“In March, I went to a ski resort on my way to a job interview. I stopped at a grocery store to pick up a granola bar [update: and a vitamin water]. I had to put it on my debit card, and the one I used was my (RARELY used) TD Banknorth card. I don’t usually keep much money in there because I hate Banknorth, but I bring it with me to go skiing to secure demo equipment without risking my real bank accounts. As soon as I got to Boston for my interview, I deposited $10 to cover the $8 I charged at Shaws, even though I knew there was supposed to be money in the account.”
Fast forward a month. I start getting calls from a random phone number, but I’m a student and the person always called while I was in class. I listened to the voicemails, and all they were were a person named Rebecca from TD banknorth calling me. So, figuring it was something to do with the recent reissue of debit cards to pretty much every account, I called back. No dice. Got her voicemail SIX TIMES. All times of the working day, etc. About this time I start to wonder what’s up, so I go to check my online account only to find my online access was denied. So I called the CS line, but they’re only open during banking hours and I have a life and a job, so I was never able to get a live person to reinstate my access.
Two days later I go to pick up my mail, and I see a letter from Banknorth. Trying to get to the bottom of the mysterious phone calls, etc. I open it up. It’s a letter dated two days before (bear in mind I had been getting calls for a week) stating my account was 30 days overdrafted. I go “WHAT?” They had charged me, at that point, 90 some odd dollars in overdraft fees, and were warning me that they were going to start charging $35 every two days since my balance due was more than some exceedingly small number.
The next morning I find the only branch near me, paperwork and checkbook in hand, to try to straighten this out. The woman pulls up my account. In the FOUR DAYS since the letter had been postmarked, I had racked up an additional $75 in overdraft fees. We took a look at what caused the problem. I had had $15 in the account, of which I charged $8 at Shaws. Unfortunate for me, that was 62 days since my last account activity, and Banknorth decided to charge me $10 for account inactivity. They withdrew this charge BEFORE processing the debit charge, putting me at $3 overdrafted, THEN charged the overdraft fee before processing my deposit, putting me at a net overdraft of $18. They then proceeded to charge me $25 every three days after the account had been overdrawn for two weeks.
Bear in mind that in this time I was not able to access the online account information, and they didn’t send me a statement. So I went to the branch, and the “best they could do” for me was reducing my overdraft fees to the number stated in the letter they sent me. $90 for a charge I not only had enough money to cover but deposited EXTRA to be sure!
Needless to say, I zeroed out my account with them, keeping it only for paypal deposits, and most of my friends did too. I’m sticking with my credit union from here on out. They’ve never done me wrong in 8 years of banking with them. But if I could get away with it, the idea of keeping all my money under a mattress is sounding better and better. Banknorth also recently forbade me from taking out all the money in the account a second time, citing a need for funds to cover “Account maintenance.” Screw them.
Ah, the wonder of overdraft fees…I finally just got this situation resolved with banknorth at the end of June, a full three months after the incident in question even happened…
-Lauren
She would’ve been fine if it weren’t for the account inactivity charge, issued because Banknorth needed to recoup the cost of not doing anything to Lauren’s account…
This is why you need to know exactly what fees your account charges, even if, or especially if, the bank doesn’t make it easy for you to figure out what they are. If the fees end up tripping you up into overdrafting, the bank then goes on a rampage to screw the bejeezus out of you.
Also, if you hate a bank so much, that’s probably a good sign that you want to close your account with them, and not even risk it on what could end up being a $98 granola bar.
(Photo: dospaz)
UPDATE: Lauren had this to add after seeing the post and a few comments:
Hey Ben-
Just wanted to clear up some points. I posted a comment to this effect but I just want to be clear.
The charge was actually for a granola bar and a bottle of vitamin water.
I did check the account several days after this at an ATM (bear in mind, my online access STILL doesn’t work, but I also don’t care because there’s only $25 in the account) and none of the charges had posted. It showed my balance as $14.65, which is what I knew it was the day of the charge, so I figured the deposit would post, they’d deduct the charge, and all would be well. That was a mistake on my part.
The next I heard from them was the calls from collections. there was NEVER a letter notifying me of the original overdraft. Now, they could have sent it but that doesn’t necessarily mean I got it, as mail gets all kinds of confused on a university campus. It’s possible the letter bounced around the mail system but never got to me. Either way, I never got one, and I still couldn’t access the account.
The number they had for me was a cell phone. I listened to all the voicemails that were left and returned every call the same day I got it, but I never got Rebecca on the phone. I did leave her a message, but I suspect by the time she got around to it, I had already settled the account.
As soon as I knew there was a serious problem, I was at a branch working with a person to settle it.
I think my comment takes care of the rest, such as the reason to use a nearly dead debit card as collateral for ski equipment.
-Lauren
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And WTF is a $10 inactivity for? If they tried to actually determine whether you wanted the account to be inactive before they charged the fee, maybe that would make sense, but I don’t see them doing anything here except charging a fee.
“So I called the CS line, but they’re only open during banking hours and I have a life and a job, so I was never able to get a live person to reinstate my access.”
this is the part where I went from sympathetic (former Banknorth employee) to not. The call center is NOT open during banking hours only:
Monday-Sunday: 6:00 a.m.-11:00 p.m., Eastern time.
Lauren, you must have one hell of a life/job to be too busy to call, yet find the time to shoot off an e-mail about how wronged you were by the bank for your own ignorance.
5 years of inside banking experience taught me the wisdom of the following four words:
use a credit union.
Finally, a bank less ethical than USBank. She got calls when she was in class, got voicemail when she called back, received one letter, and couldn’t access the account online.
Most likely it happened in the middle of the statement cycle, and she wasn’t expectiing the inactivity fee.
She has no reason to think it has overdrafted and deposited money to replace what she spent. Frankly, I think most of you have never had the experience of a bank metaphorically raping you. she has my sympathies, especially as I’ve been charged overdraft fees because the account might have in theory had a negative balance.
Lauren is a dumbass
@enm4r: i would agree with that statement. but then, i’d also point out that banks, their agreements, & their business structure is incredibly enigmatic even to savvy consumers.
surely the users are at fault for taking the bait, but they weren’t the ones who set the trap, were they?
I had a similar thing happen a couple of years ago – except mine was an old savings account that had been charged a $3 inactivity fee per month (KeyBank a/k/a Fee Bank). It was in another state and I frankly forgot about it until I received a letter stating that I owed the bank about $200 in overdraft fees. Mind you, they were the ones who overdrafted it. After several calls to customer service, where they told me that they could take off $35, I finally wrote a letter to the United States Comptroller of the Currency complaining of usury and unfair business practices. Holy reaction. Within a couple of days, someone in the executive offices of KeyBank had credited my account and closed it at my request. It’s amazing what contacting a government agency can do.
@mac-phisto: In general, I see where you’re coming from. But in this case they didn’t need to set the trap. She was using a debit card for an account that was neglected, without knowing the terms of that account. I’m having a hard time finding any bait here…
And while I agree an entire business structure might be hard to comprehend, the fees for an account shouldn’t be. I can name off all the fees for my accounts (3 savings, 3 checking!) on one hand. Probably because I choose to bank where that is possible. If you can’t remember/know/understand the fee structure of your account, that should be enough of a warning. If it isn’t, you have to take responsibility. She didn’t.
this kind of “legal” thievery is all too common with any and all banks these days. i used to like u.s. bank, but they have tried to do this to me three times in the last year with average fees around $100. luckily the people at my particular branch have always been great and after some discussion they took care of it. that is the only reason i’m still with them, till i find a good credit union.
Y’know, if she had instead threatened to not pay anything instead and just use a different bank account, they might have reduced the fee even more.
Either way, this situation sucks.
It’s obvious that she hasn’t used the account regularly for a long time and was never charged this inactivity fee before. And since she knew she had some money in the account — exactly how much, in fact — how was she supposed to know that she had even overdrafted in the first place, let alone that these fees were racking up, when she was unable to speak with someone and couldn’t access her account online??
I use BofA, and I goto the same branch all the time. If some mysterious fees pop up — actually, any fees at all — I go in, say I shouldn’t be charged that fee, and they take it off immediately.
Which is how it should work… unless of course, you are a regular overdrafter. In which case, I don’t have sympathy.
Wow, what happened to Consumerist readers? I know that some stories have sort of featured some whiny people, but I don’t think that this gal is out of line at all.
The bank was clearly trying to get her into the red by charging an inactivity fee before accepting her deposit.
I’m baffled by her choice to keep the account open, but still, I’m really surprised by the vemon on this comment thread. Seriously – over a hundred bucks in overdraft fees? It’s bullshit. It was bullshit when banks started pulling that back in the mid-nineties, and it’s bullshit now.
you lost me at “I went to a ski resort on my way to a job interview.” unless the interview was for some type of skiing-related position, i fail to see why a ski resort would be in any way a convenient place to stop. i also don’t understand why you would stop at all on your way to a job interview, particularly at a ski resort (“oh, sorry i’m late, just stopped off for a quick run down the mountain”), unless the interview were really far away and you were making a long trip of it all or something. of course, i do live in texas, which is not exactly brimming with places to ski, so maybe your northern ski culture is just that foreign to me…
and if the bank sucks that much, why do they still have your money? i’m sure you could get a debit card from another bank that doesn’t have such dramatic overdraft/inactivity fees. sure, getting screwed by a company is unfortunate, but staying with the company after that happens just gives them an opportunity to screw you again. choice is one of the greatest allies for a consumer–exercise it.
@AnnieGetYourFun: Bullshit? That’s what I call on consumers who think they are always right. The bank is offering you a service. You can enter freely into this service. The bank will make available to the terms and conditions of this service, which you will then agree to. If you sign away without a care in the world, this is what happens.
It’s bullshit when people run around expecting everyone to compensate for their inaction, their mistakes, and their inability to hold up their end of an agreement. If she didn’t like the terms she could have left at any given time. It’s her fault that she kept the account so low, and it’s her fault she had no idea of the activity in the account. It is also her fault that she used her super backup debit card for a perchase that not only almost exceeded the amount she thought the had in, but an account she had no idea what was going on in!
You “verify” beforehand, you don’t spend something, hope you have enough, and then go back and hope everything is alright. You’re right, it is bullshit…bullshit that she thinks she deserves some sympathy for being in the dark on her own accounts.
I hate Lauren r u with me
My recommendation is to NEVER let the balance in any account get down to less than $50 or so…usually helps avoid monthly maintenance fees, etc…also find a bank that offers overdraft protection that’s linked to a savings account. In other words, if you do screw up and bounce a check, the money to cover it automatically comes from your savings.
There should be a law that the bank CANNOT charge an overdraft for a fee that they impose.
I too have run into the “sustained overdraft fee” while I was away. It was my fault for not paying attention and dipping below by a couple of bucks, and since I wasn’t home to get my mail, I had accumulated several hundred dollars in fees.
In a related case, Wachovia has a slightly more underhanded way of overdrafting you. This happened a year ago and i still grates on my nerves.
On a Friday at about 4:30 I deposited close to $500 in cash into my account, putting my “available balance” over $700. Immediately I spent a good $250 between equipment, dinner and a donation to a charity.
Well, because it’s Wachovia’s policy to not post the cash to the account until the next business day after 2pm, they overdrafted my account. – despite it showing as available.
Once I started racking up fees, several charges (that had cleared and were already subtracted from the account) overdrafted. All said and done, it cost me several hundred dollars.
Wachovia’s answer was to refund half of the fees (even though I had my numbers right). they just conveniently posted the funds after the debits instead of before. The Available balance was only if I went to an ATM or a teller, so they technically weren’t breaking state law.
Follow the advice from above, go to a credit union. MOST of the time they are better – and certainly not predatory like Wachovia and TD Banknorth.
which is why I love overdraft protection on my card.
This is exactly the reason why I closed my Chase checking account three or four years ago. They pulled this same exact b.s. on me.
@soloudinhere: Why does the account have to be open? Do they swipe it to make sure it works? If not, then just close the account and keep using the card. I would doubt that they’d notice the expiration date.
And as a final comment, “I remember when…”
when banks didn’t allow you to use a card if there wasn’t enough funds. You got to live through the embarassment of all the people in line behind you overhearing that you didn’t have enough money to cover your purchase coupled with their anger that you were wasting their time in line.
@Spindle:
When my TD Banknorth account was overdrafted because of a double charge, I was told by CS that I had to call my local branch – who I called four times during business hours and was forwarded to voicemail every time. I left a clear message with TWO phone numbers every time – and NEVER got a phone call back.
I eventually had to go to a branch – which also happens to have very inconvenient hours – to resolve the problem.
Something like this happened to me at Wells Fargo. I had $15 in the account (poor college student) and they “accidentally” charged me a $29 overdraft fee.
Thinking I had the $15 in there from the last statement (haven’t used the card since well before the last statement) I bought soda at the campus bookstore three times that day, totaling around $4.50. Yep, I got three more overdraft fees. I went to the branch and explained to them what happened, and they said they’d drop “one” overdraft fee. I told them, “Great, drop the one you charged me for no reason; that’ll take care of the other three.”
They FINALLY figured out their mistake when I had my lawyer send a letter explaining what they did to me.
That account is CLOSED.
The problem is the “inactivity fee” was not charged when the account was inactive – they did check the balance which was $15, not $5 – but was applied a microsecond BEFORE the debit card charge was processed. That started the cascade with overdraft charges (with their system or people such that they could not be contacted).
Both my credit union (I don’t bank) and credit cards have “actual” and “available” balances. If the “available” balance was $5, it should have said so or prevented the charge from going through.
“The bank is offering you a service. You can enter freely into this service.”
Mmmmyeah. True. But the banks are also borrowing OUR money. There’s a two way relationship here.
I just got drop-kicked by TD Banknorth for $100. Because I’m an irresponsible person who can’t balance a checkbook? Nope. Because a vendor incorrectly billed me and the incorrect bill that they autocharged on my account (I prefer autocharge because it’s more efficient and it ensures that my bills get paid on time) overdrew my account. OOPSIE. I immediately tranferred money to counteract the negative balance…then watched as the overdraft fees piled up anyway, after I had already transferred the money. It had taken me less than 24 hours to figure out the problem btw, I wasn’t just chillin’ somewhere with a Maitai waiting for the world to do my work for me.
So I call the bank and they tell me to contact the vendor and settle the dispute through them. So I did. The vendor admitted their fault and removed their charges. So I contact the bank and asked them to remove the overdraft fees, since clearly, that would be the logical next step. Their response: Because you did not file a dispute through the bank we can’t do anything. When I spoke with them, I asked them what the best course of action would be and THEY told me to deal with the vendor directly.
Hmmm. Looks like it’s going to be an ongoing battle.
Really…my point is this. Customers are not always correct. But neither are banks. To those of you who are, in fact perfect…congratulations.