Within less the month, TD (Toronto Dominion) Bank (location: New Carollton, MD; Manager: James Baem) deducted $595 from my checking account for overdraft payments and $63 from my savings for excessive transfers. I was charged overdraft fees even when I had sufficient funds in my savings acct and logically money transfer between should've even out my checking acct if it ever went into the negative. The mystery of it all is that this occurred within one month (January 5th, 2015 to January 20th, 2015 to be exact)and upon visiting the bank branch to talk to the branch manager about a refund, I received back only $70 out of a total amount of $658 that was my hard-earned money which they technically "robbed" from me instead of helping me save the money I deposited in their care.
I’ve been very disgruntled and lost all faith in the banking system which definitely is proving to be a means to exploit from middle-class earning people trying to make ends meet legally while undermining them their financial progress. I hope this effort will be productive in putting in an action for refunding or measures that can be put against financial institutions like td bank from continuing to ruin lives of hardworking individuals such as me.
Robert
Irvine,#2Consumer Comment
Thu, January 22, 2015
Let's go after the "easy" one first.
Savings accounts are not meant to be a "transaction" account. As such there are limits on the number and type of withdraws you can have a month. Any amount above that you are charged a fee, now yes each bank handles the fees differently. But they all will charge a fee. So if you have a problem with this, don't contact TD Bank. Contact your Congressman because it is a FEDERAL regulation known as "Regulation D".
So now onto your next misconceptions.
I was charged overdraft fees even when I had sufficient funds in my savings acct and logically money transfer between should've even out my checking acct if it ever went into the negative.
- What ever you consider "logical" doesn't make it so. In order for this to have occured YOU must have given the bank approval in the form of signing up for their "Overdraft Protection". This is where they would have transfered funds from one account to cover another and charge you a minimal fee for each day this was done(generally $5-$10). But this is signficantly less than the standard $30-$40 per occurance you get without.
But it really should never have gotten to that point. It is still YOUR money and YOUR responsibility for managing it. As such you MUST keep a written register. That is every time you make a transaction you need to write it down and subtract it from your available balance. Oh and just as important...then NEVER spend more than you show available. This way there would never have been any "surprise", or even needing to go into overdraft unless you did do it intentionally.
But even if you didn't keep a register, it looks like you had just under 30 overdrafts in about 15 days. Once you started getting these you should have immediatly STOPPED using your account until you were able to get a control over it.
So no this is not the big evil bank making it hard for the "middle class". It is just a case of a person who does not have the faintest idea of how to manage their finances.
Oh and before you go on the "Well I never agreed to this", you did when you opened the account. There was a point where you signed a document(or if you did it on line probably checked a box or clicked a button) that stated to the effect that you read and agree to the terms. Now, whether or not you read hte terms is another matter.
No I do not work for this or any bank.