Complain about a product or service

Wachovia

Annmarie of Richmond, VA (07/02/08)
Just like most of the peolple who have been taken advantage of due to NSF, my account was hit by a huge amount which was so big to even explain, i spoke to many bank reps who could hardly explain to me what happened, anyway i went to set a payment plan so the bank could get money from my savings every Saturday to cover for the balance,

what they did after setting me up, they went on and cleaned up my saving account which already had my rent money i ended up paying for late fees on my rent. HOW CAN A BANK U TRUST TO ASSIST U EVEN AFTER U MAKE EFFORTS TO PAY STAB U IN THE BACK?

Christina of Tomball TX (07/02/08)
We got slapped with $420 in NSF fees all the while our account NEVER went into the negative status. All because Wachovia subtracts pending activity from your actual balance before processing actual charges therefore resulting in a overdraft situation even though the balance at the end of the day is still in the black. And how about the policy of processing the largest debit first? Resulting in multiple small charges being returned and getting the NSF fee. Amazing how they can legally steal our money.

No results really as of yet. Called customer service this morning and all they were able to refund was $105. I've left a message for the Regional Manager after the Branch manager told me that was the max they are allowed to refund a customer for NSF fees in a year. Also left a complaint on the BBB website, emailed 94 of my contacts and sent the info over to the 3 major local news stations for their public defenders/investigators to check into as well.

Raymond of Naples FL (07/01/08)
On or about 6/18/08 I requested online to have a CD account of mine closed and a check be mailed to me. I was told on line that I would have to call in on 6/20. I Did! I was told the account was closed and a check would be mailed to me . On 06/25/08, not having received the check, I called in again. I was told the check was mailed out on 06/20/08 and I should wait 8 to 10 days because the post office is not reliable.

On 06/28/08, not having received a check, I called in again. A person named David said the account was closed on 6/20/08 but could not tell when the check was mailed out. He was to call me 06/30/08 and let me know when the check was mailed. I asked him to leave a message if I was not there. He called when I was not home, but left no message.

Today, (06/30) I received the check and I find that the check was not made out until 6/26 and was mailed out on 06/27. This was an account that held $59,752.56 I want interest for 06/20/08 to 06/27/08. Loss of interest from when the account was closed and when they made out the check was about $44. I purchased other CDs today . Not at Wachovia (never at Wachovia)

Julie of Sonora CA (06/30/08)
I had World Savings checking account and a home mortgage loan with some problems before Wachovia took over in 10/07. We had direct deposit for my husbands paycheck which always posted between 1:00 and 4:00 am and credited that day. Wachovia would show the credit but everytime you purchased gas they would put a $100 hold on your account for 5 days we both purchased gas 5 times in one week so the bank held $500 and bounced our checks and other atm purchases at $30 a pop.

We were not overdrawn because of what we bought but we were overdrawn from the holds on our account which then showed us as being in the negative. We could not stop the direct deposits because we showed as being overdrawn because they bounced our house payment not due to lack of money but because of their holds on gas atms at the pumps. The bank told us the gas stations put the holds on our account this was a flat out lie.

When I kept contesting these charges they would credit me the fees and then recharge me the next day plus charge me another $30 fee for continuing being nsf. I made a house payment in cash so it would not be late or bounced or charged extra fees on a friday before they closed at 6 with a receipt dated that day and they still charged me a late fee because the banks main headquarters is in a different time zone.

My complaints to the bank has gone no where. It took 2 months of this abuse from Wachovia before we could finally have our direct deposit go to another bank. They charged us over $1200 in bank fees, late fees and nsf in 10 weeks. We are still running one month behind on our home loan which has totally wrecked our credit rating so we can't refinance to move our loan to a different lender. I called their home location and asked for a copy of fees they charge concerning holding back extra money from your checking account when using my atm card, and was told by 3 different bank employees that the notice is posted in every single Wachovia bank. I went to three different branches and not one of Wachovia banks has it posted or where you can find a fee schedule for this fee.

In other words this fee is not listed or posted at any bank or web site. I still have my free checking account with a balance of $13.00, and maybe I will make a deposit of .25 cents in the next month or perhaps a withdraw of .10 cents. I plan to do this until the day I die, deposit and withdraw .90 cents a year.

The economic damage has put us so far behind on bills we owe and damaged our credit rating from high 600's to a low 4 to 500. I have not been able to pay any credit cards, have borrowed and owe money to our family and friends cannot write checks anywhere that uses Global or telecheck for approval and we have only been able to make interest only payments on our house, the list keeps going on and on.

This Wachovia nightmare has cost us in the final accounting much more than money, it has cost us self respect, our retirement for at least the next 5 years. With the prospect of paying high interest on anything we purchase for many years to come.

Steven of Virginia Beach VA (06/25/08)
My wife deposited a $500 payroll check into our joint checking account on 6/23/2008 by handing the check to the teller at a local Wachovia branch. She asked the teller when the funds would be available prior to making the deposit to confirm that the money would be available to us in a satisfactory time frame. The teller informed my wife that the funds would be available in our account on 6/24/2008, which is the following business day. On the deposit slip provided to her at that time, it clearly shows in black and white ink that the deposit effective date is 6/24/2008.

First thing this morning, 6/24/2008, I checked our account online to verify the funds were available as expected. To my dismay, not only was there no indication of a deposit ever being made, but my account is now overdrawn incurring $44 in unavailable funds fees. The check that I had deposited the previous day should have been available, which would have prevented this overdraft from occurring. I called Wachovia and explained the situation. I was informed by the phone representative that she agrees with me, and I should get refunded the full amount. She then transferred me to another representative.

The new phone representative informed me that she sees no record of my deposit, and it should show up at 12:00 AM on 6/25/2008. I informed her that my deposit slip indicates that the funds should be available today, not tomorrow. I was then placed on hold, so that she could contact the local branch for verification. I was informed that the branch manager could not find any record of my deposit, and could not remove my overdraft record or refund the fees incurred. It sounded to me that I was being told by my trusted financial institution that my deposit had disappeared, and may turn up the next day. The phone representative then became very defensive, and insulted me by telling me that I charged too much on my card, and then made a deposit to try and fix it.

I did not spend more than I had; the bank just screwed me over. I told the phone rep that if the funds are not available until after midnight, then it would be the 25th, not the 24th as I have been informed and have in writing. She then told me that I am entitled to my opinion. OPINION? That is a statement of fact! I can't believe the hassle I am having to deal with. I have been a Wachovia customer for over 3 years. I have never been overdrawn, and my account has been in good standing since day 1. I use direct deposit (for me, wife receives a paper check), and I have never made a complaint before today or requested a refund for any fees. I can't believe the bank won't support me in any way after trusting them with my finances for years in good standing.

I plan to refinance my house this summer. With lenders already tightening up, what kind of interest rate am I going to get with a recent overdraft on my bank account? This is not acceptable. This is not the first time I have been unhappy with Wachovia, but it is my first complaint. Now that I no longer trust Wachovia, I have to go through the hassle of opening a new account with a different bank and notifying all my direct debits of the new information. My direct deposit will take a couple of pay periods to update. I am extremely dissatisfied with Wachovia and will make sure as many people know about this as possible for their own protection.

I was deceived by my bank, charged fees as a direct result of this fraud, and then doomed to higher interest rates because of the overdraft record in an already faltering economy.

Stacie of Dobson NC (06/24/08)
The bank put holds on several items, that they charged NSF fees for, then charged overdraft fees. Online and on my print out, there was sufficient money in the account, the first two times, therefore, there should have only been one of the overdraft charges.

When I went to the bank with my online banking print out to ask why they took money when there was enough to cover the items, she said that they had added up the items while they were being held and charged a NSF and then when they actually came out, they charged overdraft fees! I was charged tripple fees because they took money out for the same thing 3 times, at $70.00 for two, and $105.00. The lady offered no customer service, she just stated that is what they do. I closed my account.

Gloria of Collegeville PA (06/21/08)
I deposited a check into Wachovia's ATM for $600. I called their 800# to make sure I received the $100 courtesy allowance, the balance was $103 per the automated system. I went to two grocery stores and spent $44 and $38. The next day, I received 3 OVERDRAFTS in the amount of $105. I called furious, they said that money is only available for cash withdrawals not debits. WHAT? The overdraft charges were for 3-$3-$4.00 debit charges that had already cleared two days ago. Please someone help me to understand this?

They will only refund 10% of the $105. I told them that I am not accepting this deal and that they are in the wrong. Actually almost fraudalent! How can they switch my transactions to make it seem that I am in the negative. What kind of game is this? In the last few months, Wachovia has been backing out my deposits for a day and applying debits first. Even though the online service that day says the money is available, next day it's processing. How can they get away with this?

Consequences...I have lost at least $35.00-$105.00 a month to Wachovia and their 3-card Monty bank services. As a Realtor within a slumping housing market, I need every dime I have!

Kathy of Middle River MD (06/19/08)
my son had a account, me and my husband have an account also, my son who is in the us navy, had some issues and over drawn his account . we have told wachovia several times that my son was out to sea and they needed to send his overdraft notice to him, gave address and number to the bank. but they never contacted him about his account.

what they did was went into my account and emptied it of 686.56, to cover my sons account. no notice to me i find out when i go to pay my bills and find i have no money in my account. first i call cust service and questioned. they say nothing we can do and hang up on me. i then go to the branch office in middle river md, to be told thats our policy and if you dont leave we will call the police to remove you.

i then call back the 1800 number to then be told very rudely that we are not getting our money back because thats our policy, thats my sons account, my own personal account has nothing to do with my sons overdraft.its totally wrong that the bank can just transfer money from peoples accounts to pay other peoples bills. without any notice at all. i asked the rep if they were gonna pay my bills and overdraft fee due to they stealing my money she says that i need to call the companies i owe money to to make other payment arangements because they will not give me my money back

Suzanne of Monticello GA (06/17/08)
I've lost nearly $400 this year to the same sorts of Overdraft/NSF charges that these other folks are complaining about. The online banking isn't worth the webspace if the balance available isn't really available. Five times I've been charged twice for an item...a charge would be listed in the Check Card Hold area, and any items moving to the transaction area of my account that night would be charged the OD/NSF charge, and so would that item that would remain in the Hold area. The next day, unless I hurried, begged, and borrowed enough money and got to the bank in time, the item that was coming out of the hold area would be charged AGAIN(!!!) when it was moved to my transaction area.

Add insult to injury, just today, I see Wachovia has added a Deposit Holds area to their online banking. How insulting! I've been a customer for 30 years. For my JuneYear's Resolution, I've opened an account with a competitor, and will completely be out of Wachovia within 30 days.

Like many others, I live paycheck to paycheck, and that $400 hurt deeply, putting me behind with several of my regular creditors.

J.s. of Marietta GA (06/16/08)
A Wachovia employee called me and asked if there was anything she could do for my business checking and savings. It was crystal clear that she wanted to SELL me something, not ASSIST me with anything. After speaking with her for a few minutes, I told her she could help me with ordering a box of checks. I have never in my life paid for checks and had no idea she planned to charge me for checks.

I found out later that Wachovia has a new no fees business checking account, but she never mentioned this to me, nor has ANY Wachovia employee mentioned it to me despite seeing me in person at least once a week. I got the checks and found out she sucked $21.00 out of my account without notification nor permission. If I had known there was a charge, I wouldn't have told her to order checks. Like I said, I've never paid for checks in my life. Why would I start now? Basically they lied by not informing me of any charges for checks.

Lost $21.00 through dishonesty as far as I'm concerned, but I have also spent many hours trying to deal with the customer service people at Wachovia. 

Barry of Freeland PA (06/16/08)
July 2007 I made a online purchase using my Wachovia check card for the amount of $133.00. After not recieving the items I bought I contacted wachovia and filed a chargeback for the said amount. The money was put back into my account only to be taken out a week later again. I stopped using the account and contacted wachovia again to see why they said I needed to file a hard copy with disputes dept. so I did instead of mailing it in I got there fax no. and faxed it in.

I contacted wachovia for the third time only to be told it was too late. At this time I had a 6 or 8 dollar bal. in the account and told them to close the account. I was so [upset] I just threw my checks and cards in the trash, only to find out later they neglected to close the account and someone was trying use checks for all kinds of stuff, dept. stores and even tried to pay a motgage with a check # I didn't even order yet. They never paid any of the checks but with the nsf fees pileing up wachovia finally closes the account and turns it to a collection agent.

Now not only am I responsible for the checks wrote but wachovia wants all the nsf fees collected and is ruining my credit with the collections depts.on it just because a wachovia employee neglected to close my account when I requested them too

Quiana of Marietta GA (06/16/08)
One Fri before going out of town a few years ago I deposited a check in the ATM near my home @ local branch which was closed for the day, got my receipt with my balance & went in my merry way. I went out of town & attempted to get cash but to my surprise on Sat night, I was in the negative! I called customer service & he explained even though my receipt said 1 thing it wasn't my true balance because I missed the cut off time. Made no sense 2 me but I also explained 2 him I was hitting the credit button so the charges hadn't even posted, but he said that didn't matter. @ that time the guy agreed to waive 1 of the 9 or so fees, I was upset & didn't want to argue about it with everyone around & figured I would call back later.

Ha, guess the jokes on me because the reps kept telling me since I agreed to one fee that's all I was getting like I was bound in a legal contract. So now of course I am n chex systems for boo-koo $ that I still can't understand how I owed it when the $ was already deposited. Oh did I mention I was a signer on my moms account & wachovia messed her up 2 so she didn't pay & they took the $ out of my checking account! UNBENOUNCED TO ME! I can't stand WACHOVIA & their shady practices.

I am currently in check sytems & cannot change my checking account # with my credit union because the process req closing & opening a new checking account. Fortunately no one found those books of checks I lost

Christopher of Easley SC (06/13/08)
I have recently had some very troubling issues with Wachovia Bank. In short i have been charged $595.00 in a week for 17 non sufficient funds/over draft fees. My wife went to one of our local branches and asked for their copy of our transaction record. I reviewed the transaction record given to us by them and parsed it line by line with a calculator. only eight of the original 17 nsf/ od's are valid. The rest are either two of the same fees assessed to one transaction or they are assessed before any actual payment is made or overdraft incurred. Each fee is $35.00 and the total of the nine that are wrong equals $315.00.

I have since gone back to my local branch and discussed the problem with a customer service representative. They told me there was nothing that they could do and that Wachovia banking policies were clear and had not changed. Should Wachovia, with the BBB's urging, right the wrong and refund 9 of the 17 nsf/od's there are still 8 nsf/ofd's to the tune of $280.00 for a total of $85.00 in over drafted funds. This is an appalling abuse of services to the consumer and needs to be stopped. I have researched the issue further on line and found that there is no small amount of abusive banking practices leading to the success of Wachovia and it's enterprises. I am very interested in finding out what can be done about these policies at a legal level.

Overdrawn almost $450 and have no funds available until next pay period unless I continue to overdraft my account

Regina of Buford GA (06/11/08)
I have an auto loan with Wachovia which I have had for well over 5 years. I have NEVER been late on this account. On May 28th, I paid my bill. On June 9th, I received a letter in the mail stating my payment to Wachovia was short by $70. I knew I would be 30 days late if the additional payment did not post to the account by the 15th of June, so I scheduled a payment from my Bank of America account to post on May 12th.

In the meantime, WITHOUT authorization, Wachovia automatically deducted $70.04 from my checking account and THEN hit me with $70.00 worth of NSF fees. When I called Wachovia and explained they did not have a right to do that, the CS rep hung up on me. I was told the bank has a right to take funds out of your account if the account is deliquent by 25 days. I have NEVER signed anything in regards to this policy nor do I have anything in my loan papers regarding this policy.

I feel violated and I have lost 2 hours of work trying to straighten this out.

Susan of Levittown PA (06/10/08)
My daughter has a Wachovia student checking account linked to mine. Last night I checked my balance on-line and saw that she had less than $100 avail-able balance, including 3 check card and no deposit holds. I transferred $132.68 into her account, which then showed a balance including the transfer I had just made. This morning, 3 other transactions popped in between yesterday's balance and the transfer, resulting in an overdraft.

It appears that Wachovia intentionally posts debits before credits to maximize the chance of an overdraft, even if it negates a prior posted balance. From prior postings this seems to be common practice at Wachovia and, I think, should be investigated. It certainly is not customer-friendly.

This action resulted in an unnecessary $35 charge after the deposit had already appeared as available funds. It is as though the deposit was backed out to allow the overdraft.

Frank of New York, NY (06/09/08)
Wachovia misleads you by letting you think you have enough in your account and actually giving you money from the ATM and then a day later you find out that you are overdrawn by a few pennies (23cents in my case) and they charge you $35 fee.

Additionally, other items that were on hold will start to come in and they charge you $35 for each of those items regardless of amount.  I didn't even know I had Non sufficient funds, becuase a charge was made by a restaurant that was not supposed to have hapened.

Jacqueline of Lithonia GA (06/08/08)
I attempted to transfer money from my savings to my Wachovia checking. In reality I did the opposite (clicking error) and it cause quite a few overdraft fees. I immediately called and talked to John Rodel at extension 83742 and gave him the run down. He reviewed my account and said that because I was a good customer, he would credit me the NSF fees and to call back once I thought all my transactions had gone through, which I did a couple of days later.

Upon calling John kept me on hold for a few minutes and told me he would only be able to credit me 25% of the $455 worth of NSF fees. Had he told me that when I called the first time, I could have borrowed the money from my mother (another Wachovia account holder) to decrease the amount of NSFs. But because he assured me they would be taken care of I didn't bother with making any arrangements to counteract any of the transactions that were going to hit. I then asked to talk with some one else and was transfered to Tsequanesh Debretsion who kept me on hold for 5-7 minutes and then returned the same answer and then hung up on me.

I no longer feel safe having Wachovia hold my main account. I am down $350 dollars in NSF fees when it could have greatly been reduced if I hadn't been lied to. I had to borrow money because I have car rentals, home maintenance scheduled and child care to pay for and groceries to buy. I think I am going to take my money where I feel more secure.

Will of Allentown PA (06/08/08)
After being fed up of paying fees, I called Wachovia and cancelled my overdraft protection (thinking this would avoid the transfer-funds fee) and asked they DO NOT approve any transaction that would bring my account into a negative balance. Sure enough, a few days later, Wachovia Bank paid out hundreds of dollars to a company that withdrew funds from my account without my authorization. After questioning Wachovia, they did tell me that the company did not obtain authorization and Wachovia doesn't know why they even released the funds to the company.

In any event, this caused my account balance to fall, leaving just a few dollars in my account. I used my check card like normal not realizing that money was removed from my account. Wachovia approved all of my transactions for the day and I did not even find out about ALL of this until a day or two later when I checked my account online. I was wondering if Wachovia was going to bother to call me to let me know what was happening?

Anyway, they of course added on LOTS of fees. The were Unavailable Funds Fees of $22, and then Non-Sufficient Funds Fees of $22 for the same transactions. No one at Wachovia could even explain these fees to me or how they were assessed. On top of it, even though they saw that I told them not to approve transactions that make my account negative, again they could not explain to me why they approved the transactions after i specifically asked them not to. From where I sit, it does not look like Wachovia cares anything about their customers and assess fees however they can and wherever they can. Their commercials claim they are number 1 in customer service...I don't know how that happened!

I have had over $800 debited from my account in an unauthorized transaction, plus $132 in fees from Wachovia, and then another $50 in fees from the credit card bills that I tried to pay from my account that were returned because funds were not available.

Deborah of Philadelphia PA (06/06/08)
Wachovia Bank Charges Excessive fees. How can a bank charge you overdraft fees twice in one payperiod, not only did charge me thirty-five dollars twice for a $4.00 overdraft. The Overdraft resulted from the fees Wachovia charges for a customer using a non-Wachovia, ATM the Non-Wachovia bank charges you ATM fee, and Wachovia charges you for using another banks ATM. Each time I used the ATM in the building where I worked, Wachovia was charging me to access my own money, without ever informing me that this was their policy. So that when I realized that I had acquired a $4.00 overdraft, and Wachovia charges $35.00 for each overdraft.

I've been laid off for a year and a half, and I just got a permanent job this year. I'm trying to get back on track with my bills and rebuild my life. My home is in forclosure, and I'm about to get a divorce. How can a financial institution like Wachovia be allowed to double dip, like that and your not able to report it. FOR A $4.00 OVERDRAFT, WHICH WACHOVIA CAUSED BY CHARGING ME TO GET MY OWN MONEY FROM THEIR BANK THROUGH ANOTHER BANKS ATM......I WAS CHARGED $74.00. What can be done?

Patrick of Wilmington NC (06/06/08)
Wachovia decided to handle my debits instead of credits first causing my account to hit $210 in overdraft fee's. I am disabled and I will not eat this month because of it.

I am 100% disabled and I live on less than $900 a month and that includes paying rent. Be cause of Wachovia i will not eat this month. I am taking them to small claims court.

Kevin of Charlotte NC (06/03/08)
I banked with Wachovia..well def. not anymore. I recently have been charged 2000.00 in over draft fees. I had companys just charge over and over again on my account and Wachovia did nothing to stop them. They re ran checks two and three times a day for different amounts of drafts. I ended up with all that in over draft fees. I have not paid those fees as I kept asking Wachovia what to do and there was nothing they could do to help me. The money is now in collection and has been put on my credit. I'm unsure if what they have done to me is even legal..Any advice?

Alan of Jersey City NJ (05/31/08)
I was flat broke, I stopped using my bank account at Wachovia Bank. I had 0 Balance. I told the bank to avoid any overdraft fees please do not pay any automatic debit that might be billed. Mainly I have a lot of services online that might end up rebilling that I may have forgotten about. They agreed and had it on my file.

I recently received a letter from them telling me my account was -$110 . I immediate called and asked them what bills the paid and why? The said they didn't pay any bills but a domain company that I bought a domain from 5 years ago automatically tried to renew the domain and retried 3 time after they declined payment. BUT The still charged me every time for insufficient funds fees each time. resulting in the -$110 balance.

So Not only am I am broke . My bank is charging me because I am broke whether or not the paid anything. How is this fair? They told me I should have closed the account . But I need it just in case ,instead of cashing my paycheck for bills I could deposit some money. But Wachovia didn't care the think because they were asked (but didn't pay) they should charge me a fee. Is this fair? My bank making me more broke? STAY AWAY FROM WACHOVIA BANK!!!

Now they are suing me for the fees and reported me to some agency to make it difficult to open another bank account.

Rejina of Atlanta, GA (05/29/08)
I talked to a representative concerning my account because I had been charged a $105 in NSF fees. She informed me that Wachovia pays the highest amount first and then the lowest amount, regardless of what comes in first. I must say that the representative was very nice but as I begin to question her about this practice her responses became somewhat shaky.

I firmly believe that credits should post first and then debits should post as they come in. Wachovia should not have the right to decide what is paid first.

As a result of this practice, I paid a $105 in fees. 

Ray of Black River NY (05/23/08)
I took care of my mother while she was ill, before she passed away. We filed a Limited Power of Attorney with Wachovia, so I could sign her checks and deal with the bank on her behalf. When she died, Social Security pulled the money that they had paid her for that month out of the bank. She had already paid her bills, so this put her account in arrears. Wachovia then took the money out of my account to settle hers, putting my account in arrears. I found out when I went to get money to live on.

I went to the bank and spoke to the manager, explaining that the Limited Power of Attorney that we had filed did not make me responsible for my mother's account. The manager told me, That doesn't matter, they won't give you your money back. She was right! I called and talked to several different people, and they refused to refund the money that they basically stole from me. As it wasn't an extremely large sum, it wasn't worth the cost or time of hiring an attorney.

I was left with no money to live on. I was moving back to NY and had a friend there with a trailer to move my stuff. I went to the bank to get money to pay for the fuel, and no money.

Leo of Phillipsburg NJ (05/22/08)
My account gradually decreased due to hidden charges

I took off all my money from Wachovia but their is another charge, It doesnt stop

Tammi of Raleigh NC (05/22/08)
Reason for Disputing: Wachovia has misrepresented the state of my Prime Equity Line account. They recorded my routing/draft number incorrectly. After investigation May 19, at the Falls Branch, Raleigh, NC the research uncovered they had my account number minus the 05 suffix which signifies checking. Their error and failure to correct accurate information has caused no payment received for the March, April and May and a negative hit on my credit, and fees and charges.

I verified my bank numbers and had continuously tried to work with Wachovia the past few months but the problems persisted with complete incompetence. Their conduct has been immoral unethical and unscrupulous, their failure to correct my information after being repeatedly being asked, is a deceptive practice.

I requested an address change, my account statements, posted checks, and payments and at the end my closing papers, it took several requests over months for these request to be honored and their failure to disclose material information resulted in more time passing for Wachovia to try and collect late fees and make my account appear more outstanding. Even sending me a FORECLOSURE letter certified mail! This has caused me defamation, and a lot of infliction of emotional stress, I have had hives and can not sleep because of this unresolved issues keeping me awake.

My first mortgage has drafted from Wachovia for over 6 years with no problems. This had gone on too long; I felt my only recourse was to pay the full amount $24,000 and close the account completely and dispute their findings. I have all the supporting information and am disputing it with the credit agencies as well as Wachovia and turned to the BBB and the Attorney Generals Office of NC.

Lack of sleep, frustration, hate mail and phone calls and fees and charges and 30 and 60 day late hit to my credit history. A Certified mail of Intent to Foreclose for the min payment of 311.17.

Anthony of Gainesville FL (05/19/08)
My wife's mother died in January 2007. She had a Wachovia Cap Account, including checking, stocks, savings, safety deposit box, charge card, etc. My wife was the Successor Trustee and we went to Wachovia to have everything transferred into her name. It took months. (I finally threatened the securities manager with an SEC complaint if he didn't get the name transfer within 48 hours). Guess what? It was done! Then, out of vindictiveness they froze the trustee checking account and caused several inheritance checks to nieces and nephews to bounce! What an awful thing to do!

I went to a local branch and told them I wanted to close out the charge card and pay the remaining balance. They checked with the head office, told me the amount due and we paid it. After that, they started billing us for an unknown old $178 charge that they wouldn't identify, and we responded that we had closed the account and paid the balance that they stated. We contacted everybody in Wachovia, from local managers to the head office and we were told it would be taken care of.

Months later, here it came again, this time with late fees and penalties tacked on, for a total of almost $400. I kept writing that if they couldn't, or wouldn't identify the charge, it was not our responsibility, especially since we had closed the account and paid the balance. Wachovia then sent it to a collection agency, which worried us with respect to our excellent credit rating. I discussed the entire thing with the collection agency, sent them an 18-page fax with all the details and correspondence, and they agreed with us and recommended that Wachovia drop the case. Wachovia refused to drop it. I offered to negotiate a settlement just to get rid of the mental anguish. and Wachovia refused my offer of 50%, and insisted on almost the entire amount. We reluctantly paid it, just to get it over with, but still feel like we've been screwed over by Wachovia. These examples are just the tip of iceberg of what Wachovia has done to us.

We paid the balance of the charge card, then were billed for almost $400 more! Over a year of frustration, harraassment, letter writing, and phone calls....all amid the grief of losing a loved one. Both my wife's health and mine have taken a serious turn because of it, We are in our 70's. We have both been in the hospital for observation for heart problems. (My wife twice)

Regina of Edgemoor SC (05/15/08)
A few years ago I financed my mortgage with Wachovia, at that time I had a fixed rate with an adjustable to begin in 5 years. My intent was to refinance and get a fixed rate before the adjustable took place. Due to unforseen circumstances that was not possible. So my payment went up 165.00 a month.

That is not my complaint, my mortgage fell behind and it is hard for me to come up with all the money at once so I started paying 230.00 a week. After doing this for seveal months I could not understand why my interest and late fees never looked like they were going down (that amount was more than 150.00 over my payment amount). I received a call asking me what my intentions were. I explained (like I had at least once a week) that I had 230.00 a week drafted from my account and I didn't understand why the amount didn't seem to be changing.

The representative that I spoke with told me (first one out of MANY) that they hold my payments in a special account until I have enough to make a payment. They were not applying the money I was paying toward my account. so late fees and daily interest was still racking up. I have sinced stopped those payments and I plan on holding my own money until I get the payment up.

Absolute of Philadelphia PA (05/14/08)
Wachovia bank is in the habit of charging NSF fees for account regardless of whether you have the funds in your account. Over the past two months, they have charged in excess of $500 in NSF fees to my account. During the period of these fees, I had sufficient funds in the account. They stated that the funds were not available. The deposits were withdrawn from the cooresponding bank. Wachovia seems to be in the habit of makin money by charging fee.

I have had to pay in excess of $800 for NSF fees to Wachovia. In addition, I have had to pay $300 to the vendors and employees to cover their bounced check fees.

Kyleen of Forest Hill MD (05/14/08)
I was refunded money for a purchase. That came up. However I was charged $210 in fees for transactions that were held. I know I should have been more diligent with keeping up my register but this isn't the first time I've had a problem with this bank. I'm still sorting that out. I've tried talking to them but I get no where. It's frustrating. I know that banks need to make money too but I feel like I'm keeping them in business. I've even had a customer service representative from Wachovia tell me that they also had overdraft issues with them. How sad is that? I'm done doling out my money.

I've had problems off and on with them for almost 3 years. I have had so many fees taken out and am still paying for their policies. I had written a check for over $500. I had the money in my account and deposited a check for the $500 that was owed to me by my stepfather. They decided to hold that check therefore causing every other purchase and check I'd written to bounce. I had the states attorney file charges against me for writing bad checks. I didn't write a bad check. They decided to hold it causing more harm. I've spoken with the attorney and he said unfortunately they are allowed to do that.

Selena of Naples FL (05/10/08)
I did a little shopping over the weekend, took my family out to lunch, got gas, and paid a bill. I deposited the amount of money I thought I needed to cover all of my expenses. I looked at my account online on Monday to make sure I still had enough to pay another bill. It was there so I paid it. Unfortunately, I also had an automatic debit that I had forgotten about, taking away 15 dollars I needed to cover that last bill.

On Wednesday, I checked my account and discovered a charge for $245.00 for unavailable funds. Shocked that it was 245 and not 35 or 70, I called customer service. They told me that they paid that last bill, but had to charge me for each transaction I made over the weekend in order to pay the bill. (In reality, those other charges should have been paid first, then I should have been charged only 70 in fees for the bill and another 5 dollar transaction that day.)

So, I had to borrow money to bring my account back into the positive since I had insurance to pay and my paycheck was only enough to either cover insurance or the negative balance-not both. Cash was deposited into my account the evening of 5/8/08 to be available on 5/9/08. Friday morning at 11 am the money was available. Friday evening at 5 pm there was no record that the deposit ever happened. Saturday afternoon, the deposit magically reappears stating it would be available on Monday, however now I have more fees being assessed for transactions that happened before I discovered the deposit went missing.

To top it off, the bill they had taken the money to pay that resulted in the first seven charges posted friday...with a 35 NSF fee. How can I get charged a fee for something that was supposedly paid? If it really hadn't been paid, then those first seven charges would not have been justifiable. So I think that I should owe either the 245 for the seven fees because the bill got paid, or 35 for the bill that wouldn't have had ALL the money available because the seven transactions went through first.

I am now out over 300 dollars that should have been available to make a car payment and buy my son's medication. I am a single mother of three with a handicapped son. I do not have a lot of money to spare and when I am charged hundreds of dollars unnecessarily, it is hard to catch up, pay back the negative amount, and feed my children.

Jacki of Hemet CA (05/09/08)
As of today I am overdrawn $274.00 -- and the bank in the last two days has charged me $150 & $120 in overdrawn fees -- $270.00 for fees which they approved at the time they were processed. Without these fees -- I am overdrawn $4 and some change -- so how can I be charged for NINE transactions. It just doesn't make any sense -- and they refuse to do anything more than state the same crap over and over again. They did advise that I opt out of a feature that allows them to approve transactions when I don't have the money to cover them. Why would I want that in the first place -- and they tell me I'm opted in automatically unless I opt out. Does that make sense in any galaxy? It sure doesn't in my world.

Katrina of Poughkeepsie NY (05/09/08)
To make an extremley long story short, I have found this bank to withhold certain transactions in order to collect on NSF fees. This particular account I speak of is the account my husband and I use as our frivolous account where gas expenses and other unimportant purchases. I have every issue I have had and who I spoke with in writing and its always the same issue, they like to wait to post the debited amounts. I stringently keep a registry as well as my husband and we compare and are maybe 50 cents at a time off from each other if that, so you tell me how two seperate people are getting similar amounts and none in the negative, we work hard for our money and di not appreciate money stolen from us.

This unstable environment is the reason we did not invest our 45000 from wedding gift in this bank. It was just closer to our home. I hope you can help us break through this trend of greed. Thank you

Kathy of La Fayette GA (05/07/08)
An online payment was made to the electric company for $207.00 on May 1st that they say I authorized. I did not. Only one person I spoke to Jeanie Keeton, said the bank made a mistake and then she sent me to the dispute department, they sent me back to my bank,who spoke with the online rep., they said I authorized this payment. They said that even if the electric company gave me back the $207.00 they the bank would not credit me for the overdrafts that this has caused.

This has now made my account over $400.00 in the negative. Causing financial hardship.

Moya of Columbia SC (05/07/08)
Last week I called Wachovia to close my checking account. Today I checked the status online and it was still open. My husband had paid off the attached overdraft account, but instead of a credit I saw a payment to the account which had previously been paid and was not due. It had also been deducted before it would have been due if it had not previously been paid. I called Customer Service at Wachovia and they corrected the online overdraft account to reflect the payoff and credit the erroneous payment back to the account. I then inquired as to the status of the checking account closing. They said there was no record of the request. I then requested they close both the checking account and the overdraft protection account. They informed me I will not receive the credit balance in either account for two to three weeks.

This is similar to their onerous practice, where if I deposit funds on Friday after 4:00 p.m. the amount is not available until the following Tuesday. Although I paid a monthly fee to keep my small checking account open, they tell me I will not receive any interest for the period between the account closing and the return of my remaining funds because I don't have an interest bearing account. What are they doing with my money during the interim? Short-term cash investing, of course. They don't allow the customer a margin of error and yet we are literally giving them our money to do with as they choose until they deem it ours again. Where are the profits from these transactions going?

It is all over the news of late how Wachovia has major 1Q losses, is under investigation for money laundering, etc. I realize this is not as dramatic as a house foreclosure, but it is disturbing. When viewed across the vast customer base Wachovia has, it is clear they must make a sizable profit from the short-term investment of their customer's cash and fees generated from rules no one would consider fair.

I have had my account with Wachovia for many years. I have paid fees for my account. I am loosing the access to my money now and have in the past. Total loss of funds is unknown, but a sizeable amount given the length of time I have had an account with the bank.

Brian of Charleston SC (05/06/08)
As of today, 5/6/08, Wachovia Bank has yet again stolen hundreds of my hard earned money. They cashed a check that I had written to a friend hours before I made a $300 deposit. Instead of refusing the check due to insufficient funds and telling her to come back, Wachovia clears the check and THEN clears several debit card transactions and ATM withdrawals from 3 -4 days earlier! These transactions had already shown up on my on-line banking statement the day before and that money was no longer available to me. But suddenly this $200 check was cleared by a teller BEFORE transactions from the weekend before throwing my account into the negative and charging me $350 in overdraft fees.

To top it all off, I deposited a $300 check into my account on the same day that all of these transactions so called bounced but this money has still not been credited to my account. This deposit would have covered everything including the $200 check. The deposit is even from a Wachovia Business Account so all the teller has to do is verify the funds are available and credit it to my account to prevent the account from overdrawing. But that would cut into their bottom line wouldn't it? Where else are they going to make all of their non-interest fee income if not for stealing their customers' money. I'm so mad I don't know what to do. I can't pay rent, my car payment or put gas in my truck to finish off the work week because of these thieves. I would like to know if there is a way to file a Class Action lawsuit against this deviant corporation.

I will now be charged a late fee on my rent and car payment due to the theft of my money. Wachovia Bank is a prime example of a greedy corporation who will do anything to their customers in order to pad their bottom line. The consumer abuse this company gets away with is disgusting.

Anne of Leesburg VA (05/06/08)
Just another Wachovia customer who apparently can't manage their checking account. However, I think I have you all beat......my husband and I opened a checking account when we moved here 6 MONTHS ago. And since then have been charged (hang onto your hats) $8,559.00 in OVERDRAFT FEES! Of which they have refunded $358? I smell another class action lawsuit headed in their direction. They've already had to pay out on their telemarkting practices.

Diana of Simi Valley CA (05/06/08)
My Husband Brian and I went to the above location to return a Chevy Trailblazer that was financed through them because my Husband had been laid-off, a woman came into a room and asked us why we can no longer make the payments, I explained to her the reasons she proceeded to say that we would be sued that they cannot accept the car that we had to wait for it to be picked up from our house.

I got mad and said look lady I dont want the car I can't pay for it and we argued she looked at my husband and said I am sorry you are married to and have to go home with this lady. I am sorry that we could no longer pay the loan but I do not see how slandering my character has anything to do with how business should be conducted.

Jayme of Canyon Lake TX (05/05/08)
After fleecing me for a processing fee and another appraisal and after pre-approving my home loan, and after setting a closing date, Wachovia turned down my loan by stating that they did not approve of my floorplan. Their first lie was that my FICO had dropped 40 points overnight. I pulled my credit report immediately and it had not changed but it took two weeks of emails from my broker for them to admit that it was a mistake. That's when they switched gears and said they didn't like my floorplan. Have you ever heard anything so ridiculous? The next day I saw on CNN that Wachovia was in financial trouble. They strung me along for over a month.

This cost me immeasurable harm, as it now shows on my FICO that they pulled my credit report twice. Additionally, I waisted valuable time waiting for my pre-approved loan. I turned down several lenders thinking that Wachovia was a better choice.

Roslyn of Boynton Beach FL (05/02/08)
my balance on my credit card was $22.00. i mailed my balance 7 days late. i was penalized for $15.50. that is a 75% fee for a loan of $20.00 for one week. i'm sure there are other cards around that are less onerous.

Usarian of Anna TX (05/02/08)
Here's how my Bank statement reads today (5/02): 5/01 unavailable funds fee $70 Bal:-$105.12 5/01 Taco Bell $5.39 Bal: -35.12 5/01 McDonalds 12.33 Bal: -29.73 4/30 unavailable funds fee $35 Bal: -17.40 4/30 Cafeteria $1.40 Bal: +17.60 There are no pending purchases or check card holds. There were no further purchases made that are not displayed. The $1.40 should not have bounced. The 12.33 should not have bounced. Additionally, I made a deposit of over $100 cash at an atm on 5/01. Immediately after that, the available balance showed $65 (since the account was already negative). This morning, the 12.33 and 5.39 bounced anyway.

I am tired of the excuses. Most of the time they will refund the money, but I'm tired of having to fight with my bank over who gets to keep MY money! I am sure they have all kinds of complex policies and rules outlining every possible way they can think of to raid my bank account, but that hardly makes it right, and I question the legality of it. I was planning to use my ATM card to purchase gas this morning. It was quite a shock to see my account errantly in the negative after making a deposit the day before.

Trish of Temple GA (05/01/08)
I knew I was going to have to pay some things so I applied for a loan to go into my account, this was on Friday, the loan was approved and the funds to be transfered into my account on midnight Monday, I check my account Monday and nothing had cleared but I did have cash on hand so I called Wachovia and asked there rep if it was nessary to leave work to make a deposit into my account because the funds would go in that night I was told by the rep named Jennifer that said the deposits go in befor the with draws howerver they processed the charges first and put the deposit in pending so they charged me 140 in overdraft changes.

Candy of Miami Lakes FL (05/01/08)
Car payment was sent back to me for improper address, received 3 weeks later. I called right away gave payment over the phone and was told to include the late fee in Februarys payment, I did that was applying for credit in June I found that they reported me to the credit bureau for Jan. Feb and March payment.

When I called they said they are allowed to take their late fee out of my payments and that I should read my contract. I did that and it stetes that the fees will be calculated at payoff time.I have never been 30 days late I even have proof from my bank statements.

Universal default with all other creditors. Companies are making my accounts 25% some even lowered their spending amounts below what is owed on the card.

Edna of Raleigh NC (04/28/08)
I am filing on behave of the class Action Suit on Wachovia Bank.

Ric of Collierville TN (04/28/08)
Wow...i put my trust in an institution that is supposed to take care of my money. i caught this funds switch I have read so many time as i watched 6 minor debits come includin a $2 coffee bought 4 days earlier..clear the account....next day a $192 check goes through and clears..all the above debits bounce..as of today it has created a chain reaction that will cost me well over $900 in fees. my wife and i have fought all week on thisbecause she feels we would not be taken advantage of in this fashion until i actually showed her. i think the debit system is a failure and once i switch banks i will never use the debit card..system again

i average about $430 per month in fees i have bben blaming mysel until this weekend when i caught the switch. it has wrecked my credit with past dues on mortgage and cars...very disturbung

Mrs M of Decatur GA (04/27/08)
I thought I was doing a smart thing by establishing the free access 50 account which they pushed online. I spoke with customer care to be sure I had overdraft protection, whereby they would pull money from my main checking account if ever there was not enough money there. I opened the account in February. It has been such a hassle since I signed up.

They were not pulling money from the main account and charging me 30something in fees each time. I spent 40 minutes talking and pleading with them to take those charges off because it was not my fault that they did not pull the money. According to my registry I alway had enough cash there.

I ended up with a negative balance of over $300.00. I asked them to please close the account as it was causing so much trouble. They said they couldn't because of the negative balance. (which they created mind you) Well after 2 months and over $300.00 in fees and them zapping it as soon as my direct deposit went end. I called back again to close the account.

Well after 2 months and over $300.00 in fees and them zapping it from the other account as soon as my direct deposit went end. I called back again to close the account. Oh they gave me a wopping credit of $32.00 for my troubles. whoo oo - I can surely pay my other bills now! Oh by the way the chief refund analyst said there was no one else to speak with beyond herself.

Lyn of Memphis TN (04/25/08)
Two days ago I checked my bank account and saw Wachovia had charged me 105.00 in overdraft fees when I was ot overdrawn. Not even when they charged me the overdraft fees was I overdrawn. I called them and they immediately began to talk down to me telling me that I was overdrawn according to their tools that we the customer didnt have. I said, well according to the phone automated system and the website, I am not overdrawn. I asked have what they saw on their screen faxed to me or have them take a screen shot and e-mail it to me but of course that wouldnt happen. I got so frustrated that I hung up. I called back hoping to speak to someoen reasonable about being charged fees that I never incurred.

After five people I finally got the refund department where I was immediately talked down to and then was told I should handle my money better. I was amazed. I decided to wait to the next day to see if anything cleared according to their information and the ONLY thing that did clear was my pay check, giving me yet MORE positive balance. When I went down to the local branch I was shuffled around and told that according to their system I had items pending that caused the overdraft and that the fees were valid. I asked to speak to someone else and the woman got on the phone and explained that even she had explained the situation to me I still didnt get it and needed to talk to someone else. Liek I was stupid and just didnt understand banking practices. I spoke with Donna, and I am half tempted to put her last name here, and she told us that we had pending items that put us over. and i asked, was this a per-emptive strike for something? Because at NO POINT were we EVER overdrawn and I wanted my money back. She gave us 91 dollars back of the 105. I am not sure why.

But after that experience, I do plan to bank with credit unions ONLY from here on out. I have never had a bad experience with a credit union. I am sure they are not perfect but anything is better than banking with Wachovia. And we also have to remember, the people who work for them are drones and will defend their queen bee whatever it takes because that unemployment doesnt look very inviting. And it has to scare them that they are as vulnerable as the rest of us and the bread line will have their have name on it just like the rest of us.

Rosalind of Pasadena CA (04/25/08)
Original car loan amount $32,000. I pd. 21,000 before returning to Wachovia who sold it for 9,800. They charged off 21K and still want me to pay 21K

James of Seminole FL (04/24/08)
These wonderful folks dinged me for $70.00 in NSF charges. I have went over my latest statement line by line and did not see once where my checking account had a negative balance. There was a balance of $7.33 and no there was not a negative sign in fromnt of that balance. Somehow these cons assessed me $70.00 which represents TWO NSF Fees and supposedly another is on the way. Is this their new creative way of making up for their loan losses?

Also, I called to cancel my WAY TO SAVE account. I was told there would be a $25.00 cancellation fee. This was never explained to me on the phone when I opened the account. It seems this bank from hell has found creative ways to try and confuse the customer and screw them with excessive fees. I have seen SEVERAL complaints regarding this same issue with Wachovia.

The customer service is good when things are going well but when the chips fall th3e customer service is terrible. It seems they aren't properly trained to handle difficult calls. One respresentative even hung up on me. I didn't use any foul language or raise my voice. This bank is a joke! I don't expect any resolution by any means, but if I can save one person from this bank's practices, I have done my job! CONSUMER BEWARE!

Economic hardship

Molly of Marietta GA (04/22/08)
We have banked with Wachovia now for over 5 years. The reason we started banking with them was because my husband's paychecks automatically dealt with Wachovia by doing their direct deposit... so.. to keep things simple (or so we thought), we just let his checks go into Wachovia, and opened an account with them.

Fast forward to almost 5 years later and we are fed up with their terrible customer service, and 'loose' policy on overdraft fees. Everytime we have had an issue with Wachovia, we are transferred from representative to representative, and subsequently dealt with in a rude manner.

My main complaint with them has to do with their overdraft fees. The first time, my husband had a paycheck go into Wachovia at midnight on Thursday night. On Friday, when we checked the account, two bills had posted to our account - which was fine, because his paycheck had posted the day before (as it had many times before). Well, on Monday, when I checked our account again, Wachovia had decided to process the two bills, and THEN process my husbands direct deposit paycheck - thereby, charging us an obscene amount in overdraft fees. This happened a few more times - where they would debit our account AFTER a paycheck or deposit had posted and then process them backwards - thereby enabling them to charge us overdraft fees before they posted.

This last time, we accidentally had our mortgage taken out of our account twice. I called them immediately about this, and got the second payment wired back into the account - which, of course would take 24-48 hours. I also told them that I had bills sent out to be debited from our account the same day our money mistakenly taken out would be wired back in. They said it would not be a problem and assured me the mortgage money would be counted in and then the bills debited out.

Well, it turns out, that they have posted our mortgage credit, then our bills going out... yet still charged us almost $400 in overdraft fees!! Even though the bills AND mortgage refund are both still processing - they are processing our bills first so they can charge us for the initial mistake of double drawing our mortgage!! I'm fed up with this bank - they are only out to make money for their shareholders, while putting customers like me in a very tight spot financially. If I could post this complaint all over the U.S., I would so that no other family would entrust their money to this debacle of an institution! We are pulling our accounts and sending everything to Navy Federal! Wachovia STINKS!

Jason of Northglenn CO (04/15/08)
I recently rented out a house while at college and was told that I had nearly perfect credit, at least up until now. I received a debt collections notice yesterday from NCO in reference to a Wachovia Student Checking account that I had closed in December 2006 along with my Savings account. The charge was for an inactive account fee of 5 dollars on account that has been zeroed out for the last year, thus putting me in the negative and accumulating 50 dollars in charges.

Problem is, is that I closed those accounts, stopped receiving statements, and haven't even been able to log into my Wachovia online banking account. If this checking account was still active, has my account information been going to some other house? And why was NCO able to contact me while Wachovia has failed to snail mail or call me? I have called both NCO and Wachovia and both say there is absolutely nothing they can do about it. Wachovia in particular has called me a liar straight to my face and refused to send me up the chain so I could talk to a manager. I was polite the entire time, my roommate kept asking for the phone since I refused to yell, yet I was treated like scum. My question is, is why would my savings account close when both my savings and checking were to be closed at the same time?

This will probably end up costing me the full amount of $54.10 listed + interest to NCO as I try and present my case. However, so far no one from Wachovia has treated me with respect and as a college student, I don't exactly have an extra 60 bucks laying around.

Angela of Acworth GA (04/14/08)
I banked with Wachovia ever since I turned 18 (12 years). I always got NSF fees! The last straw was when a family member, who has since then paid me back, stole my checking acct. # She set up automatic debits from my acct. to pay her bill! Anyways, when I finally caught on to it Wachovia had fee'ed me to death. No loyal customer protection, no help, too darn bad for you.

They did the same thing to me like everyone else. Put the big ones through, let the little ones add up. Hold payments, hold deposits,screw all they can. I am still so angry so bear with me. When I asked them to put a freeze on my acct. or do something, anything to help me , I'm sorry ,until you bring your account out of the negative there's not much we can do.

Meanwhile I'm making deposits upon deposits, getting different balances- still negative!!! WTH! At least they could have stopped that company from debiting again, but that would have taken some work you know effort. I don't know if I can put a monetary value on what they have taken from me. But I believe it to be close to $3,000 over the last 10 years. Not only that but my exp. with them has cost me emotional problems as far as money goes. Did you know I had to go get pills, pills!, so I could sleep at night. And my children went w/o food several times. I knew they were hungry, but there was no more. Thank you Wachovia, I am a nervous spender,late bill payer, and happy Bank Of America customer.

Hugh of Richmond VA (04/13/08)
Wachovia is a screw their customer bank! If you have a charge on hold that counts against your available balance. If you make a large purchase, and a large deposit, the purchase goes on hold immediately - authorizing a future payment, the deposit takes time to clear. Here's where it gets fuzzy - and their customer service rep doesn't understand why either (except to screw their customer). The previous on hold items are presented for payment resulting in an overdraft. This is caused by the on hold large payment which still has not been presented for payment. These items are charged an overdraft charge, as is the on hold item which caused all of this rucus (still not yet actually presented for payment) all the while waiting for the deposit to clear.

My question is how can they justify charging overdrafts for funds they have not actually released? Why did they ignore the deposit in process - it was a cash after hours ATM deposit. They gave themselves the benifit of the doubt so they could charge an exorbidant number of overdraft fees!

Justin of Micanopy FL (04/13/08)
I have a business account with Wachovia. Over the last month, I have made 3 large money wires. The first wire was blotched by an employee who misspelled the recipients name (even though I spelled it right, and the branch initiating the wire spelled it right on their forms that went to corporate) and took over a month to get to the recipient - and about 10 hours of my time (3 trips to the bank, many phone calls to the recipients bank) to resolve. Moreover, this recipient thinks I am incompetent and has since put terms in place that requires I prepay 2 weeks before any future purchases.

The second wire I sent went through to the recipient fine - it was only a matter of 2 days.

The third wire is a nightmare, and still unresolved. I sent a very large wire, and SOMEHOW it was duplicated - sent twice. This overdrafted my account, causing about $300 in fees. Fortunately I had enough money in my personal account to transfer in to keep running my business until they resolved it. Now they are evidently not able to recall the duplicate wire. They will likely refund the overdraft fee - however it is the fact that I have to watch over Wachovia like a 2 year old, and the amount of time I have had to spend resolving things that should never occur. I am literally scared to keep using their bank.

None of these nightmares originated at my branch - these are all problems that occurred in one of their corporate offices. I do not suggest using Wachovia for money wires.

Kathleen of Palm Beach Gardens FL (04/11/08)
On Wednesday, April 9, I attempted to cash my paycheck. I was told by the teller that my money would not be available for two days, so I went to Bank of America (where the check was drawn) to cash the check. Bank of America charged me $5.00 for this service. I then returned to Wachovia to deposit the cash. The teller at Wachovia then informed me that, because it was after 2:00 pm, my money would not be available until after midnight on the following day, 4/11. They also told me that my money would be available at midnight that night if I deposited the cash through the ATM. I have reservations about making a cash deposit via ATM and I told the manager this. He assured me that there would be no problem.

Sure enough, my money is being held for FIVE days, my $920.00 CASH deposit. In the meantime, my car payment will undoubtedly go through, netting the bank $35.00 for an NSF fee. Needless to say, I am livid. I thought other banks were bad, but Wachovia..by far..is the worst bank that I have ever dealt with. I can't even talk to anyone until tomorrow morning, because I have to speak to a specific person in Loss Prevention. The banks are doing the same thing they did in the depression,stealing people's hard-earned money. The only difference is that now they are doing it through the guise of legality.

This will probably result, as previously stated, in my car payment being returned and an NSF fee charged to my account.

Stephanie of Fortmyers FL (04/01/08)
I am a patron of Wachovia Bank and I found on April 1,2008 a $20.00 dollar bill in their lobby. Now I did the right and just deed of turning in the $20.00 dollars to the bank and in doing so left with teller Claudia Bello my personal home and private phone number in case Wachovia wants to thank me for my honesty or something. Claudia Bello verbally attacked me and I am a person who has a disability and had a doctor's appointment today as a result of Claudia Bello's stress placed on me. I was nervous and the doctor saw it.

The physical damage is I am already disabled and sickly and the Wachivia manager did not apologize nor come out to stop Claudia Bello from attacking me verbally before other Wachovia guests and her fellow workers including a worker by the name of Rafeena Bisram who added her to cents to a matter that did not concern her while other employees laughed at me. How rude and unprofessional of Wachovia. This bank location always had problems.They are not professional and very uncaring towards us patrons who keep them employed with jobs.

Harold of Slidell LA (03/28/08)
Let me start by saying I have excellent credit. Three weeks ago I was paying a credit card online. I inadvertently checked the box to pay the entire balance of $2400.00. In addition, I had already made an earlier payment of $600.00 so no additional payment was necessary until next month. 5 days later I checked my Wachovia account and found out I had a negative balance of 1200.00. Once I determined what had happened, I called the credit card company. They fixed the problem and credited the $2400.00 back to my Wachovia account.

By the time it was credited, Wachovia had charged me $300 in overdraft fees (all from small purchases such as gas and restaurant charges). I called Wachovia and they told me that since I was a good customer and had been with them for quite a while (10+ years) they paid the requested credit card amount of $2400.00. If they had not made the payment to the credit card company which resulted in a negative balance of $1200.00, I would have had 1 overdraft fee of $35.00. Instead since I was a good customer, I wound up paying over $300. Two questions: 1) Can Wachovia decide to pay any amount it wants even if it results in a high negative balance? I don't think I ever agreed to this when I opened the account. Wachovia told me that they have a maximum amount that they will cover but they cannot tell me what that amount is. 2) Doesn't this seem absurd?

$300.00 worth of overdraft fees.

Steven of Jackson GA (03/16/08)
I had been a customer of Wachovia for about 6 months, but when I opened the account, they told me that my wife could not be on the account because her credit score was not good enough. So I opened a business account and a personal account with them. One Friday I deposited cash into the business account, and was told it would post the same day since it was cash. (The reason I did cash is because I own a landscape business, and I once deposited a check from a customer that bounced. Wachovia charged ME $40 for the bounced check that was only $35 to begin with. So I had been to the bank the check was written on and cashed it before I went to deposit the money in my account.) I later went to the store and used my debit card for the purchase, even though I had cash in my pocket, because I was told it was posted the same day. I continued to use the debit card over the weekend. The following Monday, I checked my balance and it was negative. After calling the back, I was told there were 7 NSF charges of $35 each for the debit transactions I had made over the weekend.

After spending 3 hours at the bank talking to different managers I was told that the money was actually just soft posted, and it really wasn't available until the next business day. If I had known that, I would have kept the cash to spend for the weekend and not gone to the bank with it. I was furious that they had taken my hard- earned money. Since that account was already negative, I took all but $12 out of my personal account (because they said there might be outstanding charges on that one, and I could not close it). I have since been sent letters from Wachovia and now attorneys offices saying I owe them $1000 for the business account, and $260 for the personal account because they have charged me monthly fees for the accounts being negative each month.

And after all of this, I find out the real reason for my wife not being on the account is because she had an account with SouthTrust Bank 12 years ago. She stopped using the account, but never closed it. It was left with a small balance, and she thought it was all right because it was a free account (no service fees.) She stopped receiving statements and was told by the bank that the account was closed due to inactivity. About 7 years later, after Wachovia had bought out SouthTrust, she received a letter stating that she owed Wachovia $1200 for her account. They had taken the account (which had never really been closed) and changed it to an account that had a monthly service charge of $35. Every time they took the $35 out of the account, they would also charge another $35 for overdraft fees. After a year of these charges, they say they closed the account. We do not feel we owe Wachovia this money, and I will tell everyone I know not to bank with this company.

Mildred of Norfolk VA (03/13/08)
I advised Wachovia of my husband's death, he is ALSO named on the register/title, along with myself. Over the past 5months, I have made several phone calls and contacted Wachovia's representatives in attempt to resolve this matter so that my vehicle can be re-registered and my name be listed solely now that my husband is deceased. Wachovia representatives assured me on several occasions that this information would be forwarded directly to me and the DMV to have my vehicle registered and info placed into my name. Each occasion I spoke with a representative, I was told I had to wait two weeks, or that this information had been submitted accordingly so that I can have my vehicle reinstated.

It is now March and this has NOT been done. I am unable to drive my car because the car is not registered, yet I have maintained the required insurance for the vehicle. I am now getting parking tickets because of the invalid and outdated plates! Since my vehicle is parked on the street, the car is starting to deteriorate and has gotten a flat tire (on newly obtained tires I might add) just recently from lack of use. I am having to resort to public transportation and a major lifestyle change. I have been inconvenienced and stressed and frustrated due to their ineptitude and lack of professionalism as a result of their lying and improper handling of this situation. I am already named on the title/registration. THIS MATTER needs to be resolved ASAP. There is no reason why I have to endure the drama.

Adia of Houston TX (03/12/08)
I had a balance of $140. I had 2 outstanding transactions one of $112 and one for $30. The $112 was a surprise to me as the institution that took that transaction did not tell me about the $2 fee. So I had thought I had exactly $140 outstanding. In any case, these items have not yet posted or debited from my account. However, Wachovia has since assessed my account with a $35 unavailable funds fee. So I called to ask them about it. How is it I'm being charged for a $35 fee for an item that hasn't been posted? The response was, it has posted. Then why is my balance still positive? Well your actual balance is still positive but your available balance is not. They call it a soft post fee. I said, So you charge me a soft post fee and a hard post fee? Keep in mind this is the TELLER MANAGER that I spoke with, he responded with, Sounds like you could really benefit from writing down your transactions. I work in the financial services industry. I am not an idiot. I know how to balance my checkbook. But God forbid LIFE happens to you, because Wachovia will not have your back. I hope this turns into a class action.

So far $35 in fees, but I'm certain that between now and the time that I leave to deposit the money they will find away to charge me about $70 more in fees.

S. of Alpharetta GA (03/12/08)
I have been a customer of Wachovia for 8 years. Unfortunately, Wachovia bought out First Union, and since then, I have been charged so many fees. I have many instances where I may go over 2 pennies on my checking account, and Wachovia will then charge me a $35.00 NSF for 2 pennies. I think they sit and wait for a customer to fall a few cents in the negative so they can quickly charge that $35.00 fee. They have fee(d) me to death, and I hope some other bank comes along and buys them out, and replaces them with caring individuals who are not just out to fee their customers to death. Being a customer with a bank for 8 years should count for something. I am now banking with another area bank who treats me so much better.

As a result of being charged so many fees over the years, I have lost hundreds and hundreds of dollars.

Peter of Duarte CA (03/06/08)
I was charged a fees of $221.52 for a second time. After I had already paid this amount over the phone with a credit card. Company has poor communication within itself. I wasted a whole day trying to get the branch manager Alex to understand my case, unsuccessfully. I went back a second day spoke with Karla R. she was able to understand my issue and was willing to help resolve it, she herself also experienced a hard time over the phone with her company and branch manager explaining my case. I would not have gone into the negative had I not been double charged by the bank. Which was a bank error. Second issue I have had with this bank.

I wasted two days of going back and forth over the phone and in person to get this issue resolved. Bank charged me overdraft fees for a bank error. They also are holding on to $221.52 of my money

Andrea of San Francisco CA (03/05/08)
My mortgage company switched a few months ago from World Savings to Wachovia. I recently got a letter from Wachovia stating that I had not replied to 2 other letters they sent me requesting proof of insurance, so they have taken out insurance for me (at a very high rate) and have set up an escrow account. I immediately faxed them proof of insurance, only to find out after calling that they needed my condo policy (letter was not specific). I live outside of the country and am renting out my condo. This has been a major pain to me. My condo association manager faxed them the policy, but because they did not put my policy number on it (although all my other info was there), Wachovia trashed it. I find this type of action to be unbelievable that they can just take out insurance and ask me for payment. It seems like it was an attempted scam, and their customer service people are awful. I've had to spend my own money calling internationally, waiting a long time on hold for a rep. It seems like some kind of class action law suit against Wachovia could be pursued. Has anyone else experienced this?

Loss of funds due to escrow account being set up without my permission. International phone calls lasting half hour waiting on hold and then discussing with rep have been costly (I live outside USA, and rent out my USA condo).

Justin of Firestone CO (02/29/08)
I have been a loan officer for 5 years and 4 of those five years I was employed by Wachovia Bank and Wilmington Finance. Both companies were originated back east so their philosophy and business tactics are harsh and money motivated. All they care about is the bottom line... period! So keep this in mind when I am explaining what I have observed in the last 4 years.

I will start first with Wilmington Finance. I managed a satelite branch for them for 4 years. Although I was conpensated very well it came with a price tag. We were trained and taught to never disclose interest rate, fees, costs, etc with the customer. Our regional manager would hold conferences calls every week with myself and other managers to make sure we were charging as much as possible on all our loans including putting 5 year 5% Pre-Payment Penalties on every loan, even if they were 2, or 3 year ARM's. If the branch wasn't opperating or what I like to say screwing people enough we would have mandatory Saturday work days and 9am to 7pm work hours throughout the week to make up for lost profit.

At Wachovia, charging the customer and non-disclosing important facts about the loan is also the philosophy of the corporation. I met with a top line manager named Matt, who was a big time banker in New Jersey who personally explained his recipe of success to me. When he would write a first mortgage for someone he would thank them by putting a line of credit (HELOC) behind the first mortgage without even telling his customer about it. What a guy huh???

The line of credit carried a 15% interest rate, had a 3 year early closure fee, and was another lein against the property. This is all too common and my list of stories could go on but I don't think there is enough time in the day.

People wonder why we are in such a mess with the housing market and there is your answer. I would strongly urge anyone to stay away from these two companies. Obviously there are more out there and maybe I will write about those too soon.

Defaulted mortgages caused these two companies to layoff 1/3 of their mortgage division staff.

R.w. of Atlanta GA (02/28/08)
For the second time in two years, I got a fraudulent charge on my debit card for $9.10 from a companny called Terra in FL. The telephone number (877-340-2372) listed is bogus. Wachovia refused to do anything about it, telling me that I was a cheakskate for not just paying such a small amount and forgetting it. I was told would make me sorry if I chose to pursue it. I chose to pursue it and Wachovia took punitive action against me.

From press reports I have learned that there are literally tens of thousands of complaints about Wachovia doing this and reaping millions in income from returned item fees charged to the scammers. (Of course these fees are being collected from payments from people who did not notice or protest these fraudulent charges on their statements.)

My debit cards were cancelled and no replacements provided. My accounts were blocked, including accounts not related to this at all such as time deposits belonging to my wife. The $9.10 was credited back to my account, but was reported to Experian as a chargeoff. This will take months to get off my credit report even though it is entirely false. My wife tried to intervene and was told she was stupid for even calling. (She is a PhD and a prominent researcher and anything but stipid.) At this point we cannot even access our funds to withdraw them. Online bill pay payments are bouncing because the accounts are blocked. No one at customer service or at branches have been helpful or sympathetic in any way. Two people have confided that Wachovia is making millions off these scams and they are getting hundreds of complaints a day about the scams. Why can't these people be stopped? It is because they are in tight with the Bush administration? I was a banker for over 30 years and no bank I ever worked for did things like this.

Bridget of Locust Grove GA (02/27/08)
I have had several complaints against Wachovia over the years. No one has ever responded. I actually went into a branch this last time and still no help. Customer Service doesn't exist anymore. I have had SEVERAL hits on my account over the years for the same reason everyone else complains about: ODF's. We could write 10 checks and 9 would clear, but because of one check being more than the whole balance, Wachovia would bounce all 10 items charge us a fee of $350.00. Send everything back, and then we would get charges from other places, and Wachvoia would say. TOO BAD. We want all of our overdrafts back from the date that we opened our account, and we will close it.

Eileen of San Diego CA (02/25/08)
I've been having trouble with the mortgage I have with World Savings being credited when I made a payment by mail. Neither payment I made in July nor a payment I made in October of 2007 were credited to my account. I had purchased a money order each time and mailed them in. The ones I personally took to the physical locations were received and posted to my mortgage account. I finally got the information from the Post Office that neither of the money orders were processed through the bank. This caused the payments to be unpaid and subject to $39 fees for being late.

I paid extra payments during several months both between the missed payments and after the last missed payment. I received foreclosure threatening letters. I got phone calls at all times during the day and even on Super Bowl sunday in the middle of the game. I kept trying to get an explanation about why I kept having this problem and each man I spoke to at the bank was difficult to deal with. They were haughty and refused to assist me until I had brought the situation to a current status. They were arrogant and refused to even research the problem from their end so I could understand what had occurred. A woman, Jeanne, finally assisted me by looking over the history of my loan and found that a payment in July was not credited, nor was the October payment shown. I have the money order receipts from each of the money orders I had purchased, so I know the dates I purchased them on. I also know that on those two months I needed to mail the payments in, not visit the branch. I contacted the Post Office and learned that the money orders in question, the ones I mailed, had never been processed. I will get a reimbursement from the Post Office, however the damage has been done. I went physically into the branch today and learned that World Savings had retained its mortgage division. This was news to me and I had never been informed that I could still visit the branch of World Savings, now Wachovia, that I had used in the past to pay my mortgage.

I have been charged approximately $195 in late fees. My credit took a nose dive each time I was late and now is around 500 even. This has caused me to have difficulty in trying to refinance away from this bank. I cannot get a decent rate, the best I can do is 5.99% with buying 2 points. It has caused my blood pressure to elevate dangerously high as I have had to put in far more overtime than I would otherwise had to put in trying to secure this problem. I do hope to get some assistance to get this problem resolved.

Duncan of Mountville PA (02/25/08)
My experience is similar to many of the other ones listed here: predatory overdraft or unavailable funds fees. I had overdraft protection in place. I got behind on payments at one point, but was CURRENT on the overdraft line of credit (i.e. Visa) when this occurred. I overdrafted by $40 on Thursday overnight (note that when I checked my balance at an ATM Thursday night at about 8 PM, I had $130 dollars in my account). Friday morning I was $40 in arrears. I made a deposit on the following Monday, by which time I had incurred $245 in overdraft fees - for FORTY DOLLARS in overdrafts!

When I complained that I had overdraft protection in place, I was told that when I got behind on the payments, the overdraft account was disconnected from my checking. I was not informed of this. When I got current again, Wachovia did not reconnect the accounts. When I placed phone calls, the banking side blamed the credit card side of the company, and the credit card side of the company blamed the banking side. A few hours after I made my complaint, I received a very terse phone call from someone who was obviously reading a script, and said all they could do was refund me $25. So I am now closing my account. I feel powerless, and my frustration and reasoning seemed to mean nothing to the customer service rep who called me. Wachovia had a number of things on hold from my check card, and put the largest one through first, which gave me a negative balance, and then put the smaller ones through individually so they could charge the fees for each one. When I viewed my online statement, the first transaction that put me in a negative balance was a $70 overdraft fee from Wachovia! It was dated Thursday night, and the rest of the overdrafts and fees were dated Friday - the next day - including another $175 in overdraft fees. I had heard a lot of bad things about Wachovia, but was willing to try them out since they have branches everywhere and I travel a lot for business. But after this experience, I will not ever do business with them again.

Consequences? I suffered $245 in fees that I can not afford. Not to mention stress, and the time it took me to go down to the branch and straighten it out (unsuccessfully).

Matthew of Winterville GA (02/24/08)
Deposited a check in the amount of $400 for a car I sold on Ebay. The buyer is located two hours away. After the money had shown as cleared online, I spent the money. Two days later, my account shows as over $1200 over-withdrawn.

I called Wachovia and was told that somehow after the branch marked the check as received, they lost the physical check. So they had to take the $400 back out of my account, along with an additional $400 to cover the check. In doing that, they caused several other transactions to bounce.

I was told that I would need to contact the person I recieved the check from, have them cancel the previous check and issue a new one to me.

When I called this person and explained this to him. He told me that his bank would charge him $35 to cancel the previous check which he would have to charge me and the bank would only repay me if he gave them a letterhead stating that they had charged him.

So, now I must take off work on a weekday, drive down to him 2 hours away, go to the bank with him, get the letterhead, go to my branch, get re embersed for the cancel check fee. Fight over what charges I can get re emberssed from due to everything bouncing and close my account.

So far it looks like roughly $300 in overdrafts which I may be able to get back in time. Plus the lost wages from having to take off during banks business hours. Plus $40 in gas for driving to meet this guy. I also received bad feedback on ebay due to not being able to pay for an item I had won. My powerbill is late due to not being able to access funds. They need to realize that not all of us have extra cash in the bank to cover their mistakes. Estimated loss, over $360 for this $400 check.

Timothy of Jersey City NJ (02/23/08)
I recently was charged $175.00 in unavailable funds fees from Wachovia. This was the result of a check posting to my account that put the account in deficit. However, Wachovia decided to post this check in favor to several smaller transactions that had been in hold status while the account had ample funds. Once they account was overdrawn, they put through these smaller transactions, each of which incurred a $35.00 fee for unavailable funds. One of these transactions was actually an ATM withdrawal. How could the funds be unavailable if I already had them in hand? I would like a substantial amount of the fees refunded to me. I really just think someone should look into this very suspect business practice. It is criminal.

I am a single person living on a moderate budget. This type of tax has quite an impact on my month.

Rajesh of West Chester PA (02/21/08)
I have a checking account with Wachovia Bank, and use a debit card to charge purchases. Last year in June, my account was charged $88 overdraft protection for 4 purchases (biggest being $9). I called the back at the time, and requested that overdraft not be allowed on my account. I was told that it would ensure that my account does not go in overdraft.

On 11/12 Feb, my account was again charged $175 overdraft fee. The balance on the account on the 12th Feb (without making any deposits) was $178.78 overdrawn, out of which $175 was overdraft fee for 5 transactions. I complained to the bank that firstly, I opted out of the overdraft - so the transactions should have been denied. And secondly, no matter how they calculate the overdraft fee, charging $175 for a $3.78 overdraft makes no sense.

The bank said there are no opt out instructions on the account, and offered to refund $35 of the overdraft fee.

Banks have ridiculous overdraft charges, it is high time legislation was introduced to protect consumers.

Nena of Chatsworth GA (02/21/08)
I have banked with Wachovia for around 12 years. I really haven't had any trouble for the most part that was not self-induced, until about 7 months ago. Around August of this past year I really started getting hit with some crazy ODF numbers. I always just blamed myself....that it was something I was doing. I started really hammering down, checking my account daily, trying to keep a current balance, etc..

However, I could not make any sense of what was going on and continued to get ODF. After about 5 months of this and trying to figure out how this continued to happen, I did figure out that....yes, they are posting transactions HOW and WHEN they feel like it and which honestly appears HOW and WHEN benefits them the most in getting fees out of you.

I have been tracking this for months. I am fairly intelligent person and I still have been unable to concretely figure out the rhyme and reason as to how they are processing transactions. What is even more frustrating is when you call customer service or walk into the branch for some explanations..... they have absolutely no idea either. They cannot give you any explanation.

For example, I can be on the phone with customer service looking at the screen on the computer and the customer service representative is looking at something completely different, and further, cannot explain what you are seeing.

I have printed off several days in a row off the online screens. It absolutely blew me away at how every day the balances change, transactions shift, etc., sometimes 3 or 4 days back. Again, call and ask for a explanation.....answer is I don't know. My screen shows.....

Today I went on-line to check my account, once again I have $140.00 in ODF. After further investigation and a call to the bank, I still do not know what or how that is....first off there were only 3 transactions that went through since yesterday, the only 3 I had out..... and there was money in there to cover all three. When I look on my screen it shows the first 2 ODF are what overdrafted me, not the transactions, and then when the third transaction went through they charged me 2 more ODF. This makes no sense and once again no one at Wachovia can explain it to me either.....BIG SURPRISE!

The whole reason I came to this website was I hoping that there was a lawsuit somewhere, because Wachovia has got to be doing something illegal somewhere. If not necessarily illegal, then they are stacking all the loop holes they can in thier favor for them to benefit and most likely end up with some of your money in thier pocket free.

Clay of Rentz GA (02/20/08)
I have been with Wachovia bank now for 10 months. It has been a horrible, costly experience for me and my family. I found out today that my account is overdrawn by $912.97 and still have 2 transactions that they have on hold. We track our money real closely and our account balance was at $882 before the bank closed on Friday. They tell us on Tuesday that our available funds were only $712.92. With no transactions occurring between this time. Several times now they have held transactions to try and get ODFs out of me. I have called different merchants and have them tell me they have already posted this transaction. Wachovia will tell you that that is when they sent it not when it posts with the bank. Yet, when it suits them the transactions post almost immediately. Sometimes they hold them for over two weeks but your balance wont reflect the hold. Someone needs to stop them from doing this because people like me live check to check and now we don't have a check to live on this week.

It cost me $882 ODF's not to mention I live check to check. So now I will have to go a week without electricity. 2 days of food left and still other bills I'm not going to be able to pay now. Someone needs to put a stop to this.

Timeka of Sunrise FL (02/20/08)
I recently opened an account with Wachovia. I've been dealing with a Credit Union for many years but decided it would probably be best to have a few bank accounts. I made several check card purchases over the weekend. I also wrote a check for $2000. I check my account on a daily basis and when I checked it this morning I had an overdraft fee of a whopping $198! I called Wachovia to find out how is it possible to have an overdraft fee of $198. I was told that my transactions are processed from the largest amount to the smallest (even though a lot of these transactions have still not posted to my account INCLUDING THE CHECK FOR $2000). Meaning they processed the $2000 check first then all the smaller transactions next even though they are still on hold. It does not matter what order they come in. I received a $22 fee for each of the 9 transactions that was processed after the check. Many of these transactions were under $10. In all the years that I've had a bank account, I have never heard of something so ridiculous!! In addition I made a deposit yesterday that would have covered all of my transactions and they did not post it until this morning. I am closing my account with Wachovia IMMEDIATELY!

Deborah of Melbourne FL (02/16/08)
I am getting really tired of Wachovia telling me when I often ask if the deposit goes in first before any deductions are taken out of the account and I get the same answer of Yes however that is not the case.

It seems that Wachovia's practice is to make all deductions and then deposits, this way they can get all of their NSF fees and make money off of the patrons that bank with them. I recently liquidated some assets to pay off my house and received a very large check. I went to Wachovia and asked them if their would be a hold on this check and they said yes. Naturally I thought it was because of the size of the ckeck, but, found out this was not the case at all. I asked how many days that the hold would be for and the teller told 7 days. Well this caused me to miss my payoff date therefore, it has now cost me more money to pay off my house and get another payoff draft summary.

After I received my deposit slip I noticed outside the bank that the hold was not for 7 days but actually for 10 DAYS!!!! I went back in and confronted the teller and she said that they did not count the day of the deposit even though it was made at 9:00 AM and they did not count the holiday or weekends.

The reason for all of this was given on the deposit slip as We are delaying the availability of the funds you deposited as indicated below. We are taking this action because: You have overdrawn your account repeatedly in the last six months. This is the reason they have given me to hold my payoff check for my home. I understand it is every businesses goal to make money but, making money using unfair banking practices is going to far.

Last year my son, who also banked with Wachovia, who is in the military and is stationed in Washington State closed his account and suffered at Wachovia's unfair banking practices. Wachovia does not have a branch where he is, so he gets charged an outrageous amount of money ever time he used his debit/visa card. The amount he was charged was $25.77 every time he used it. When he would inquire how much he had in his account it always showed a positive balance. He would use his card and then get charged multiple NSF fees. His fees every month since he has been there has been totaling almost the same as his paycheck.

One time he was not able to pay his NSF fees all the way down, so Wachovia being the great rip off's that they are went after mine and my husbands account since I was a second signature on my sons account and they removed with prior notice the amount that my son had over drawn to a whopping some of $140. I could not figure out where my money went to as I had NO prior notice. This caused my electric bill, mortgage and water bill to bounce, which Wachovia was ever so happy to charge me $35 for each NSF.

I later received a notice 1 week later that they were pulling the money out of mine and my husbands account to pay my son's NSF's. I am going to be closing my account with Wachovia. I have been lied to and cheated out of my money. I will not EVER recommend them to anyone. My account has never been accurate. My legend has never matched theirs, there is always a difference. No one at Wachovia is helpful, and it is always my fault. I'm over it!!!!! And don't get me started with Country Wide!!!!!

Mark of Hampton GA (02/15/08)
In 1999 my husband and I were looking for a way to invest a lottery winning. Wachovia (First Union at the time) was more than happy to help us plan out our lives. We received so much support in investment strategies and oppurtunities for our future. We were advised to invest all of the money with Wachovia and take loans out against the money. Sounds dumb now, however, Wachovia showed us how our investments would earn more than the interest on our loans. Even if the markets were to change (which they did) we were building a long term relationship with the bank and that would work in our favor.

Our brokers came and went and our porfolio dropped about $300,000 over a 3 year period. Of course, when we complained, we were told not to panic because the long term outcome would not be affected. Our last porfolio manager decided that we should not be in the stock market any more, he sold all of our stocks in one day and put our balance into a money market account earning less than one percent. We were perfect customers. They held our investments ransom. We were told that if we renewed our loans for another year, Wachovia would release our porfolio back into a higher yilding account. We didn't have a choice.

We renewed the loans, but Wachovia never released our portfolio. Wachovia lied by telling us they would do everything in their power to help us increase our portfolio. We kept paying on our loans at a point over prime while our investments were earning less than one percent. We were paying about $2000.00 a month in interest while we earned $180.00 in interest from our investments. Here is the kicker....when we complained too loudly, Wachovia closed our investment account, paid off what loans they could and gave us 10 days to pay them the balance of $250,000. Right now we are being sued by Wachovia for not being able to pay their Demand Note.

Am of Cherryville NC (02/15/08)
I canceled an online payment for my checking account. It is the first time I ever did that and I was under the impression that the payment was canceled. Wachovia still made the payment and because of that I was over draft and charged two over draft fees for the total amount of $70.00. I called and complained about this information and most of the people that I talked to said I should have realized the payment was not canceled. My response is that when I did click cancel payment? A pop up said cancel payment? Okay and I figured that everything was fine.

Trevor of Glen Burnie MD (02/15/08)
I deposited 100 dollars into my Wachovia checking account through a Wachovia ATM. I wanted to make sure it was in the account so I called the bank. Money was in, good to go. I made 3 transaction that afternoon, wrote it all down in my register, then went online to their site to verify it all. suddenly the money wasn't there. I got hit will a combination of Unavailable Funds fees and Over Draft fee's. The fees cost more than the 100 bucks I put in the bank.

I was left with about 120 dollars in the hole after my fist 100 was to cover the overdraft fees, and I was still left with the purchases I made. I don't do business with them anymore.

Louis of Milford PA (02/12/08)
I have all but cleared out my account at Wachovia and only use it for business I can't do at My Credit Union 3 hours away. I am human and from time to time make an addition error. This time I was unaware that I had made an addition error. 2 transactions went through bringing me into the negative $7.02. Wachovia put through the larger of the 2 transactions first so the could access two $35 NSF fees. I immediately deposited $7.02 and called Wachovia asking them to waive the fees. The best they can do is now 10%. $7 out of $70. I tried to contact Ken Thompson the CEO of wachovia back in November to try to resolve another issue. His office would not reply. When I spoke to the people at 1800wachovia, they will not give out a phone # to there executive offices, but the will give an address.

It is more principal than anything else. How unethical is it to purposely maximize overdraft income. The day of my contact with Mr Bell, it was 2 degrees outside. I needed gas in my car, and I knew I only had 10% propane left at home for heat . Now I have to worry about $70 to pay Wachovia bank.

K. of North Port FL (02/08/08)
Everything that I have read on this website about Wachovia is so true as I had it happen to me repeatedly over the past several months. I opened my account with Wachovia earlier this year because of its convenient location to my home (1 block away, if that)

Anyway, I already had $450.00 just prior to having my Social Security Disability Check of $813.00, as well as my kids SS checks of $137.00 each for a total of $1087 combined equaling $1,537.00 and then right after that my husband's unemployment check came in for $444.00 for a grand total of $1,981.00. I went in to Wachovia for a cashier's check in the amount of $850.00 for my monthly rental which, when subtracted from my account, equalled $1,131.00. I went grocery shopping at Walmart and used my debit card for $200.00 for groceries which should have left a $931.00 balance!!

Well the next day, I looked at my account on Wachovia.com and found that they did not give me credit for the 3 direct deposits that I had from SS. I called the representative at Wachovia and was told that depending on when the direct deposits came in, they have the option of holding them for a certain time period and that I shouldn't have spent the money until I was sure they were credited. I couldn't believe it!!

I thought that when a SS check is direct deposited, it was as good as cash. They nd I charged me $35 for each transaction that had come in somehow totaling $656.00. Come to find out that they canceled the cashier's check for $850.00. I still haven't got a valid answer for that. Anyway, I'm now out quite a bit of money and have cancelled my account with Wachovia. I will never go back to that bank.

I am out a fortune in NSF fees, no money to live on now, and the embarrassment of being told very loudly that I need to learn how to manage my check book!! This was embarrassing when I didn't do anything wrong.

Cheryl of Forest City NC (02/08/08)
They have refused to return approximately $30,000.00 that was fraudulently taken from my handicapped, bedbound, and now deceased mothers accounts with them. I have sent them proof of this, the names of some of the people who did it, which I had to investigate on my own while grieving the death of my mother since Wachovia was doing nothing about it., copies of the checks along with some of the peoples arrest records, which include FRAUD.

I even have an eyewitness, a store owner who identified one of the people who fraudulently used my mothers debit card in her store several times. The person I was told who was in charge of the fraud department (Maralyn K) first refused to even speak with me when I initially called. I had to get a news group after them before she would even get on the phone with me.

On about my thirtieth call to them one of Wachovia employees told me that this woman (Maralyn K) even accused me of being in with the people who stole this money from my mother.

When I finally spoke to this Maralyn K, I asked her what Wachovia was going to do about this and the main question she asked me was Well, that depends on how much money we are talking about here.? My first thought was why does that matter, there are numerous fraudulent transactions on my mothers accounts and they need to pay the money back. The amount should have nothing to do with them doing the right thing. Well, it did.

They decided that keeping the money that was taken from my mothers accounts was more important then having a bad reputation. They sent me in circles for months then came back and told me they would not do anything about it. They would not return the money and they have not prosecuted the people who did this. Let us show them the power of the consumer and boycott Wachovia Bank until they pay this money back!

My plans to buy a home for my family are gone. Money that was going to go toward my 2 year old daughter's college is also gone. My anxiety level has been sky high and I can't sleep much wondering why they are treating me this way and what I can do about it.

Sean of Delray Beach FL (02/07/08)
I used to work for Wachovia for over a year. I left after two weeks notice. Apparently, they figured I didn't deserve the last paycheck I got by direct deposit. They took it back after I had spent most of the money and was still in the positive. When they took it back, they put me in the negative and gave me overdraft fees for about twenty or thirty check card purchases. The lady I spoke to at the 800 number refunded about one or two hundred dollars, but that's it.

I was left about $1000 in the hole, and am now in their recovery and chexsystems, so that I can't open an account at any bank.

Laura of Virginia Beach VA (01/29/08)
I placed a stop-payment order on Wachovia's website on Jan. 21. It was payment for COBRA health insurance coverage that I was informed, two months after the fact, that I did not have. On Jan. 22, Wachovia charged my account its $30 stop-payment fee. On Jan. 23, Wachovia honored the very check on which I had placed a stop-payment order. Wachovia refuses to credit my account the amount of check, and worse, refuses to refund the $30 stop-payment fee.

I am out over $460 that I cannot recover. Wachovia did not honor its own policy, which I have quoted to them verbatim from Wachovia's own website.

Marcelo of Elizabeth NJ (01/27/08)
Recently I accrued a total of $155 in overdraft fees. The first overdraft fee was posted before a negative balance was shown. If you add the overdraft fee to the available funds, the next charge would have cleared with money to spare. After contacting Wachovia I was told that this happened because other purchases that were on hold? had amounted to a larger sum than the available funds. Three subsequent overdrafts ensued the following day. Realistically, two more should have occurred based on the sequence of purchases. I say two more because of the largest to smallest processing these banks are allowed to conduct.

Nancy of Metolius OR (01/25/08)
I had 2 cd's mature in Jan. One on the 12th, one on the 19th. I called on the 12th to have money sent to me. I called again on the 19th and asked also about the one on the 12th. Told they could not mail it as they had a po box. I gave them my address. They said both checks would go out express mail, no charge. Then I got an email saying the check from the 12th went out on the 14th! They cannot tell me where they sent it for sure. It is the 25th and still no check. I learned from them that their normal practice is to mail those checks out 3rd class mail, 7 to 10 business days!! They keep your money tied up in their bank for longer, by not using 1st class mail, or they want you to pay $16. for express (which they call 1st class) 3-5 days.

I lost interest and had to take money out of another account to pay for another CD within 12 days. So I lost interest on over $20,000 for all the days they have had it plus the time it takes to cash. They should send peoples' money back at least first class. This is a ploy to keep the money longer and they make the profit.

Angela of Woodstock GA (01/25/08)
I have incurred $105.00 in overdraft fees when my account is not overdraft. They are charging me on pending charges from my debit card that have not yet posted from the merchants. How can they charge fees on money that has yet to change hands? If the account is not overdraft - how can an overdraft fee be charged?

I am unable to pay for necessities this week.

Mark of Baltimore MD (01/25/08)
Wachovia is a very sneaky bank in my opinion. I believe that they have a policy that they process the highest or most amount of money that you spent on a check card. I fell victim to this very sly way for gaining another dollar. I had deposited $31.22 in my checking account. I've come to this website before and I knew that the Online Banking that Wachovia has is somewhat delayed in the time that the information is processed. So after depositing the amount the $31.22, I waited 3 days for the money to be processed. Soon afterwards, I made two purchases online, which brought my account down to about $5.62. After going online, I saw that it had been correctly deducted from the account. So, I make another purchase, which I end up overdrafting on only 24 cents. To balance that, I deposited $5 into my checking only 2 hours apart from when I overdrafted. So the next morning, I see that I have overdrafted $22 two days ago! Apparently, when I deposited the $31.22, I seperately withdrew $18 dollars and had $12. Then I overdrafted somehow, which put me in by $22 and the next day, I put $5 into the account first. THEN spent more money on the next two purchases which gave me even more overdraft. The total owed was $85 by the end of the day. So my question is, how could I overdraft, when I apparently spent $18 from $31.22? And yet, the representative I spoke to said that I only had $12 and that I spent over that.

I only had to make a huge loan for the $87. But being a freshman college student, I don't have enough time, nor energy to come up with $87 in a day. I am starting a new job and since no money is coming in, who knows how much more I would have had to pay. I will definetly NOT recommend Wachovia bank to any of my friends or family. I will also tell a close friend of mine to get out of a Wachovia account and move on to someone better. I won't look at banking the same again and being as young as I am, this will definitely affect my decisions in life.

Kate of Deland FL (01/25/08)
I had made a payment to my car insurance company with my check card from Wachovia and about an hour later went online to Wachovia to check my account and to see the balance. After I had made the payment to the insuance company, I had a remaining balance of just over $100. That was on the 20th of January. On the 22nd of January I made a deposit of over $350. In between that time a few check card purchases were made each not exceeding $10. Just before leaving the house to go grocery shopping on the 25th of January I go to my online Wachovia account which to my complete shock says that I have a balance of $58! A fee for $4 for a non Wachovia ATM withdrawal and a $140 overdraft/unavailabe funds withdrawl is showing on my account BUT when I check my account and ask for a listing for all ATM withdrawals it shows no ATM withdrawals! How can I go from accounting I have at least $400 in my account to the online account showing I have only $58 and withdrawals for overdrafts and ATM fees that I have not done nor should be charged for! My husband and I are so upset and as of today we are closing our account with Wachovia.

The consequences were that not only we couldn't buy the groceries we needed and the over the counter medication my 4 year old son needed, but we will also did not have the funds available to pay our utilities on time. We are on a tight budget having just moved to the States and as of now only my husband has an income.

Gina of Lk Peekskill NY (01/05/08)
I went to the bank with $1000 worth of checks which I wanted to cash against one account (one I have with my mother) and deposit the cash in my account. My mortgage payment was scheduled to be electronically withdrawn the next day, and I wanted my deposit to go in as cash. I was told that they could cash my checks for me and give me the cash, but they would not deposit the cash in another account for me. I spoke to the bank manager, and he gave me the 1-800 number to make a complaint to. When I left the bank, I called and they told me that this is now a rule. It makes no sense to me to be able to receive cash for the checks, but not be able to deposit the cash. They explained to me that this rule will help reduce fraud. I think it's an unfair practice for the consumer.

Only inconvenience, and loss of time.

Christopher of Lagrangeville NY (01/05/08)
I went to an ATM to pull out money for lunch, when I got my balance receipt it said my balance was -$9. I called the bank to find out how I could have a negative balance and they said they give me the money from the atm as a courtesy, but charge me the overdraft fee anyway. Due to the money they let me take out and my poor banking skills I overdrafted three more items under their pay the highest debt first rule leaving me with a balance of -$198.80. I asked them to return some of the $175 in overdraft fee's and they told me no because of previous accout refunds for problems with their deposit processing scam - the one where you have the money available, but it can't be used to pay things because it hasn't posted.

So I start to pay some of the money back, and low and behold, they allow another charge to my account for $14 and another $35 overdraft fee. I worked the account down to -$73.