Banking practices.....how I got fucked....

[Testosterone boy]

A customer bounced a check for $250 a couple weeks. I then made a deposit and wrote a payment to my credit card company. I had enough money in checking to cover the check. There was also funds available in my line of credit.

Well....they froze my account for 10 days because a customer gave me a bad check. So they bounced my check to my credit card company (and charged me $25 for the "service") despite have ample funds in both checking and line of credit. Now my credit card company will charge me about $70 for the bounced check and what is now a late payment.


I spent at least an hour at the bank getting the $25 fee returned.
Now I get to argue at lenght with my credit card company.


Did I get fucked?

We need a smilie for getting hosed.

 

[fogg88]

 

[fogg88]

looks better on a grey background.

 

[Testosterone boy]

I have not seen that one before. Fitting though I would wipe that smile off.

 

[skaman607]

didnt you see the new smilies thread? :kronkette

i think there's more, but that's all for now

 

[Testosterone boy]

I guess not. Wonder why some guys got their own smilie? Good head prolly.

 

[Bigsatan13]

A customer bounced a check for $250 a couple weeks. I then made a deposit and wrote a payment to my credit card company. I had enough money in checking to cover the check. There was also funds available in my line of credit.

Well....they froze my account for 10 days because a customer gave me a bad check. So they bounced my check to my credit card company (and charged me $25 for the "service") despite have ample funds in both checking and line of credit. Now my credit card company will charge me about $70 for the bounced check and what is now a late payment.


I spent at least an hour at the bank getting the $25 fee returned.
Now I get to argue at lenght with my credit card company.


Did I get fucked?

We need a smilie for getting hosed.

If you deposited the check and didn't wait for it to clear you are overdrawn. The funds are not available untill the check clears.

 

[Bigsatan13]

If all this funding was available he wouldn't have been charged.

 

[Testosterone boy]

If all this funding was available he wouldn't have been charged.

I thought you were a graveyard electrician?


They froze my account because of the bad check from the customer. It didn't matter that I deposited over $1000 the next day or had funding available through the line of credit previous to the deposit.

Stick to getting shocked buddy.

 

[BackDoc]

This happens actually very frequently. A good friend of mine who started her own business had a similar problem. End of last year, she had to write a lot of checks to other businesses during a busy month and then a string of insufficient fund penalties came back. This happened all at once and it was not long before penalty fees were almost $1000. She called me and I sat down with her to figure out what was going on. Come to find out the bank was holding her night deposits (cash included) for sometimes a week at a time. This did not include the normal 14 day clear time for checks, so end the end, sometimes a check was taking 3 weeks to clear. Big problem. So she contacted the back and told them the problem. Eventually they "negotiated" a lower total in penalty fees. She closed her account as soon as possible and opened a new one at a bank that features overdraft protection and rapid check clearance.

The problem I have is that banks have this same technology as check verification systems but it is not often a feature available to most accounts. I don't know if you can find one that does so, but it would be a benefit even if it costs a little more. However, it is a hassle to transfer your account if you take credit cards, etc.

That they froze your account is the main problem as you know. If you have overdraft coverage then that should have settled it, but since not, you will likely have to change banks to one that does what they promise.

 

[Testosterone boy]

Thanks for the civilized response. I have three accounts and have been with them for over 20 years so I'll chalk it up to experience since they did return the $25 they stole from me.

It was nothing personal....accounts get frozen automatically if a check bounces from what I can tell. Never happened before in 9 years though.

 

[AustinTX]

That sucks; I'd probably switch banks or go to a credit union. Never heard of putting a freeze on an account for a single bounced check. If it's a personal acct and they don't know that there are business deposits, I'd let them know, perhaps they can set it up so the freeze doesn't happen. For most commercial businesses, they'd never have an unfrozen acct if it were frozen for a week every time...

Also, the hold time BackDoc mentioned seems insane now too; I believe most checks legally have to clear in 2 () business days now, up to 7 for cert/cashiers. If the bank holds them for a week before sending off to be cleard, and then holds 14 days to clear, it's time to find a new bank

 

[Warik]

Why do they freeze your account if the customer is the one who fucked up? The logical procedure would be to contact the customer's bank and have them freeze the account... not screw you.

-Warik

 

[Bigsatan13]

I thought you were a graveyard electrician?


They froze my account because of the bad check from the customer. It didn't matter that I deposited over $1000 the next day or had funding available through the line of credit previous to the deposit.

Stick to getting shocked buddy.

Whatever you say deadbeat. Pay your bills!