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Wachovia Corp Checking Accounts Consumer Reviews

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Extreme NSF Fees/Bill Payments online slow to post/Overdraft automatically applied to checking accounts
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NEW YORK, NEW YORK -- Wachovia is probably the most aggressive fee charging bank in North America. They claim they have the best customer service in the country. BEWARE! Their bill payment service does not detail enough information to inform clients how the transactions will be withdraw from the account and when. When the account is drawn over balance and they pay the payments/checks then they charge you $35 NSF. Their daily reconciliation system pays out the larger items presented against the account first then the smaller ones when the balance is going to be overdrawn or returned.

In their Agreement with Clients, it notes that Wachovia at its discretion can determine whether or not to pay items presented to the account for payment or to return them. I note here for other consumers, I never had a overdraft protection line on my checking account with Wachovia. They automatically just drew the account over the balance at their own determination and then charged me over $350 in NSF charges.

I was asked by Wachovia when I questioned why they paid these items if there was insufficient funds in the account, they asked me why did I write the checks/items in the first place if I did not want them paid. Most other banks would just return the checks/items and not overdraw your account and charge you a fee.

Sometime ago I had a judgment against myself and my business partner, as a result of the claim by the plaintiff, which was valid and had already been paid by us after the court hearing, yet not notarized by the Court Officers; I found a HOLD against my account of 2.5 times the judgment account. Wachovia said they HOLD additional monies from accounts to ensure any additional claims or costs are made by the plaintiff and the Court that these will be covered by the HOLD.

I was outraged. I could not believe that the bank I banked with and started the relationship with would do such a thing, sure take the claim amount, but 2.5 times that amount was a huge sum. It took over 6 weeks to have the HOLD removed from the account and the funds released. Again I complained to Customer Service and the Office of the Currency Controller.

Every answer you receive from Wachovia Customer Service is purely a computer generated response, they never EVER holistically look at your account or your relationship with the Bank. Unlike HSBC where now I have a relationship manager and they communicate with me most regularly about transactions.

One day, I made a counter withdrawal from Wachovia which they paid to me, meanwhile a series of checks, bill payments and other items were simultaneously being paid at the same time. Had the teller actually informed me of these items being presented I would not have withdrawn the cash from the account, which then subsequently resulted in more NSF charges.

There is nothing positive I can think of about my relationship with Wachovia. I would say this to other clients, (I have changed banks to HSBC and the service is incredible) COMPLAIN to the Office of the Currency Controller, and detail within that complaint all your concerns. Also lodge a complaint with the FTC and any other State body that you can. I have complained several times to the OTCC twice about Wachovia, and nothing resulted from the complaint except I felt my situation was at least addressed properly by the Office of the President, of Wachovia. Which I am sure is merely a complaints department unit in the President's office.

Wachovia customer service is aggressive, unrelenting and their checking account is loaded with fees. I would strongly suggest reading all the fine type when you decide to open an account at Wachovia. The account might be free or minimal monthly charges but they will collect ample more charges as you can see on the website when you use a debit card for a $5 transaction and it doesn't post for several days and then you overdraw your account again.
And you get charged with a $35 NSF.

I will NEVER bank with Wachovia again, I have mentioned my experience with many of my friends and colleagues to beware of this bank and its predatory practices. I would strongly advise people NOT to open an account at Wachovia.

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Incompetent/Poor Customer Service
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PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA -- Starting August 12th, there was a pending deposit to my account of $3,990. I called Wachovia and asked whose name was on the check, and a man told me it was of someone of a name I've never heard before. I told him that the check was not mine. He informed me that there could have been a mistake because one of the account numbers on the deposit slip looked like it could be another number. He said he filed a dispute against the check for me.

A few days later, I looked at my statement online and Wachovia had taken $3,990 out of my account. I called and gave them my case number. The woman I talked to adjusted my account, and immediately my account was back to normal. On the 20th, again my account was over drawn from the $3,990. A woman who I cannot name, as of site's rules, then became "in charge" of my case. She told me before my account could be straightened out, it had to be "investigated". So the investigation went on and on, while my bank account was frozen, bouncing my checks.

This woman told me that she would make sure that my checks went through too. She allowed me to take out $75 dollars in cash to live on while my account was investigated. While I waited for this investigation to take its sweet time, my account began raking in the overdraft fees.

Finally on the 26th, something happened, $39,900 was being put back into my account. I called and informed them, basically doing their job, that they were putting the wrong amount into my account. This same woman made sure to take the almost 40k out of my account immediately, and then rectified it by putting the correct amount of $3,990. My account is almost back to normal as of today the 27th, besides the almost $200 in overdraft fees. This woman informed me that they would be reimbursed to me by tomorrow, so we will see.

I had written a check to Best Buy before I knew my account was going to be frozen for a lifetime, and Best Buy informed me that my check was returned twice to them. I told the woman dealing with my case, and she flat out lied to me and said Best Buy never tried to cash my check, and if they did then it would have gone through because she had put a note on the account. So because of this I may have to pay a late fee and more interest to Best Buy if I cannot figure out how to pay it before September 1st. She didn't care, and offered no apologies, acting like she was doing me a favor.

During this whole experience I just felt like I was having to beg for someone to help me, and then them acting like it was no fault of their own and talking to me accusingly. Hopefully tomorrow the fees that I incurred will be returned to me, and I can close my account. EDIT: For the people who misunderstood me: In the first sentence I said, "pending deposit to my account of $3,990." Pending is the operative word in this sentence. The $3,990 never was actually put into my account, hence I couldn't of spent it even if I had wanted to.

Resolution Update 08/28/2008:

I closed my account as of today, the 28th, and received all my money.

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Slow to post transactions past several months/maximizes their possible O/draft fees
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ATLANTA, GEORGIA -- I have for the first time in a l-o-n-g time twice recently gotten overdraft fees. Unfortunately, due to huge, long term medical expenses for 2 relatives, my savings exhausted and no cushion. They were really nice while I had the savings in their institution. At a time most are enjoying their retirement, I am back at work trying to get finances back in order. They are now no help. Overdraft fee for $2-3 that never even showed up as a negative (caused by a Chevron gasoline purchase on bank card that was so long - weeks - posting, that I had forgotten about it.

Our Congress passed legislation to help credit card crisis, but delayed implementation of it to give the cc companies time to raise interest, lower limits adversely impacting credit scores on everyone - even folks who never miss a payment. So I do not expect they will do anything really helpful about banks that have computer program designed to maximize their fees.

Of late, I have noticed that it is no longer safe to do online banking to figure out balances. It was no problem until the past approx 6 months. I have noticed items that normally post overnight are no longer doing that: online bill pay, check cashed at the teller window, etc. In this day when everyone wants you to do paperless billing/banking/paying, I am going back to the paper ledger for banking that should not be necessary. I know it is better practice - do not lecture me - life just gets in the way of a lot of "good practices" and the notes I make myself worked just fine until the past 6 months. Something has changed with Wachovia that they are not posting items as quickly.

I am taking our local consumer advocate advice and saying goodbye to the large no-service mega banks. I am shopping around at the smaller local banks or most probably I will go with a federal credit union. Enough of Wachovia/Wells Fargo and their rude managers who do not even return calls except during the hours that you tell them you will be away from home - then "in a conference" if you happen to catch them in the bank. Perhaps it is the change to Wells Fargo involvement that has resulted in these changes? Goodbye Wachovia/Wells.... I will miss you...NOT!

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Wachovia is rip off. NSF fees and returned deposits.
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I made a deposit in my Wachovia account on 12/7/2009. Keeping in mind that I have had this account for five years. I have deposited checks made out to my husband and my business for five years now. So on the 7th I make a deposit with three checks and cash, two made out in my husband's name who signed the back of them. I took them to the bank and deposited them through the ATM because it was Sunday and they were closed. So I check my account on Monday and they have adjusted my deposited and pulled the two checks and debited my account. I email the online service who gives me some lame excuse and tells me I have to call the branch.

I called the branch and the girl I talked to was a real **. She pretty much told me to go take a hike. She said it was not their problem and she could not help me. I have called the branch manager for four days and he won't call me back. I have filed a complaint with the Federal Reserve and I am waiting for am officer to call me back from the police department. They won't tell me where my checks are and they have now overdrawn my account. I put a check in the back with my name on it on the 8th to cover the checks I had outstanding and they had it until today.

The two checks came through yesterday and they sent them back NSF and have charged me $140.00 in NSF fees. So I go to the branch and I told them that I was going to close the account because they were idiots and they pretty much did not care just said, "looks like you have had some problems and it is just not working out for you." Maybe you should take your business elsewhere.

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Worst Bank I have encountered....
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My account has been hit with thousands of dollars in fees over the last year that I have been with Wachovia. Some have been my fault and some have not been. The last time was the worst. In a 2 week period, I have been hit with 420 dollars total on one account. The reason? First 2 transactions posted to my account. One for 3 dollars in change, and one for 10 dollars in change. The one for 3 dollars was made on a Monday and the 10 dollar was made on a Tuesday. I had 11 dollars in my account.

The charge from Tuesday was posted first and so I was hit with 2 35 dollar charges instead of 1. Then get this, I was hit with 70 more dollars the next day. I was told because the 13 dollars was on hold and another charge came through which caused them to have to take the 13 off hold and use towards that purchase. (Even though there was enough in the account to cover it.) Then my direct deposit came through. I scheduled a 369.16 car payment with Capital One on the 10th. I also made other charges on the account including my cell phone and other odds and ends. This was all done on the 10th.

Well I had a second checking account that was overdrawn in the amount of 97 dollars that I was slowly trying to offset. On the 11th, Wachovia performed a "Right to Offset" transfer on my account. I didn't know this was coming and had already made multiple charges on my account. Guess what happened? Wachovia posted the transfer to my account 1st and then all the other charges after that even though they were made a day before. So I was charged 280 dollars of NSF fees on top of all that. 280 dollars of fees that were charged because of the transfer made by Wachovia (well within their right) but with no warning whatsoever.

So my account was 398 dollars in the whole. And out of the graciousness of their hearts Wachovia gave me a grand total of 67 dollars back. THANK YOU WACHOVIA! That really helps me get back on my feet. Of course my direct deposit will hit tomorrow and we are back at the same point again. Not enough money to take care of my bills and my family. 420 dollars in fees for a couple mistakes that total less than 50 bucks. Sounds fair to me.

You'll have countless issues like this with this bank. This is just the worst one. This is the worst bank I have ever encountered in my 30 years on this earth. Very disgusted. My only recourse is to file a complaint with the complaint dept which I have to mail in and wait to hear back from.

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Fees
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APOPKA, FLORIDA -- It is Wachovia's practice to not post deposits (EVEN CASH) that are received after 2pm, until the next day. My husband went to the bank to make a deposit and was unsure of the exact time and asked the teller if he was in time to have it available that day. The teller said "yes" so he gave them $70 cash and they deposited the amount. My husband then went to the grocery store and spent $40. As it turns out the money registered a few minutes after two and it was not available. The next morning we had $105 worth of unavailable funds fees on our acct. As Wachovia explains it - they automatically pay the largest transaction first.

We had three transactions pending from TWO DAYS BEFORE, because they paid the largest one first, there wasn't money for the three transactions that were pending and they charged $35 for each one. After I called and spoke to six different people and was transferred multiple times I was told to contact the branch. I spoke to the branch manager who told me that my husband wasn't listening carefully because her teller would never have told him the money would be available if it wasn't. So after being called a liar we called the 800# again to find out what could be done.

Finally they agreed to refund only 40% of the fees. I was still very upset and trying to calm down when I looked at my account the next morning to find that they had charged us another $35. WHY!?!? Because after they paid the largest transaction of $40 (which was also the newest transaction) there wasn't enough to pay the three older transactions. Since there wasn't enough to pay those they charged us $105 in fees. After they collected their $105 in fees we were overdrawn so clearly they had to charge another $35. Makes sense right?

A Wachovia representative told us that it is their policy to pay the largest transaction first because it could be our house payment. If any one out there has a $40 house payment - let me know what your secret is! It seems to me that the bank comes out ahead if they are collecting fees for three transactions instead of one. The rich get richer and the poor get poorer. I am currently 7 1/2 months pregnant and have gestational diabetes. The fees they took prevent us from getting groceries for the special diet I am on for the next week.

The funny thing is when you are on hold with Wachovia - they tell you how much your opinion matters. It only matters to them if it is good and you are encouraging other people to open accounts with them. My husband and I will make sure we tell everyone to avoid business with this bank at all costs.

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Terrible 3 hours on hold for customer service
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CALIFORNIA -- I opened a free checking account with Wachovia last year. It says there's no minimum required and no fees. I was told that I can check my bank activities online. So download my transactions as I do my other banks. I moved some money to my other banks and then I found I got a service fees of $5.95, which made my account overdrawn. Since it was less than a dollar, I didn't persist on waiting after an hour of being on hold on the phone.... A statement came after that saying that I got charged $5.95 again.

And when I finally got through to someone, they said I had used their service to download to my Quickens, and therefore I need to pay for it, and it is automatically billed every month. I absolutely do not recall having agreed to pay for such service, as my other banks don't charge for that. Wachovia's reply was that B of A does! How do I feel? Either there's some fine print that I didn't read when I click the download page, or they are set up to purposefully deceive you!

And get this, I told them I'd like to close the account, I was told that I'd have to pay the balance. A statement came after that, and I was charged another $40 since Wachovia had closed my account for it being overdrawn. OVERDRAWN BY WHOM? I feel like Wachovia is ripping me off 3 times!

A few days later, I got a statement for collecting debt, with Wachovia being the creditor! I called Wachovia today saying that I did not authorize to have my account closed, I was transferred to another line, and then put on hold, with a message saying how important your call is to them, and an agent will be with you shortly- I waited and waited, then half an hour past.

I put it on speakerphone, so I could do some dishes, I then cleaned the kitchen, and responded to all my 12+ emails. Still, I was on hold..... 'our agents are busy assisting other customers'.... 'your call is very important to us'... It was almost 3 hours, until I suppose their recording went out. Such GREAT customer service! So I'm telling everyone now, stay away from Wachovia. If there's a class action sue against them, count me in.

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Free Checking Yeah Right (I've had my share of NSF fees)
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MARYLAND -- Just wanted to share that I've had my share of NSF fees. But fortunately, I've contacted either the customer service and they gladly returned at least one of my Bounced Check Fees or all of them at once. Once I dealt with a nice girl in online customer service for Wachovia when I had a problem with short funds in my acct, and she completely understood how I could have thought I had more in my acct than I did and refunded the $175 fees for me. So I kept her name in my roledex.

When I tried to reach her again, she'd moved up the ladder to Corporate...great I thought. So, gladly she understood and returned my $230 for the last and final time for me. So, when it happened again she put a notice on my acct NOT TO REFUND ANY MORE NSF FEES. As I'd had too many already! I then contacted someone above her but in the Corporate office and I explained that I had made a deposit at night and even printed out a receipt showing my balance that included the new deposit. So, off I went to the grocery store only to learn the next night my bank account was overdrawn by the money I'd spent at the grocery store.

I explained to the new fellow that worked in Corporate and he explained to me that when I make a deposit, I must withdraw the funds from the deposit at the same exact transaction. But what I did was made the deposit. Then I asked to print a receipt after checking the balance after the first transaction of the deposit. Then I went off to spend my money using my debit card which is a NO NO. Again, I was told that if you deposit say $100 into your account you must select the option to withdraw funds and tell it how much to withdraw from your deposit to avoid overdrafting your acct. So, I again was refunded!!!!

Thanks Wachovia, you've been great and wonderful to me. I say ASK AND YOU SHALL RECEIVE. CALL CORPORATE AT 1866-642-9407 x70130. ** WAS VERY HELPFUL GOOD LUCK!

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Fees on checking accounts
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KERNERSVILLE, NORTH CAROLINA -- I wanted to write a review on the experiences with Wachovia Bank. First, this bank has more hidden fees than any bank I have ever dealt with. We have had several issues with them all because of a click of a button. Never in my life have I ever had to pay $140.00 for a NSF of .86. So you people are aware, even if you have a direct deposit of $1,000 or more within for hours of an overdraft which was my $.86, this is how much you will pay for it.

We had a direct deposit of Midnight 6/1 and they still NSF a check for 29.60 keyed in the same day after the deposit. You tell me why after all my money shows direct deposit dated the same day. So for all you people who would like to keep your money, Wachovia isn't really free checking at all. You end up paying them in the end with your debit card somehow. The fees are outrageous. If you have a complaint like mine MSN had an article on it 6/1/07 on how to report this to congress to pass a bill against all the overcharges.

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Excellent Service for My 16-Year-Old Son
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ELDERSBURG, MARYLAND -- My son got himself a part-time job and was suddenly in need of a bank account for direct deposit of his paycheck. I've been with Wachovia and Wells Fargo for many years, so I took him into Wachovia. The bank manager brought us into his office immediately and began the process; I decided to observe and let my son work through the process by himself. The manager took the time to explain everything so my son could understand and still made him feel like a young adult at the same time.

He now has a checking account with a bank card, a savings account, and a "way to save" account; all of which can be accessed through his online banking account. The best part is that all of these services are FREE because he is a student. The only negative was that I had to make the first deposit for him -- $55. If you are looking for a great bank for your family, you should really consider Wachovia.

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Wachovia Corp Checking Accounts Rating:
11 reviews & complaints.
Contact Information:
Wachovia Corp
301 S. College St., Ste. 4000
Charlotte, NC 28288-0013
800-922-4684 (ph)
704-374-3425 (fax)
www.wachovia.com
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