Here’s the latest update in my fiasco with my Taylor, Bean, & Whitaker bounced escrow check. I’m not happy with Chase right now. In fact, as soon as this mess gets straightened out, I will be transferring my money to a local bank with a great reputation. A bank where people are people…not a product of rules and regulations.
What the Chase Supervisor Told Me Yesterday
Yesterday I told you I called Chase about my overdrawn account. I spoke to the regular phone rep first, who told me that each item that was overdrafted would be charged a $25 fee. I had 8 transactions.
Then I talked to the supervisor, who told me that Chase only charges for the first 6 overdrafts, each at $25, so I would be charged a total of $150, of which she would credit back $70.
I wasn’t thrilled about having to pay $80, but I also realized it wasn’t Chase’s fault. So I said thank you politely and hung up the phone.
My Overdraft Fee This Morning
This morning I checked my account first thing to make sure my husband’s paycheck had been deposited and we were back in the black. I knew we’d have pretty much nothing on top of his paycheck, but at least we wouldn’t owe.
Except that we did. The overdraft fee charged to my account was $204. Fortunately the $70 was credited to my account soon after, but I was still not happy about being charged $50 more than I was told.
What the Chase Manager Told Me Today
I called Chase back this morning and asked to speak to a manager. Yes, she told me, I was correct. Chase will only charge for the first 6 overdrafts…per day (a fact that was left out yesterday). Fortunately I didn’t have any other transactions come through overnight. Unless they count the overdraft fee.
However, she said, I was told wrong about the actual fees yesterday. The fee is $25 for the first transaction and $34 for every transaction after that…up to 6. And no, they couldn’t honor what I was told yesterday. The rules are the rules. Exceptional circumstances don’t matter. But she was very sorry. And she understood. But her hands were tied.
When Did We Stop Acknowledging Real People?
The thing that bugs me most is that I have always been in good standing with the bank. I have bounced one check in my life. I was 20 years old, and it was a math error on my part. I paid the check and the fees and took responsibility.
In the past 18 years, I have not overdrafted my accounts once, until this week. Not even when my husband and I were living on $19,000 a year. I have a credit score of 800+. I did everything right. My problem is that I deposited an escrow check, money that I had paid legitimately to Taylor, Bean, & Whitaker. And Taylor, Bean, & Whitaker didn’t play by the rules. And Chase can see from their records that that is the case. It’s not like I’m feeding them some story to pull one over on them.
I realize that the Taylor, Bean, & Whitaker bounced check is not Chase’s problem. But as an upstanding customer, I am their problem. I don’t understand a society where rules are rules, and can never be broken, even in exceptional circumstances. We live in exceptional times. Banks are folding right and left, it seems. And innocent people, people who have played by the rules, are left holding the bag.
Counties are working with Taylor, Bean, & Whitaker customers to help them avoid property tax fees for taxes not paid by TBW.
Bank of America is working with former TBW customers to make sure their homeowners premiums are paid and no fees are incurred by innocent consumers.
But Chase will not work with a customer in good standing who did everything by the book? And they won’t even honor what a supervisor told that consumer in good standing? It’s not like I blew up on the phone and verbally abused the customer service supervisor I talked to the first time. I was polite. I asked if they could help. And I accepted their terms, even when they couldn’t waive all the fees. But then they didn’t honor the terms they gave me.
And it’s not like I was angry and yelled at the customer service manager I talked to today. I cried some out of pure frustration, but I think I managed to keep things polite, even though I’m understandably angry about this whole mess.
And yet, they can’t help me.
I’m sorry, but I’m choosing to take my business that treats people like people…and not like a customer number. Is there a bank out there that wants my business? I’m low maintenance, don’t yell at customer service reps on the phone, and my account is always in good standing, except when my mortgage company sends me a bad check for my escrow refund.
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We received the same terrible service and ridiculously high fees from Chase. We happily switched banks. We are now with IBC and they have been nothing but helpful about every issue we ever have. Now we are dealing with similar awful service on our mortgage through Chase Home Finance. We are going through a short sale, they’ve given us a deadline to sell the house, but they’ve allowed four offers to drop out because they take their time in responding. We will probably have to foreclose because Chase, particularly Marci Cutlip, don’t care enough to see things through.
Chase froze my husband’s account because of an identity theft alert on his account. The bank refused to allow him to make a deposit or cash any government checks. Which is apparently against the law in this situation. The bank required for him to prove his identity with social security which he did but the account remained frozen. The bank, however, continued to charge fees for all of the electronic transactions that were preset with online banking. They also considered allowing an electronic debit for 999,999,999.00. Over a week has gone by and they remain determined to collect the nsf fees that they tacked on from all of this mess before they will even consider to open a new account. Their policies don’t make sense. The customer service is appalling and I would never trust or recommend any business affiliated with Chase.
Ihad a friend that Chase screwed over as well. We went out to eat lunch and lunch was on her. We went to cash out and her Chase debit card got declined. My friend was never the type to overdraw her account so we knew something was up.The resturant ran her card again and again it was declined.To prevent further embarrasment, I paid for lunch. The next day I was told that Chase had frozen all 3 of her checking accounts! Not only had they frozen her accounts, they did it without a courtesy call or letter. Long story short…. My friend went 30 days before her account issue was straightened out, and she had full use of her money. It disgusts me that we as good standing customers faithfully deposit our money into their banks, and in return, they treat us like door mats! I applaud you for dropping Chase like a bad habit!
Long story short, chase got paid twice on a insurance policy placed on my house to protect there home equity loan. when I sold my house after hurrican katrina chase put a lein against the property that had to be setteled to complete the sale when they were the one that had placed a forced policy to protect their intrest. they collected from me not their insurance company. And they know it. I’ve had two attorneys investigate with the same results. We produce the documents and they stone wall. Has anyone had a simular expereince with differnt results?
Sorry to hear about that. I haven’t had an experience like that, so I don’t have much advice. I’d definitely be turning to the attorney general and the Better Business Bureau, though.
You’re not alone dear!
Chase is the worst credit card ever, with worst credit customer service I’ve ever seen. I’m a loyal customer for 2 years, my account is in good standing, and the payments are always on time. My account went over the limit by $3 on a shopping day. I made a generous payment into my credit card a day later to bring to keep it in control and to have a safe buffer. Guess what? at the end of the month, the account was charged an additional $39.99 for overdraft fee, the interest went up from 16% to 24.99%. I called two times to try to waive the overdraft fee, but heard the same message twice (customer service are stiff). I asked to talk to a supervisor, they refused in both times. The say you can dispute only in writing!. What happened to the “first time” courtesey policy that all banks adopt? they responded that they don’t work for other banks!,…etc. etc. I decided to stop business with them. I’ll close all other bank account (Checking & saving) I have with them. Do the online search and you’ll see that you’re not the only person complains about CHASE!.
As I was reading your entry I remembered a few years ago, I was hoping to get a finance charge disputed from a credit card. It was the same deal, I had been a customer for years, my credit score was impeccable, but they wouldn’t budge. They said it was their policy, and they didn’t offer credits for any reason. The company? CHASE! Even when I told them that I would cancel the card, they said “go ahead”. And that’s exactly what I did.
I’m not sure if you’re still reading the comments on this post but thought I’d post a comment just in case.
1. I hate Chase. Just thought I’d get that off my chest. lol
2. I would call TB&W and talk to a manager. Explain that due to their check bouncing, you have incurred several hundred in overdraft fees and you feel it would be their responsibility to pay that money back to you. This is an error on their part and not yours.
I work for a title company and mistakes happen. A disburser may have to void and reissue some checks and the wrong checks might get sent to the client while the good ones are mistakenly shredded. Stuff like that. Anyway…if this happens to our clients due to an error on our part (sending our bad checks) then we never had a problem sending another check to the client to cover the $ that it cost them. All we needed was a copy of the statement showing the overdraft fees or any bounced check fees.
Give it a try. It’s worth a shot! Good luck!
I hate Chase, too. :) I’ll be posting what finally happened tomorrow.
As far as TBW, I’m definitely going to try that route, but at this point, TBW has declared bankruptcy, and the bank they were using for escrow has been seized by the FDIC. I read an article that says checks are being reissued by the FDIC as we speak, and there will be instructions for recovering the $10 NSF fee. As far as the other fees I’m out, I’ll just have to wait and see.
It’s stories like these that make me so glad that I havemy money in a credit union. I once had an account at Nationsbank (now Bank of America) and will never again give them any of my business. I say, if at all possible, find a good local credit union and keep your money there.
When you change your bank, please check out your local banks as well. These are the ones with 5-10 branches and they really, really provide customer service. We live in a suburb of a major city so we have several options. I first checked them out on Bankrate.com to make sure they were safe (they are and were more highly rated than most of the credit unions and a bank I still use that was taken over by M&T, which is working out well so far). I use one bank for my various savings vehicles, including a checking account for big expenses, such as my escrow. Yes, I do my own escrow because the other local bank that holds my mortgage doesn’t even HAVE an escrow department. Their philosophy is that it would take more people to run that, which would require higher fees and interest rates. They believe that if you can handle the mortgage4 payments, you ought to be able to handle the taxes and insurance as well. Our homeowners insurance is paid automatically paid once a month and real estate taxes are due twice a year.
This is a really long way of saying that you should check out local banks, make sure they are stable, and consider using them.
Ugh I hate this for you! I am going through a similar debacle with SunTrust Bank. I had a business account with them for a now-defunct business. The account has been closed for three months, but all of a sudden, I receive notice of an overdraft charge and it being sent to collections! It turns out that’s a violation of federal and state debt collections laws, but I’m getting distracted. Since I discovered this a week ago, I’ve spent about 8 hours talking to anyone who would listen and going up the chain of command. And this is over a grand total of $65! However, I have hope that I am going to get this resolved in my favor because I have been persistent. So I encourage you to do the same – to be a thorn in their side until they help you out. And then? Then take your money and run to a credit union. :-) My personal banking is with a local credit union and I couldn’t be happier.
In my line of work I work with mortgagees nearly every day. Chase is one of the worst to deal with. So many of my customer have had major problems with their Chase mortgages.
You are so right! I have been going through he%$ with Chase Mortgage for over a year. They have even aknowledged there are some serious issues with my account(errors on their part) and after finally getting so angry and frustrated, I emailed the CEO, Jamie Dimon. I recvd a reply from his secretary Gloria-Figueroa stating I would recv contact from Senior Management within 48 hours. I gave them 48 hours to the minute, and emailed back promising I would be contacting a lawyer. Within an hour of that email, I received a call from Chases Executive Resolution Group. Needless to say, this was on August 13th, and today October 5th, a resolution has not been found. Thankfully, I send my payments by Bank Check, certified mail. I am current in my payments, and today my online statement shows I am 6 months behind. I am a single mom, raising a 4 year old boy. I saved for years to buy a small 660 square foot home for us. I plan to fight no matter how big Chase is, I will not give up. I will not allow them to take my home. Anyone who can offer some good advice, I would like to hear it.
The sad thing it isn’t just Chase– customer disservice is common these days. The only solution will be people voting with their pocketbooks– customers leaving will bring changes . . .
The banking industry is highly competitive, so you have all the reason in the world to exercise your rights as a consumer. Vote with your feet!!
Ugh… I can’t imagine (although I can… because something similar happened to us, once.) Customer service does not really exist anymore.. just automation. Getting a live person to give you a personal response is almost impossible. Reminds me of Auto-follow messages on Twitter.. LOL
We to have had problems with Chase and canceled all our services with them over the last year. I experienced much the same as you did with a very impersonal “these are the rules” inflexibility. If a company wants to keep your business they will work with you. You should find out who the regional director is for your area and write to them. or just start at corporate levels, they hate hearing from customers (I worked for a bank for over 20 years, trust me, they hate it). and use the names of all these people you talked to.
This is still outrageous. When you’re living frugally and you get hit with enormous fees that are literally throwing money down the can through no fault of your own, it must be painful.
Suggestions (may or may not work):
1) Do you have a local Chase branch where you opened your account? If so, try going in for a face-to-face meeting with the manager. They are often the ones who will take the time to review your account AND CAN OFTEN OVERRIDE “policy.” People in call centers often seem bound (and unfortunately even at higher levels are forced to read by their book).
2) If you change banks, small local ones scare me. Although they are strictly bound by tons of regulation, they tend to go under more easily. Virtually all are FDIC insured, but if it gets to that point, you could be stuck with months of waiting for recovery if the bank goes under. I’ve been saddened to read in the news of banks in farming communities here in CO that have gone under. While customers should eventually get their money back, many farmers have gone under because of immediate cash flow needs whilst waiting for recovery of money that is theirs.
3) Many “big” banks can be good (goes back to research, research, research, on soundness). E.g., WaMU was a “big bank”, but there were many trouble signs over the last few years, which eventually resulted in acquisition by Chase.
Much of your experience will go back to having a relationship with the local branch. I bank with US Bank. They’ve earned my loyalty to the point that when I moved to Vermont (and the nearest US Bank was in Ohio), I stuck with them despite the inconvenience. Because of my history with them, they were able to jump through hoops for wiring funds on the downpayment on my house there. Just last month, I needed their help. I was part of a massive lay-off of 12,000 employees of UTC back in March and lived off of life savings. Unfortunately, I reached the point that all emergency funds were exhausted and I had to make a major transfer from another fund source. Because the amount was large, the bank would normally hold the deposit for a few days. I went in and talked with the branch manager. He reviewed my account and also contacted the branch in Washington where I opened the account. After reviewing a strong history, they lifted the hold which allowed my bill payments to go through (saving hundreds in OD fees).
I hope everything works out for you. It’s so unfair to have that money (that you could use for feeding your family, working on debt, etc.) just thrown away.