Complaint Review: Suntrust - Internet

 beware of the poor miserable disgusting troll stacy....hope people beware of trash like this on ROR...one of the many negative trolls who hang out here retorting nastiness to any poster...trying to put them down or insult them.... every rebuttal you find from losers and imbeciles like stacy or co involves insulting the person placing the report along with extreme rudeness. It is a shame that ROR still allows these freaks here because they are found on most of the reports insulting anyone they can....I wish ROR would ban that stupid thing or do something about its constant negativity and abuse towrads people posting here

Steal your hard earned money!! Oh Wait - you overdrew YOUR account but want the bank to pay for it?? Try again

To the Idiot in Miami - welcome to reality - if you cannot keep an accurate register of your purchase and deposits, reconcile your monthly bank statement and continue to blame the banks then I suggest you keep your money in a piggy bank therefore when the cash is gone whala!!! no overdraft fees!!

 though yes after some OD fees the consumer should take responsibility in some form, of couser that is a given and common sense, but it is just not the consumer's fault. OD fees should not even exist in this form and they shuld not be charging people 36.00 or 35.00 per overdraft transaction this is robbery....this is still the bank's fault...banks shouldnt be having this policy PERIOD....i don't care who claims banks are a right...or what not...as a customer you are giving the bank business, you have your account there, and your money is with the bank. The bank should NOT be taking advantage of people in this way by charging them exorbitant amounts of money for tiny overdrawn transactions or any period. If anythign an overdraft fee should occur as a warning, should be lowered, should be a one time thing on only ONE transaction not multiple ones, and other methods should be used rather than stealign from consumers and this IS stealing from people. I don't care if you are the most careless person ni the world....you should not be charged 200.00 simply because you overdrafted that is ridiculous....yes people should be more responsible but punishing them in this way is not the way to go about doing it. The banks need to take responsibility for THEIR errors--their faulty crappy computer systems that charge people in order of what largest amt they can extract from people, their bad system which is designed to rip people off, and much much more. Let's not keep telling people they aer at fault for a few mistakes they make and have to be punished in excess of 100's of dollars. That is a very unfair system and should not be that way.....because of some small errors in purchasing you are now penalized 100's of dollars--which are given to rich banks that are stealing from hard working consumers...-that is ridiculous and should not be occurring....

I really hope you don't run the rest of your business the same way you monitor your accounts.  If you do, then I can see why it is taking you so long to try and get it going.

Allow me to explain I use my card a lot to make purchases for my business and many of them are under $30 (usually internet related software etc) and I monitor my account online every single day

- You are using on-line to "manage" your account.  There is no control over when they get the debits from the merchants.  Since it is also a "snapshot" of your account at that particular time, it is possible to see transactions disappear and then reappear.  This is why "on-line" banking was NEVER meant to be a primary way of managing your account. 

You MUST use a register, and with a business using something like a simple "off the shelf" accounting program would solve this issue for you.  They have ones specifically for businesses, and there are several decent ones available for under a couple hundred dollars(some well under).

They charged me to decline a purchase I made. Thanks SunTrust!

- Actually thank the numerous people before you who could not manage their accounts either.  They complained so much that the banks are now allowing them to opt-out of the courtesy overdraft.  So now banks seem to be starting to charge people for transactions that are declined.  Of course if you follow the advise to keep a register this fee would also go away for you.

: Now get this. I bring two separate client checks (a few thousand each) into my SunTrust account this week in hopes of buying a few extra Christmas gifts for my 3 boys, but they have placed a hold on them until the 7th of Jan.

- Yes, the are following the FEDERAL Expedited Funds Availability Act.  This is the guidelines that ALL banks follow as to when they need to make funds available.  Since you have what is considered excessive overdrafts they can put an "extended" hold on the deposit.

Some people simply have trouble processing information like this, but it doesnt mean they deserve to be ROBBED like this.

- Bank accounts are not a right.  If some people have trouble processing information like accounts.  Then these people under no circumstances should have an account until they do.  Banks are not baby sitters or your accountant.  Unfortunately there is no competency test for bank accounts, or a more defined rating such as credit scoring that they have for loans and other credit.  If there was either of these, I can almost guarantee that just about everyone who has complained about getting hit with overdrafts would be instead complaining how they can't get an account.

I have also been hit with these crazy charges (though not as much as my friend here) and I've figured out their game (or should I say scam).

Allow me to explain I use my card a lot to make purchases for my business and many of them are under $30 (usually internet related software etc) and I monitor my account online every single day

The problem is that I might make 10 purchases one day, then a few more a week later, and when I go to check my online reports - only 3/4 of them have gone through so the balance they show me is actually much higher than what I actually have

The way they arrange it on the page makes it all seem easy to understand, but the truth is that out of 20 purchases I might make within the span of a couple of weeks, only 15-17 of them are actually processed.

The rest are held until you have a low enough balance that they can bombarded you with charges. Ive even seen charges that appeared one moment and gone the next day, only to reappear later.

SunTrusts online systems have held reporting on purchases for as long as a week and a half! What I notice after is that once my account is low enough - BAM - they put the rest of the original charges through.

I make very small purchases and I've been hit with fees as high as $70+ for a purchase valued under $20 (my web hosting account for instance) because they use this method. I have been trying to start up a small business for almost a year now and I don't have the money to put thousands of dollars into my account, so I try and manage it the best I can.

But with their online tools that's impossible.

Whats even better is when they tell me No we didnt honor the purchase, but you still owe the overdraft fee.

For what? Being POOR?!

If they had paid the charge Id almost understand the fee, but they charged me a fee because I was poor and didnt have enough to pay it.

They charged me to decline a purchase I made. Thanks SunTrust!

This has only happened to me a couple of times (trying to be extra careful), but it JUST happened to me again last week. This makes it 3 times now in one year. This time I realized their trick though. Im changing bank accounts after the holidays!

UPDATE: Now get this. I bring two separate client checks (a few thousand each) into my SunTrust account this week in hopes of buying a few extra Christmas gifts for my 3 boys, but they have placed a hold on them until the 7th of Jan.

Their reason?

Because you have over drafted 3 times!

The teller at the bank said it was because of the amounts (Ive deposited larger checks from the same state mind you), but when I called their office I was told it was because of my overdrafts.

Theyre holding it for 16 days.

This is simply no way to treat the people that help support you.

My point is that YES you are right and its the customers responsibility to keep a register and track everything, but were only human. Just because YOU have a big brain doesnt mean that everyone has the same advantage as you.

Some people simply have trouble processing information like this, but it doesnt mean they deserve to be ROBBED like this.

There are always two sides to every story. Were both just looking at the same story from different perspectives.

You admit you are at fault, and you continue to do the same things every single week...Ummm after the first time most responsible people would actually take a step back to see what is going on and what they need to do to keep it from happening again.

No where in this report do I see where you state you use a register.  Not only do you need a register to keep track of the purchases you made, but also as a reminder of any automatic debits that you have set up.

So in addition to keeping a register you need to do the following.  First cut up the Debit Card, go back to using cash.  At least this way if you overdraft it would only be for the 1 withdraw rather than the several Debit Card Purchases.   Next remove any automatic debits you have set up.  If you think you "forgot" others then you better keep a huge cushion in your account until you are sure they are all removed. 

You may also want to look into if your bank offers you to opt-out of Overdraft protection.  This will then have your debit card declined IF you are currently overdrawn.  Now, this only covers debit card transactions not ACH or Checks.  So even in this case it probably would not have helped you, as the ACH from State Farm would still have gone through.

By the way the reason that the State Farm item does not show as pending is because it was an ACH transaction.  Those are treated exactly like checks in that the amount presented is the final amount so there is no "pending".

Now unfortunately you will have people who will tell you that you are 100% right and did absolutely nothing wrong.  The problem with that is that just like you doing this week after week not trying to figure out what is going on, their attitude will just keep costing you more fees.

If you do move banks and don't change your ways expect the same thing to happen again.