Complaint Review: US BANK - Avalon California

"US Bank is ripping people off! 2 months ago I opened a savings account and I asked if linking your savings account will eliminate overdraft charges to your saving account. Sylvia in customer service said yes and she will link my savings account with my checking. HA! the lies start. On June 12th I noticed that I had alot of overdraft charges in my account. Over $300.00 in overdraft fees were charged. Now I know how to balance a check book and I new that I was short in my checking but I had no worries because I had way more than enough to cover it in my savings that was supposely linked." If you know how to balance a check book and you know that your short I don't see why anyone wouldn't transfer the money with Customer Service, online, etc because we charge $5 per item that the transfer covers, not to mention these transfers do count towards the RegD limits and could subject you to more fees. The largest problem as indicated below is that we can not link an account if the signers on both accounts are not the same, this has stemmed from legal issues between signers. Though having used the same system as the people in customer service for some time I do know that the system will refuse to link accounts with the same signers and it is done "online" meaning that they get an immediate response, so I find it unlikely that this has occured, but it is still possible. "So I call up the 1800 # and they gave my my balance in my savings and it was still all there. Then she gave me my balance in my checking and I was very overdrawn. I asked how can this be? She stated my account was never linked. So I went into the main branch and spoked to Lori the branch manager they stated that my account wasn't overdrawn and there was still money in my checking and I informed here that when I opened my savings account that I asked it to be linked with my checking and per the 800 # they stated that the account was never linked. Lori the branch manager stated no problem she would take care of it right away and sent me on my merry way. LIES!!" I'm just a little confused why did you not ask 24 Hour Banking to link the account and remove the overdraft fees, it seems like you just asked and hung up? I'm just wondering because it seems like most people would demand they be linked at this point and again being done online means that they would tell you right away that it failed to complete. "On June 22nd I called the bank to see what check cleared and I was informed that I had a overdraft charge and again spoked to 800# and they told me again my account wasn't link together. Now I getting upset. I go into the bank to find out why again that my account is not link and I have several overdraft charges.I spoked again to Lori the bank manager and she said she doesn't remember the conversation but no problem. She told Sylvia to credit my account from ALL the overdraft charges and told her to find out why my account still wasn't linked. After she carefully viewed my account she realized that my husband was not on my savings like he is on my checking and that is why. I told them no problem I will bring him down to be added and she said the credit for the overdraft charges will all be credited back today. Now, me being stupid believe them and guess what happen they only credit me back a few of them and of course expecting that they would honest and that I had that money back and of course received more overdraft charges again." At this point why haven't you transfered any funds yet, you've called the number several times and been into the bank but all the while the account is still negative, and without transfering money, even if we remove all the overdraft fees you would still be overdrawn unless you transfer money and you would get more overdraft fees because as they told you the account wasn't linked still. "I went to the bank today and talked with Sylvia and found out they are only allowed to credit my account a certain amount and I have to call the 800# to talk to them about the rest. So I called the 800# and explained what happened. They put me on hold to confirm this with Lori the branch manager and came back on the phone stating that Lori explained to me that my husband had to be on the account the day I opened the account.LIE! and on top of that they told me that my Lori is closing my account!!!! So I called the Branch manager LORI and asked her what is going on? She said she told me when I first opened the account that my husband needed to be on it! What!!! I opened the account with Sylvia(never told me this) and when I talked to you a couple of weeks ago prior to this you never told me this and you said no problem that you would make sure that it gets done. Now you closing my account!!! Lori says that she credit my account $100'S of dollars in the past for my mistakes and (now basically I am being punished for their mistakes and she is closing my account.) YES IN THE PAST I OVERDREW MY ACCOUNT AND PAID IN THE PAST YEAR $3000.00 IN OVERDRAFT CHARGES." $3000 in a year is in no way just a result a few tiny mistakes, that's 80 fees, or 80 items, on the hundreds of accounts if not thousands seeing something about 10 fees is rare but 80 is just insane. Something else has happened here. "When I first opened this account I thought is was like other banks. I was wrong. I live on Catalina Island and they do it very different here. The hours varies from the cut off time to put the money in the account, so if you get to the bank to deposit your check after 2pm and sometime 3pm or if the weather is bad 12pm it won't be credited to your account for 3 days. So I of course found out the hard way and had to pay alot of money in overdraft charges. When I first went into the bank and she explained the reason for the overdraft charges because I was new she did reverse some of the charges off. BUT this time it was not only Sylvia but Lori's LIES and wrongful information that caused me this problem." Thats is not true, cut off times are the same everyday and only vary if the branch is closing early but the cut off time would not be earlier then the normal cut off time, and even in adverse weather conditions where the courier may be unable to pickup the proofs your deposit would move into a status called holdover where in it is waiting to be processed but due to the way our system processes it acts as if those funds are fully available and does not charge overdraft fees. "So, its the only bank here on the Island and I work here and live here on the Island and the company I work for mails me my paychecks and they don't offer direct deposit, so I am screwed. The bank manager treated me like I was some low life scum that didn't deserve the time of day. Now I had plenty of money in my savings account to cover my overdrawn checking. That wasn't the point, she wouldn't even talk to me at a professional level and said when I can come up with the money she will reopen my account, dismissing all that she did and hung up on me."Wow. I AM SORRY FOR ANYONE who is sucked into this mess. I don't quite know what to do from here. I know that I don't keep the best records, and that is why I wanted to have a savings linked to my checking account, I feel that I am not at fault for this and feel they way that I was treated was very unprofessional. I am human and make mistakes, like everyone else and paid for my math keeping on my account in the $1000's of dollars, but this time I feel robbed and no where to turn any suggestions would be helpful:)" I'm very sorry that you have no other banks or credit unions to turn to, if your company does not offer direct deposit you may consider using Bank By Mail options that many banks have including US Bank and that would give you the option to bank with other bank or look for a bank that will allow you to scan checks in like USAA would allow so you don't even need to send anything off the island.

Here's the deal. Even of you link the accounts, it won't avoid the overdraft situation; all it does is effect a transfer between checking and savins so the account won't go negative. Banks turn around and will charge you a fee equivalent to the OD fee for the automated transfer service. So technically, you don't overdraft; you have a account transfer fee. Banks are limited to what they will offer you in refunded overdrafts; let's be also very clear. They don't have to refund you a penny if you overdraft the accounts you have. They can certainly lose you as a customer, but like you sort of said - just how many banks have branches in Avalon? Not many, though there are a few of them. Just what exactly is the bank's incentive right now? You're not going to take the Catalina Express to San Pedro or Long Beach just to bank! The best thing to do is not overdraft - that's obvious. Do not be lulled into a false sense of security thinking you're fine simply by linking the accounts. Keep hubby under control with the debit card and you'll be fine.