Consumer complaint received 2019-08-12
Company: WELLS FARGO & COMPANY
State: MN
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Problem caused by your funds being low
Sub-issue: Bounced checks or returned payments

Complaint:
On XX/XX/XXXX I submitted a stop payment request for a charge in the amount of {$190.00} ; I was charged a {$31.00} fee for this. A few days went by and I was not made aware of the status of the stop payment order so I reached out to the bank on XXXX to get more information. I was told that since the transaction posted before I placed the stop payment order on my account a claim was filed instead.From my understanding of the process a temporary credit would be placed on the account for the transaction amount and there is also not a fee for this service. I requested to have the {$31.00} credited back to my account ; the representatives I spoke with were unwilling to do this. The reason why the claim was filed is because the charges were unexpected and it would cause a financial hardship for me because I also had a very important payment that would be coming out of my account soon. 

On XX/XX/XXXX XXXX XXXX attempted to debit my mortgage payment from my account in the amount of {$1900.00}. At the time I had {$1900.00} in my account ; I was under the impression that a temporary credit in the amount of {$190.00} would be applied to my account for the claim that was in process. I deposited the cash I had on hand on XX/XX/XXXX and expected that my mortgage payment would be cleared. 

On XX/XX/XXXX I got up on Saturday morning to discover that my mortgage payment had been returned. I looked further into this and from my perspective if the {$31.00} fee had been waived for the stop payment and also the temporary credit placed on my account for {$190.00} my account would have had sufficient funds to cover the transaction. The bank also changed the order of transactions that came into my account ; there was an additional charge of {$38.00} from my credit card company that they allowed to post and sent the payment back to XXXX XXXX. I know for sure that XXXX XXXX debited the money from my account first ; if any payment was returned it should have been the {$38.00} payment, and once again if the {$31.00} stop payment fee had been credited back to my account in this situation I would have had enough funds in my account to cover the payment from XXXX XXXX.If I would have known that I was not going to have a temporary credit on my account right away I would have deposited more money which is what I did on Saturday morning when I realized the payment had been returned. 

My main issue is that the bank sent back a payment that should have been covered in which now my credit is at risk. I sent in a request on XX/XX/XXXX requesting that they immediately reconcile this situation by contacting XXXX XXXX to cover the payment. As a 15 year customer I expected better treatment from WellsFargo than what I received. They have been in a position to capitalize off of me for years, I have paid thousands in fees over the years that I have had my account and I have always managed to keep my account open and active no matter how bad things got for me financially. However, in this situation I was not experiencing a hardship at all, I had more than enough money to cover the payment. Due to a miscommunication about the process I walked away with a different understanding. I don't think I should have to suffer because of this.

Company public response: Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with monetary relief