W
waka
Guest
Hi. I live in New York, and last week managed to overdraw my account. I opened a $500 credit line a month or so ago to protect myself from overdraft fees. While my wife and I were on vacation, several transactions overdrew my account by about $300 on the same day. Though I had more than adequate funds available in my credit line to cover the debt, only a small portion ($80.00) was transferred by the bank. As a result, the bank is charging me $275.00 in overdraft fees, while my line of credit still has enough funds to cover everything (not including their charges). Of course, the line of credit is supposed to automatically transfer funds in this situation.
I spoke with a customer service rep over the phone about this, and he told me that "holds" placed on my account by certain business (mainly restaurants) caused the funds in my line of credit to appear inadequate on the day that all the transactions cleared. These holds go away after two business days, but by that time I had already been charged for insufficient funds.
Apparently, holds are a way for businesses to insure that funds will be available when they decide to actually charge the account. If the amount being held is different than the amount charged, the hold and the charge both go onto the account until the hold clears (causing the account balance to drop by both the amount of the charge and the amount of the hold). In my opinion, such holds are beyond my control, and I should not have to pay the fees as I have adequate funds available to cover the debt.
The customer service rep gave me a "that's the policy, so too bad" routine, and refused to let me speak with his supervisor. He also told me that no rep is authorized to reverse the charges. I visited my local branch and spoke with them about this issue on Friday, and we have a scheduled meeting for this coming Tuesday. However, I expect them to act as if this is not an error, and therefore something that they don't have to deal with.
Anybody dealt with something like this before? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Waka
I spoke with a customer service rep over the phone about this, and he told me that "holds" placed on my account by certain business (mainly restaurants) caused the funds in my line of credit to appear inadequate on the day that all the transactions cleared. These holds go away after two business days, but by that time I had already been charged for insufficient funds.
Apparently, holds are a way for businesses to insure that funds will be available when they decide to actually charge the account. If the amount being held is different than the amount charged, the hold and the charge both go onto the account until the hold clears (causing the account balance to drop by both the amount of the charge and the amount of the hold). In my opinion, such holds are beyond my control, and I should not have to pay the fees as I have adequate funds available to cover the debt.
The customer service rep gave me a "that's the policy, so too bad" routine, and refused to let me speak with his supervisor. He also told me that no rep is authorized to reverse the charges. I visited my local branch and spoke with them about this issue on Friday, and we have a scheduled meeting for this coming Tuesday. However, I expect them to act as if this is not an error, and therefore something that they don't have to deal with.
Anybody dealt with something like this before? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Waka