Complain about a product or service

Fifth Third Bank

Laura of Bellevue, KY November 3, 2009

I have been a customer for several years with never a late payment or a overdraft. Then recently they have been charging fees on everything. I made a deposit, which only 100 deposited immediately.. no problem, but then they charged me an overdraft fee 3 days later because they posted a debit that hadn't even cleared yet... and then later the same day cleared the rest of the deposit. Then, more recently I deposited a check and a couple days later received a notice that the funds were on hold and that my account will not be charged any fees... and if there were fees they would be refunded. Surprise... I was charged bounce check fees... and when I called about it they said that they couldn't remove the fees because they already posted and that it is there policy not to remove fees.

Brian of Cleveland Heights, OH November 1, 2009

On multiple occasions, I've made several transactions in a single day with a sufficient account balance, but an additional transaction causes my account to overdraw. Fifth Third applied an overdraft fee per item for each transaction that day - even the transactions made with sufficient account balance - simply because the last transaction caused an overdraw. This is an absurd and anti-consumer practice.

Furthermore, several years ago I requested that my account options be changed to deny funds at ATMs when attempting to overdraw instead of dispensing funds and charging an overdraft fee. This is possible, and they did change this for me. But now my account has been changed back to the old way without my approval and, surprise, I can overdraw and incur fees.

John of Johnson City, TN October 27, 2009

I transferred from Alabama to Tennessee last year. Transferred the registrations on my cars to Tennessee, as I was supposed to. Go down to renew the tags for this year, but only recieved 3 of the 4 renewals. The one that had problems was the one that Fifth Third Bank hold the title on. The State of Tennessee sent a request for the old title for Alabama to the bank on October 30th, 2008. I contacted the bank after the problem at the County Clerk's Office and was told that I had to have a form from them to transfer the title and they would fax it. That was last week...NO FAX.

Called back today was told that they would fax the form again but that there is a 20 processing fee which I would have to MAIL in to have the title transferred. This Bank screws you everytime. If you do not have an account with them to make your payments, then you have to use BILLPAYER2000 to get them there money and there is a fee for having to use the BILLPAYER. Now I will have to figure out a way to get to work next week because I cannot drive my car with an expired tag! I find that this is one of the worst banks I have ever delt with.

Holly of Huntersville, NC October 21, 2009

I closed my Fifth Third checking account on September 28 but neglected to change my gym's automatic withdrawl to my new account. My gym processed the payment on October 15, which Fifth Third paid and charged me an overdraft fee of 37 + 8 per day the account was in the red. I walked into the bank branch and told them what had happened. It was explained to me they automatically re-open the account rather than send the item back as unable to pay. I paid the item but see this as an obvious ruse to charge overdraft fees which I refuse to pay.

This is one of many problems I've had with Fifth Third's "real time banking" practices that resulted in overdraft charges for items that were never actually taken out of my account but sat in pending, thereby reducing the amount I had available. They refused to give back the overdraft charge in each of those instances as well.

Paula of Centennial, CO October 18, 2009

I have a Mastercard Platinum account with Fifth Third Bank. I paid off the balance while I was living in Ohio. I moved to Colorado and forgot I had the card. I received notification that they charged me a 19 inactivity fee. Right after I got this notification, I wrote a letter and cancelled the card. Shortly thereafter, I received another statement showing that I was charged a late fee of 19.00 on a supposed 19 balance with a 2 finance charge, doubling the amount they say I now owe.

I informed them when I wrote my cancellation letter that I did not incur these charges and WILL NOT PAY THEM. This is ridiculous and outright fraud. They can keep adding these ludicrous charges - they won't get a penny out of me. I pay my bills on time and work hard for my money and am outraged that a good past customer would be treated this way.

I have many other cards with zero balances, and those companies have just inactivated my card, and not charged me for not using my card. I'm not even calling them because I know I'll just get the run-around and don't have time to waste on a company that is trying to rob me. As I said before, they can charge me all they want, but I refuse to pay charges that I did not incur!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

J. of Shelbyville, KY October 9, 2009

A little over 2 years ago, we used 5/3 Bank to do our original mortgage. They were so nice and professional, we really enjoyed working with them, but Last December, 18 months after our closing, we received a letter from 5/3 informing us that our escrow account had insufficient funds. Come to find out, our escrow was calculated to pay the property tax based on what the former homeowners had been paying for the past 15 years. The home’s value had almost doubled by the time of our purchase, and so did the property taxes. I don’t know whose fault this was, but it was a terrible inconvenience. Our monthly payment went up 300.00 a month – part to cover the new tax amount and part as back pay to cover the old escrow amount due. I was pretty upset, it took us by complete surprise.

Last summer we decided to refinance our home as part of the making homes affordable plan. We qualified and saved up for closing and I was very excited because this would settle our former escrow account and get us caught up. We were originally told we needed to bring 1200 to closing, a week before we were told we only needed 750. The day of closing, they gave us a check for 300. This all seemed too fishy, so luckily we held onto the money for a long while, it just didn’t seem right. This month, 4 months after our closing, I received a notice from our insurance that our premium, which was due right before our closing had not been paid. When we refinanced, they did not pay the premium from our old escrow and forgot to add it into the new escrow. Once again, we are upside down on our escrow again.

I’m pretty frustrated right now. Our escrow account was miscalculated both times by over 1000, and we just don’t have that kind of money lying around. I’ve been told it was the Loan Officer’s fault or the Escrow Companies fault, the blame goes back and forth, but it has taken me weeks to work this stuff out.

My review of Fifth Third – their customer service is great, very polite. I liked the mortgage package we received both times, but this is my first home and I don’t have the experience to know every detail I needed to check for at closing, nor do I think I could have foreseen either issue. I have been very frustrated by their mistakes and the huge inconvenience it has been coming up with the extra money to pay for them.

Kathleen of St. Petersburg, FL October 8, 2009

My bank charged me overdraft fees for items (1.07, 1.73, etc.) Total fees 100.00. Items were pending not actual charges and they still charged me. They also moved money over from savings (charged me again) and still charged overdraft fees for the items. I called to complain, met with rudeness. Told they don't offer to refund, I have to ask them. When I did, they refunded only 37.50. I asked for a higher supervisor and Joseph refused, said he has as much power as the president of the company.

Kenneth of downers grove, IL October 7, 2009

I can only echo the experiences from the other folks who've had problems with Fifth Thirds deposit policies. We made a deposit early on a Monday and were told Thursday that it hadn't been posted yet. When I visited the bank on Friday and complained, the deposit suddenly was there! A miracle maybe?

Tab of Freeland, MI September 17, 2009

Just like many others here, I agree that 5/3 bank does everything they can to screw their customers. Our business got lured to 5/3 because of they had better credit card processing than we currently had and if it is deposited into a 5/3 account, its available the next day (vs the 3 days were were currently waiting). Well, first we were denied overdraft protections, after the rep said she could get it for us. We should have ran away then.

Since then, they have repeatedly send through the highest check before the smaller items and we've been hit with overdraft fees in excess of 300 per day. The lady at the bank said they pay the highest first because thats what they view as the most important.

Well then why, if there are 5 items going through and all 5 are going to be paid by the bank, and the account is going to go negative regardless, WHY do you do the highest one first when it was the last charge i did. Oh wait, i know the answer... to screw over the customers that are the only reason you are in business. So rather than getting one overdraft charge (which would have been legitimate, i admit) I got 5! Absolutely absurd.

The other problem I've been having on a regular basis is my card being declined when there is money in the account. The bank says it's user error, but I'm confident that the people who are running my card are doing it right. Anyway, it's happed WAY to much to be user error.

Thirdly, our cc processing is supposed to have the funds available the next day. Well imagine my humiliation when i was buying diapers & formula with a line behind me and my card was declined at 7pm when we had processed and batched a payment for over 1000 the day before. I came home and checked the account and it wasn't in there yet, but I guess sometime between then and the next morning it hit the account. I'm sorry, but that hardly qualifies as "available the next business day". It can't be considered available if i cant use it.

garnett of richmond, IN September 2, 2009

A few weeks ago i got my car repossed by 53 rd bank it was taken without any type of advance notice,even though i was told that they had called and had written to me concerning this matter. it was taken from where i work at in the middle of the night along with my personal things. after finding out what happened, i called the bank and they said that i was 6 months behind which only turned out to be a few days behind this was found out at a local branch in eaton ohio after paying 400.00 to them i got the car back unharmed. the following week i recieved another notice that they were going to take another 200.00 from my checking account when i called about it they weasanother order to take the car ,and i was threatened that if i got behind again i would never see the car again

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