Wells Fargo charged unfair overdraft fees.

Um,..Question? To those who gave out their saintly advice by saying
"Maintain your register", how can ANYONE maintain a blasted thing when
the information you may have on your register might NOT match the
information the bank may have?

Even if Natasha maintain a register and let's say for the sake of
argument that she did have that pending charge on there, it's kinda
hard to see if it's pending or not isn't it? Afterall, it's just a
paper book use to tally your charges. Unless it's computerize and has
a direct link to the bank she has no way of knowing if it's still
pending.

Unless of course she goes to visit a teller?
*gasp* oh silly me, that is what she just did.

Yet what did the teller say to her? She said "there was no pending
charges", so basically the human result here folks would suggest that
she would assume she had no pending charges. Therefore when she went
out there and made those other two charges, she did so thinking she
was in the clear. How and in the hell could that be considered
irresponsibility?

It was the teller who told her there was no pending charges. And oh,
guess what, it is the teller's job to answer questions pertaining to
her account, regardless if Nastasha kept a register or not. It's what
the bank pays them for so please no more talk about it's not being the
teller's responsibility to let her know of the balance of her account.
If you have a bank account, it is the bank's responsibility to keep
accurate records of their client's transactions. In this case they
failed. Natasha was given bad information, plain and simple and
therefore should not have been charged those fees. Do you think she
would have made those charges if she KNEW she still had a pending
charge out there? Of course not, that's why she went to the teller in
the first place.

Now I never said it's the teller's fault. Hell, she was only going off
information available to her at the time. What I am saying is that
what Nastasha did was was something anyone could have done, put in the
same situation. I check and maintain my account information now all
the time. I simply do not trust banks. I check my account online and I
even keep a register but even I can mistakes from time to time and get
nailed by the 'lovely' bank for it,..even when it's their fault.

The fact here folks is that banks are in business for one thing and
one thing only. To Make Money. They really don't give a damn how they
get it as long as they get it.

If you have good records, take them to small claims court. It worked
for me vs. Wells Fargo.

You're well within the small claims "statute of limitations":

http://www.legalzoom.com/law_library/smallclaims/statuteoflimitations.
html

-Karney Hatch
http://www.overdrawnmovie.net

You seem to have a similar problem as I. I verify my account either
on-line or at the ATM. The bad part about this is weekends, neither
will keep accurate records. I have also noticed on Fridays I can go
purchase something for say $10 and it wil show up on-line as a
deduction. However, come Saturday, the $10 will not be on there. It
may be the next Tuesday before it is back on there.

You do need to keep a register OR get the funds out of the bank in
cash and do not write checks. Seems like these are your best options.

1. KEEP A REGISTER... if you don't, you are the person I hate when
they come through my teller line.

2. You made the charge, you should have known it was pending.

3. SOmetimes if the system isn't live, the teller doesn't see the
pending charge...again, where keeping a register is EXTREMELY
helpful.

I guess it all boils down to KEEP A DANG REGISTER!!!

By the way, if a merchant charged twice for a book, the merchant
should be the one to refund your money on that fee, NOT the bank.

Jeez, I typically spend what I have, deduct when I write a check and
don't ever worry about over draft charges because I don't write checks
for money that I don't have. Novel concept I know, but the only one
that makes sense.

Even when I was younger and money was tight, I only spent what I had.
It's not the banks fault, even if you have over draft protection. I'm
not even sure why they have that. I'm pretty sure they charge for
that, so they're actually making money off of it.

Shocking as this may seem...

I don't totally blame Natasha.

While, yes, she's responsible for tracking her own account, I don't
think it's unreasonable to rely on information provided by the
teller.

I keep great records. I'm anal that way. But, you know, sometimes I
make a mistake and miss something. So, I'll use bank records to fill
in gaps.

It happens.

And if she was given information from the teller, it should have been
correct.

However, I have a guess (although I might be wrong) about what
happened.

The teller gave correct information. However, the pending charge
didn't appear until AFTER the fact. For example:

Natasha write a check for $50 on Monday morning to Bicsuit Foods. At
noon, she goes into the bank and asks if there are pending charges.
"No and you have $70 in your account" says the teller. So, Natasha
withdraws $65 (thinking she's leaving $5). On Tuesday, the Biscuit
Foods check arrives, leaving her account at -$45. The check bounces.
Because she has overdraft protection, the bank allows the check to go
through (i.e., it actually DOESN'T bounce) but charges her a $100 fee.
Which, she doesn't have in the account.

So, it's possible that the teller WAS honest, although without
sufficient information.

So, yes, Natasha should watch her own finances. However, the bank
should have given her factual information.

Where the question (if my guess about what happened is correct) lies
is in whether or not the bank's "facts" were incomplete or not.

Which is what brings most of you to say that it's Natasha's fault
since she's the only one that possesses all of the information. She's
the only one that knows how many checks she's written. The only
information Natasha doesn't have is if there were withdrawals from her
account she was not aware of (like the mistaken double-charge for the
books).

Maybe I'm feeling like a softy today (after a little chat I had with
another regular here, I'm feeling kind of bad).

Yes, you lose. You are suppose to know what is in the bank and what
you have brought. Thats why you keep a log of your charges. Now on the
merchant charging you instead of credit they are responsible for that.
Or the bank should correct that once you show proof that is what
happened. Sorry Dear you need help with balancing your check book.

Natasha,
This too shall pass.
If you are still with Wells Fargo check them out at WellsFargo.com and
set your account up so you can monitor it online.
You might also look into the viablity of a debit card.
Good luck.
Bill R.

This is your fault. You need to maintain a check register. The bank
has no way of knowing if you have a pending check out there or a debit
that has not been presented to the bank by the merchant.

I feel for you, but it's not the teller's responsibility to know how
much money is in your account. It's yours. You should log every check
or debit card transaction in your checkbook as soon as you write the
check or swipe the card. It's too easy to lose track if you don't.

You may have some recourse with the overdraft from last month, by the
way, if it was the merchant's error. I would talk to the bank about
that one.

It's your own fault that you don't keep track of your money. If you're
old enough to have an account, you're old enough to keep track of your
spending and accept the responsibilities should you fail. And they DID
give you overdraft protection! They protected you from your payment
being refused at the store and the STORE coming after you as well. The
cost of that protection? Overdraft fees! Buy yourself a little
register, pay the fees you owe, and keep track of your own money from
now on.

Wow. Why bother banking at all? One day you'll find yourself with a
$9.99 balance and an ATM card, and THAT would be the ATM'S fault I
suppose?

Seriously, I think the bank manager was more than generous offering
ten dollars off the fee. Everyone should keep track of their finances
and balances, especially when they work hard for their money.(And even
then we ALL make mistakes from time to time)

I used to shrug and roll my eyes when I was young and my parents said
thing like : "mind your cents and the dollars will take care of
themselves" and "Don't run with scissors" but there's some wisdom in
there.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't overdraft protection where you pay
a fee when the bank covers charges when you have no money in your
account? At least that is the way it works at my bank, I am pretty
sure. So if the bank covered those two charges, and the one pending
charges, you would 1- owe an overdraft fee to the bank for paying all
three charges (meaning they weren't returned to the merchant as
bounced checks), and you would 2- also need to deposit enough money to
cover the money that wasn't there for the charges, and also for the
fees.

If the bank paid a charge when you had no money in your account, then
yes you actually did have overdraft protection and it worked how it
was supposed to and the overdraft fee is totally fair.

And I am sure the bank will respond to the "it was their teller's
fault" argument with the "it's your responsibility to know your
balance on your account that you are in charge of" argument- I think
there might even be something to that effect that you sign when you
open the account?

" . . . unsure of how much money was in my account. ." says it all.
It is your responsibility to maintain a check register and know what
your balance is at all times - - this isn't the bank's job. It is
also your responsibility to know what debits you have authorized,
which have cleared and which are pending. You also "assumed" you had
overdraft protection when you opened the account - - this is a line of
credit that you apply for so did you apply (and were approved) or not?
Obviously not.

The Teller did not make a mistake - - you did. How in the world would
they know if you had a pending debit?

I'm getting a little tired of people complaining about overdraft fees
and claiming they are unfair when it is is clear that they are simply
not managing their checking accounts and looking for someone else to
blame.