
Lauren of Elmsford, NY on Nov. 4, 2009
On August 20, 2009, I opened a checking account at TD Bank located on Central Park Avenue, in White Plains, NY. The main reason why I chose TD Bank was because it was explained to me prior to opening the account by Salika M., a customer service representative, that one of the features of opening an account at the TD Bank was that payroll checks could be cashed at the bank and the funds are made available immediately. To verify this, when I actually opened the account I asked the bank manager, Ruben Miller, about the payroll check cashing feature and he stated confirmed the same.
On October 26, 2009, I called the automated system to check the balance on my checking account and found that there was an unknown charge of $175 applied to my account. I went to the bank and spoke to Joseph V. who said that this was overdraft fees and that he could not help me but he would speak to the manager, Ruben M. about the chargers and he would call me back. I waited for two days I did not receive a call from Joseph. When I called him on the third day, Joseph informed me that he had been trying to bring this to Mr. M.'s attention but Mr. M. was very busy and could not address my concerns.
I went to the back to the branch on October 29, 2009 to speak to Mr. M.. When he pulled up my account he had no logical explanation for the charges except for saying it was my fault but never showed me how the overdraft was caused by my error. However, he did refund my account the $175. Not clear what was going on, I activate the online banking feature to take a closer look at my account. While waiting for the online verification to be completed, I called the TD Bank automated system on October 30, 2009 and found that another $70 overdraft fee was applied to my account.
I then returned to the bank and spoke to Mr. M. again. He attempted to blame me again because the overdraft fees were a result of returned checks. I explained to Mr. Miller that my account had insufficient funds due to the $175 overdraft fee that was initially withdrawn from my account. At which point he refunded my account the $70.
I was given access by TD Bank to log on to my account online the evening of October 30, 2009. I was able to see that I made a payroll check deposit of $715.42 on October 23, 2009 and the receipt from the teller says that I had an available balance of $747.10 and there were funds available for all of the purchases I made so I had no idea why there were overdraft fees withdrawn from my account. I also saw that there was an additional $105 in overdraft fees withdrawn from my account on October 27, 2009.
Since the funds were available when I made the deposit, I proceeded to make purchases and write checks against the account. I wrote 4 checks which totaled $137. I then made an additional deposit of $80 on October 29, 2009. The overdraft fees that eventually totaled $490 caused all of my checks to be returned.
I went back to the bank again on October 31, 2009 and spoke to Anna-Kay W. who finally explained that even though the funds appear on the deposit receipt to be available only $100 of the deposit is truly available. So the purchases I made were more than what I had available and that is why the overdraft fees were applied. I was never told that in the past and the deposit receipt says the funds were available so I used the funds.
Further, review of my account history shows that in the past when payroll checks were made available immediately, when I used those funds, there were no overdraft fees applied. Ms. W. refunded my account $140 but was not authorized to refund the remaining $105 in overdraft fees that were withdrawn until she spoke to the new assistant manager and said she would call me by November 3, 2009.
As you can imagine, this has been a very humiliating, stressful, and disheartening experience. I had to burn extra gas because of their error and I am also concerned about the additional fees I may have to pay to the other party because of the returned checks. To further add insult to injury, today is November 4, 2009, and I have not heard from Ms. W. or anyone else from the branch as of yet. This means I will be returning to the branch again today. $490 in overdraft fees caused my checks to be returned. The bank still owes me $105, plus whatever fees are incurred by the other party, the cost gasoline