Consumer complaint received 2016-06-15
Company: SUNTRUST BANKS, INC.
State: FL
Product: Bank account or service
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Problems caused by my funds being low

Complaint:
My Girlfriend and I signed up for XXXX checking accounts with Suntrust on XXXX XXXX, 2015. XXXX joint and XXXX individual. We were asked about overdraft protection. At first we said no, but the Representative insisted we get it stating that " we did not want our child stranded at the gas pump, unable to purchase gas to get home ''. We reluctantly signed up for it understanding it was a " service '' for a small fee. Recently, we utilized the service to avoid a late rent payment. Much to our surprise, we received XXXX overdraft charges, instead of the one we were expecting. In contacting the bank, we were told they organize the transactions by size, the largest first because it is likely to be the most important. After several minutes of protesting with the representative, we were called " irresponsible ''. After going through our records, they have been reordering our transactions since opening our accounts to maximize fees. After visiting a local branch we got the same song and dance about the reason they reorder our transactions. Our case has been escalated to the corporate level and we are prepared to sue. To date they have charged us over {$6600.00} in overdraft fees to date and put us in a cycle of debt that we can not overcome. In the past year, we have endured job loss, XXXX and now we find out Suntrust has been taking advantage of us the entire time. I 've done my research and the practice or reordering transactions is frowned upon by the FDIC and CFPB. Yet, several banks still utilize the practice. Had we known this was practiced, we would not have signed up for overdraft protection, or an account with Suntrust. We believe their business practices are predatory and the program was falsely represented by the representative of the XXXX XXXX Suntrust Branch in XXXX XXXX Florida. Below is a excerpt from of the email I sent to the local branch manager. 

" XXXX, Thank you for all of your attention to our case. You, by far, have been the most pleasant to work with as we venture through a possible solution. 

I realize you have emailed the person who is charged with looking into our case. I have been doing research of my own in the meantime. 

At this time I am officially requesting the name and address for the Registered Agent for Suntrust Bank in the state of Florida. 

According to FDIC Overdraft Program Supervisory Guidance, " Transactions should be processed in a neutral order that avoids manipulating or structuring processing order to maximize customer overdraft and related fees. Examples of a neutral order include order received, check number, serial number sequence, or other approaches when necessary based on sound business justification. 

Re-ordering transactions to clear the highest item first is not considered neutral because this approach will tend to increase the number of overdraft fees. By contrast, processing batches of transactions in a random order or order received is a neutral approach ; however, institutions should not arrange the order of types of transactions ( i.e., batches ) cleared in order to increase the number of overdrafts and maximize fees. '' Both you and the customer service agents we have talked to state, " We process the largest first as it is most likely the most important transaction, i.e. mortgage payment ''. Your statements are in direct conflict with FDIC recommendations and are often wrong. Suntrust has no way of determining what the most important transaction is, therefore the justification is unfounded. " We are still waiting for a response from Suntrust Complaint department as to how they intend to handle their handling of our money. Nowhere on their site, or our agreement does it state they process the order at their discretion. The agreement is intentionally vague to hide the fact that the participate in reordering transactions.

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