Consumer complaint received 2023-04-04
Company: FIFTH THIRD FINANCIAL CORPORATION
State: OH
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Problem with a lender or other company charging your account
Sub-issue: Transaction was not authorized

Complaint:
I was charged multiple overdraft fees for transactions that had occurred on my account with fifth third, that according to their outlined overdraft coverage policy terms, should not have been authorized in the first place. 

As is stated in their how it works enrollment explanation : As part of our optional Overdraft Coverage, we do not authorize and pay overdrafts for the following types of transactions unless you instruct us to do so by opting in : ATM transactions Everyday ( one-time ) Debit Card transactions It also states that they choose what they will or will not authorize at their own discretion unless instructed otherwise. I have personally requested that if the funds are not available in my account to not authorize any transactions that would cause an over draft to occur, yet it happened anyway. 
Therefore these charges were not valid as the associated transactions were not authorized to take place. 
When confronted about this I was told that this is not what what their policy states and that Ive misinterpreted it. Then was provided no further explanation as to what it was that I was being told that i had misinterpreted. 
Seems to me that a banking error has occurred either due to neglect or outright denial of rendering of services as theyve been outlined and presented. There is also a stipulation outlined within their policy that states as follows : your Fifth Third savings, credit card, or line of credit to cover overdrafts. This option may be less expensive than standard Overdraft Coverage. 

This was never attempted nor was it even offered, I had to go digging in order to find out it was even an option. I believe this all culminates in representing what would qualify as falling within malicious practices of a financial institution towards their clients. In this case I had asked what charges specifically initiated these overdraft charges of 2 separate overdraft fees of {$37.00} on XX/XX/XXXX and was told they were one charge with XXXX for {$50.00} & one charge with XXXX for {$17.00} Im not enrolled in automatic bill payments with my XXXX account, and only make one time payments with all of my credit card accounts. If a payment is not made as an automatic payment it can only be a one time payment, as far as I understand it and is stated by the financial institution itself when said payments are made. I was told by a fifth third employee that neither of these two transactions were considered one time payments and that if they were it would be stated as such.

They did not state where it would be stated or offer any further explanation as to why my one time payments are not considered one time payments and when prompted to then explain what qualifies as a one time payment they proceeded to claim they had already described this information. 

There was also a charge filed on my credit card with this fifth third in XXXX of XXXX  in the amount of {$29.00} for whats stated as late payment fee Ive asked about this directly on no less than 3 separate occasions as to what exactly I was late in having made a payment towards as I have in fact, never been late in having made a payment with my account or with then fifth third in general. Yet this fee is posted on my account and not only have they refused to provide correction or acknowledgement of the charge, they dont appear to have any explanation as to why it was charged in the first place. 

In conclusion, I believe my experiences with fifth third demonstrates a pattern of behavior in which services offered and agreements with the public has been misrepresented & that their employees are actively engaging in breaching of their own stated policy agreements at their own discretion. In addition to this, when confronted with evidence of this instead of offering evidence of their own or even attempting to work to reach a resolution their outright denying denying that their services operate as outlined within their own stated policies. Policies of which are openly available & can be referenced for review on their website. After speaking with 3 employees, resolution dept, a supervisor & reaching out to their corporate representative as was designated by the resolution dept supervisor, I feel I have no other option than to file this complaint. The intention of this complaint against fifth third financial is to outline what appears to me to be behavior that demonstrates unethical as well as dishonest conduct & potentially malicious practices against or at the expense of their customers and/or clients.

Company response to consumer: Closed with monetary relief