Help!? WaMu is the evilest bank on Earth!!

[everythingsxen]

In many past months, WaMu has "mysteriously" held onto checks and failed to post them to our account (sometimes for up to a month) until our account was almost empty with lots of Debit/Credit transactions waiting to post. They post the check, then the other transactions and screw us out of 100 - 200$ every few months. We have been trying to get out for several months, but we had some automatic deposits/payments that were set up and couldn't get free.

Fast Forward to this month.

On 10-2-2006 I paid our rent by check. On 10-13-06, our account was nearly empty, but I was depositing my check. I checked the account and they had taken out some ridiculous amount for "Insufficient balance"; I deposit my check, get a payday loan and deposit that. We spend little to no money all week, then on 10-21-2006, I checked the account and it was down to what it should have been, minus the rent check ($350 total balance). Ok, so everything is back on track right? We spent a little over $150 during the weekend. (Should be at ~$200 right?) Oh and just for clarification, their online account stuff has been down all weekend so we had to use ATMs to check.

Bearing all that in mind, imagine my surprise when my card was declined today while trying to buy a space-heater so we and our pets don't freeze to death. I was rather upset and checked my account balance, which was listed as being -596.00$. Interesting yes? Understandably irate, I called WaMu who told me that the balance I was told my account was at was actually negative. Further, they told me that the balance you are told at the ATM is not actually reflective of what your account is at.

I told them I was calling a lawyer and hung up.

However, I really have no idea who to call or what to do. It could take months to sort this out and years to see a trial or get any of our money back. They've stolen our money and I have no way of proving it!

Jefferson was right. Banks do more to endanger our freedom than anything else. Thieves. Liars. Crooks. Swindlers.

[bridgit]

1. we're @ WaMu, but have no problems...

ATM/debit postings seem more a function of the store, or merchandiser's process as some things go straight through, some things are flagged (where you see the money gone but for whatever reason has not been posted per se), and others just hang out there for some days with no flag or nothing those are the ones i don't care for...but checks & payroll stuff breezes right through within like 48hrs; they've been straight with the balances & have supplied copies of checks whenever we need them

[Shakespeare]

2. Same here, and a suggestion for everthingsxen.

I've really been impressed with WaMu's service (I previously had Bank of America, and hated them with a white-hot passion).

It sounds like you might do well to go into the bank and sit down with a manager/officer and go over your account painstakingly until you figure out what's going on (they might even be willing to refund some of the NSF charges as a courtesy to you). Also, they're required by law to tell you if they're putting a hold on a deposit, and to tell you which day the funds will be available. I've never had a problem with them in that regard. I don't want to hurt your feelings (because it's clear you're certainly having a rough time), but it sounds as if you're trying to juggle things a bit more than is manageable. I understand (from my own experience) that sometimes you don't have any choice, but I really would go into the bank and ask them to help you get everything sorted out for. That's what they're there for--use that resource.

Also, I had no problem accessing my online banking over the weekend--but maybe that's a regional issue (I'm in SoCal).

[bridgit]

3. jeebus NO!!! Not B of A...

:mad: :grr: :nuke:

[begin_within]

5. I'm just the opposite - problems with WaMu; no trouble at all with B of A.

[L A Woman]

10. I like WaMu so far - I left Wells Fargo because they sucked

But you're right - at the end of the day, they will suck you dry, especially if you are poor! But welcome to America!

Sorry - my best suggestion is to try a credit union. Slightly more personal, anyway.

[begin_within]

4. I was with WaMu for a few years, but they didn't protect me from all

fraudulent transactions. One came through that was unauthorized, and they did investigate it and credit me with the amount. But a month later, PayPal made a fraudulent charge of $72 to my account, and WaMu investigated, and told me PayPal did indeed get the money, and WaMu told me it was authorized, and refused to credit me for it. PayPal simply denied to me that the transaction ever took place. Needless to say, I severed all ties with both WaMu and PayPal after that.

[Elidor]

6. Banks are such scum

I've been caught in the missing deposit revolving-door of surchages myself. There must be some consumer organization that can help you, but I don't know who.

My own problem is trivial next to yours, but it's a matter of principle (no pun intended). I'm waiting until after the election to ensure that my new state congressman is seated so I can complain about the bank where my payroll check is drawn. They've taken to charging $3 to cash checks drawn on their bank to people who don't have accounts with them. Their idiot tellers actually tried to use this as a selling point to get me to open an account with them. I told them: if the guys at corporate think extortion is going to inspire me to become a customer, they must be smoking crack.

Alas, the new state rep is a backroom dealer and good old boy, and I'd imagine that he won't see any profit in this for him. In fact, he'll probably see it as a nice way to shake down the banking industry for contributions before brushing me off with a speech about "the system." But I'll at least try.

Bankers, insurance agents, and arbitrageurs: first against the wall come the revolution. :evilgrin:

[Gormy Cuss]

7. No, there's lots of competition for evilest bank.

I had an account with them once-- never again.

There are laws requiring them to clear deposited checks in a timely manner and you should be able to get a copy of their policy on that. It sounds like they're playing the fee stacking game with checks drawn on your account. If the balance is low, some banks will hold off on debiting the check for a few days and bundle it with other transactions so that you will slip below the minimum balance and fees can be charged. It's sleazy but as far as I know it's legal.

That bit about the ATM balance not being a true reflection of your balance can only be true if they were suggesting that you could have checks or other transactions pending and not posted to your account. The only way for you to protect yourself against these surprises is to always figure a balance for that account based on every transaction you authorize (check, debit, and ATM.) If you write a rent check, consider the money gone regardless of what the ATM balance says. Otherwise you will be easy pickings for WaMu or any other bank that plays the delayed transaction game.

[Kali]

8. I hate banks.

You obviously have no money so let's charge 30 bucks a shot for a mistake and it ALWAYS causes an avalanche of bounces - I don't think I have EVER had one of these kinds of screw ups ever be just ONE.

Sorry you are in this bind, you are far from alone but there is not a whole lot you can do. I would go talk to someone at a branch and hope you get a good person (they are around, just like there are real assholes) ask them to please help you find out what is going wrong. aybe they will be kind and reverse one or more charges.

The other thing might be to CASH any checks and then deposit the cash. Might even do it at the bank the original check is drawn from if possible. After that you might even consider using cash for a while. It is subversive, like not watching teevee or buying lots of plastic crap but subversion can be fun too.

[haele]

9. WaMu punishes you if you don't have direct deposit or have overdrawn -

We've got WaMu, and while they're great if you're a good bookkeeper and keep at least a small buffer in your account, they're a bit less than satisfactory if you live paycheck to paycheck.
What's happening with your checks is probably that once you've overdrawn or (if a small business) have received bad checks five times, they automatically put a 10 business-day hold on all non-government/payroll checks and will only allow you $100 from each day's posting of checks. They will continue to do this until you've gone 6 months without overdrawing. Even if you don't have any overdrafts, "personal" (non-ADP/commercial type) checks for over $500 get an automatic 10 business day hold, which can quickly get you into trouble if you're a small mail order business.
If I'm sure of the person I've gotten the check from, I'll go to the bank manager and gotten the holds reduced three days after I put checks like that in; after 3 to 5 days, they'll know if the check is good or not anyway. If it's a local check for under $500 or a local payroll check, I'll often get them to take the hold off by asking the teller when I deposit the check. You can't get a hold taken off unless you deposit with a teller.

You can also talk to the bank about overdrafts if you catch them early and perhaps get one (a month) taken off - if and only if - you know you had enough in the account that day to cover at least one of the overdrafts.
Recent example - I've had three checks and credit purchases go in over one day and "all bounce" due to a prior deposited check with a hold on it, even though there was enough in the account to cover at least one, perhaps two. (WaMu always processes the debit with the largest amount first.)

I went to the bank and talked to a financial person, explaining that the largest check that they processed first was the one that bounced, the other two wouldn't have if they had been processed before the larger one. I got one overdraft removed "by courtesy". Still had to pay the other two. I also got the hold taken off my deposit - which would have covered all three. I have done this several times this year due to holds on my deposits, when I had forgotten about the hold.

They will also remove any overdraft protection you have unless you have a monthly direct deposit - even if your direct deposit is only half their standard $1K overdraft.

Best thing to do is to stop writing checks or using your card for a couple months and just withdraw a amount of cash to last each pay period. (We're doing that right now; medical issues causing multiple checks being sent out caused an accounting nightmare when we lost track of everything going in and out.)
This will drop the amount of overdrafts you are stuck with and help bring your account back to a manageable state. Once you get everything under control, within 6 months, they'll be a nice bank to you again.
(Most of the managers are very sympathetic, they themselves don't get paid enough to be comfortable with the home budget and are very aware how quickly things can spiral out of control.)

Added for edit - you need to either call customer service or go to the bank and figure out what has happened in your account. It almost sounds as if you had unauthorized activity on your account or something like that. The most they have on overdraft charges (I found this out in passing when dealing with the above issue) is $32 - in Florida. They also post overdrafts the day after they process the check; if you've only had two overdrafts recently, you should only see at most $60 in overdraft fees. A $600 or $700 descrepancy between what you should have in your account and what you've actually spent requires some investigation and a claim that can be quickly and easily made. Once you've made the claim, if the situation isn't obvious (like someone using your credit card in Japan) it can take up to 10 days before you get your money back.

BTW, as of the first of October, WaMu has increased their overdraft charges.

Good Luck

Haele

[regnaD kciN]

11. I had bad experiences with BofA and First Interstate (now Wells Fargo)...

In the latter case, back in the early '80s, I once had a rent check bounce because they had put a five-day hold on a cash deposit. (What were they doing, sending the bills back to the Denver Mint to make sure they were genuine? :crazy: )

And then, there was Security Pacific (now part of BofA). Once, when I had their "check safe-keeping" feature, they cashed a child-support check and put it in storage. Somehow, about five months later, the check somehow got taken out of storage -- they found it and withdrew the money from my account a second time, resulting in all sorts of bounced checks and overdraft charges until I could find out what's going on.

Compared to them, WaMu hasn't been all that bad over several decades, but when they mess up, they mess up -- and they seem to be doing a lot more of it nowadays. They messed up a significant transaction for me last month, and only a knowledgeable and attentive manager at Merrill Lynch managed to keep me from winding up in a major hole.

I don't know if you can single out an "evilest bank" at this time -- they all seem pretty bad, and with the Bush administration's blessing, getting worse.