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About Shane
Expertise
Hello, my name is Shane. I currently work at a financial institution in customer service and sales. I am able to answer most questions you have regarding banking products and services, how to use them, and what products may benefit you best. I can also help you to weigh the risks of various types of savings vehicles such as questions pertaining to CDS, money market accounts, etc. Feel free to ask and I promise I will do the best I can to answer.
Experience
Customer Service and Sales call center experience. Assists in training new hires for customer service. Well versed with FDIC policies, banking compliance laws, and a wide variety of product knowledge.
Organizations
American Association of Medical Assistants
Education/Credentials
High School Graduate and Medical Assisting Diploma
Awards and Honors
Significantly exceeds expectations annual review from the bank I presently work at
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You are here: Experts > Real Estate > Banking: U.S. > Using Banks and Bank Accounts > Unauthorized transactions
Expert: Shane
Date: 9/24/2008
Subject: Unauthorized transactions
Question
Hello, I hope you can help me... a few years ago I set up an account at Bank of America and I also put my dad's name on the account so that, if needed, he could transfer money over the phone from his accounts to mine while I was studying abroad. If it matters, I am not named on any of his accounts.
This past April, I was overseas once again. I received my direct deposit tax return and everything was fine until about 2 weeks later. I noticed BofA had, without informing me nor getting my approval, transfered $156.93 to one of my dad's (now dormant) bank accounts. When I called customer service, they confirmed that the account they had transfered to was indeed overdrawn (by about $45, as I recall). They said they did not need my authorization as my dad is named on my account as well (he was not alerted of this either), and it was his old business account that was overdrawn. They told me repeatedly the only way the issue could be immediately resolved would be if I came into a branch in person. As you can imagine, there are no Bank of America branches in France, so this was an absolutely ridiculous request.
Then, the next day, I noticed a telephone transfer of 6 cents FROM the same overdrawn account into mine, and then (because my account was now overdrawn) I was charged with a $20 insufficient funds fee. I also had one other transaction that was pending before, which also resulted in another $20 overdraft fee.
So, my question is... do I have any chance of arguing against this and getting some, if not all, of my money back? BofA just gave me the same runaround of "It's our policy & blah blah blah" but this is MY personal account, not my father's, and my money should not have been touched. At the very least the mysterious 6 cent transaction (and resulting fee) are absolutely uncalled for.
Please, please help. I am a recent college grad and this amount of money would make a world of difference to my current situation.
Answer
I do understand where you are coming from on this, however I know what happened. Your fathers account became overdrawn and because his name was on your account, which was positive, they used "the right to offset" This legally allows a bank to take funds from a different account held by the same bank that has that person's name on it to bring the account to a positive balance. Now re the 6 cent transfer, there must be automatic overdraft protection set up somehow that will transfer funds from that account to cover the other there is usually a fee of between 15 and 20 to do this for each occurence. Sometimes they will waive the fee for such a small amount, but sometimes not. I realize that it is ridiculous but you also have to remember the 6 cent transfer was all done electronically. If the person you were speaking to was really being "by the book", technically they can say according to the policies, it does state that regardless of the amount, etc, but on a moral basis, personally I would have waived that fee for 6 cents. but i am not employd by BOA, so im not sure what theyre take is on this
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