Wells Fargo Removed My Girlfriend's Savings

If she has overdraft protection set up on Mom's account, then that's
that. They can take money from any savings account in the company that
has Mom's money.

Looks like Mom owes her daughter a thank you and $500.

My dad was always on our case about good money management starting
young, so he wanted all of us to have a checking account as soon as we
started working. He decided to have us go through Wells Fargo, since
that is where he banked, and would sign for us on our checking
accounts. His name never appeared anywhere, I dont know how they did
this, almost as if he was an invisible co-signer. Everything was in my
name from statements, to checks, to deposit slips. No where was his
name on it, however he was still linked. So when my brother overdrew
his account, they pulled money out of all of our accounts, which I
thought was really strange. Why not just take the entire amount out of
one account that had enough to fund it?? I dont know, but they pulled
money from everyones account, without our knowing, so in turn all of
our accounts were messed up and ended up costing my sister and I fees
for overdraft ( my dad was the only one who didnt get overdrawn
because he had ample amount of money for his stuff plus what they
pulled out ) but for my sister and I who were teenagers, we overdrew
our accounts. Needless to say, my dad was so very angry he went in
there and closed all of the accounts.

Just for everyones information, if you are looking for your teenager
to get a checking account or are under 18 and want one, Wachovia opens
them starting at age 15 for students. I bank there and told my little
brother about it, who was looking to start his own. It is called the
student checking account and all you have to do is provide your
school's name and year that you will be graduating I believe and you
can have a good checking account without having to tie it to anyone
elses name.

Unfortunately, WF had the right to do this, and I know this from
personal experience learned the hard way. I helped my oldest daughter
open an account when she turned 16 at WAMU. I already had a checking
account with them. Someone hijacked my checking account, and it was
about a week before I found out- when things started being declined
and bouncing. After 7 days, the computer automatically closed my
daughters account ( because my name was on it) and took the $7.59 she
had in it ( I gave her $8 to cover that, and she opened another
account at a credit union, as she was now over 18). I eventually got
all the charges reversed, but changed banks because my confidence in
WAMU was now pretty low.

When my next daughter opened an account and I co-signed, she went in
2 days after her 18th birthday, and the bank removed me from the
account, as she was no longer a minor. Simple.

Your girlfriend is probably not going to get her money back from the
bank, and will have to go after her mother for it. Take heart, at
least this will not affect HER credit, only her Moms. She could have
avoided all this by removing her Mom from the account 3 years ago,
when she was no longer a minor.

Good luck-

There are many types of accounts with specific terms. As you know she
needs to be of legal age to open a checking account which is why this
was set up this way, however if it is a custodial account at all the
terms need to be changed on the account, or close the account and open
a new one. She could have been a minor and had a paycheck directly
deposited into a savings account without having it be a custodial or
joint account. Have her direct deposit the paychecks into a new
account without anyone else's name on it. Also, she needs to sit down
with her mother and work this out,have her pay it back to her.

Judge Judy will make it right!


Good Day

You need to switch banks immediately. To get a name off of an account,
you need to have both parties agree, and if the mother is
overdrafting, she does not sound like she cares enough to sit down and
sign the papers to get this done.

After you have switched banks and have everything else set up
properly, get the current accounts closed.

And if her mother will not pay up, try small claims court.

It is nice of you to write on your girlfriend's behalf, but she needs
to pursue this herself since it is her account and she is an adult.

I would not be surprised if the bank has a right to do this if her
mother is on both accounts. I don't know the law, but it makes sense.
When people co-own an account, they are joined at the hip
financially. From the bank's perspective, they probably have a right
to go after any funds that are in her mother's name.

Obviously there must be a family issue that prevents your girlfriend
from obtaining what she deserves (the $ + the fee) from the correct
entity - her mother. I hope she and her mother can get this
straightened out, and of course that her mother's name is removed from
the account. Good luck (to your girlfriend).

Thank you guys so much for the advice! I really really really
appreciate it! I will be giving the FDIC a call, and possibly filing
with the BBB. Her mom is willing to help us do what we can, and is
willing to talk to whoever we need to help us. But she just got laid
off from her job, and can't pay us back. Basically the only way we can
get it back is if Wells Fargo reverses the savings and leaves the mom
with a even higher negative balance. Which the mom is in favor of. I
am going to continue fighting this, and I will keep you guys updated!

Thanks again for all your help and advice!

I agree with Harley. If the terms and conditions allow them to cover
overdrafts in this way, I doubt they're going to decide that your
girlfriend's claim on the money trumps theirs. In a situation like
this, I would imagine anyone who is not on the overdrafted account but
is on the account from which the bank took the money is going to claim
that it's really their money. If they were going to respond to that
sort of claim by giving back the money, they probably wouldn't be
taking money from joint accounts where one party wasn't involved in
the overdraft in the first place.

I hope that your girlfriend, her mother, and their bank are able to
get this all worked out quickly and with as few consequences to your
girlfriend as possible. It does sound like a pretty appalling set of
circumstances.

To be honest Josh, I don't think there is anything she can do except
go to her mother for the money. When you open an account there is
something in the terms and conditions called (I think) The Right To
Offset, which allows them to do just that, offset a loss from one
account by withdrawing funds from another that is jointly held.

First of all even though your girlfriend is frustrated with this bank
she needs to write this letter. Its her account...and her mother
should also be involved since she is on the account and was the cause
of all these problems.

And I realize its after the fact but she needs to have her mom removed
ASAP from her accounts. She is 21yrs old and can have her own accounts
in her name.
Her history is good sans the mother overdrawing so I see no reason why
they will not review this and find in her favor. If they do not she
needs to take her business somewhere else.

My son has been on my accounts since he was 16yrs old at both my bank
and my credit union but they have NEVER removed monies from my account
to cover his when he was in the minus. I would be furious if this
happened.

Please keep us posted as to the outcome...but again she may need to
change banks.

Wow. Good reminder to us all to keep tabs on the names on our
accounts and remove them whenever possible.

Josh -- you sound like a good guy. Hopefully you won't get bashed too
hard by folks who tell you that your girlfriend should deal with this
herself.

You may want to give the FDIC consumer response center a call at
1-877-275-3342 (8a - 8p M-F ET). They can probably tell you what your
rights are in this situation.

Hope it works out. Let us know.