Complaint Review: Wachovia - Palm Coast Florida

Everyone complains that the banks do it highest to lowest, and that is a rip off. Lets take that out of the equasion, and say they do it alpabetically by company name, or all of the blue checks, then all of the green checks and so on, would that be a ripoff? If you spend more than is in the account it does not matter how they get processed.

...to pay an overdraft fee-- of course with the exception of the occasional mathematical error, which by the way, most banks will gladly waive if it is not a habit. I know it has been said before, but it appears the fact needs to be reiterated: *If you do not spend more money than what your available balance is showing at the time of your purchase(minus any outstanding items), then you will avoid all of these magical overdraft fees... * No matter how the banks may post your transactions- there was an overdraft fee because the account was overdrawn, THERE WASN'T ENOUGH MONEY, it wasn't because the some overdraft fairy waved her wand and overdrafted the account. It is the customer's repsonsiblity to maintain a record of all transactions they initiate, and then use the bank's balance as a resource to confirm that their REGISTER balance is correct and to also make sure the bank hasn't made any sort of processing error. It seems that with today's computerization our society has gotten lazy, basically wanting to spend without regard and blame their lack of responsiblity on the bank giving them the wrong balance, when all along a simple check register (which most banks hand-out for free, believe it or not) and a calculator is all it really takes to never lose a dollar in fees. It works for most people, I do have to admit though I do not use one, I am responsible enough to keep up on my balance and outstanding items daily with the use of online banking (which is free at most banks). Honestly, it takes 5 minutes at most out of my day to save hundreds of dollars a year, it is very much worth my time. Lastly, would you ever sign a legal document and not read the contract? That's what happens almost everytime someone opens a checking account. THE DEPOSITORS AGREEMENT AND SCHEDULE OF FEES. That paperwork most people toss when they get home. It is the agreement the customer makes simply by signing the signature card and then willingly opening and holding an account. People have to educate themselves, no one is going to hold their hand in this world and make them keep a register or read aloud the agreement to them.

Personal responsibility. Can you use cash when you don't have it? NO. Then why write a check when the money has not cleared. It is simple mathematics. In all my life of having the priviledge of having my money in a bank (BOA) I have only overdrafted once. (And yes, using a bank is a priviledge) Why? Because once i was careless. they refunded me my money which I agreed to be taken out by being their customer, because it never happened before. Do you know why they keep raising these overdraft fees? To discourage bad financial decisions on the part of the consumers. You can go to jail for bouncing checks, this means that bouncing checks is an illegal practice. Banks are actually doing you a favor by covering your bounced checks. I wouldn't care if they charged $100 for each time. Maybe it would make more people take control of their finances.

I am not sure how I missed this thread, but let me take the time to response. Again, Chip, I am so glad to have you around!! I agree that personal responsibility and accountability is the major theme lacking in most all the posts on the banking threads. The bottom line is, if you don't have it, don't spend it. I have said time and time again, I don't care if banks post alphabetically or close there eyes and pick which ones go first, because if you don't spend money you don't have, you will not overdraft. I have never once said I think the fees are reasonable, I think they are high, but again, if it can be avoided then I don't care if they charge you $100.00 each times it happens. I used this example before, it is not a rip off because it can be avoided (you have to by law have a license to drive, so if you were charged $500.00 that would be ludicrous because there is not way to avoid it, however $500.00 for speeding is not, because you choose to speed) you choose to overdraft, you were not forced to, so it's not a rip off. However this concept is hard for some to grasp, not because they don't understand it, but because they don't want to admit it was there error in the beginning. You spent more money than you had, you received fees, if you continue to spend more than you have, you will continue to receive fees. The fees are meant as a penalty, they are not supposed to be pleasant or likable, there supposed to be a penalty!!

I agree that banks process debits highest to lowest to maximize their revenue stream from NSF fees. My point is that bank customers can 1prevent this 100 percent by simply: 1) Know and live by their bank's policies; 2) Know their bank balance at all times; 3) Don't overdraw their accounts, which means no writing checks then using their debit card hoping the checks and the debit card purchases all clear AFTER their next deposit. The banks don't trap anyone, as you say. They are not forcing their customers to write checks, use their debit cards, or even intentionally distracting them somehow so they can't or won't balance their accounts. So, I agree with your assessment that the highest to lowest is meant to maximize the number of fees banks get from customers, but the banks only get as many fees from their customers as their customers allow -- it's 100 percent within the control of the customer, so I fail to see how this is a ripoff. I read these posts all the time, and my only conclusion is that rather than take an ounce of personal responsibility, people would rather blame the bank and, for the life of me, I can't understand why.

There is an old saying that one should not judge someone else unless they have walked a day in their shoes. People who don't know what it means to live from paycheck to paycheck, I pray to God that they never have to. First of all, banks normally give a $500 cushion for overdraft protection. So when one's mortgage payment comes in over the available balance it would be covered if it didn't get itemized first. I dought that someone would write a check that would go over that cushion. ie the reason for all the overdraft charges for all the smaller debits & checks. So the bank's excuse that they are servicing your most important bills first is hog-wash. The problem I see here with some rebuttals are that some people are happy with the old status quoi. Why should we live with an unjust practice by the banks? When some people try to make life easier for the rest us there are always those who try to put a stumbling block into the process. It makes me wonder, if you are not trying to be part of the solution, why are you even reading about these rip-offs. Isn't there anything else that you could be doing with your LIFE. The argument about paying with moneyorders does make sence though. As a matter of fact, I believe that since our Reps don't want to help us and it seems that there is no law firm doing a class action suit against these banks, the best thing for the average person to do is BOYCOT these institutions. As for me I don't have enough money to make any significent amount of interest so I'm closing all accounts. Even If I had the money I'd rather invest or put my money under the mattress. The only problem is that some companies now force us to the have an account so that they can direct deposit. They will not give us a paycheck which I believe is a violation of our civil rights. And In Florida banks charge a fee for cashing a check if we don't have an account with them even though the check is from their bank. The fact is that we do not need the banking institutes they need us.

If you have enough in your account to cover the checks that you write, then you don't have any fees. Sorry, but in 10 years, living paycheck to paycheck, we've only had 1 overdraft fee (which was reversed because we don't make a habit of doing it!). If you can't balance a checking account, USE MONEY ORDERS!!! You can pick them up for less than a buck apiece, which is MUCH cheaper than even one overdraft!

This is for Chip. This might seem like a balanced check matter. In a way, it's not. Banks do this to make money. If they don't do this, than they won't make money. What I'm trying to say is that, they will have an agreement, in which it is a Game for you to follow. That agreement is starting a Game between the consumer and the bank. When the customer loses, they pay the consequences. Their agreement is set up to trap you in a loss. The way to win the game and beat the fees is to balance your check book. If you don't, you loose. These fees are not the "Oh, I'm sorry that happened to you" Game. It's the "A-ha gotcha,you lost" Game. When that happens, customers get mad (because they lost the game). The fees aren't just a matter of you not balancing your checks, it's also a legal practice by banks, AKA ripoffs by persons who lost. The highest to lowest policy is another way to trap the customer in a loss. Banks will tell you it is for the customer's benefit, but I don't buy that. Theses practices are designed to profit the Banks.

There have been enough insider stories and documentaries to show that yes, Banks will charge a customer over-draft fees by selectively cashing checks. It happens all of the time! Yes, you wrote a bunch of smaller checks at the beginning of the month and two weeks later you wrote the larger check. The Bank will then go back and rearrange things so that you will now have a bunch of bounced checks. So instead of having one bounced check, you now have three or four bounced checks. (No, they will not cash them on the day they come in... as you found out, it does not work that way.) It happens all of the time! Switching Banks will not help because they all do it, which is how they make money. If you want to stop this, try to keep a larger balance in your account. A $500 -$1500 dollar cushion would do it. Before you say that you can't do it, or just don't have the money tell me again just how much the Bank ripped you off? Just how much will the Bank steal from you in the next five years? Your bounced checks are costing a lot more than you realize! This bank situation just causes a chain reaction. (You're paying higher interest rates for any loans that you have if you're bouncing checks then you're late on other bills including credit cards and this is reported to the Credit Bureaus which just creates a vicious circle.) What you wrote is true. The problem is that no one cares and nobody will do a thing about it. You will just have to help yourself!

This is your fault. Banks DO NOT have someone sitting in a back room to process debits "as they come in." Debits come in in BATCHES -- and it is a normal practice for banks to process highest to lowest, WHICH SHOULDN'T MATTER IF YOU KNOW YOUR BALANCE AND DON'T SPEND MORE THAN YOU HAVE. This is not rocket science. If you don't overdraw, it shouldn't matter how debits are processed -- highest to lowest, lowest to highest, sideways, backwards, and everything in between. You will never incur a fee if you don't overdraw. If you KNOWINGLY write a check that exceeds your balance hoping it doesn't clear until your next deposit, then that's a risk that you take. If it doesn't work out, then you pay the consequences. Out of the thousands of posts on this very topic, I can't understand how poeple think it's a bank ripoff. BTW, just because Wachovia pays items when you have insufficent funds, it does not mean you have overdraft protection. Overdraft protection is a line of credit the bank extends when you don't have sufficient funds in your account. There is a fee for this, but it's not $30. Know your balance, and don't spend more than you have. Yes, it's THAT simple. This is not a ripoff.

In general, I agree with your premise. Banks make huge fee income from high to low and other "creative" account posting. Often posting debits before credits intentionally to earn fee income. You won't get much response from your congressional representatives as huge donations are made to political campaigns and the politician is interested in the money. One point I would disagree with you. If your "Christmastime" scenario happened to the average individual, they certainly would want the bank to pay the mortgage check first. Some bills you simply don't neglect. You are going to get a lot of negative feedback from posters saying "don't spend money you don't have" and "balance your checkbook". While all of this is the proper practice it doesn't excuse the bank from charging a $30.00 fee for a transaction that likely cost them less than a dollar to process electronically.