Complaint Review: US BANK - Escondido California

Hi,

To all of the skeptics of the US Bank victims:  You are wrong, wrong, wrong.  US Bank by far is the most Predatory Bank in the United States. They completely stole all the money out of my bank account and were charging me for their overdraft protection even after I physically walked into my local branch and spoke with 2 managers and thought I had the issue rectified. They initially reversed the charges because luckily I remembered the manager's name who first reversed the charges. Then the following month they charged me another $300 in overdraft protection and overdraft charges, plus a per diem fee of $8, and a $37.50 per day charge on top of that. So all of you who think you are so high and mighty really need to get a clue and stop calling people names or assuming that because US Bank alledges that the person had overdrawn their account, does not make it true at all. US Bank is scandalous and is still engaging in fraudulent business practices.

Thank you,
Erin V.
Fallbrook, CA

"Is it just me, or is every ROR about US Bank's overdraft policy riddled with spelling and grammar mistakes? I think that proves a very good point: people that overdraft their accounts aren't educated enough to maintain them. They obviously don't pocess the mathmatical comprehension or reading skills to avoid overdrafting. I understand that everyone can't be a genius, but I'd hope they'd be smart enough to know their own intellectual limitations."

Ok, we get that you think this paragraph is some sort of collection of clever quips, as sad as that is, but do you have to cut and paste it in every thread?  We don't need to read it every time.

Is it just me, or is every ROR about US Bank's overdraft policy riddled with spelling and grammar mistakes? I think that proves a very good point: people that overdraft their accounts aren't educated enough to maintain them. They obviously don't pocess the mathmatical comprehension or reading skills to avoid overdrafting. I understand that everyone can't be a genius, but I'd hope they'd be smart enough to know their own intellectual limitations.

The fact banks cut-off transactions at a certain time of the day to the next day should not be considered a delay by the bank. At some point, the bank has to cut off transactions for the next day in order to reconcile the current day's activity. Ultimately, it all does fall on the customer to take care of their own money.

Also keep in mind that the banks themselves will delay transactions as well... We've all seen the reminder; "Transactions made after 3pm, Monday to Friday will be processed by 5pm the next business day". In real world terms, if it's a long weekend, for example, and you're spending with a debit card, those charges will likely not show up on any electronic format (i.e.: online banking site) until that long weekend is over, tehn you'll see a whole raft of debit transactions, all with the same date. So, you may *think* you have, say, $300 on Saturday night, but all the purchases you've made from 3pm onward are waiting in the wings to be honored when "banker's hours" begin again. It can be a rude shock mid-morning Monday when you find out you've overspent. Tracking your own finances with your own register, either paper or on your loval hard drive (i.e.: MicroSoft Money, Quicken, etc.), IS the best way to track income/expenses and be in control of your balance, which is ultimately YOUR responsibility. I do have to agree however that the amount charged for the overdraft fees is EXORBITANT. Unless that overdraft was left to fester over and over and over, thus accruing interest and unpaid bank fees on top. Even then, it'd take quite some time to amass that much arrears. At this point, Ashley has a point; make sure when you open you accounts, you read the fine print, and make sure you aren't agreeing to outrageous penalties and interest that you won't be able to live with. That's your responsibility also.

Chris was right, merchants put holds on funds, if a debit card is used, in excess of the actual purchase amount (meaning a gas station can put a hold on the account for many dollars over what was purchased at the time of transaction and it may take a day or so to clear). In other words, your records may be perfect, every penny spent is recorded in the register and you are not overdrawn. You use a debit card (not a good idea, but people do it) at a restaurant. The restaurant puts a hold on double the amount of the bill and does not take it off when they process it. Your register shows you have a balance of $20, but the restaurant put an additional $30 hold on your account. The bank can (and will) nail you for the overdraft even if the money was never removed. All records indicate your account was in the black. I am not sure if that was the case here in this report, but that is what Chris was talking about when he discussed holds on money (not holds on transactions).

"They are not enough for us because NONE of them are even close to accurate. It's difficult to know your actual available balance when only your own check register shows it. Oh wait, that doesn't show it either because a lot of merchants put holds on things that we have no way of knowing about it makes it impossible for our check register to accurate as well. Do you have another suggestion?" Chris I almost had to take a double-take here. Are you actually saying that a merchant may actually be holding transactions? Because I thought that you believed that it was ALWAYS the "evil" banks were the ones holding transactions so that they could trap the account holder into overdrafting their account. The fact is your register is still the BEST way to maintain an ACCURATE balance. Am I going to tell you it is guaranteed to be 100% accurate 100% of the time...No. There are cases where the bank is at fault, but except for a very very small percentage it is not a bank error but user error that causes an overdraft. When a register is used in conjunction with knowing the banks posting and funds availability it can be very accurate. With a merchant even if they hold the funds for weeks or months your register knows you have spent it. So the rest of the accounting will eventually catch up. Is this inconvinient..Yes. But by trusting your register you know it will eventually be deducted and won't be "surprised" when it does. If your register shows you have $10 and on-line shows $110 does that that mean you can spend another $100 because the merchant did not submit the debit yet? Of course not, because you should know(and would know if it is in a register) it was spent and if you spent another $100 you would know you are going to overdraft. It still amazes me that a small segment of the population, for what ever reason, don't want to take the time to actually manage their account. Instead trying to come up with what ever reason they can to avoid it. Where I bet if you ask these same people, they probably spend more time trying to figure out what is on TV than they do managing their account.

The consumer was already provided the advice to keep a check register, which she did not do. That would be the first warning she would have regarding an overdraft situation. Then she chose none of the other tools to provide her a warning. What she hoped for was a warning by mail or by phone that she was overdrafted. Consider this: Even if she were warned by phone or mail, the warning would have completely misstated the actual problem she was in because of a lack of timeliness. By the time she were notified either by phone or mail, she would likely incur far more in overdrafts than even the bank would know. Accordingly, even online tools lack a certain amount of timeliness. The complaint would then be that the bank could not give her the right information when she asked. Either way, the bank becomes the 'bad guy' in this. The truth is...her register would have been the most timely of all information available and she failed to use it. For her lack of doing anything to properly track balances, there can be no doubt this is her fault.

"I guess the 24 hour call center, the website, the branches, ATM's, text alerts, and email alerts aren't enough for you to check your available balance, huh? Stop blaming the bank, deadbeats. There's nothing 'predatory' going on here. It's your responsibility to maintain the balance, NOT THE BANK'S!" They are not enough for us because NONE of them are even close to accurate. It's difficult to know your actual available balance when only your own check register shows it. Oh wait, that doesn't show it either because a lot of merchants put holds on things that we have no way of knowing about it makes it impossible for our check register to accurate as well. Do you have another suggestion?

I guess the 24 hour call center, the website, the branches, ATM's, text alerts, and email alerts aren't enough for you to check your available balance, huh? Stop blaming the bank, deadbeats. There's nothing "predatory" going on here. It's your responsibility to maintain the balance, NOT THE BANK'S!

Well, I can see both sides here. Yes, nearly $300 of fees for being overdrawn $5.00 is ridiculous. I wont defend that. But it is legal, because it is disclosed in your account terms and agreement booklet. And, any and all od fees can be avoided by opening a overdraft protection account of some sort, either a line of credit, home equity line, credit card, another checking account or a savings account. any of these will result in only a few dollars fees for being overdrawn rather than 100's of dollars.

"Is there any legal resource that can be used to protect consumers from these predators?" Response: Your best recourse is to keep accurate records of all your transactions so that you know precisely what your account balance will be. There are websites that offer free, printable check registers and these will help yoo to stay within your available account balance. Best of all, using check registers are perfectly legal. :)

Yes, its all perfectly legal and detailed in your account disclosure agreement. You should never rely on statements for your balance, only a check book can tell you that.