Consumer complaint received 2018-07-11
Company: JPMORGAN CHASE & CO.
State: CA
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Problem caused by your funds being low
Sub-issue: Overdrafts and overdraft fees

Complaint:
I had a low income checking account with Chase Bank. I have been having some financial issues, and for the first time in my life over drafted with Chase at the beginning of XXXX. ( Over the course of XX/XX/XXXX + XX/XX/XXXX ). Chase reversed the fees. I explained part of the problem was that I do not have regular access to my email account. I need text message notifications if I overdraft. I used to regularly receive text message notifications, until they randomly stopped. They said that in the future I would receive text message notifications. 

The following weekend I over drafted with no text message notification for my over draft fees. Because of this I received 6, {$34.00} fees over the course of 2 days. ( XX/XX/XXXX and XXXX ). This totaled to {$200.00} worth of fees for overcharging {$120.00}. I called Chase to rectify the issue. They informed me that I had hit my limit on over charge reversals for the year, even though the week before was the first time I ever over drafted. This is because you get over charged for every small charge. This is more punitive for low income people such as my self. I only had one bank account. No savings. No credit card. So I received charges for negligible amounts of money that I could have borrowed from friends had I received notification my account was empty. Instead Chase charged me an excessive amount for overdraft fees. The person I spoke to the week before from Chase did not notify me that I was approaching my limit with fee reversals. I would not have thought to ask that since this was my first time. I am not sure what their limit is, but lets say its 10. Its very easy to get to that point when you are using a debit card for purchasing stuff that cost a negligible amount. They charge you multiple amounts a day. I explained this and also reiterated my frustration with the fact that I was under the impression Chase would start sending me text message notifications if I over drafted. If this happened I only would have been charged {$34.00} not {$200.00}. {$200.00} is an excessive amount for me. My paychecks are regularly less than {$700.00}. 

They only reversed one fee, so in the end I was charged {$170.00} for overdrawing {$120.00}. I closed my chase account shortly after deciding it would be safer to carry my money around in cash, risking Chase just deducting fees that could no longer be reversed. In addition to the fact that Chase should notify customers of overages with text messages they should also notify their clients when they are approaching fee reversal limits. When I used to be able to afford to maintain a savings account, I occasionally would get charged for exceeding withdrawal from my savings limits. Their customer support/clerks would notify me if I was approaching my limit for reversals for the year. This sort of transparency was very helpful to a low income person who trusted their limited amount of money with Chase Bank.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation