Got screwed by Washington Mutual

[eflat]

I accidentally deposited my last paycheck into my savings rather than checking account. My fault, I know.

However, I then went out and ran a number of small errands during which I made six check card withdrawls and one $20 withdrawl from Washington Mutuals own ATM. This all amounted to less than $50. Not once, not even at their own atm, was a told I had overdrawn my account.

So today I get a statement with SEVEN overdraft fees (all on the same day) amounting to over $150. And they refuse to refund them. I even threatened to close my account and the asshole manager says "well I was going to refund one but now that you said that I can't do that."

I know they have covered their asses from all angles but I'm going to find some way to get them back. Any ideas?

 

[Nutdotnet]

They screwed you?

No.

You screwed yourself by not paying attention to what you're doing.

It's your responsibility to know where you put your money.

It's your responsibility to know how much money you have in your accounts.

All you can do is close your account and go somewhere else.

 

[KLin]

Close the account. That'll show those assholes they can't mess with you and your 350 dollar paycheck.

 

[klah]

How exactly did they screw you? I am sure they followed the exact terms of the contract you chose to sign with them.

 

[eflat]

Hey I'm not saying I didn't goof up. But I don't think that goof up warranted $150 in fees. It's a sleezy business tactic and you know it is.

 

[KLin]

Originally posted by: CitizenDoug
Hey I'm not saying I didn't goof up. But I don't think that goof up warranted $150 in fees. It's a sleezy business tactic and you know it is.

If you think it's sleazy, then you might as well cash your checks and put your money under your mattress. All banks have the same fees. Live and learn.

 

[eflat]

I've never even heard of an "overdraft fee." I would expect that if you write a bad check it would bounce. I would expect that if you tried to withdrawl money you did not have you would not get the money. I would expect that if you tried to pay with a debit card with no money it would be denied. This seems logical enough to me.

 

[KLin]

Originally posted by: CitizenDoug
I've never even heard of an "overdraft fee." I would expect that if you write a bad check it would bounce. I would expect that if you tried to withdrawl money you did not have you would not get the money. I would expect that if you tried to pay with a debit card with no money it would be denied. This seems logical enough to me.

You obviously haven't read the terms of your bank account. :roll:

 

[eflat]

Originally posted by: KLin

Originally posted by: CitizenDoug
I've never even heard of an "overdraft fee." I would expect that if you write a bad check it would bounce. I would expect that if you tried to withdrawl money you did not have you would not get the money. I would expect that if you tried to pay with a debit card with no money it would be denied. This seems logical enough to me.

You obviously haven't read the terms of your bank account. :roll:

Oh give me a break it's written in such a fashion to discourage folks from reading it.

 

[wfbberzerker]

Originally posted by: CitizenDoug

Originally posted by: KLin

Originally posted by: CitizenDoug
I've never even heard of an "overdraft fee." I would expect that if you write a bad check it would bounce. I would expect that if you tried to withdrawl money you did not have you would not get the money. I would expect that if you tried to pay with a debit card with no money it would be denied. This seems logical enough to me.

You obviously haven't read the terms of your bank account. :roll:

Oh give me a break it's written in such a fashion to discourage folks from reading it.

flawless logic!

 

[RbSX]

Originally posted by: CitizenDoug
I accidentally deposited my last paycheck into my savings rather than checking account. My fault, I know.

However, I then went out and ran a number of small errands during which I made six check card withdrawls and one $20 withdrawl from Washington Mutuals own ATM. This all amounted to less than $50. Not once, not even at their own atm, was a told I had overdrawn my account.

So today I get a statement with SEVEN overdraft fees (all on the same day) amounting to over $150. And they refuse to refund them. I even threatened to close my account and the asshole manager says "well I was going to refund one but now that you said that I can't do that."

I know they have covered their asses from all angles but I'm going to find some way to get them back. Any ideas?

You don't it's your fault buddy.

 

[EyeMWing]

Originally posted by: KLin

Originally posted by: CitizenDoug
Hey I'm not saying I didn't goof up. But I don't think that goof up warranted $150 in fees. It's a sleezy business tactic and you know it is.

If you think it's sleazy, then you might as well cash your checks and put your money under your mattress. All banks have the same fees. Live and learn.

Mine doesn't. That would've amounted to $7 in fees. Of course, that's a credit union and it's not so much an overdraft fee as a processing fee since it's automatically pulling money from the savings account into the checking account (which is normally free, but whatever)

 

[IndieSnob]

Originally posted by: CitizenDoug

Originally posted by: KLin

Originally posted by: CitizenDoug
I've never even heard of an "overdraft fee." I would expect that if you write a bad check it would bounce. I would expect that if you tried to withdrawl money you did not have you would not get the money. I would expect that if you tried to pay with a debit card with no money it would be denied. This seems logical enough to me.

You obviously haven't read the terms of your bank account. :roll:

Oh give me a break it's written in such a fashion to discourage folks from reading it.

Wow. Just wow.

It's pretty damn common and simple knowledge that there are overdraft fees. Obviously you weren't around when common sense was being passed around.

 

[Sphexi]

I can understand a single overdraft fee, but I kind of agree that if you didn't have the money, then at least their own ATM would've refused your withdrawal. It might be that the way you made the payments, with what I'm assuming was your check cashing card (Debit with a CCard logo on it) that it doesn't settle up until that night, and so their system wasn't aware of how little money you had in the account until it balanced everything out later on. That sounds a lot like a local bank here that likes doing debits before credits, even if you made the credit before the debit, only so they can force your account into overdrawn and charge you hefty fees.

I'd say call their national line and NICELY explain the situation, tell them that you were unaware your mistake in the deposit and that you don't understand why their own systems didn't refuse any of your payments, and someone may be nice and let you off the hook of some of the fees, but it's doubtful.

Pay em, or move on to another bank.

 

[buzzsaw13]

Originally posted by: KLin

Originally posted by: CitizenDoug
Hey I'm not saying I didn't goof up. But I don't think that goof up warranted $150 in fees. It's a sleezy business tactic and you know it is.

If you think it's sleazy, then you might as well cash your checks and put your money under your mattress. All banks have the same fees. Live and learn.

Bank Of America has Overdraft protection and automatically transfers money from your savings into your checking in case something like this would happen. Close your account and switch to a Bank that has a system like this

 

[EyeMWing]

Originally posted by: buzzsaw13

Originally posted by: KLin

Originally posted by: CitizenDoug
Hey I'm not saying I didn't goof up. But I don't think that goof up warranted $150 in fees. It's a sleezy business tactic and you know it is.

If you think it's sleazy, then you might as well cash your checks and put your money under your mattress. All banks have the same fees. Live and learn.

Bank Of America has Overdraft protection and automatically transfers money from your savings into your checking in case something like this would happen. Close your account and switch to a Bank that has a system like this

BoA also features weekly security issues.

 

[SagaLore]

Call your local news station.

 

[QuitBanningMe]

Originally posted by: CitizenDoug
I've never even heard of an "overdraft fee." I would expect that if you write a bad check it would bounce. I would expect that if you tried to withdrawl money you did not have you would not get the money. I would expect that if you tried to pay with a debit card with no money it would be denied. This seems logical enough to me.

You have an overdraft fee because WA automatically gives you like $200 in overdraft protection. To make it even worse (or better) they keep adding to that amount. I can overdraft up to 1K now. I can see how a lot of people could fvck themselves by constantly being in the hole and picking up overdraft charges.

Only problem I've had with them is I gave someone a 2K check and had a problem and called to put a stop payment on the check. A month later the person deposited the check and it went through. The bank would not refund my money even though they admitted it was their mistake and the lawyer that cashed the check just said "well if you ever need an attorney".

 

[ponyo]

Poor people get screwed at the bank. The error was your fault but if you have some major money with the bank or had the potential, the manager would've refunded the overdraft fees without a word.

 

[bigrash]

Haha...you screwed youself.

 

[eflat]

Originally posted by: Naustica
Poor people gets screwed at the bank. The error was your fault but if you have some major money with the bank or had the potential, the manager would've refunded the overdraft fees without a word.

I had a few thousand dollars in my savings account. They even have some sort of overdraft protection that they withdrawl money from your savings account but they said I opted out of that option which of course I never to my knowledge did.

 

[ponyo]

Originally posted by: CitizenDoug

Originally posted by: Naustica
Poor people gets screwed at the bank. The error was your fault but if you have some major money with the bank or had the potential, the manager would've refunded the overdraft fees without a word.

I had a few thousand dollars in my savings account. They even have some sort of overdraft protection that they withdrawl money from your savings account but they said I opted out of that option which of course I never to my knowledge did.

Few thousand dollars = poor at the bank. You need close to six figures at minimum to get noticed. Seven figures and above will get you a private banker who will kiss your ass for you.

 

[QuitBanningMe]

Oh and call back. A different person will likely remove the fees. They have done it for my wife when she did a similar stupid thing.

 

[eflat]

Originally posted by: QuitBanningMe
Oh and call back. A different person will likely remove the fees. They have done it for my wife when she did a similar stupid thing.

Oh I will. And I'll keep calling until I either get six out of seven of those fees reversed or else waste at least $200 worth of their time. What really bothers me is that I'm normally very responsible about these matters. I've never carried a credit card balance and never live paycheck to paycheck. The fact that I could make this mistake means that they must be making a large percentage of their profits screwing over poor people who can least afford it.

 

[QuitBanningMe]

Originally posted by: CitizenDoug

Originally posted by: QuitBanningMe
Oh and call back. A different person will likely remove the fees. They have done it for my wife when she did a similar stupid thing.

Oh I will. And I'll keep calling until I either get six out of seven of those fees reversed or else waste at least $200 worth of their time. What really bothers me is that I'm normally very responsible about these matters. I've never carried a credit card balance and never live paycheck to paycheck. The fact that I could make this mistake means that they must be making a large percentage of their profits screwing over poor people who can least afford it.

They are.

Why else would they give automatic overdraft. Basically they are giving high intrest loans.