Shocking Fees That Just HIt My Bank Account
Watch you bank account. You might be charged fees that you never were charged before. I've already written about this so that you wouldn't be caught off guard. But now what I warned you about happened to me, so I'm posting again about this obviously growing problem.
On April 7th, I posted a piece on outrageous charges banks were sneaking into their customers accounts. I didn't use the word "sneak" then. The post was rather mild in fact. I avoided saying that people were being robbed, or screwed, or bamboozled, etc. I went out of my way to be even-handed and level-headed.
I take it back.
This past week I checked my online banking statement. While I always check in, I don't always look carefully at ever line. I do that from time to time. This time, I looked back a few weeks and was shocked.
I thought I had a checking account that didn't charge fees. But my bank had charged me a $25 monthly fee - for both February and March. In addition they charged me per check charges. I guess I missed the previous February fees last time I checked my account online. (Obviously I wasn't checking carefully enough - lesson learned on my part.)
When I called the bank, I told them I was outraged and upset. They told me that the reason for the charges was that the "product" (their word) I once had was no longer offered. They said my account had been changed. I didn't know this. They admitted that they hadn't informed me.
They changed my checking account from an account that didn't charge fees to one that would now charge fees unless I kept an average balance of a certain amount. That accounted for the per check charges. I didn't have an average balance that met their minimum.
(By the way, the conversation didn't actually go this smoothly. The customer service representative used terms that frankly confused me. I had to stop the person and try to say in simple straight-forward language what I thought they were trying to say. Eventually, I got the story straight - or so I thought at the time.)
Now that I had some explanation, I circled back to the surprise fees. What about the $25 per month charge? Where did that come from? Why $25? They had no answer for that. They simply started charging $25 per month in March. This new checking arrangement had nothing to do with that charge. No one at their end could explain why I was being charged this amount.
Of course, I insisted they credit the account for both the monthly charges and for the per check charges. They did that...well, not exactly. They credited most but not all the charges. When I checked my account the next day, I noticed that the job wasn't completed. So I had to call them yet again.
This time I was given a different explanation for the charges. It's not worth going into the details. It sounded like the story was simply changed by the customer service representative I was speaking with the second time, vs. the representative I spoke with the day before. (Or maybe the person the day before had no idea what they were talking about and this person did? And anyway, do you have any patience for this sort of incompetent, time-wasting conversation? I sure don't. I could feel my blood pressure rising.)
But in lieu of screaming, I explained that it was bad business practice to have changed the terms of my account without notifying me and that I expected a credit to cover all the charges they imposed on the account. More waiting...until finally the charges were indeed taken care of.
The bank, by the way is a major U.S. bank...OK, it was Citibank. The account I have - or, er, I guess I had - with them was opened in 2001. Now I've got to keep this fairly high minimum balance.
So keep your eye on your bank account. You may have surprise fees popping up like I just did. And if you do, call and make sure they credit you for the fees.
Well, now that I've gotten that off my chest, I'm not sure I want to continue the relationship with Citibank. They were bad enough when they didn't charge me fees. Now I've got to ask myself what the heck I'm doing with them at all.
On April 7th, I posted a piece on outrageous charges banks were sneaking into their customers accounts. I didn't use the word "sneak" then. The post was rather mild in fact. I avoided saying that people were being robbed, or screwed, or bamboozled, etc. I went out of my way to be even-handed and level-headed.
I take it back.
This past week I checked my online banking statement. While I always check in, I don't always look carefully at ever line. I do that from time to time. This time, I looked back a few weeks and was shocked.
I thought I had a checking account that didn't charge fees. But my bank had charged me a $25 monthly fee - for both February and March. In addition they charged me per check charges. I guess I missed the previous February fees last time I checked my account online. (Obviously I wasn't checking carefully enough - lesson learned on my part.)
When I called the bank, I told them I was outraged and upset. They told me that the reason for the charges was that the "product" (their word) I once had was no longer offered. They said my account had been changed. I didn't know this. They admitted that they hadn't informed me.
They changed my checking account from an account that didn't charge fees to one that would now charge fees unless I kept an average balance of a certain amount. That accounted for the per check charges. I didn't have an average balance that met their minimum.
(By the way, the conversation didn't actually go this smoothly. The customer service representative used terms that frankly confused me. I had to stop the person and try to say in simple straight-forward language what I thought they were trying to say. Eventually, I got the story straight - or so I thought at the time.)
Now that I had some explanation, I circled back to the surprise fees. What about the $25 per month charge? Where did that come from? Why $25? They had no answer for that. They simply started charging $25 per month in March. This new checking arrangement had nothing to do with that charge. No one at their end could explain why I was being charged this amount.
Of course, I insisted they credit the account for both the monthly charges and for the per check charges. They did that...well, not exactly. They credited most but not all the charges. When I checked my account the next day, I noticed that the job wasn't completed. So I had to call them yet again.
This time I was given a different explanation for the charges. It's not worth going into the details. It sounded like the story was simply changed by the customer service representative I was speaking with the second time, vs. the representative I spoke with the day before. (Or maybe the person the day before had no idea what they were talking about and this person did? And anyway, do you have any patience for this sort of incompetent, time-wasting conversation? I sure don't. I could feel my blood pressure rising.)
But in lieu of screaming, I explained that it was bad business practice to have changed the terms of my account without notifying me and that I expected a credit to cover all the charges they imposed on the account. More waiting...until finally the charges were indeed taken care of.
The bank, by the way is a major U.S. bank...OK, it was Citibank. The account I have - or, er, I guess I had - with them was opened in 2001. Now I've got to keep this fairly high minimum balance.
So keep your eye on your bank account. You may have surprise fees popping up like I just did. And if you do, call and make sure they credit you for the fees.
Well, now that I've gotten that off my chest, I'm not sure I want to continue the relationship with Citibank. They were bad enough when they didn't charge me fees. Now I've got to ask myself what the heck I'm doing with them at all.
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