Consumer complaint received 2023-05-05
Company: TD BANK US HOLDING COMPANY
State: VT
Product: Payday loan, title loan, or personal loan
Sub-product: Personal line of credit
Issue: Charged fees or interest you didn't expect

Complaint:
On XXXX  I was informed through a credit monitoring service that my credit rating had been negatively impacted by a late payment to TD Bank for overdraft protection. Specifically, the amount of credit line used was {$2100.00} - late by 120 days. I was unaware that I had an active joint checking account with overdraft protection with TD Bank and reported it as fraud. An investigator with TD Bank concluded it was not fraud because he had a record of my signature agreeing to overdraft protection from XXXX with a bank ( XXXX XXXX XXXX ) that later merged with TD Bank. I did affirm that it was my signature, however, it was on an application and not a contract as stated and had no terms or conditions, no fee schedule, no interest rate, no information about a minimum balance for the associated checking account, or any information about the co-signer attached. The reported date in XXXX was in conflict with another record provided by TD Bank stating that the overdraft account was opened XXXX 

Speaking to several bank representatives, I discovered that the original joint checking account had been opened in XXXX with XXXX XXXX XXXX but that the signature card associated with the account pulled another customers signature from PA. There was no signature card for myself or the co-owner associated with the original account number. I believed that this checking account had been closed in XXXX and I had not received any notice at any time from TD Bank that there were funds in the account or that there had been a merger. Nor did I receive any bank statements showing that the money in the account had been reduced to a negative balance of {$49.00}, and that the overdraft fees had accumulated to over {$2000.00}. In fact the address that TD Bank had on record ( a street address ) was not a mailing address - being located in a rural area, residents were given postal boxes for mail to be delivered. Moreover, I had moved from that address in XXXX and never received any forwarded mail from TD Bank. 

In accumulating their fees, TD Bank charged the checking account until the funds were gone. At that point they withdrew funds from the overdraft protection to pay the fees and then to pay the interest on the amount of money withdrawn from the overdraft protection line of credit. This circular pattern of the bank paying itself continued with increasing dollar amounts until the credit limit of {$2000.00} was eventually reached. 

Without my affirmative consent, I believe TD Bank opened an overdraft account in my name based on an incomplete application and approval letter. Further, they attached fees to the checking account which started with a positive balance of {$1700.00}, until it was discharged at a negative balance of {$49.00}. When I requested the fee schedule, terms, interest rate, annual fees, minimum balance requirements, and monthly payments for the checking and overdraft accounts, they could not produce any records, reporting that there were no other records from the merger. They stated that the terms had been grandfathered '' after the merger with XXXX XXXXXXXX XXXX but could not produce any records to this effect either. When I asked why fees were able to accumulate over a 13 year period without turning the funds over to the state after the account stopped all external activity, I was told that I had signed an agreement to pay an annual fee in addition to a minimum balance fee which was considered customer generated activity. They could not, however, produce any documents to show that I had been made aware of and agreed to these terms. 

Over the course of five weeks, I have made numerous calls to TD Banks discharge checking account and loan servicing departments, made multiple visits to branches in both Massachusetts and Vermont, and sent certified letters to the Senior VP of Customer Service and Operations Center. There has been no resolution to date. Under pressure, I paid off the balance of the line of credit to avoid defaulting on the loan and making my credit rating even worse. With the payment of fees to TD Bank, I have paid almost {$4000.00} ( {$2200.00} in overdraft fees and {$1700.00} in checking account maintenance fees ). I believe all fees should be reversed, a refund given in the same amount, and my credit restored.

Company response to consumer: Closed with monetary relief