It Pays To Carefully Read Your Bank Statements
Ask questions when there are fees and transactions you don't understand
02/10/2012 | By Mark Huffman
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ConsumerAffairs.com
| Finance
Banks rely more on automation to save money these days, but when machines begin making account calculations instead of humans, a growing number of customers have begun to question the results.
The New York Times reports some customers using an Apple iPad to access Citibank's online bill pay are being charged twice for some transactions, essentially paying the same bills twice. It apparently stems from a bug in the bank's iPad app, according to a bank official interviewed by the Times.
The problem began as early as the summer though Citibank wasn't made aware of it until December.
Mysterious fees
Meanwhile, other customers are increasingly questioning the way Citibank - and other banks - determine fees. For example, Latasha, of Farmington Hills, Mich., said she recently closed her Citibank account.
"Citibank charged me $25 in fees," Latasha told ConsumerAffairs.com. "The first $15 was a general account fee, after the account was closed, and the second was the automatic 10 dollars for the overdraft protection because the accounts were empty at the time."
Keep in mind Latasha didn't overdraw her account. She took her money out of her account and closed it. It isn't clear what the $15 fee was for, but because she had emptied her account in order to close it, it triggered an overdraft fee.
Questions
"If the account were closed, then how could they deduct $15 plus the $10 from my final check from the bank," Latasha said. "It's a bug in their system."
It does seem perplexing that the fees were deducted from the money the bank gave Latasha when she closed her account. That suggests there was money still in the account when the overdraft fee was assessed. Otherwise, how could it be deducted from the account balance Latasha received in the form of a check?
Latasha said she questioned the teller about the fees as she withdrew her money and was told "the account was empty, so they had to activate the overdraft." It might pay Latasha to seek a more detailed explanation from the branch manager.
Overdraft fees are definitely a sore spot for many consumers. Customers at other banks have long complained that they were assessed multiple overdraft fees when only one transaction placed them in a negative balance.
At Citibank, meanwhile, officials say they have fixed the glitch that caused the double payments and the bank will reimburse any fees charged customers due to the double payments.
Karen Shine (Fri, 10 Feb 2012 23:54:53 +0000): It isn't just the banks that are double processing bill payments. I pay my bills online through certain companies and they process the payments through my bank. Certain companies have made double withdrawals, rounded up the payment amount to the nearest highest dollar, all kinds of things. You have to double check everything these days. Unfortunately, once the error has been made, it appears the companies don't want to take responsibility for the error and it also seems they only know how to make the error when it's in their favor, but cannot immediately correct the error or delete the error without a lengthy process.
When it comes to closing out bank accounts, that's a huge process as well. For some reason, similar to Latasha's complaint, you can't actually close out an account - you must leave at least $10 in it to cover the O/D fee and why should you be paying an overdraft fee? Once they straighten out the overdraft issue, the banks spend tons of money sending statements showing that you have a balance in your "closed" account. Rather than just cut you a check, or allow you to withdraw the monies when you close the account, they continue to send you statements (at a cost to them, which, in essence consumers pay for later). When you go to try to pull the final funds, the problem arises again. So you must leave the money in the account until it is eventually just sent to the State coffers to be considered "unclaimed monies". Then there is a process and cost in trying to get the government to give you the money.
With all this modern technology and the lack of human customer service and know how, the world strongly feels that computerized technology is more accurate, how? I still think that using the brain, a pencil/pen and/or paper was a fabulous way to keep people employed and take care of problems in real time. Instead, we choose to put humans out of work, make the process of clearing up an issue a major headache and shutting down entire companies if the computers should go down or there is a power outage. Yet, we open ourselves up to more fraud, poor time management and the ability to blame a computer and not take responsibility.
All I can say is, PATHETIC!
Kelvin King (Sat, 11 Feb 2012 00:37:33 +0000): First Citizens Bank charges $3 if you withdrawl beyond twice in a month. I do not think that is reasonable either.
Sandy Edelstein (Mon, 13 Feb 2012 01:13:55 +0000): Banks have become white collar criminals. Their mistakes are always in their favor. Most people don't check their statement or balance - so they get ripped off. They'll never get me - I'm too aware.