" way, without deposit limits, and without putting large items first. I'm in Louisville, Kentucky, and I found FOUR nice banks that don't do this. I will be switching to one of them as soon as I've got this month's expenses paid. Good luck everyone.

My point was that you seem to exclusively rage against BOA for doing something that EVERY OTHER MAJOR BANK DOES. 5/3, National City, Key, you name it....these people ALL order transactions, hold the posting of checks, and delay online transaction posting with the hopes that overdrafts will land them a fortune. Like ducks in a row, people keep lining up to pay when a little responsibility could save them heartache. Frankly Edward, you are fighting a losing battle here. While I admire your passion, what you don't seem to realize here is the peril that these low-income consumers are setting themselves up for by even having a checking account. People who ride the float or live near the overdraft line will inevitably be done in by it. That is a proven and statistical fact. These people don't need to have checking accounts in the first place, and should be 'cash only' to avoid spending money they don't have - then being penalized further. By infantalizing them through attempting to validate their arguments, you promulgate false hope that they are in the right. However, 99% of the time, the people you are advising are made to pay for their mistakes. Placating them with some sort of Norma Rae rally cry and a high five doesn't change the fact that they will continue to pay for their mistakes as long as they live on the edge...and that legally, banks can continue to exploit them. Anyway, just one man's opinion...

Great point Jim and thanks for the correction! I see where you made the same point earlier, but I didn't consider it. If what you say is true then it would not have helped this OP but then on the other hand, that makes it a different ripoff on its own, as you also state. To Christopher, In a different thread you questioned my motives for only posting on Bank Of America complaints and I responded with the reason why - because BofA is the only bank whose policies I'm familiar with. Now, here you have a perfect example of what I'm talking about. Jim makes a great point and I don't doubt that what he says is true and who am I to argue, because I'm not directly familiar with Fifth Third's policies. This is something that I hear about a lot recently. The fact that a bank would post deposits LAST after all debits and checks! As of the day I closed my account with them, this is something that I never experienced with Bank of America. I'm not sure about how they do things these days. And even now with my new bank, they post deposits first then debits and checks afterwards, same as BofA did. It's one thing if you're talking about debits because some banks post them REAL TIME to the ledger so I can see where some deposits might post after these REAL TIME transactions. But I think what I've been hearing is that when these certain banks do their NIGHTLY PROCESSNG, they gather up all the items, post debit card transactions and checks first (Largest to Smallest), and then deposits last. If this is true then this is a RIPOFF in and of itself and I cannot for the life of me understand why anyone would do business at any bank that does this! Common Sense!

Ed, even if the OP made the deposit before 4PM, the deposit would post AFTER all the checks post; that's the way these crooks run the game. Availability is irrelevant - it's when the deposit posts and in this case, the OP lost the float game. In order to avoid the situation, that deposit needed to be in the bank by that Friday before the truck purchase..... The OP had another option (irrelevant to this situation) which was to date the check on Tuesday and had the seller wait until that date to deposit the check (because you know the bank would not honor the date of the check) - that would have given time to the OP to make the $1,900 deposit. I'm not doubting for a moment the level of inconsistency you describe; just that I don't think it applied to the OP in this situation. The other thing is that these banks disguise these changes in policy by mailing the changes with a bank statement, making the document look like junk mail. The holder tossess the document without reading it and - voila - the bank has effectively communicated the change and the holder tossed the evidence..... Banks suck. Credit Unions better.

Dave and Tom are both absolutely correct. As Tom pointed out, the problems with banks is the lack of consistency. As Dave pointed out, it doesn't matter whether the deposit was cash or check, if it was made before the cutoff time, it should have posted the same day, if this is what has ALWAYS happened before! If this were a cash deposit, there wouldn't be an issue at all. But because it was a check, this is the loophole the bank used to it's advantage. Without further evidence, I'm going to assume this has probably NEVER HAPPENED before with Mary's deposits. I don't know her account history but based on my experience and many other tales from other customers, I'm going to play devils advocate. I'm going to assume that for many years, she has been following a routine and the bank has been as well. I'm going to assume that for many years, she has probably made CHECK deposits before the cutoff time without any of them being held before, EVER. Then all of sudden one day the bank decides to hold a check deposit when it has NEVER done so during her entire account history and the rest is history. Over and over again customers are told to read their Terms and Conditions and follow them WITHOUT EXCEPTI0N. But then they are supposed to accept the fact that the bank can follow them if they choose to but they don't have to! Why, because they carefully include wording that allows them a scapegoat whenever it's to their advantage. In other words, a hypothetical set of Terms and Conditions from the bank might read 'All check deposits made before 4:00pm are posted the same day, but the bank reserves the right to hold a check for 5 business days.' Then this same hypothetical set of T&C's goes on to say 'Even if a customer has had an account for over ten years and has NEVER had a check HELD, we the bank can still decide to hold a check WHENEVER WE WANT, even if the check is from the same PAYER source as the previous ten years when it WAS NEVER HELD BEFORE'. Tom and Dave are both correct. This is the inconsistency, this is the loophole, THIS IS THE RIPOFF!

Checks were converted electronically some years ago, and from what I understand transactions were supposed to happen instantaniously, just like a credit card. There is no reason for a deposit taking that long. The problem I have is that lack of consistency from the bank and they don't tell you how long it will take for a check to clear. I will deposit a check like always and then wait a day or two for it to clear, only to find out that they are holding it for 3 days or seven days. When I call up to ask "what they hell" they say something like, "well this isn't a local check" or your account is in this state and your in that state, or any number of reasons. It should matter because things could happen instantaniously if they chose to do so, or at least at midnight the same day. They want things like this to happen so that they can collect more fees.

Dave is living somewhere over the rainbow. You can cry your case to the BBB, the local news, or to the Easter Bunny if it makes you feel better. No amount of complaining will override the fact that you wrote a check that you did not have the funds available to cover. Jim is absolutely right with his analyses. My advice to you would be to take this as a lesson learned instead of trying to make yourself out to be the victim (which you are not). You lived by the float and ended up sinking like a rock. And FYI...the idea of moving to a credit union is a very sound one. They make their living by keeping members and are much more likely to work with you when you make a mistake than a big business corporate bank.

"On Monday morning my available balance was $2,300.00. I deposited an additional $1,900 into my account. " The deposit, according to this, was made in the morning. And, this isn't a 'conspiracy theory'. Banks DO have software that will maximize their profits by viewing what's in a persons account against what is pending. The software makes the decisions, not the bank, so it's not 'picking' on anyone. It's universal. I am quite aware that a deposit made after 4 will not post the same day. That isn't what the oP is saying. Although, it would be nice if they clarified everything for us.

Again, from the OP: 'Now i find out that a local check I deposit by 4pm on Monday will make the funds not available until 12:01 am on Tuesday making me incur ridiculus overdraft charges. Would have been nice to know of that change.' (again, this has been around for a while now...) Dave, it's not just her check after 4PM on Monday - it's any check deposited after 4PM at least Monday through Friday. Anything deposited Saturday isn't recorded until Monday - cash or not (I deposited about $1,000 cash in the bank on Saturday - it was recorded Monday). In most banks, the weekly cut-off is 2PM and it may be here as well - all we know is that she deposited her check after 4PM. You have to stop with the conspiracy theories; banks don't pick on particular individuals - if they did, banks would never complete their overnight processing of checks and deposits and as a programmer, you should know this. The computer is programmed to run checks first against accounts, NSF processing next, and deposits third. Anyone who lives on the float will die by the float under their policy. Again, this isn't just this bank - it's every bank out there. That's why I tell people to seek out their Credit Union instead of a bank because you as the customer are a shareholder in the CU and the treatment you'd get is likely better. If the bank is nice, they might go ahead and refund a couple of the NSF's but that's about it, because (by their own admission) they were overdrawn by at least $1,800 in their account at the time they wrote the $3000 check for the truck and tried to live on the float. That's what I would do.

Again, from the OP: 'Now i find out that a local check I deposit by 4pm on Monday will make the funds not available until 12:01 am on Tuesday making me incur ridiculus overdraft charges. Would have been nice to know of that change.' (again, this has been around for a while now...) Dave, it's not just her check after 4PM on Monday - it's any check deposited after 4PM at least Monday through Friday. Anything deposited Saturday isn't recorded until Monday - cash or not (I deposited about $1,000 cash in the bank on Saturday - it was recorded Monday). In most banks, the weekly cut-off is 2PM and it may be here as well - all we know is that she deposited her check after 4PM. You have to stop with the conspiracy theories; banks don't pick on particular individuals - if they did, banks would never complete their overnight processing of checks and deposits and as a programmer, you should know this. The computer is programmed to run checks first against accounts, NSF processing next, and deposits third. Anyone who lives on the float will die by the float under their policy. Again, this isn't just this bank - it's every bank out there. That's why I tell people to seek out their Credit Union instead of a bank because you as the customer are a shareholder in the CU and the treatment you'd get is likely better. If the bank is nice, they might go ahead and refund a couple of the NSF's but that's about it, because (by their own admission) they were overdrawn by at least $1,800 in their account at the time they wrote the $3000 check for the truck and tried to live on the float. That's what I would do.

Again, from the OP: 'Now i find out that a local check I deposit by 4pm on Monday will make the funds not available until 12:01 am on Tuesday making me incur ridiculus overdraft charges. Would have been nice to know of that change.' (again, this has been around for a while now...) Dave, it's not just her check after 4PM on Monday - it's any check deposited after 4PM at least Monday through Friday. Anything deposited Saturday isn't recorded until Monday - cash or not (I deposited about $1,000 cash in the bank on Saturday - it was recorded Monday). In most banks, the weekly cut-off is 2PM and it may be here as well - all we know is that she deposited her check after 4PM. You have to stop with the conspiracy theories; banks don't pick on particular individuals - if they did, banks would never complete their overnight processing of checks and deposits and as a programmer, you should know this. The computer is programmed to run checks first against accounts, NSF processing next, and deposits third. Anyone who lives on the float will die by the float under their policy. Again, this isn't just this bank - it's every bank out there. That's why I tell people to seek out their Credit Union instead of a bank because you as the customer are a shareholder in the CU and the treatment you'd get is likely better. If the bank is nice, they might go ahead and refund a couple of the NSF's but that's about it, because (by their own admission) they were overdrawn by at least $1,800 in their account at the time they wrote the $3000 check for the truck and tried to live on the float. That's what I would do.

Again, from the OP: 'Now i find out that a local check I deposit by 4pm on Monday will make the funds not available until 12:01 am on Tuesday making me incur ridiculus overdraft charges. Would have been nice to know of that change.' (again, this has been around for a while now...) Dave, it's not just her check after 4PM on Monday - it's any check deposited after 4PM at least Monday through Friday. Anything deposited Saturday isn't recorded until Monday - cash or not (I deposited about $1,000 cash in the bank on Saturday - it was recorded Monday). In most banks, the weekly cut-off is 2PM and it may be here as well - all we know is that she deposited her check after 4PM. You have to stop with the conspiracy theories; banks don't pick on particular individuals - if they did, banks would never complete their overnight processing of checks and deposits and as a programmer, you should know this. The computer is programmed to run checks first against accounts, NSF processing next, and deposits third. Anyone who lives on the float will die by the float under their policy. Again, this isn't just this bank - it's every bank out there. That's why I tell people to seek out their Credit Union instead of a bank because you as the customer are a shareholder in the CU and the treatment you'd get is likely better. If the bank is nice, they might go ahead and refund a couple of the NSF's but that's about it, because (by their own admission) they were overdrawn by at least $1,800 in their account at the time they wrote the $3000 check for the truck and tried to live on the float. That's what I would do.

Still, even if it was a check, and a LOCAL one at that, there is NO REASON they couldn't post that check immediately, if the customer's account was in good standing with no previous bad deposits. I am assuming that this is the case from what she said. The ONLY reason this happened is because the bank KNEW that there were other checks pending, and chose to hold the deposit until the next business day. And don't try to tell me this can't happen, because I am a 28 year veteren programmer that has been in the financial marketplace for over 23 years, and I know that it is easily done. It's greed, period. TO THE OP: Don't take this sitting down, go to the BBB, Attorney General, and especially the Banking Commission. Tell the bank that you are reporting them to the news media, and the banking commission, and anyone else who will listen if they don't straighten this out NOW. You shouldn't have had any overdrafts, if what you are reporting is correct.

Dave, You need to read a little bit better before you post a rebuttal like that one. Where does the OP say anything about depositing cash? I 'll help you out on that one...NOWHERE. The OP stated, 'Up until recently, if I deposited a local check on Monday before 4pm and any checks came through Monday night, the checks would clear...no charge.' Per her own words, she deposited a local CHECK, not cash. As we all know, check deposits are not immediately available per the Terms and Conditions she signed. But of course, that would require READING and therefore was likely overlooked. No ripoff here...simply a case of writing a check for an amount that was not available in the account. By definition, that is a FLOAT.

Dave, Here is what the OP said: "Now i find out that a local check I deposit by 4pm on Monday will make the funds not available until 12:01 am on Tuesday making me incur ridiculus overdraft charges. Would have been nice to know of that change..." (that change BTW has been in existence for some time now). "Monday night, the $3,000 hit my account along with 5 other checks totaling $1,115 cleared my account. Because the $1,900.00 was not "clear" in my account, they bounced all 6 checks, clearing the $3,000.00 check first and then charging me $198.00 in overdraft fees." She rode the float and sank, and that's the bottom line. All banks that receive deposits after a certain point in the day have the transactions posting the next business day. But as she also posted, Monday night she had a large number of checks posting to the account that put her account into the red, causing the NSF's. It wouldn't have mattered when on Monday she deposited the check - she still would have incurred the NSF's because the deposit is recorded AFTER all checks and NSF's are recorded. I would not be so certain that your situation of depositing cash would not have resulted in the same sort of thing. Since all banks record deposits after cleared checks, your deposit would show as "pending" (my cash deposits do at another bank I do business with) if you do online banking. Pending, in this case, means it will be posted once the checks are posted.

The OP stated that they made the deposit Monday morning. I don't know about Firth Turd, but when I deposit cash in my account in the morning, it is immediately posted to my account, and is immediately available. There should be no excuse why the CASH deposit wasn't immediately credited to the OP's account. If it had been, no checks would have bounced. It appears that Fifth Turd knew the checks were in the system, in process of clearing Monday night, and intentionally didn't post the deposit so they COULD collect on the overdrafts.

At the time you wrote the check for the truck, the true balance wasn't $2,300 - it was at the very most $1,185 (the available balance less the checks that cleared on Monday that you had already written - I don't have your ledger, but from what you wrote in your report - that's your balance). So when you paid for the truck, your actual balance after the check had been written was -$1,815. If you had deposited that check on Monday morning, instead of Monday afternoon, the same thing likely would have happened. The checks would have posted first, and then the deposit. Either way, the NSF situation would have occurred and you'd still have a negative balance at the end of the day. Moral of the story - you can't live on the float anymore. If you can join a credit union, I would do it, and close your bank account. You'd probably get a better shake from the CU than you would from any bank. If you decide to close your account and open an account at another bank, be prepared to have the same thing happen again and again. It might happen at a CU as well, but you might get a break from them once in a while.