Complaint Review: Huntington Bank - Internet

If you hate the way banks do business so much, keep your money underneath a mattress and stop the complaining. You people bring this on yourselves; if you sign their account agreement, you are bound by whatever fees they decide they want to charge you. Take ownership of the situation and admit its your fault. Banks wouldn't have NSF fees if people could do basic math and keep a balance on their own. You know when your standing in line @ McDonalds that you have a car payment coming out but you decide that it's more important to eat than to drive and that's the banks fault???? Wow.

You SEEM to know a little about how Debit/Check Cards work, but you should also know that merchants have UP to 30 days to issue a credit when you make a return.

Now let me make this clear, a merchant does not place a "hold" when you use your checkcard, that is an authorization. A hold is when the bank freezes part of your deposit (like a payroll or personal check) and waits for the collected funds. To even get more technical, it's not the merchant, but a financial intermediary (bank, etc.) who acts as an agent for Visa, Mastercard, etc. and the merchant. True, it is the hotel's fault for putting two authorizations, but again, why should an accountholder be subject to NSF fees before any of those transactions clear or post? It's like that movie where they allegedly know you are going to commit a crime before it happens! My former bank waited for posting items to assess NSF fees. And then, I can't get a straight answer from Huntington on when the cut-off on authorizations is. Is it midnight? 2am? 6am? You see the folly in this system? On checkcard refunds, you said the accountholder should wait for the refund to come from the merchant. Wait? Wait for what? Huntington already knew the refund was coming because the card was swiped, just like the merchant knows the money is coming from getting an authorization code. (Yes there are refund authorization codes!) I mean, really, how many times does the refund actually come to the bank when you swipe your card? It's probably close to 100% because it's not really coming from the merchant, but the financial intermediary. But, Huntington makes their accountholders wait because they can enhance fee generation. Next time, I'm insisting on a cash return then depositing the money in my account! According to the way Huntington does their processing, they are using my online balance to determine NSF fees!! I returned some items to a merchant six business days ago and adjusted my ledger balance accordingly. I hardly ever look at my online balance so I thought I was ok to spend some of that refund after 3 business days. Wrong! The refund just showed up today! In this Check 21 environment of today, that lag time is just plain stupid.

I don't knop anything about Huntington Bank, but I do know that the holds which are causing you problems are placed bythe merchant, not by the bank. In your example it was the hotel that placed a hold twice for the same stay... how is this Huntington's fault? They have no way of knowing you didn't have two purchases at that particular hotel. The same holds true for your store return. A bank will credit it as soon as they receive it, it is just one of thousands of electronic transactions they process. But until the merchant generates a return transaction, it cant hit the bank. Finally, you point out the follies of relying on an online balance. That balance cannot accurately reflect pending items, outstanding checks, and possibly, holds on deposited items. The only reliable balance you can spend against is the one you keep yourself in your check register.