Handling potential credit issues before they BECOME an issue

[ptilda]

Here's my situation I'm having with US Bank. I've sent this to them via the US Bank Facebook page, and will send to corporate. I'm wondering if others have had other similar experiences and how you've resolved it. I feel $36.00 overdraft fees are incredibly steep, and they keep adding all sorts of fees. Thanks for your help!

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I want to tell you my horrible experience with US Bank. After using this bank for several years without an issue other than the constantly growing fees, I've resisted moving my direct deposit and primary usage to my credit union, simply because I have so much attached to US Bank.

Recently there was a miss-entry of a credit card payment that added a zero to the end of the payment. As soon as I saw that the wrong amount was taken out, I called US Bank. The representative told me I have to call the credit card company an once thy return the payment, US Bank recognizes this as indication that the withdraw was in error, and I can call back and have "the resulting fees reversed." I immediately called the credit card company who did return the charge to my account, but the resulting overdraft fees totaled $277.00 from US Bank.

Immediately after the money was returned to my US Bank account from the credit card company, I called and spoke with another young lady who said, "I'm forwarding this to my manager who will reverse the fees that resulted from this transaction." I didn't hear anything back, and nothing was credited.

Today I called the bank and spoke with the manager. Initially I simply told him what had happened and what I'd been told. He responded, "I can't return a fee for something that wasn't a US Bank error." I repeated what I had been told by his employees. He said he would check around and let me know. I received the following email in response:

"I have spoke to one of the bankers you talked to. This particular banker said she would talk to her manager and get back to you on what we could do.

Any scenario like this can be handled in one of two ways.

1. You file a Reg E at the time of falsely being charged...if it is found that you should not have been charged, we waive the fees and refund you the money and we go after the company that charged you.

2. If the company who charged you reverses the charge (what happened in this situation). You need to print your statement showing where you incurred cost because of them and it is their responsibility to either refund your fees or give you a statement credit for the fees amount.

I know you said you work for a company like Capital One who tells people like you were thinking. I can tell you if that is true, all those companies are falsely promising something they have no power of from the banks.

No bank or credit union is going to refund fees that we not bank/credit union's fault.

I cannot waive any of these fees as they are not bank error. You should be refunded by Capital One if you submit your bank statements to them showing where you were charged. But that could just be a myth I was told...like the myth that credit card companies are telling people about banks waiving the fees for the errors of credit card companies.

I am sure my answer is not the one you were expecting, I am sorry for that. But I cannot waive fees of that magnitude for non bank errors."

I called the manager back and told him this response was unacceptable because of what I had been told. Ben then told me that it was like trying to take a loan without paying any interest. Quick math in my head, I told him, for a $320.00 misapplied charge, to charge $277.00 in 3 days, that ends up being something like 30,000%APR. I asked if that was fair. He replied that he wasn't trying to compare it to a loan, but he had done just that.

He also told me that I came on the phone demanding he return all the fees, and never asked what he COULD do. I advised I never asked for any number, I only told him what HIS employees had told me. And referring to his email above, he told me, "I cannot waive ANY of these fees" [emphasis mine].

I told him that I would move everything to my Credit Union account and close out my US Bank account. I also advised that I will relay this experience to everyone I know via the vast financial and virtual media networks.

I am a very unhappy (soon to be former-) customer.

Edit: whacked name of bank manager --Rev

[ptilda]

Update: I just posted this on Facebook and already got a response asking me for my phone number. I asked them to email me. I'll keep you all posted, because this might be useful to others.

[ptilda]

The manager emailed me back:

"You had requested to speak to someone higher on the situation. I have brought it to my boss and he has approved me waiving the fees. 

So your fees will show up in your account today or tomorrow. Have a nice day."

Social media works fast!

[Irisa]

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@ptilda wrote:

The manager emailed me back:

"You had requested to speak to someone higher on the situation. I have brought it to my boss and he has approved me waiving the fees. 

So your fees will show up in your account today or tomorrow. Have a nice day."

Social media works fast!

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Wow, that was fast. I may have to reopen my FB account one day. 

I'm glad things worked out and you're getting the fees refunded.

[ptilda]

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@Irisa wrote:

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@ptilda wrote:

The manager emailed me back:

"You had requested to speak to someone higher on the situation. I have brought it to my boss and he has approved me waiving the fees. 

So your fees will show up in your account today or tomorrow. Have a nice day."

Social media works fast!

---

Wow, that was fast. I may have to reopen my FB account one day. 

I'm glad things worked out and you're getting the fees refunded.

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It's magic! I'm telling you! Hahaha

And thanks. That was $277 well re-earned!

[the_jan_b]

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@ptilda wrote:

The manager emailed me back:

"You had requested to speak to someone higher on the situation. I have brought it to my boss and he has approved me waiving the fees. 

So your fees will show up in your account today or tomorrow. Have a nice day."

Social media works fast!

---

That's awesome!!  Glad you got your money back!  Just out of curiosity, are you still going to close your account with them? 

[Revelate]

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@ptilda wrote:

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@Irisa wrote:

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@ptilda wrote:

The manager emailed me back:

"You had requested to speak to someone higher on the situation. I have brought it to my boss and he has approved me waiving the fees. 

So your fees will show up in your account today or tomorrow. Have a nice day."

Social media works fast!

---

Wow, that was fast. I may have to reopen my FB account one day. 

I'm glad things worked out and you're getting the fees refunded.

---

It's magic! I'm telling you! Hahaha

And thanks. That was $277 well re-earned!

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It was the righteous thing to do in this case; I don't really know why the original manager didn't simply use some common sense on this one as that fee charge is patently absurd to my mind as a theoretically objective consumer observer.  How did they come up with that figure out of curiosity?

[ptilda]

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@Revelate wrote:

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@ptilda wrote:

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@Irisa wrote:

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@ptilda wrote:

The manager emailed me back:

"You had requested to speak to someone higher on the situation. I have brought it to my boss and he has approved me waiving the fees. 

So your fees will show up in your account today or tomorrow. Have a nice day."

Social media works fast!

---

Wow, that was fast. I may have to reopen my FB account one day. 

I'm glad things worked out and you're getting the fees refunded.

---

It's magic! I'm telling you! Hahaha

And thanks. That was $277 well re-earned!

---

It was the righteous thing to do in this case; I don't really know why the original manager didn't simply use some common sense on this one as that fee charge is patently absurd to my mind as a theoretically objective consumer observer.  How did they come up with that figure out of curiosity?

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36.00 per fee, $25.00 for others.

[ptilda]

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@digitaldiva wrote:

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@ptilda wrote:

The manager emailed me back:

"You had requested to speak to someone higher on the situation. I have brought it to my boss and he has approved me waiving the fees. 

So your fees will show up in your account today or tomorrow. Have a nice day."

Social media works fast!

---

That's awesome!!  Glad you got your money back!  Just out of curiosity, are you still going to close your account with them? 

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Yes, still closing that account. I don't need to worry about this again. I'm working on switching over to my CU

[Secretary14]

Just out of curiosity, when posting on a social media site (i.e. Facebook), how do you go about doing it?  Simply comment on their main page?  Or private message?  Have heard several instances of people doing this and getting almost immediate responses.  We are having trouble getting a problem resolved with a company and this seems like a possible way to get some attention to the matter.  Thank you in advance and I apologize for hijacking your post.