Complain about a product or service

Regions Bank

P. of Waukee, IA January 27, 2010

On Friday, July 24, 2009 late afternoon, I was shopping in a local mall. I made a purchase for 73.14 at a department store. I had planned to use my interest-free department store charge card to make this purchase, but due to being distracted, I inadvertently handed the cashier my Regions Bank checking account debit card.

I did not have enough money in my Regions account at the time to make this purchase, but rather than Region's declining the purchase, the transaction went through, so I did not immediately catch the error. I then made two much smaller purchases at other mall stores, which would have been within my balance had I not accidentally used the wrong card earlier.

When we returned from the mall, about 3 hours later, I called the automated checking system to double check my transactions and balance, which I frequently do after using my debit card. At that point, I realized that there was something wrong, as the automated system was reporting a negative balance in my account. I checked my receipts and soon discovered that I had accidentally paid for my department store purchase with the wrong card.

I was very concerned, and I pressed the option on Region's phone banking system to speak with a live Customer Service representative. I spoke to a "Lauren" and told her what I had accidentally done and asked her what I could do to rectify the situation. Lauren said that since I had an automatic payroll deposit going in that night at midnight, that there shouldn't be any problem, because deposits would be credited first before the pending charges. She also suggested that I might return the items and that would perhaps be reflected on my account as well.

After hanging up with Lauren, I immediately called the department store. I spoke with the store manager on duty, who was able to instantly return the merchandise on my Regions debit card and re-charge it to my department store card right over the phone.

I then called the Regions customer service center back again and spoke with a "Yolanda". I asked her to please note my account that I was aware of my mistake and returned the merchandise as well as having an automatic deposit going into my account in only a few hours. Yolanda told me that she would not be able to note my account as "she was not allowed to do that". This was upsetting, but she also assured me as "Lauren" had that since a deposit was scheduled to go in at midnight that she thought no charges would probably be posted to my account for NSF.

In the morning, I called the bank again and noted that there had been a 75.00 NSF charge posted to my account. I called my Regions Bank branch next, fully expecting them to reverse this charge since I had never done this before in all the years I'd had my checking account with Regions. I have never spend money that was not already in my account since opening my Regions account.

I also felt the charge would be reversed because I caught the error so quickly and did everything I could to fix it immediately, including calling Customer Service and returning the purchase. My account was only short for about 8 hours and both customer service reps, Lauren and Yolanda, had said that there would likely be no additional charges to worry about given my direct deposit going in that very night and my excellent history.

However, when the bank teller refused to help me, I asked to speak with the branch manager, "Ben", who also refused to help me. He even went as far as to say, "Hey, it's not our fault you used the wrong card."

When I insisted on speaking to his supervisor, he refused to give me his/her name or number. I asked him several times to give me the name and number of his supervisor and after asking him approximately 10 times to provide this information, he still refused and I had to hang up and go to the internet to research the Regions company hierarchy myself.

I then called the Regions Bank branch manager's supervisor, Ryan M., who said he was "the Executive Vice President and person in charge of the entire state", but getting him to return my calls was a fiasco. I left him messages every day for a week before he finally called me back. He returned my call after I left a message saying I was going to report my experience with Regions to the BBB.

He, too, refused to refund the charges and took the attitude of "Ha, Gotcha!" when I expressed my shock at a 75.00 charge. Rather than extend any kind of customer service to me, even in light of the fact that I have always kept my account in good standing over a period of several years, and that the Customer Service call center employees had a different opinion on how the deposit vs. the pending charges would be handled, he basically told me "too bad".

He said I should be glad it was a first offense because I was only charged 25 per transaction and that WAS the customer service "favor", because in the future it would be 39 per transaction. He would not take into consideration my excellent history with Regions bank and kept referring to the fact that "when you signed up for the account you signed a contract." It sounds very much like the credit card companies' consumer nightmares one reads so much about in the papers these days.

His excuse for not returning my calls, which I left every day for a week, was "if I'm in the office, I'm not doing my job, so I'm out a lot," which is a pathetic way to handle a customer. If you're going to offer voice mail, then you ought to be returning your calls, or you aren't doing your job, either.

So, next I wrote a letter to Mr. William E. A., Executive Vice President of Retail Banking Division at Regions Bank Corporate Headquarters, 5th Ave. N., Birmingham, Alabama 35203. I outlined my case, told him that it was the first mistake I'd made with their company in all the years I had my account with them, that I fixed it immediately, and asked for my 75.00 back. I never got any response at all from Mr. A.. I simply got another call from Mr. M., who said he was aware that I had contacted Mr. A. and was calling to say that I would still not be getting anything back from Regions.

Apparently, it is more important to Regions Bank to penalize their long-term customers with exorbitant fees for minor, one-time mistakes than it is to provide good customer service and retain the customer's business. I was charged 75.00 for a negative balance of about 100.00, which was corrected within 8 hours...hmm...pretty good scam going there...to get around 75% interest on what amounted to an 8 hour loan.

I guess I should have known Region's Urbandale, Iowa branch was not high on Customer Service long before now, because of an incident when I came to the drive-up window a few months ago-- it was right around 5:00, closing time. I just wanted to drop off a deposit. I could see the drive-up window was still open and could see the teller as I drove into the parking lot, and I assume that the teller could see me coming as well. When I got to the window and was looking in, rather than greet me and let me know if she would still be able to help me, the teller ducked down behind the counter right in front of me, and putting up just her arm, she reached for the mechanism to close the blinds and closed the blinds right in my face while hiding herself below the counter!

I feel very disrespected by Regions Bank at every level from the local branch up too the corporate headquarters, and I believe this kind of customer care is completely unacceptable. I have since closed my account with this bank and would not recommend anyone doing business with them. I noticed on-line that "In J. D. Power and Associates 2008 Retail Banking Satisfaction Study, Regions came in last in customer satisfaction in the Southeastern region," so beware!

Apparently, it is more important to Regions Bank to nick a customer for 75.00 than to retain a long-term customer.

Glenda of Booneville, AR January 23, 2010

On December 21, 2009 I drove to the ATM at my bank to withdraw some money for last minute Christmas gifts and a gift for a grandchild's birthday on 12/24. I began the process and just after I entered the amount of cash I wanted and pushed the button, my cell phone began to ring. I reached into my pocket and turned my phone to silent and turned back to retrieve my money and it was gone.

There was a notification on the screen that I had taken too long to retrieve my cash and I needed to contact my financial institution...the ATM was in my "financial institution's" driveway. I made a circle and drove to the drive-in window and told the teller what had happened and they told me that they could not handle it there that I would have to call the customer assist number on my debit card and have them take care of the matter.

I went home and called the number on the debit card and told the man what had happened, he looked at his computer records and said that indeed the money had not been given to me and that it would be cleared up by the next day, but until then the money I had tried to access would not be credited to my bank account. That was OK...no big problem....but I had been a customer of that bank for over 19 years and I had seen employees of the bank walk out the back door of the bank and unlock the ATM many times to service the machine.

The next day when I checked my account online nothing had been done. I called the bank here in town again, and was told I needed to call the debit card customer number again. When I called the number again another man (of course) answered and checked my account and could find nothing about my call the previous day. He asked me if I had discussed the problem with my branch bank, I told him that I had, he then informed me that I should have had them take care of the matter in the first place.

It was 2 days before Christmas and one day before my grandaughter's birthday. I was getting more and more unhappy. My bank had changed owners a month or so before this had happened, and most of the employees I knew did not work there anymore. I make it a point to treat employees at the places I do business with respect, and the employees at the branch bank were respectful of me, also.

When I talked to the employees at the bank I explained that it was 2 days before Christmas and I really needed my money so I could complete my plans. They were polite and the manager told me he would give me the money I had tried to get from the ATM that day, but it would indicate that my account was overdrawn until the bank could get their paperwork corrected. I thanked him and took the money and signed for it. I still had more of my money in the account but with the ATM withdrawal having been withdrawn on record twice and the overcharge amount applied I could not touch the rest of my money until the bank had settled their mistake. I assumed it would only take a few days to get the matter cleared up. WRONG!

To make this as short as I can....the day I went in to sign the paper so the manager could give me the money to help me finish my Christmas shopping he did tell me as I was leaving with the money in my little hot hand that it would take at least 10 days to get my account in order. At that point, I told him that I realized that he and his coworkers had been very polite to me and I did not blame them, but when it was over I would be closing my account.

It took 16 days, until the middle of January to get my account straightened out. During that time I received mail from Regions telling me that I was overdrawn and that I needed to take care of it ASAP. I could not use the remaining money in my account because "on paper" it did not exist. Beginning January 1 I began receiving automated calls from Regions several times a day telling me to take care of my overdraft immediately.

As soon as I could close my account, I did. Some poor woman from Regions, probably in a state far from Arkansas, called me to discuss my overdraft. I asked her if the call was being recorded, she said that it was...I said "GOOD" and proceeded to unload every irritating detail of (to me) the ordeal. I did advise her to find a job with a reputable organization. She had no sense of humor.

My Christmas was not as happy as I had envisioned it to be. A few gifts had to be left in the stores. I am disabled, I have a serious heart problem and it is getting more and more difficult to park and walk into the bank. There was no damage done however....and if it had not been Christmas.... getting mad and standing up for logic against "that's just the way we do things now" mentality wasn't so bad...since eventually I did win.

RJ of magnolia, TX January 23, 2010

Early in January we received a letter from Regions bank that because we had excessive withdrawals from our savings account the bank was required by Federal law to convert the account to a checking account. I contacted the bank (three telephone calls and one in person visit) to find out when the change would take place and what the new account number would be. The savings account was closed on January 13 and I had to meet with a banker to get out new account information.

On January 15 I made a sizable deposit to our other checking account at Regions. Yesterday I received a letter from the bank that was dated January 17 (yes, on a Sunday). The letter dated that because they could not verify my husband's social security number the bank had placed a hold on both of our accounts. The letter also indicated that all checks drawn on the account would be returned unpaid and that we would not be able to withdraw or deposit funds until we provided them with the social security number.

So, this past week, the bank has returned all of the checks that I wrote (and the online bill pay). Until late yesterday I had no idea that they needed any information as we have had accounts with this bank for over 10 years(and provided them with driver's license and such when we opened the original savings account which they recently closed). So now I have several returned checks (fees charged by the businesses) while I cannot access my funds.

Kenyon of Southaven, MS January 17, 2010

I have been banking with Regions since i was in High School,an since the merger with Amsouth it has been nothing but HELL! They charge overdraft fees on all the small amounts from one dollar to three dollar. The fee is thirty five dollars for every dollar or three dollar amount.So please help me an many more working people just like me.

Chris of Sarasota, FL January 14, 2010

I have an account with regions bank in Sarasota, FL. I recently was scammed into paying (4) overdraft fees due to the program that runs the balance system. Apparently, if you have a pending charge, everything that comes out will overdraft your account before that pending charge goes through, and then you will be overdraft for that pending charge. Seems slightly redundant to me.

I spoke my claim to a man named Brian B. at the Tara Blvd. office in Bradenton, FL and he gave no concessions nor was he even apathetic about it, or seemed like he even cared. Isn't you motto something like, "people that care", and how you want to say "thanks for choosing us"? I pretty much feel the antonym of thanked and it's disheartening that I have to adamantly protest a bank I've had no qualms with over the years. I have been with Regions for several years now and put quite a bit of money through my account this past year, with never even a fee charged to my account.

Normally, when someone I know speaks of their bank, I usually say regions is pretty good to me, haven't had a problem. Now, that statement will change and I am forced to leave the bank that I have become accustomed. Apparently, Bank of America senses your customers frustrations and came up with a plan that will hold your overdraft for up to five days for you to get money in your account, makes me want to start a website devoted to showing the pros and cons of you versus other banks.

What's the saying, "it costs 10X more to get a new customer than to keep a loyal one".

Amanda of Bastrop, LA December 30, 2009

I have figured out that my bank is causing me to have excess overdraft charges by putting the biggest debit first so that all the little ones charge fees. I have paid over a thousand dollars in overdraft fees this year alone. The little debits show up online but if a big one comes through the little ones magically show up under that one resulting in several overdrafts instead of one. I have also had two deposits that never showed up that I had to track down and then wait on my money this year.

Gerald of Byhalia, MS December 8, 2009

Regions closed my business account after 7 years of service without any reason. Speaking to bank clerks about the reason behind the closing was that the bank was unable to collect enough fees from our account ( a loosing account) to support keeping it open. We deposit under 10,000 to refrain fees, deposit customer checks into a bank that does not charge for customers returned check fees and we never have any overdraft fees.

P of tampa, FL November 13, 2009

I called regions bank on 11/12/09 to dispute a charge on my account that was from Midland credit managers whom I had called and requested a stop payment on a charge that showed up as pended on 11/09/09. Paul the account manager advised he could not/would not stop the pended debit to my account. I called and spoke with two different representatives on 11/12/09 and requested to have the pended charge stopped. The first customer service representative advised she would place the available funds back to the account and the charge would not go through. The call was dropped due to my phone service so I called back and completed the process with the second customer service representative whom advised me of the same thing. With all reassurance that charge would not go through I checked my bank account that night and the pended charge was not there, great right. Next morning not only had the 350.00 charge gone through but also my charge for my car insurance.

I called and spoke with Brigitte on 11/13/2009 that began to explain to me the physics of banking. She advised that when I swipe my card through vendor as debit it automatically sets that amount aside from by banking funds for that amount. So on 11/07/2009 Caposey's caf requested the amount of 22.05 in which base don the customer service representatives information should have pulled from the available funds of 259.57 but since there was a pending debit from Midland on 11/10/2009 that debit request exhausted the funds? My question was if there were funds in the amount of 259.57 on the 7th then they should not be charging me an overdraft fee of 35.00 when there were funds available and that merchant had requested a debit to my account in the amount of 22.05 on the 7th 3 days prior to the debit request for Midland.

So in essence the contradicted herself by saying once a debit is requested the funds are withheld the moment they are requested but only three days later when larger charges remove all of the available funds for the smaller charges that would have cleared? This reminds me of a news report I Heard on bay news nine where the banks were controlling the timing of charges hitting to where the smaller charges would not process until larger charges so as to deplete any available funds compounding the overdraft fees. Please look into this issue and provide any feedback on the rational of the banks processing procedures and or shed any light on the banks fraudulent or untimely processing of claims for their benefit to collect as many overdraft fees as possible.

Jeremiah of Tampa, FL October 25, 2009

My wife while looking at our account online, noticed that there were several charges made to our account in pending status that neither her nor I made. Our account had been compromised by an online defrauder. We both went the following business day to our local branch office at Wiregrass in Wesley Chapel, Florida, to close the account before these defrauders stole our money. While trying to close the account the customer service attendant, Frances, told us that we could not close the account due to the fact there were charges pending.

We decided instead to remove all funds from the account so our money would be safe and reopen another account at the same bank with different account number. In our haste to close the account we made an error, not realizing that there was a bank card transaction of 35 that we did make. Frances made us aware that there was this debit and we immediately came back the following business day and deposited 35 back into the account to pay for the transaction. She said it wasn't a problem. It was only 24 hours.

This is where the problems begin... and multiply. Since we removed all the funds and there were pending transactions that were fraudulent, the bank said that they would give us a credit for the transactions while investigating the related charges. As it turned out, the bank did indeed conclude that the charges were not made by us and they received their money back from the companies and/or individuals who placed the charges to our account in the first place.

Meanwhile as they (Regions bank) were doing their "investigation" they were the whole time charging us, the victims of the fraud, overdraft fees and compounding them , because they decided to pay the companies anyways, despite the fact that we told them from the beginning the charges were fraudulent.

Regions charged us 275 in fees for being victims of fraud! After hours and hours on the phone and going to the branch office, we were told they would "do us a favor" and charge us only half of the fees. We asked why the fees were so high and they told us first that they did not not recoup all the money from the fraud and we were repaying the credit they gave us. Only after making them explain every single charge did they determine that the charges were not from the credit they gave but were fees the bank was charging us for giving us the credit! We thought this was ridiculous!

We didn't make the charges in the first place, we tried to close the account before the charges went through and weren't told that any fees would be on our account because of the credit they gave us! Why should we have to pay anything since none of this was ever our fault? We called again and again trying to talk to someone who had authority and that's when we were told they made a corporate decision to charge us the fees and that could not and would not be reversed.

We asked for the person that makes that decision and were told they could not be reached and hung up on us. Then came the endless phone calls. The phone calls telling us that our account was overdrawn and that there was 275.00 owed to the bank. While on the phone we tried to tell them what happened...the fraud, the investigation, the incorrect overdraft fees... they did not care. In fact they said we had 5 days to pay up or they were basically going to "blacklist" us so that we could not open another account with any other banks. They said they would attach a note to our account that tells all other banks not to bank with us because we do not pay our bank fees.

How absurd! Since when does a bank act like the Mafia? When it comes down to it, I guess Regions and it's corporate office are in the extortion business as well as banking. My two cents, never...ever... bank with regions.

Tim of Spring Hill, TN October 21, 2009

nicest people you will ever meet, BUT beware if you ever have an issue with closing an account and how they close account. Accounts are really not closed until all ACH transactions stop coming in. EVEN if you try to stop ACH from the third party. You will continue to get hit with fees. The bank manager John, was no help and treats you as if your are completely an idiot.

DO NOT do business with Regions in Spring Hill TN. All I asked was to remove at least one of them. The "person" who closed the account (well I thought it was closed) did not advise me of ACH, even though I thought ACH's were changed. Did not know Regions would charge fee too on a closed account!

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