Anyone familiar with the deep, inner workings of banks?

[Chuckles]

Overdraft/debit card question... :gloomy:

But yeah, anyways : Anyone know if a company placing an authorization hold on funds in your account can cause you to overdraft? I recently had to verify an account with my debit card and they said they'd place a small authorization charge on my account (something I'm used to, the funds never actually leave my account.)

However, instead of charging the usual $1-2, they hit me with a damn outrageous charge that put me into the negative. Any know how badly I just got screwed/if there's anything I can do?


Edit : Going to the bank asap and putting enough money into the account to cover the charge would be possible, but I doubt that it would actually work...

[MNJetter]

I was two months late for payment on my internet connection a while back (missed the date on the first one, forgot about the second one after my parents came to visit from the states). The Yahoo BB website says that if you do this, you can't keep going on your old account, and you have to send your stuff back and re-sign up from scratch. But I got one of my coworkers to call them and explain my situation, plus profuse apologies from me, and they let me keep going.

My point is....The Japanese have rules about everything, but nearly all of them can be broken if you are humble enough and willing to plead your case. If you aren't comfortable with your Japanese, have a friend or coworker help you out. They are especially sympathetic if you are a foreigner and don't know how the system works.

[Chuckles]

Err, I'm in America! (Else I would have posted in the Japan section).

But yeah, I planned on talking with them if they did charge me. I mean, what would keep a company from placing a million dollar hold on your account and letting the bank kill you with overdraft fees? Anyways, thanks for the help. I just hope that I don't get charged like $70 in fees here, money's already hard enough to come by for me.

[MNJetter]

lol.....I thought this was in the Japan section.

I don't think the American system is quite so forgiving. But then again, I haven't done anything like that in the states before.

[Chuckles]

Well, I didn't really do anything either! It was an authorization charge, the money will never actually leave my account lol. As of now it's just sitting there in my pending transactions. Usually they show up there, then disappear without any money leaving the account.

Damn confusing stuff.

[ミュー]

You need to talk to the company who put an unforseen high authorization charge on your account which could cause you to incur fees. The bank is unlikely to waive overdraft fees, as they did nothing wrong and fees are a source of bank revenue. Which company and which bank would help me to better understand the problem, but I have a very solid background in knowledge about banking. Basically your options right now are to:
1) wait and see if you got charged something
2) complain to the company, possibly use "I won't use your services" as leverage
3) failing that, talk to your bank (in person is good), and use cancelling your account as leverage

[belladonna]

what bank do you use?

i use suntrust and i've had so many issues with things like this and they never help you...

[Chuckles]

Suntrust :(!

The company was stamps.com, gonna email them about the charge. I mean, I can usually handle the auth charge, but they caught me at a really bad time with it... doesn't help that they explicitly stated that my account would not be charged (giving no warning of any authentication charge at all, nonetheless one over a few dollars.)

[Roxie]

Call your bank immmediately and tell them what has happened! If you can't get anything with the first person you talk to, ask for the manager.

[SlickWilly440]

Suntrust :(!

The company was stamps.com, gonna email them about the charge. I mean, I can usually handle the auth charge, but they caught me at a really bad time with it... doesn't help that they explicitly stated that my account would not be charged (giving no warning of any authentication charge at all, nonetheless one over a few dollars.)

Are you into those complete an offer and refer other people to do the same under your name, so you can get an expensive product for free. Then cancel the offer before the trial period ends, so you don't get charged?

LOL...I used to do those all the time for a guy who needed refs, I made around 600 dollars doing that one summer. But the good thing is now the call in cancellations are automated, so you don't have to wait to talk to a representative to cancel the subscription/account.

I had something similar happen to me, but I was banking with a different bank and they took the overdraft fee off.

[Vincent]

Don't use Suntrust!! Those bastards. Use Wachovia; that bank is the shit. Good service and no hidden bullshits.

[Urameshi YuSooKey]

Don't use Suntrust!! Those bastards. Use Wachovia; that bank is the shit. Good service and no hidden bullshits.

Better yet, switch to BB&T seriously. We use Wachovia at my job and they have an overall horrible service record compared to Suntrust. In the year I have been at my current job, there have been a half-dozen issues that were because the bank misplaced funds or information. I think it can depend on the size and volume of business the bank recieves. A lot of Suntrusts in my area stay small/more local because Wachovia is almost monopoly-sized in comparison. Stick with the smaller bank if you want less bullshit and proper service because they have to keep track of less and won't be as hard up for decent employees.

[belladonna]

i went through the same thing with stamps.com and it destroyed my bank account... i also am switching to bank of america because i can use it internationall. but suntrust sucks ass, i've only had problems with them

[Chuckles]

I live in a smaller town, really, so dealing with the bank would be dealing with people that live around here etc. To my knowledge they don't really treat you like a random number, which I'm thankful for. Other than this I have had no problems with them, and even this isn't a problem with them... Although I'll definitely not be using debit anymore!

I think the entire process of allowing companies to place holds for undisclosed amounts of money on your account is bullshit, honestly :/

And good news (somewhat) : A friend of mine went through a similar situation and the bank refunded the fee because no money ever really left his account. Makes me feel like there's hope. Hell, best case scenario they could resolve the charges in order... the auth fee would be refunded then the other charge would go through, resulting in no fees!

If it comes down to having to talk to the bank directly, I may or may not be inclined to close my account (depends on how I am treated in the process, really.) Thanks for any advice so far though.

[Chuckles]

I don't think the hold is going to cause me to overdraft. I got an email back from Stamps and they said they used a $1 auth charge (which I know is bullshit), but I'm not too worried about it. The auth charge and the charge after it both stayed in my Pending Charges until the auth charge cleared, they never actually posted either to my account. (The charge I did make has since been posted to my account, but without the other charge causing it to put in the negative nothing bad happened.)

The current balance never dropped below 0. Anyways, I'll find out at the end of the month! Thanks for the attempts at help though!