Striderq
Columbia,#2UPDATE Employee
Fri, May 09, 2008
as was explained by the other employee. In the OP it states "Wachovia charged me $70 overdraft fee when I have over $5,000 in my account. Their customer service tried to tell me that it was due to charges made on June 15 and 16th. They tried to say that I didn't have enough money in the account and the the $4,986 didn't clear yet. However, not only did I have other money in that account to cover the charges; but they actually put those amounts on HOLD".' By doing the math ($5000 balance minus deposit hold of $4986 leaves available balance of $14). If you used your card to spend more than $14 dollars and had two items post, then you would be accessed two $35 fees for the $70 dollars. A deposit hold can be placed when the item is deposited or during nightly processing. If you make a non cash deposit (especially if your account is new or you have had multiple overdrafts) it is in your best interest to make sure the money is available to you before using it. By this I would recommend to wait until the day after you see it posted on your account and then ask a teller or customer service representative specifically 'is there a deposit hold?'. If they say yes through the say 18th, that means your money will be available after processing for the 18th. This means don't use that money until the morning of the 19th. I'm sorry to hear you went through this situation and I hope this explains what happened to your account.
Striderq
Columbia,#3UPDATE Employee
Fri, May 09, 2008
as was explained by the other employee. In the OP it states "Wachovia charged me $70 overdraft fee when I have over $5,000 in my account. Their customer service tried to tell me that it was due to charges made on June 15 and 16th. They tried to say that I didn't have enough money in the account and the the $4,986 didn't clear yet. However, not only did I have other money in that account to cover the charges; but they actually put those amounts on HOLD".' By doing the math ($5000 balance minus deposit hold of $4986 leaves available balance of $14). If you used your card to spend more than $14 dollars and had two items post, then you would be accessed two $35 fees for the $70 dollars. A deposit hold can be placed when the item is deposited or during nightly processing. If you make a non cash deposit (especially if your account is new or you have had multiple overdrafts) it is in your best interest to make sure the money is available to you before using it. By this I would recommend to wait until the day after you see it posted on your account and then ask a teller or customer service representative specifically 'is there a deposit hold?'. If they say yes through the say 18th, that means your money will be available after processing for the 18th. This means don't use that money until the morning of the 19th. I'm sorry to hear you went through this situation and I hope this explains what happened to your account.
Striderq
Columbia,#4UPDATE Employee
Fri, May 09, 2008
as was explained by the other employee. In the OP it states "Wachovia charged me $70 overdraft fee when I have over $5,000 in my account. Their customer service tried to tell me that it was due to charges made on June 15 and 16th. They tried to say that I didn't have enough money in the account and the the $4,986 didn't clear yet. However, not only did I have other money in that account to cover the charges; but they actually put those amounts on HOLD".' By doing the math ($5000 balance minus deposit hold of $4986 leaves available balance of $14). If you used your card to spend more than $14 dollars and had two items post, then you would be accessed two $35 fees for the $70 dollars. A deposit hold can be placed when the item is deposited or during nightly processing. If you make a non cash deposit (especially if your account is new or you have had multiple overdrafts) it is in your best interest to make sure the money is available to you before using it. By this I would recommend to wait until the day after you see it posted on your account and then ask a teller or customer service representative specifically 'is there a deposit hold?'. If they say yes through the say 18th, that means your money will be available after processing for the 18th. This means don't use that money until the morning of the 19th. I'm sorry to hear you went through this situation and I hope this explains what happened to your account.
Striderq
Columbia,#5UPDATE Employee
Fri, May 09, 2008
as was explained by the other employee. In the OP it states "Wachovia charged me $70 overdraft fee when I have over $5,000 in my account. Their customer service tried to tell me that it was due to charges made on June 15 and 16th. They tried to say that I didn't have enough money in the account and the the $4,986 didn't clear yet. However, not only did I have other money in that account to cover the charges; but they actually put those amounts on HOLD".' By doing the math ($5000 balance minus deposit hold of $4986 leaves available balance of $14). If you used your card to spend more than $14 dollars and had two items post, then you would be accessed two $35 fees for the $70 dollars. A deposit hold can be placed when the item is deposited or during nightly processing. If you make a non cash deposit (especially if your account is new or you have had multiple overdrafts) it is in your best interest to make sure the money is available to you before using it. By this I would recommend to wait until the day after you see it posted on your account and then ask a teller or customer service representative specifically 'is there a deposit hold?'. If they say yes through the say 18th, that means your money will be available after processing for the 18th. This means don't use that money until the morning of the 19th. I'm sorry to hear you went through this situation and I hope this explains what happened to your account.
Darklove_420
Milton,#6Consumer Comment
Fri, May 02, 2008
I have been in the Army since 2002 which is when I first got involved with Wachovia. It was in basic when I opened my account because they had a branch on post and I could easily access my money. At this time my account was used only for receiving my check from DFAS. Well a few years later I got married and then deployed. I now live in Wisconsin where there is not a Wachovia within 150 miles. I have had nothing but problems from this financial institution.
First off, after basic for about a year I left 100.00 dollars in this account and left it there and set up a local bank in Florida. I ordered checks from Wachovia for future use. I was charged 70.00 dollars for checks and cards all together. Well low and behold I got deployed to Afghanistan. When I came home from leave I inquired about why I did not receive my checks. I was told it was a mistake and they were reordered. When I returned from Afghanistan I not only didn't have the checks but had a negative balance! How could this happen. Well, the bank charged me for the re-order and then charged me an overdraft fee on top of this, closed the account as well. When I inquired to get my money back the bank said "We cannot refund your money it has been to long you should have come sooner with this problem."
Well, in my own ignorance I decided that some disgruntled employee somewhere had done this by mistake and that I would just have to live with it. For me Wachovia was a "logical choice" seeing as how they are always close to military installations and this was the first mistake. I ate it and reopened the account for me and my family. That was a bad choice as there is no place for logic at Wachovia. Since then I have been told time and time again that I mismanaged my account and that is why I received an overdraft fee. Many of these fees were very similar to the scam that David refers to.
At one time, I was charged an overdraft fee and called the rep and was called back by the supervisor in the midst of one of these scams I tried to explain to the rep that the money was in my account and they failed to process it within their own time limits. Then they cashed a check which is why I put the money in to begin with and it was returned. But it didn't stop there the bank ran it several times and charged a fee each time. I didn't know this at the time of talking to the rep but after explaining my status and location in relationship to my family the rep told me I don't care what your situation or military status is or the well being of your family is." then hung up on me. At this point I was furious and I was relieved from my duty station to pay the Wachovia little visit. I explained to the Supervisor of this branch (in person so I couldn't be hung up on) what had transpired. She was quick to apologize and then began to review my account. She of course told me the same story about the money being help for another day by fault of the person/system that entered it. Then she pointed out to me that the account had several NSF Fees. Puzzled I asked the all American question ...HUH? She said the bank processed the check several times and charged a fee for each time. She did refund that but refused to refund the rest.
Shortly thereafter I received a money order from my supervisor to assist me in some things that I and my wife were purchasing. This was a US Postal Service Money Order. After it was deposited by my supervisor I called the bank after day three to ask why it had not posted. They replied" the system put a hold on it" to which I replied "well it is MONEY ORDER could you release it?Sorry" they said we can't the system is what placed the hold" To my understanding that means that the bank reps don't even control your money a computer does.
Upon doing a little research I have also come across several articles that state that Wachovia was involved with a HUGE scam with telemarketers. In fact Wachovia even settled to pay 144
Julie
Keizer,#7UPDATE Employee
Tue, July 17, 2007
The answer is determined by transactions that were on hold that day, which were not included in your statement above. If you take all of the items that were on hold on the 18th and subtract them from the balance the end of the 17th, that gives you the available balance for items posting the night of the 18th. Then subtract the posting items (largest to smallest) and you will see that your available balance had gone negative, assuming that you had a deposit hold (which would need to be subtracted from the balance along with the check card holds.) That is exactly what had to have happen. If you want exacts, please list transactions posting for the few days after the day the fees were assessed. Hope that helps. **Did I win the $?** :)
Ken
Randolph,#8Consumer Comment
Mon, July 16, 2007
If the bank placed a 5 day hold on your deposit of the 12th, it would not have expired by the 18th, since they count business days. That would cause an unavailable funds charge. You didn't mention what it was that you deposited on the 12th, or how long you have had your account. Most financial institutions have a "new account" period when the 5 days is automatic. It may also happen on an "unusual" item such as an insurance draft or an out-of-town cashier's check or if the depositor is a repeatedly overdrawn. You are probably aware that fraudulent cashier's checks are rampant right now. If none of the standard (expected) reasons apply, the bank is required by law to give you a statement to the effect that they are placing an extended hold, the reason for doing so, and the date it will drop off. If they failed to do this, you are well within your rights to insist that they reverse the charges. Your best defense is to go in educated. The following link will show you the rules set by the government, that the banks are required to comply with in this regard: www.federalreserve.gov/Pubs/regcc/regcc.htm
Nikki
Coconut Creek,#9Consumer Suggestion
Mon, July 16, 2007
I do not bank with Wachovia, but this was happening to me with my bank so I switched banks. I found (on the weekends and holidays) that items were being double held. Say on Saturday afternoon, my true, available and regular balance was $1000. I go and charge $400. Right after the charge I check my available balance online and it is $600. That is correct. Later that night, I check my available balance again (no additional charges) and it is $200 for the rest of Saturday and all day Sunday. Then Sunday night, my available balance is again $600. Here is what I was able to find out after many months of taking proof to my bank. Luckily for me, my bank only holds items for 24 hours. When I made the charge, there would be a $400 hold on my account. Later, on Saturday night, the merchant submitted the charge (by running their batch rather than just swiping your card). When the merchant sumitted the charge, it came off my balance as a pending charge, but the hold also remained to reach the available balance of $200. Since my bank only holds for 24 hours, by Sunday night, the hold came off which brought the available balance back to $600. When I would make multiple charges, it was very hard to figure out which amounts were still double held because of the 24 hr rule, so I resorted some weekends to only making one or two charges to figure it out. So, maybe, the funds weren't available until Monday on your deposit Friday, and some of your charges over the weekend were double held (my old bank, still, would never call it "double holding"). Find out how long Wachovia holds transactions for. If some items were held longer than 24 hrs, but they posted off your available balance too, the bank's computers could think your available balance was negative and charge you NSF fees. Try what I did and let everything catch up, then make 1 or 2 small purchases to see if it happens. Incidentally, this happened whenever I would make a credit transaction, debit transaction, and ATM withdrawal. It didn't matter how I did it. And, I am very anal about keeping an accurate checkbook register and balancing to the PENNY! This double holding drove me crazy for hours until I figured it out!
Renee
Jacksonville,#10Consumer Comment
Mon, July 16, 2007
Its possible that the $4,986.00 deposit you made on the fifteenth wasn't posted until the next day. Also, what you see online is not accurate. You can not do your banking by what you see online. I know that doesn't sound right but I learned that the hard way when a similar situation happened to me. You stated that the bank informed you that the fee was due to charges made on June 15 and 16th, but I don't see any charges for the 16th on your summary, it goes from the 15th to the 18th. Are there any charges on the 16th and 17th? If so, that could be the problem. Anyway I hope it all works out for you. Please let us know what happens.