- Report: #445074
Complaint Review: Washinton Mutual Bank (WAMU) - Fort Pierce Florida
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Washinton Mutual Bank (WAMU)
601 Virginia Avenue Fort Pierce, 34982 Florida, U.S.A.
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Washinton Mutual Bank (WAMU) Took fees from Social Security Deposits Fort Pierce Florida
I am on S/S disability with my checks being directly deposited to WAMU who has a policy that when an online payment is issued they immediately debit the account for the funds. If a check has insufficient funds they debit the account for $34.00. This $34.00 puts the account further in the red so they again charge a 2nd $34.00 because the account remains in the red. So one ISF costs me $68.00. I see from your reports that this practice is illegal and intend to send them a Certified Letter demanding my overdraft fees be returned. I've been told by people at the bank that the information I received is erroneous and they have every right to charge the fee against ANY funds in my account. My S/S is deposited by schedule related to my birthdate. If I have an online payment set to be paid on the 15th of every month and the 15th happens to fall on a weekend, WAMU will send the payment on the earliest banking date or Friday. Naturally if my direct deposit is not going to happen until Monday I am overdrawn. Ironically I've switched to Riverside Bank and they handle online transactions similar to writing a paper check and mailing it to my creditor. They could send the check today and my account won't be charged off until the check is processed and cleared (5-7 days.) Now if I do not have sufficient funds in my account, THEN and only THEN do thy charge an ISF fee.
Jerzeeman
Fort Pierce, Florida
U.S.A.
Jerzeeman
Fort Pierce, Florida
U.S.A.
3 Updates & Rebuttals
Striderq
Columbia,South Carolina,
U.S.A.
Fees from SS payments...
#2Consumer Comment
Mon, April 20, 2009
can be accessed. The government has declared that SS payments can not be garnished or levied except for certain government agencies, but legal fees can be accessed. And yes this fees are legal.
John
Califon,New Jersey,
U.S.A.
So what's the rip off?
#3Consumer Comment
Mon, April 20, 2009
You certainly have been given erroneous information. I have yet to see anyone post that the fees are 'illegal'. You agreed to them when you opened the account. They weren't 'illegal' then were they? Whenever you spend more than you have available to spend, you overdraft. No one can make you do that.
Robert
Irvine,California,
U.S.A.
Partial Information...
#4Consumer Comment
Mon, April 20, 2009
SSI/SSDI is protected from judgments. It does not give you 'carte blanche' to overdraft at will and not have to pay any fees. If you need to protect it from judgments you need to notifiy your bank, they should have you fill out a form that certifies where the money is coming from. If you do this and have any other income to simplify things you should keep the SSI payments in a separate account(and bank) than those other funds. Also, with your new bank, generally the first few times you do a payment through their system they may issue a "paper check" to the company. But eventually you will probably find that it is all of the sudden going electronically also. Especially if they are the same creditors you had at WaMu. So on months that have this gap, you should still manually adjust the auto-payment to come after the deposit.
