Complaint Review: Wells Fargo Bank - Waterloo Iowa

I would love to know what bank you went to now. I am just guessing that they have the same procedure. Just about all banks have this procedure otherwise there would probably not be any business for the ones who do! Difference now is that you probably READ all the disclosures they gave to you this time around. A bank can not charge you a fee unless it has been disclosed to you. Sorry your neglect to read what your getting into is not the banks fault!

Balancing a register is YOUR responsibility. A few years I got into trouble with overdraft fees but it was my own fault. I was too lazy to balance my register. I went to an ATM to check the balance and had more than I thought so I went crazy. Of course, OTHER charges had not cleard yet and when they did I was nuked with all the fee's. Again, my fault. Now I do things correctly and guess what? I have not had any overdraft fees because I watch my balance! What a concept! Try it. Works every time guaranteed. Cheers!!!

Balancing a register is YOUR responsibility. A few years I got into trouble with overdraft fees but it was my own fault. I was too lazy to balance my register. I went to an ATM to check the balance and had more than I thought so I went crazy. Of course, OTHER charges had not cleard yet and when they did I was nuked with all the fee's. Again, my fault. Now I do things correctly and guess what? I have not had any overdraft fees because I watch my balance! What a concept! Try it. Works every time guaranteed. Cheers!!!

Balancing a register is YOUR responsibility. A few years I got into trouble with overdraft fees but it was my own fault. I was too lazy to balance my register. I went to an ATM to check the balance and had more than I thought so I went crazy. Of course, OTHER charges had not cleard yet and when they did I was nuked with all the fee's. Again, my fault. Now I do things correctly and guess what? I have not had any overdraft fees because I watch my balance! What a concept! Try it. Works every time guaranteed. Cheers!!!

Baker John, you work for a bank, you know how these companies operate. They make millions of dollars each year off making sure the print is small and the fees go unmentioned. My mother and I also thought that a debit card (being that it is a DEBIT card and not a CREDIT card) would decline our purchases if our accounts were at zero. Funny, it seems a lot of people also believe that's how a debit card should operate. We are told that a debit card account survives on the amount of money we have in our checking account. Period, end of sentence. The fact that the account will be allowed to overwithdraw is NOT MENTIONED WHEN YOU SIGN UP. It should be. If I wanted this to happen, I would have signed up for a **CREDIT CARD**. To the author, if you think your fee was bad, mine was once $400. What were the fees from? One meal at an airport McDonald's which I ate on my way back to the USA. I got a nice lady at the bank to whittle it down to $292 but I still had to pay every penny of it. It was KEY BANK. It began before that though.I was studying abroad in Egypt, where at the place I was staying I had no internet, which is where I used to check my balance. My father told me he'd deposit money Friday, well he didnt, and I made a purchase thinking it was there. Then later, I purchased the meal stil thinking I had the money. I WISH my card would have been declined! But a month later as we discussed how I would pay it off, and as I prepared to close that account with Key as soon as I settled it, she THEN told us "if customers want that, we have to make a note in our system that purchases will be declined if they are at zero." I'm sorry, I thought that was the whole point of a debit card. I sign up for a debit card to use the money I HAVE, not the money I don't have. If you want to allow me to overwithdraw in case I have an emergency, let ME be the judge of that. People should have to REQUEST that they will be allowed overwithdrawals in an emergency, but the default should be that your card will reflect what you REALLY HAVE. Ya see, thats why we signed up for a debit, not a credit card. It's just a scam to loop you into their triangle of interest charges.

We understand that you don't agree with Wells Fargo's practices. Upon opening up your account, all the fine print and disclosures were given to you. They're given to you for a reason... for you to read them. 1. You should have read every document that was given to you upon opening your account. 2. It's no one's fault but yours if you didn't read the documents. 3. If you didn't agree with ANY part of it, you should have simply said I DON'T AGREE and opened an account elsewhere. And what's this you say about taking advantage of unsuspecting customers? If the customer would have read the documents given to them, they would KNOW about the fees. But just like most people, you decided to ignore them. And you say it's the bank? Hah... please.

I realize now that my initial rant made me look like a complete idiot who doesn't know the first thing about balancing an account. That is not the case. Now that the sting of losing $230 is gone, I wish I would have worded my complaint differently. I am not blaming Wells Fargo for my mistake. I am stating that I do not like how Wells Fargo conducts its business. This 'courtesy' of allowing a person to continue to withdraw money after they have gone in the negative is nothing more than a way to make money off of unsuspecting people like myself, as well as people who are truly terrible with money- people who would knowingly and willingly overdraw their account just to have some money and would later find themselves in a heap of debt. I am positive that there are many people who have made the same mistake I made. I am positive that many unfortunate people misuse this 'courtesy.' And I am also positive that Wells Fargo is counting on these mistakes to make profits. They could protect their customers from these type of mistakes but they choose not to. Of course, a lot of your points are valid. I do know that my mistake was 100 percent avoidable. A person should keep an up-to-date registry. If that is troublesome, a person should plan ahead and pay with cash. A savings account to protect from overdrafts is also a good idea. Every person has the control over their own finances. Every person should know what the rules are, and they should play by them. I'm just saying, people don't always know the rules and some people choose not to obey them. I don't want to bank with someone who takes advantage of that and I'm sure there are others who agree. P.S. I know what capitalism is. I also know that it is fueled by supply and demand. Your product only has value if the customer says it has value. As customers we have the power to dictate how much your services are worth. If we don't think it's worth what you are charging we won't buy it and the value of your product plummets. In my opinion, Wells Fargo is worth nothing to me. I did take my business elsewhere and if there are enough people who do the same, then Wells Fargo will be forced to change some of its practices if it wants to keep customers. And that, Banker John, is capitalism.

Not all debit card purchases are processed through the same systems. Not all systems send an instant message to your bank checking your balance. Some merchants (particularly gas stations) only send a 'hold' message to your bank for a dollar. When an electronic purchase comes in against your account, the bank HAS to pay it, whether the money is there or not. There is a general concensus that electronic banking eliminated the need to keep track of your own balance. The real fact of the matter is that it is more important than ever.

Not all debit card purchases are processed through the same systems. Not all systems send an instant message to your bank checking your balance. Some merchants (particularly gas stations) only send a 'hold' message to your bank for a dollar. When an electronic purchase comes in against your account, the bank HAS to pay it, whether the money is there or not. There is a general concensus that electronic banking eliminated the need to keep track of your own balance. The real fact of the matter is that it is more important than ever.

Not all debit card purchases are processed through the same systems. Not all systems send an instant message to your bank checking your balance. Some merchants (particularly gas stations) only send a 'hold' message to your bank for a dollar. When an electronic purchase comes in against your account, the bank HAS to pay it, whether the money is there or not. There is a general concensus that electronic banking eliminated the need to keep track of your own balance. The real fact of the matter is that it is more important than ever.

Lauren -- you complain that the punishment for a simple arithmetic error is severe, but what you're not getting is that it is 100 percent avoidable -- by you no less. Tha bank only gets as much in fees from you as you allow it to. You also write: "Ok, so I don't keep my registry totally up to date. So what! Who does?" MOST PEOPLE DO, as was stated by another poster. And therein lies your problem -- a problem that YOU created, not the bank. And I won't even go into how wrong it is to rely on your online balance and/or ATM balance. Personal responsibility goes a long way. This is not a ripoff.

Your follow-up post is still undefensable. It's called CAPITALISM. Yhank God we live in a country where we can set our own rates and charges, tied to a market economy. If you owned your own business, would you appreciate it if I decided you charged too much for your goods or services? I think not. You were aware of their fee schedule when you opened the account or if you were not, it was because you failed to read the disclosures given to you just like you failed to keep your checkbook balanced. If you don't like their fee schedules, simply go elsewhere. Banker John

If I was trying to blame someone else, then I wouldn't have taken any responsibility in this matter. My point is this: why do banks deserve to make so much money on people who make simple accounting errors? As a customer I don't believe that I should be punished so severely. My error didn't cost them much, if anything. They just see it as an opportunity to make money. Nevermind all the other fees that Wells Fargo charges for ATM transactions, money orders, etc. Wells Fargo made record earnings this year. When asked how, they responded, "becuase of our ability to charge fees." Well, how creative of them. They certainly don't seem concerned about the best interests of their customers. By the way, if I needed medicine for my child, Wells Fargo would only care because it was another opportunity to charge overdraft fees. Just another way to make money on someone else's misfortune.

If you can't be bothered to keep your check register up to date, there is a sure fire accounting method that never fails - Pay Cash. Banks will allow customers to overdraw their account as a service - just imagine you have a sick kid, it's midnight and you are at the only late night drugstore in town. Would you not be willing to incur an overdraft fee in order to get the medicine you need? Why should responsible debit card users be punished because a few folks can't bother to keep records up to date? And no, I don't work for a bank.

There is an old saying, when you play with fire, eventually you'll get burned. The original OP is playing with fire by not keeping her register up to date. So what happened, she got burned and now she want's to blame someone besides her self. If she is worried about over draftings, she needs to stick to cash instead. Bottom line, if you go into the grocery store with $32.50, you can only spend, $32.50.

No, i'm not a Wells employee; in fact I'm a banker with one of their competitors but i find this ludicrous. First of all, you've already admitted you dont keep your register up to date, in fact your comments include: "who does?". Well I do, and the majority of consumers due. If you fail to keep track of your own funds, you have no one to blame but yourself. Secondly, as I am sure is in their disclosures, you have the right to opt out of their overdraft protection program. Of course, if you refuse to even take the time to balance your checkbook, I doubt you took the time to read their disclosures and policies. I don't mean to be rude, but it seems to me instead of whining about the situation, this should be a good wake-up call as to YOUR responsibilities in handling YOUR finances. Banker John