- Report: #323680
Complaint Review: Wachovia Bank - Atlanta Georgia
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Wachovia Bank
Buckhead Loop, Atlanta, 30188 Georgia, U.S.A.
Phone:
404-995-8740
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Wachovia Bank Double fees are legal?? Atlanta Georgia
Just the facts here...
Friday, 3/21/08, $135.66 in my checking account; Friday, 3/21/08, hit with -$175.00 in overdraft fees -- FIVE in total @ $35.00 each. No more transactions take place on Friday - no transactions show that cause the overdraft. Close of day I am -$39.34 overdrawn for what appears to be no reason.
Monday, 3/24/08, SIX transactions totalling $204.11 come out of my now overdrawn account and I am hit with another -$210.00 in overdraft fees -- SIX in total @ $35.00 each. No more transactions take place on Monday. Close of day I am -$453.45 overdrawn.
Yes, that's right...SIX transactions, FIVE of which LEGITIMATE. ELEVEN overdraft fees. When I had $135.66 in my account to start with.
When I asked for an explanation over the phone, the girl told me that what I was seeing was inaccurate online and that the online statement would make sense after a couple of days when it updated to reflect accurate information, hence, the information she was seeing. I have waited now a full week. Nothing is going to update because nothing in what I was seeing was incorrect. I took the printout into the branch and the financial services manager explained to me that no, there was no bank error.
Wachovia may charge a fee for a transaction on Friday when the transaction "hits", and then again on Monday when it "posts."
This means I paid $73.00 to park at the doctor's office; $74.55 for a movie at Blockbuster; $76.34 for a beefy cheesy taco and Sprite at Taco Bell; $81.00 to mail Girl Scout cookies to Grandma from Georgia to Virginia; $123.31 for my daughter's $53.31 prescription for being sick; and, $195.91 for $125.91 in groceries.
How is this legal? This can't be legal.
Cldircks
Woodstock, Georgia
U.S.A.
Friday, 3/21/08, $135.66 in my checking account; Friday, 3/21/08, hit with -$175.00 in overdraft fees -- FIVE in total @ $35.00 each. No more transactions take place on Friday - no transactions show that cause the overdraft. Close of day I am -$39.34 overdrawn for what appears to be no reason.
Monday, 3/24/08, SIX transactions totalling $204.11 come out of my now overdrawn account and I am hit with another -$210.00 in overdraft fees -- SIX in total @ $35.00 each. No more transactions take place on Monday. Close of day I am -$453.45 overdrawn.
Yes, that's right...SIX transactions, FIVE of which LEGITIMATE. ELEVEN overdraft fees. When I had $135.66 in my account to start with.
When I asked for an explanation over the phone, the girl told me that what I was seeing was inaccurate online and that the online statement would make sense after a couple of days when it updated to reflect accurate information, hence, the information she was seeing. I have waited now a full week. Nothing is going to update because nothing in what I was seeing was incorrect. I took the printout into the branch and the financial services manager explained to me that no, there was no bank error.
Wachovia may charge a fee for a transaction on Friday when the transaction "hits", and then again on Monday when it "posts."
This means I paid $73.00 to park at the doctor's office; $74.55 for a movie at Blockbuster; $76.34 for a beefy cheesy taco and Sprite at Taco Bell; $81.00 to mail Girl Scout cookies to Grandma from Georgia to Virginia; $123.31 for my daughter's $53.31 prescription for being sick; and, $195.91 for $125.91 in groceries.
How is this legal? This can't be legal.
Cldircks
Woodstock, Georgia
U.S.A.
1 Updates & Rebuttals
Edward
Dallas,Texas,
U.S.A.
The Legal Question Hasn't Been Tested
#2Consumer Suggestion
Fri, April 04, 2008
I agree with you about whether or not this can be legal. But keep in mind as long as a business tells you up front, IN WRITING that it's going to do something a certain way, and you sign and agree to it, yes that's legal. But that's where I question the legality of this practice, the fact that Wachovia DOES NOT tell you up front, in writing about how this process works. After you read and sign your Deposit Agreement, Wachovia opens your account for you and hands you the Schedule of Fees. This document list THREE different fee types charged (1) NSF, (2) Overdraft, and (3) Unavailable Funds. You have never heard of the Unavailable Funds Fee so you refer back to this document about WHAT IT IS and HOW IT WORKS. Good luck with finding your answer and that's legal question NUMBER 1. Then after you find out from someone how it works AFTER THE FACT, or after the damage, you find out they charge this fee based on transaction HOLDS. When you swipe your card and that SWIPE overdraws your Available balance you will be charged a fee. No problem so far. The problem occurs when you're charged DOUBLE FEES as you correctly label them in the OP. This is because Wachovia does not POST transactions at night based on the POSTED Account Balance. They POST transactions at night based on an ADJUSTED balance which you never see online or on your statements. Each night, Wachovia takes the Posted account balance from the previous night's processing. But BEFORE they start processing your transactions, they first subtract your outstanding HOLDS. This yields the new ADJUSTED balance. And from this ADJUSTED balance, that's what they use to do your nightly posting. You get charged a fee for the card swipe which overdraws your Available balance. But while that card swipe is still pending, Wachovia FIRST subtracts the HELD transaction from your Posted account balance and this causes OTHER, previously made transactions to overdraw the Posted Balance when they post. This is how you arrive at the DOUBLE FEES. Had Wachovia not deducted the outstanding HOLDS from the Posted balance first before doing the nightly processing, the OTHER transactions would have rightfully cleared the Posted balance. And I thought the Posted balance reflects the balance of your account after transactions have POSTED. So why do they FIRST subtract HOLDS from the Posted balance, before they do the nightly processing? And where do they say this what they do in the Deposit Agreement, which is legal question NUMBER 2. Most other banks that I'm familiar with, and I'm sure you will agree, THEY ALL post EXCLUSIVELY from the Posted balance when they do nightly processing. Because Wachovia starts with the Posted balance, THEN subtracts pending holds and THEN they start the nightly processing, this is how you end up with DOUBLE FEES. And that's the ripoff here - The undocumented nightly posting process using the 'ADJUSTED BALANCE'.
