Need a good bank!! (Chattanooga: house, unemployed, high school)

[Foshie09]

I have as well as my family have been banking with the same bank for around 15yrs in fact my family has a nice business account with them but over the past several years and even recently they have proven to be nothing but crooks who do not care so I really need to find a new bank. I would really appreciate some input regarding good experiences with banks in Chattanooga.

In a nut shell about 5 yrs ago I had 2 overdraft fees charged to my account due to a company charging me for something they shouldn't have, well the real problem came when around the middle of July that year I went out of town to help a relative out with some work they needed done on their house ( i was unemployed at the time) and I had not used my bank account for anything since the first of July and I knew what my balance was when I left for out of town. I arrived back in Chattanooga around the end of August and went to the bank to cash the checks my family had given me for helping them and depsoit some of it only to find out my account was overdrawn by $201.00. I knew right away it had to be a mistake and when they told me what the charges were for I called the company who made the charges and and they acknowledged it was a mistake and refunded me the money charged however the bank refused to take off the overdraft fees saying too much time had passed (charges were made July 27th) and that since I did not pay the overdraft fees in time (7 days from date of the overdraft) that there was nothing they could do. Well I asked them why I had not recieved a notice in the mail and they said because the notices were mailed back undeliverable due to an address change (no I did not change my address just for going out of town for a month lol.) Well As I explained to them I hadn't moved they said well the post office did it then so I went to the PO and they still had my correct address. By the way yes I had my parents checking my mail every other day for me while i was gone since their business was 2 miles from where I lived. So anyways even though the charges made were not my fault and that was proven the bank decided to at their whim change my address and not notify me in time of the overdraft fees and refused to drop the charges so I was stuck paying $144.00 to clear my name up (the $59 difference was refunded me by the company that made the charges.) That was strike one which was in no way a fault of my own but the company that made the charges and the banks error in changing my address for no reason.

Strike 2 came recently when yes due to my error I paid $125.00 on a bill and meant to pay $120.00 and my wife also made a charge of $3.08 at her job for some snacks and before I made the payment I had balanced our checkbook and somehow came up with $132.32 when in reality we only had $125.71 (yes once again my error.) The next day my wife charges $.91 for a soda at work (still thinking we had a few dollars left in the account) and after that charge was "pended" it took our balance to $89.71 (the overdraft fee from previous day took it down from $125.71 to the $89.71) so then after they run their "batch report" each day our balance became $85.72 ($3.08 from the previous day cleared and the $0.91 soda charge pended) which we were still in the positive at that point with only 1 overdraft fee. Well the next day the $125.00 clears as well as the $0.91 charge. Now the problem is we got charged 2 more overdraft fee's b/c as what Congress has termed it the bank "prioirity posted" the 2 payments highest to lowest in order to maximize their collection of overdraft fees. If they would have posted the $0.91 charge before the $125.00 we would only have been charged 1 more overdraft fee which would have made 2 total not 3. So I went to the local branch and talked to them about it and reminded them that me and my family had been good customers for 15 yrs and asked if they could help us out with 1 of the overdraft fees since we never overdraft besides the 1 time years ago which was not our fault and they basically gave me the attitude of tough just pay it so we ended up having to borrow $111.28 just to get our account back to good standing so that we don't get charged double for not paying the overdraft fees within 5 days of them occurring.

Yes I know it was a mistake on our end and I fully accept that its just bothersome that you can do business somewhere for 15 yrs and have them treat you like that especially after being a good customer and prior to recently had never had an overdraft fee except for the 1 time where it was not our fault and even more so with the fact that everyones living hand to mouth nowadays.

So I guess I'm kinda wondering if anyones had any experiences similar where the bank handled it differently especially something like our first instance where we did nothing wrong.

I'd also like to add that luckily a bill has been passed now that effective as of July 1st, 2010 all banks must inform you of their overdraft fees and posting policies and in order for your account to be allowed to even have the possibility of allowing overdrafts you must sign a waiver to the bank. In other words if you don't sign the waiver and you try to write a check or swipe a debit card and the funds are not there you will just get declined not penalized.

[An Einnseanair]

I can't think of any bank that wouldn't do everything you just described without any hesitation. Maybe a small community bank if you have a good relationship with the managers. My parents have such a relationship at a small community bank in rural Mississippi. There's only one bank (no "branches"), and my dad went to high school with the president.

Pretty much any other bank will charge any fee they can get away with. And to be brutally honest, unless you have over $10,000 in deposits, they probably couldn't care less about you taking you taking your business elsewhere.

Personally, we use Bank of America, but only because I travel frequently and often need access to ATMs and I don't like paying the access fees for using competing ATMs.

Also, we maintain a small savings account ($5,000) with the same bank and have it linked to our checking account. In case of an overdraft they charge a smaller fee and pull the balance out of the savings account.