AboutJim Meadows Expertise I can respond to most questions concerning consumer and business relationships with US financial institutions. My expertise touches on deposit and loan issues and particularly on strategies to navigate through bank policies personell and practices. I have a degree in Economics, attended law school, Graduate Shool of Banking, and Commercial Lending and Compliance Schools.
Experience I have twenty years experience as a bank CEO. Most of those years were spent operating a bank focused primarly on serving consumer/retail needs. I helped pioneer deposit and loan products for low/moderate income individuals. I currently serve on multiple bank boards and am Chairman of a Commercial Bank in Atlanta.
Question QUESTION: I deposited a check into a trust account that is solely used for dispursing trust funds. the check was returned NSF. It was then redeposited by the bank the next day and cleared. I was charged a NSF fee for a returned check that I know had sfficient funds to back it up. 1) Am I within my rights to demand the bank prove to me that this was not a bank error? They promised to reverse the fee and then reniged. 2) Do I have a right to demand a copy of a possibly recorded conversation with the bank rep? 3) Can I bill and demand payment for the time I wasted on this matter?
ANSWER: Mark, Demanding that the bank prove it was not in error is probably not helpful unless you have evidence to the contrary. It seems that your damages are the "NSF" fee and your goal should be to have the bank refund it. If they promised to reverse the fee they should do so. Making demands of recordings and billing the bank will just further distance the bank and make them less willing to negotiate. Jim
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QUESTION: I have 3 mortgages with perfect payment record and 2 credit cards also with perfect payment record but both w/ 0 balances. Total credit with this bank is just under $1,000,000. This is what I stated when I told them that I was standing on principal and that was when the supervisor said he would send "instruction" to the accounting dept. to reverse this charge. I don't care about the 12 dollars, but shouldn't they care about what is good business for them if I threatened to take my business elsewhere? Is it sound business sense to hold fast on a $12. fee and risk thousands of dollars in income annually? Is this a bank that I should continue to do business with or should I take it elsewhere? Should I call back and reiterate this position or should I just let it go? I got a letter in the mail with a 5 day notice to correct the overdraft of 1.60 or suffer consequences as of the date of the letter. I received the letter 5 days after the date on the letter. The same day there was a similar letter in my notifications on there web site. It stated that I had been overdrawn for 10 days. and thus I would suffer the consequences. The date on the notification was 8-14. The date that they entered the $5 service charge that created the negative balance was 8-6. That is 8 days to me, not 10. This makes me question if this is a bank that I want to continue to do business with. Again I am standing on principal. There is nothing this bank can do to further distance itself from me. There is nothing they can legally do to me to make my life miserable.And I could give a rat's ass about my relationship with them at this point. They have already destroyed that. At this point I can do a lot more damage to them then they can do to me (ie. word of mouth or support of one of the many class action suits against them). Should I stand on my principal or let it die? I hope this is not breaking some code of ethics to tell you this is JP Morgan Chase and it was formerly Wamu. Should I let them know how I feel? Coming from a customer service background, I would want to know, but maybe big banks are different. I don't know how you have the time to answer questions so expeditiously if the are all like mine. Any wisdom you can provide on this matter beyond your initial wisdom would be greatly appreciated, as was your first response.
Answer Mark, It's tough knowing you're right and nobody cares. My advice: let it go and lower your expectations. You can't force someone to be competent or to "give a shit". I personally would try to refocus the negative energy elsewhere. For a little therapy you might visit www.chase-sucks.com. Take a deep breath. Jim
