Complaint Review: Wachovia Bank - Roanoke Virginia

Personally I don't really like Wachovia... which is why I don't use them. lol HOWEVER - a good tip to remember when using debit and managing your account is *do not wait until AFTER you make your purchases to check your account balance* - this produces nothing but oopses. If you plan on making numerous purchases, or think you MIGHT make numerous purchases, regardless of the amount - and know your balance is around or below $50-$60... check your balance FIRST and estimate how much you should have remaining after each purchase... that 2.12 from mc d's i would have rounded to 3 and subtracted from your balance...the ONLY problem this method will produce is you will have spent less than you accounted for... and that's a GOOD thing. It ensures you do not exceed your end balance and go into overdraft. Secondly... a very basic fact about using debit is that *not every place that takes debit runs it in the same amount of time* - it could take a day before that purchase even hits the bank, or it could be listed pending or being held immediately - it VARIES from place to place. In turn... this also means that your purchases most likely WILL NOT always be handled in the order they have been made - some go through faster, some do not. And this is not the bank's fault. Simple point here is pay more attention to your finances and if you HAVE and the bank is truly at fault... then complain. But otherwise, you should probably just take some steps to have a little more care with your own finances as they are first and foremost your responsibility regardless of where they're currently being housed.

If you had a checkbook register, you wouldn't NEED more than 2 columns! Additions and subtractions! That's it! Woo h*o, easy as pie! Subtract ALL your deductions as soon as you make them, whether or not they post or clear immediately is NOT the issue. You promised to give some merchant that money at that date and on that time. Subtract it from your balance THEN, not keep checking the computer to see how much float time. Add in your deposits immediately if they are made before the cut off for the day. Add them in the following business day if made at ATM or after the cut off. With those 2 columns, you should NEVER have a bounced check, or be assessed a fee. Remember, darlin', that you PROMISED to pay someone at the time of the transaction, so don't keep checking your balance to see if it's posted to the bank yet. Consider it money taken out of your pocket and GIVEN to the person you gave your debit card info to or wrote a check to. As for you running a bank, LOL, I think you'd be bankrupt in no time flat with your creative accounting methods and many columns for "posted", "pending", "possible" "ATM deposits", "In person deposits", "Mailed deposits", "Deposits before the cut off time", "Deposits after the cut off time", "Holiday and Weekend Float Periods" and so on and so on. I'd certainly like to read your book, however, it will make for a humorous read!

They always say "you need to keep a register"... guess what I do and Wachovia still assesses you NSFs since they reorganize your charges from highest to lowest and (sometimes) uses your posted balance instead of available balance to post to your account... that will create NSFs in your account. Now, keeping a register will save you from penalties but registers don't have multiple columns, one for posted, pending, and so on. So, how in the world are you, the customer, to know what the bank is going to do to your account when it starts cleaning your charges...? Another thing. Someone here said, "Don't use your debit for small purchases?" What? Wachovia all so happy to accept small purchases... why? That is the whole Way2Save campaign! They want you to use your debit as much as possible and each transaction you have $1.00 transferred to a savings account that will pay you 5% interest!! WOW! What a savings account... most only pay .25% or .75%! Just another way to mess up your register and get assessed more NSFs. They use the "courtesy waiver" department to "show the government" that they have a heart and will forgive mistakes... but not all. Why?? They make $90 million dollars a year on NSFs alone... WOW! Let's start a bank together! Then, the money we generate from our venture can pay off Wachovia...

Amanda, There is no rip off here. This is just another case or poor financial management. Here's why. First of all, it is obvious that you do not keep an accurate checkbook register. You MUST keep an accurate register to avoid nsf fees. This is not optional. If you were keeping an accurate register, you would not have overspent at the store, right? FYI..Funds must be available at the time of the transaction. Read and understand your funds availability policy you agreed to when you opened the account. This is common practice now at most banks. The days of floating transactions are long gone. And, making an ATM deposit is a very bad idea if you are in a hurry for the item to post. It can sometimes take up to 3 days for an ATM deposit to post. Also, using a debit card for multiple small charges is just asking for trouble! Like that $2.12 at McDonalds. You should use cash for small transactions like this. It would be almost impossible to keep an accurate checkbook register when making multiple small transactions unless you carried your checkbook with you all the time. Whip it out at the McDonalds checkout! That's just silly. Learn how to properly manage your account and stop looking for someone else to blame. Take responsibility for your own actions, or lack thereof.

I hate to hear the problem you have had but maybe I can be of some help. I saw that you stated you deposited the cash via the ATM. Was this after 4pm, as this is the cutoff for a deposit to be posted to the account the same day. I would have recommended going to a branch as they post cash deposits immediately. The other option you could do, if you have two accounts is to just electronically transfer the funds to cover the ovd online. I don't usually go over yet my wife did the other day and I was able to move the funds over from my account to her account to cover the overdraft without any penalty. We all make errors and I am also sure that if this is the first occurance and you have been with the bank for some time the branch manager should at least be willing to refund one if not both of the fees on this one time occurance.