Student fights Wachovia transaction fee on Haiti donation

[marmar]

HuffPost, via Yahoo!:



Transaction Fee On Haiti Donation Leads College Student To Create Anti-Wachovia Facebook Page
Laura Bassett – Fri Jan 29, 6:02 pm ET


Several days after 21-year-old Heather Lynn used her Wachovia debit card to donate $10 to Yele Haiti's earthquake fund, she noticed on her online billing statement that the bank had deducted a 3% "international service fee" from the donated amount. Since the four major credit card companies had waived their transaction fees on donations to Haiti, Lynn says, she assumed that Wells Fargo, Wachovia's parent company, had done the same.

"I called customer service to ask if they were waiving fees like Visa and Mastercard did for Haiti relief funds, but the unsympathetic customer service representative said 'No,'" Lynn told HuffPost. "I just don't understand how a bank can make a profit from a tragedy, let alone get away with it."

Lynn, an art major at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Va., immediately moved all her money to the Bank of Hampton Roads, a local community bank, and created a Facebook page to raise awareness of Wachovia's policy. The page, called "Wachovia = Fail," attracted more than 200 "fans" in a week and a slew of comments from people who are angry over Wachovia's ways of business.

"I was really surprised at the response," said Lynn. "People seem really pissed off about it." ..........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://news.yahoo.com/s/huffpost/20100129/cm_huffpost/442462

[MrsBrady]

1. good for her.

She should write a letter to the CEO.

You have to embarrass them into doing the right things.

[hayu_lol]

3. Wells Fargo(Wachovia)and the other biggies will take all the ...

profits from whatever source as fast as they can take them. Thats how they show a very large profit.

Time to find a way for ordinary citizens to bite these Corporate 'Persons' where they live...any way that we can.

When I have to deal with my bank, I always tell them that they should be flying the 'Jolly Roger' over the American flag. Pirates are pirates.

[msongs]

2. wachovia probably makes millions in corporate welfare off of taxypayers nt

[surrealAmerican]

4. Banks make profits off of tragedies all the time.

I don't see why that would surprise anybody. They do, however, deserve "bad press" for it.

[Javaman]

5. First mistake: never assume anything when it comes to credit card corps. nt

[FarCenter]

6. This looks like the fee for an international transaction involving a currency exchange

Were any of the credit card companies eliminating these fees?

I thought they were eliminating the merchant discount fees for donations in US Dollars to US relief organizations?