I sit here helpless, about to bounce two important checks and face bank charges and utility shutoffs. Here’s what happened. I deposited a check into my bank using the ATM, and at the time my account was overdrawn. The ATM accepted the check, credited my ledger balance, and put a hold on the check. All well and good; the account was overdrawn, and ATM deposits need to be verified. I understand this part. However, this check was stopped by its maker, who subsequently gave me cash instead. The bank debited my account for the amount of the stopped check. Again, I understand.
At about this time, I received cash from the maker, and I deposited this cash in person, at the branch. There was plenty to cover the overdraft and leave several hundred over.
But what do I see when I go online to check my available funds? 259.00 negative. It seems that the hold on the original check deposit still hasn’t been lifted, regardless of the fact that the check has already been returned, and regardless of the fact that the amount of the check has already been reversed against my account, and regardless of the fact that I’ve made good the deposit in ready cash.
Is this highway robbery or what? How can they get away with this? Who gets all of the exorbitant fees charged against financially struggling small account holders? Who gets the interest on my measly $411.00 net total positive balance, when I’m not even allowed to use any of the money? The $100K Jumbo CD holders? Cashing all my paychecks outright and keeping my money under the mattress is looking better and better.
Call your bank. Call them now. Something very much like this happened with me a couple of weeks ago, and one call to customer service at the branch we normally go to took care of the whole deal. This is a clerical problem on their part, and they will correct the problem in order to maintain their good reputation.
I’m trying to do that (the actual branch, not the 800 number). The CSR on the phone said it’s their standard procedure to put a 9-day hold on check deposits. That’s their privilege, but IMHO they have no right to hold cash deposits hostage against a check which they already know has been invalidated, and which I never attempted to spend in the first place. Or if they do that, they should raise my balance by the amount of the check, and allow me the use of my net deposit.
This reminded me - a few years ago, we had an account at the same bank that my husband’s company used for paychecks (the days before they did direct deposit). If he deposited his check, they would hold it 3 days (???) but they would cash the check, and he could deposit the cash and have it immediately available.
Bizarre beyond words. We closed the account after about 3 months. Never again.
I have had numerous problems with my bank regarding holds on checks, etc. The worst one was the following scenario:
Waenara gets her student loan form, gets it signed by her university, and has to take it to the bank to get signed before she can get her money.
She takes the form to the bank. She isn’t sure what her account number is (fairly new account), so they get the information from her bank debit card.
Three weeks later Waenara is wondering where the hell her money is, since it’s only supposed to take one to two weeks. She calls the 800 number, only to find out that they must have written her bank account number down wrong - she could give them the correct number now, but it would take another one to two weeks to get the money. (???)
Second option is to get them to courier her the check for the full amount - over a thousand dollars. Yep, sure, go ahead. They courier it there - same day!!!
Bank is closed by the time I get there to deposit it, so she puts it in the ATM.
NB: Bear in mind that the check for the loan is from the same bank as the ATM machine belongs to.
She expects that they will put a hold on the check for 3 or 4 days, because that’s standard. After that she writes several checks, including rent for the month, groceries, a bus pass, and several textbooks for school (classes have already started, and she needs to catchup on the readings).
All of the checks that she wrote bounce. Why you ask? Because the bank put a hold on the loan check for ten days. TEN BUSINESS DAYS
Why on earth they would have to do this is beyond me. I mean, essentially, this was a check from the bank - to themselves… and they have over a billion dollars in profit that year (IIRC). I mean, it’s not like there was annnyyyy chance that the check would bounce. Luckily, I talked them out of all of the overdraft and NSF charges, but it took awhile. I still had to deal with all of the subsequent problems with my landlord, etc. After that the grocery store, city transit, and the university bookstore would never accept checks from me again!
I switched banks ASAP. Not like they cared… small account and all that. Just watch though - in the next few years I’m going to be finished paying off my student loan, getting a car loan, a mortgage, etc… and I will never use them again.
I think that banks don’t really think about these consequences. I mean geez, don’t they realize that many of these students with small accounts are going to need financial services in the future??
I bank with Bank of America for no reason other than the fact that they have a branch on practically every other street corner here in San Diego and the number one thing that pisses me off are ATM charges. I have had two kinds of problems with them, both of which I find strange:
Checks made out to my wife and I: When this occurs my wife usually writes out “Pay to the order of Yarster”, then signs her name. For years this was never a problem, both depositing in person and through the ATM. Then we moved to a more UPSCALE area of town, and the first time I tried to deposit one such check for about $300, they mailed it back to me claiming they couldn’t cash it because they couldn’t verify my wife’s signature was actually hers since they didn’t see her sign it. Meanwhile, I bounced a check, because they took a good ten days to mail this back to me.
Interestingly enough, when I went to complain, they told me all the OTHER B of A banks were not following proper procedure and they weren’t going to be held responsible if I was somehow trying to rip money off from my wife…
Travelers checks: Mr. and Mrs. Yarster like to travel and I have had the bank tell me they are going to charge me 2% of the amount of the checks for getting them through B of A. Here’s the wierd part though…when I complain (and I have done this now twice) and threaten to leave the bank because of all their bullshit fees and go get my traveler’s checks at the AAA office (where they are free), suddenly they “make an exception” for me and let me have them for free as well. This, by the way, is the same back telling me how all the other B of A branches don’t “follow proper procedure”
Believe me, I’d leave B of A in a second if only other banks had the same ATM coverage in the area. I did used to belong to a credit union, which was great, but they had a whoping three ATMs in the whole city, so I still ended up with lots of outside-bank ATM charges which didn’t save me anything.