Bank goof up – can anything be done?
Question: We banked at a local credit union. DH changed jobs, so transfered banking to new job credit union.
Closed old account on May 10.
Received letter July 7 stating that we were “overdrawn” by $60 from an ATM transaction. Figured it was another bank mix up and actually just forgot about it (I know, big mistake).
Yesterday, July 21, received two letters from old credit union. First one was our new “membership” card. Second was letter stating we had been turned over to TRW for non payment!
We are building a new home and have been working very hard to keep our credit clean. We should close in about 60 days.
When DH called old credit union to find out WHAT was going on, he was told that the ATM transaction had occured on May 3 – before we closed the account. BUT, they didn’t post it until July and are now demanding payment!!
DH was told that if we pay the $60 (plus $10.05 in fees), they will have it deleted from the TRW report – I guess they mean either they really haven’t sent the letter and won’t, or they will send a letter stating it was reported in error. Since we can’t take any chances that this will show up, I am going to pay it today, against my better judgement.
Is what they are doing legal? Can we do anything about it? Has this happened to anyone else?
Arggggghhhhhhh… this is so frustrating.
Thanks for any and all help and advice.
Answer: It’s pretty simple really, the customer is responsible for his/her overdraft and any associated fees. I worked in a bank for 10 years and we handled thousands of transactions a day with an infinitesimal number of errors. 99% of the time a problem arose it was the customer who had made the mistake. However, since most banks do employee humans there will always be some problems.
Most of the people who I heard complaining about the incompetency of bankers either were the ones who were turned down on loans or who had very small accounts and didn’t like the fee schedule, especially for hot checks or overdrafts.
In your case, I would recommend paying the fee and forgetting about the matter. Even if the bank doesn’t delete the bad credit information you shouldn’t have a problem closing on the mortgage because of an amount as small as $60.
Don’t bother contacting the FDIC. They won’t instigate a federal investigation over this amount of money. They may, at best, send a form letter to the bank asking about the relevant circumstances.
No big deal, go have your tequila….
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