Bank error/NSF fees question

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bankquestioner

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Hello,

I have a question regarding bank errors and overdraft fees. My bank recently made an error when I withdrew money from my account. I had enough money in the account (including pending transactions/holds) to make the withdrawal, however the bank messed up and charged me more and I got an NSF fee. Afterwards, I made several small transactions with my check card. If the bank had not made the initial error, there would have been enough to cover these. However, due to the error, I incurred multiple additional NSF fees.

When I reviewed my statement, I discovered this issue. I called the bank and they refunded the first fee, however they did not refund the fees which would not have been accrued if the initial had not occurred. I don't want to sue anyone, however I'm coming close to that 60 day window you have to inform the bank of an error and would like to know if I should pursue it further.
 
Subtract the pending transactions. They don't count.

Now, when you do that, are you still in the right?

If so, make sure you exercise all your rights.
 
There were no pending transactions at that time. I checked my records and even asked the guy at the bank if it was caused by a hold or a pending transaction and he said he didn't know why I got the fee. My bank even reversed the fee (and from what I've read they almost never refunded fees.)

My situation is basically like this (numbers simplified for convenience) :

Balance (including pending).......................Transaction
Beginning $50

Day 1: $0.........................................-$50 (erroneous NSF)

Day 2: $-1........................................ -$1 (purchase)
$-51........................................-$50 NSF

Day 3: $-52........................................-$1 (purchase)
-$102........................................-$50 NSF

Day 4: -$52 ...................................+$50 (refund for day1)

Would I be entitled to money back for the NSF's on days 2 and/or 3 because they would not have occurred if the now-corrected erroneous fee had not been applied? If I am entitled to the fees accrued on days 2 & 3, can anyone tell me the specific law (or laws)?

Also, if I find out that they are required to refund the fees and I plan to write a letter to the bank CCed to the appropriate regulatory agency to them explaining the situation. If I were to do this, would it be likely that the bank would perform some sort of de facto retaliation (even if I'm in the right)?
 
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Also, please forgive the level of detail. It is included because a year ago I switched to Bank of America. They seemed friendly at first... after this happened I read up on them and learned they're more or less the type who would fight tooth and nail, utilizing any detail possible, to keep any of their imposed fees.

I had to argue with the guy to get the first fee back (despite the fact that he had the bank's records of my balances including all possible pendings/holds in front of him). I no longer trust them to address this situation for the sake of good business.
 
This is not a court matter, but a customer service issue with the bank. Plan to go into the bank and take your statements. Ask to speak to the teller supervisor, branch manager, or bookkeeping manager. Explain the situation to them. Remember bankers are people too and if you have a legitimate issue, they will work to help you resolve it. Sometimes a phone call is not adequate....
 
Also, please forgive the level of detail. It is included because a year ago I switched to Bank of America. They seemed friendly at first... after this happened I read up on them and learned they're more or less the type who would fight tooth and nail, utilizing any detail possible, to keep any of their imposed fees.

I had to argue with the guy to get the first fee back (despite the fact that he had the bank's records of my balances including all possible pendings/holds in front of him). I no longer trust them to address this situation for the sake of good business.

When I read your first post I just KNEW you were talking about Bank of America. I'm having the same problem with them...only my NSF fees are in excess of $300. :mad: There are a LOT of people who are having the same issues with them; in fact, there are entire websites dedicated to the issue. BoA will often NOT show a debit/credit purchase as pending. After several days, it will appear as pending...and then will go away entirely. They reorganize your purchases based on $$ amount. So...let's say you have the following transactions:
$100
$5
$4
$70
$6
$10
They will show purchases as pending, so the amount is deducted from your "available amount". Then they may show up as completed, or disappear entirely for several days. This makes you think you have more $$ available (watch how your available amount fluctuates). They will then clear transactions in order of highest $ amount to lowest...which makes you have NSF for the multiple LOWER dollar amounts...and gains them a $35 fee for each. In my case, I had 6 transactions all clear on the same day (7/14)...but several of them had previously showed up as CLEARED the day before. All of a sudden, on 7/21, 6 purchases with a date of "7/14" showed up in my transaction history as "NSF" and the four SMALLER amounts each had a $35 fee attached to them. I went to the local branch and asked why they didn't clear the smaller purchases and just have the NSF fee attached to one of the BIG purchases. I was told that is "not how they process transactions because they want the bigger ones to have priority". It makes absolutely no sense.

If it is any consolation to you, the Federal Reserve is currently reviewing this and may enact measures to stop this from happening. I read an article about it about a week ago on WalletPop. It is under Regulation AA. BoA and one other bank are currently being investigated for this.

The branch manager recommended that I use my checkbook registry to keep track of my ATM/debit/checkcard(credit) purchases. I have never had to do that with either of my credit union accounts. Something is very fishy...
 
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