Complaint Review: Sun Trust Bank - Summerfield Florida

First let me tell you that in over 30 years of having checking accounts, I have never had an overdraft or nsf situation. I have never paid a bank fee for either. Here's what works for me.



1. You MUST keep an ACCURATE checkbook register. NOT optional.

2. When you use your debit card, or when you write a check, IMMEDIATELY deduct it from your available balance.

3. When you make a deposit, DO NOT add it into your available balance until AFTER it is posted and shows as available on your online banking. Now write it into your checkbook, and add it into your available balance.

4. NEVER rely on anything but your checkbook register to determine available balance.

5. Never initiate a transaction that you do not have available balance to cover.



If you do all of these things, you will NEVER pay another nsf or overdraft fee again.



Discipline is all it takes.

For Robert - you must have posted yours the same time as I was.  Yours was not showing when I sent my rebuttal.  It appears we were on the same wave length!   

No one ever reads the Rules and Regulations their banks provide at account opening.  I can assure you - this is NOT a conspiracy theory your bank has out on you!  Your debit card transactions hard post depending on the merchant and how they run their transactions - some can take up to 3 business days to hard post - which can actually be up to 5 calendar days. 

Your bank was not saying "Quick!  Let's hurry up and clear this check (that she forgot about) so we can get one over on her!"  You see, December 24th was on a Saturday.  Monday December 26th was a bank holiday for Christmas.  The absolute soonest a debit card transaction could possibly hard post would be December 27th.  The average time for a debit card transaction to HARD POST is 2 business days.  In your case, that would make it December 28th!!!   hmmmmm....

I work at another large bank and can tell you that if you review your account activity (that you can actually use to balance your checkbook!) you will see a history of your debit card transactions clearing between 1 - 3 business days.  Especially if you ran it as a credit (did not use your PIN). 

Is it really the bank's fault that you forgot you wrote a check?  And you "know for a fact" that the check was "not even sent to the bank until the 28th"???  Well, I guess THAT explains why it CLEARED on the 28th!!!  Mystery solved! 

The conclusion:  You wrote a check and post dated it - (actually a bank can honor a post dated check, as it is an agreement between YOU and the PAYEE that is negotiable when the check is signed).  Before it cleared, you spent the available funds that were reserved to pay the check.  While those transactions are pending, the check hits your acct. 

Tell everyone about your negative experience - but you may just embarrass yourself.  The same thing would have happened a most of the other big banks.

I had transactions presented as debt transactions from Dec 24th. which should have cleared with no problem
- They "should" if several things happen.

First of all the 24th was a Saturday, Banks DO NOT post transactions on weekends, so the earliest it would have posted is the next Monday Night.  However, last year Monday was Christmas Holiday so that means that it wouldn't post until Tuesday night(27th) at the earliest.  Yes this means that EVERY single debit you made until Tuesday at the cut off time gets posted overnight on Tuesday.  However, it sometimes takes the merchant 1-3 business days to actually submit the final debit.  So this means it may not be until Wed when the debits get posted.

A Post-Dated check means nothing.  They can present the check earlier than the 28th, so if it was deposited anytime from the 24th to the 27th it also probably posted overnight on the 27th, giving you overdrafts on the 28th. 

Next, you may be opted-in to "overdraft protection".  You had to actually "opt-in" so it would be intentional.  So if you are opted-in you need to go into your bank and opt-out.  When you opt-out if you do not have enough currently available in your account when you use your debit card at a Point of Sale or ATM it will be declined.  keep in mind that this ONLY applies to your Debit Card, the bank still has the option to pay or return unpaid any Checks or ACH transactions..and charge you a fee.

Now, you made the comment that you "forgot" about the check.  Well that screams that you do not use a written register.  So when you go into the bank to Opt-Out, be sure to ask them how to keep a written register.  Then every time you make a transaction or write a check you can write it down and NEVER forget it again.