Dear Mr. Regions Bank CORPORATION!
Let me preface this rant by disclaiming the reality that not everyone will like what I say nor will everyone who reads this post agree the capitalism and the obstacles it presents to the common working class citizen. Be that as it may, as the stewardess of this blog, I reserve the right to not give a dam about those feelings and to continue on with my plight to expose the corporate evils and warn unsuspecting everyday consumers of the perils that such greed will ultimately be the undoing of this fabric of the great nation of the United State of America.
Dear Regions,
My name is Customer and I am writing to air a grievance of your “opt-in” overdraft feature is nothing short of a SCAM.
I was able to draw this conclusion based on months of experience with this gross derelict of a banking process. While I agree that your establishment is a for profit organization, I have to beg the question; Is it really necessary to use a computer software program to manipulate the accounting of a customer’s purchase history in order to apply a 36.00 overdraft fee even when the customer responsibly uses his or her check card and NEVER uses checks to make purchases with money that is not present.
Confused Mr. Board of Directors???? Well you should be, because so am I. You see. As an account holder at your bank, I was under the impression that anytime I made a purchase using my check card and the money was there, it was accounted for via a process also known as an “authorization hold.” As a seasoned customer service representative who have worked in all facets of the corporate sector, I know that financial institutions can hold an authorized amount of funds from a purchase agreement for up to 30 days.
CONSUMER BEWARE: Authorization holds are being used against the consumer to assure overdraft fees are applied even when a customer is making responsible purchases with their own money!
For reasons unbeknownst to the customer who, REGIONS claims to release their hold after 3 days regardless if the merchant, with whom the purchase was made, has taken the funds back or not. Meanwhile, this charge is showing up legitimately on your ledger balance where it is reflected initially as a debit from your available balance. Still confused Mr. Regions RIPOFF ARTIST???? Let me show you how its done.
This is a must read in order to arm yourself as a consumer with the knowledge to not be TAKEN by Corporate Devilment
I.e. Lets give my account a balance of $1,000.oo, well at least for the sake of this conversation. Now as a RESPONSIBLE consumer, I use only the amount of money I have available to me for whatever reason, NOT A PENNY MORE.
This is how it may breakdown hypothetically : On Monday I made a purchase of $300 for school supplies for my kid. I swipe my card as a “credit” and the amount is immediately held as an “authorized charge,” appearing as a debit purchase as well as reflecting in my ledger balance as a lesser amount of 700 dollars. Tuesday, I make a yet another responsible purchase of a money order for $650.00 which immediately is debited out of my account and is also reflected in my ledger balance as a lesser amount in the account. My last purchase involved a fill up of my tank at the gas station entailed a $44.00 dollar purchase and mind you I was STILL within my budget and using my money. But wait there’s more. Because for this particular month, I didn’t have a $2000.00 balance which was mandatory for this type of account, my account was assessed an $8.00 fee which left me with a negative balance of -$4.00. Because overdraft fees are not charged on service charges, there was no need for me to worry as I was due to make a deposit within the next couple of days.
Little did I know, the accounting software used by REGIONS BANK manipulated the system to make it appear that the first purchase that I had made that Monday in the amount of $300.00 had just come through and was now causing my already negative balance to be assessed a double fee of $36.00 all because there was not enough to cover the transaction. Once again Mr. Board of Director devil, there was money there to cover the expenses, all but $8.00 bucks for a service charge. Why O why does your banking have to involve rearranging purchases to make the account appear in overdraft in order to charge more fees on top of fees on top of fees on top of more fees that lead to even more fees then all at once…..my money is gone down the fee drain.
They accompany me where ever I go along with my check card.
Mr Regions Bank Board of Director of the greedy corporate faction…..I am poor, I work hard, I am paid little. I trust you to hold my funds but you instead devise expensive strategies to assure that my funds come into your institution and never leave. I am poor and I am sad……That is all.
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