Consumer complaint received 2018-02-12
Company: FIRST CITIZENS BANCSHARES, INC.
State: NC
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Problem caused by your funds being low
Sub-issue: Overdrafts and overdraft fees

Complaint:
Here 's the complaint I sent to First Citizens Bank. They have done this to me before. They totally ignore overdraft protection and steal money from me. I'm done with this theft on their part : I have been a customer of First Citizens for nearly 30 years, and I have highly dissatisfied at First Citizens for an action on their part which falls under the heading of Unfair Trade Practices. And, if the situation is not rectified to my satisfaction, I will file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission detailing my grievance concerning this matter. 

I have been charged an " Over Draft Fee '' when I should not have been charged such a fee according to the agreement with First Citizens bank. The overdraft protection in question prevented any charges to my account which would result in an overdraft charge and would hold any payments until sufficient funds were deposited in said account. This has been in place for upwards of 10 years and my bank statements prove the application of this practice. This overdraft protection was applied by the branch manager at the XXXX, North Carolina branch many years ago. In other words, I have absolute proof that this particular overdraft protection has been in place, as arranged by the branch manager, for several years. 

Here 's where the problem really begins and which should be a matter of concern to First Citizens Bank on any number of levels : At XXXX XXXX this evening, I called First Citizens Bank 's Customer Service Center to complain about what was done. The  person I spoke with claimed I had " denied '' overdraft protection at some unknown time in the past. This is false. Overdraft protection was arranged with the branch manager and has been applied in practice for the past several years as per the said agreement. Again, my bank statements show this to be true. 

Then, said person said that if I did not pay the fee and filed an complaint with the federal government concerning this unfair practice First Citizens Bank would " retroactively '' charge me with all the fees they chose not to charge me. I consider this a threat and an act of intimidation. 

I will contact my branch of the bank to ask them to correct this matter and failing rectification of the matter, I fully intend to file civil suit for the {$36.00} overdraft fee and any consequential fees the bank intends to wrongly and unlawfully apply. It will cost me {$50.00} dollars to file a complaint in small claims court, but at this point, it's a matter of principle considering the other untowardly things First Citizens Bank has recently tried to pull on me ( which largely involves delaying the posting of cash deposits and delaying the deposits of checks drawn on First Citizens Bank for immediate deposit another First Citizens Bank account beyond what is reasonable, meaning several days. It is reasonable to assume that a check drawn of First Citizens Bank to be transferred from one account to another would be determined to be a good check and be deposited in a reasonable amount of time, not four or more days thus causing a potential overdraft situation in a deliberate fashion in a way that violates actual overdraft protections in place as demonstrated and proved by bank statements.

If a bank manager, acting as a duly constituted agent of said bank acting on behalf bank, extended overdraft protection and I accepted such an arrangement in good faith, and such arrangement has been applied in practice, even in contradiction of bank policy, that is not my problem. It is the bank 's problem and the bank should oblige to said agreement made by their agent. And I expect it to be applied to my account. 

{$36.00} dollars isn't much to a big bank, but it's a lot of money for me, especially when a bank tries to wring it out of me in violation of an overdraft agreement extended by an agent of that bank and applied by the bank consistently for the past several years. 

You may contact me by email or by phone at ( XXXX ) XXXX any time you wish concerning this matter, but I will be filing complaints with the FTC and in civil court by noon tomorrow if the bank branch can not correct this violation of trust and fair trade.

Company response to consumer: Closed with monetary relief