Consumer complaint received 2015-12-15
Company: TCF NATIONAL BANK
State: IN
Product: Bank account or service
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Problems caused by my funds being low

Complaint:
I had a balance of XXXX in my TCF checking account ending in XXXX as of XXXX/XXXX/2015. I made XXXX transactions on XXXX. The last of these was dinner at XXXX XXXX XXXX for XXXX at XXXX in the evening. When I got home, I checked my balance online and saw that all the XXXX transactions were pending, but I had miscalculated and the last XXXX would overdraw the account by {$18.00}. Wanting to avoid an overdraft fee, I called the bank to attempt to transfer funds into the account, this service was not available, I attempted to find a way to transfer funds into the account online from another bank account, this was not available, finally I drove to the TCF ATM machine that stands in the place they used to have our branch, and found that the TCF ATM does not take deposits. The nearest branch is XXXX miles from my home, by that point it is XXXX at night. The next morning on XXXX I drove to the bank branch XXXX miles away, and gave the teller {$20.00} to deposit into the account and asked the teller to close the account. She stated that she was unable to close the account due to a negative balance. She explained that there were overdraft fees on the account for transactions that were pending. We both agreed that it did n't make sense, but she said she was unable to reverse the charges without manager approval and that the manager was not there and would not be returning that day. Today ( XXXX ) I received a letter in the mail from TCF Bank stating that my account now overdrawn in the amount of {$250.00} as of XXXX/XXXX/15. I have not used the account since and after speaking to the customer service department, I have learned from them that there have been no transactions since those XXXX on XXXX/XXXX/15. They explained to me that each XXXX of those transactions has incurred an overdraft fee. They explained that at XXXX each day, the deposits made before XXXX are added to the account, then any transactions that are posted ( collected by the merchant ) before XXXX are subtracted from the balance and then any transactions that are pending which would be overdrafts are assessed the fee. When I asked them to explain to me specifically how each of my transactions incurred a fee, the customer service team lead named XXXX said " Ok, let me give you an example. If on Monday morning you had {$100.00} in your account and you make XXXX transactions of {$50.00} each and they are still pending on tuesday morning you make a transaction of {$100.00} your account will have a balance of - {$100.00}. '' When I asked XXXX how many overdraft fees would be assessed on the account, he answered, " XXXX. '' This is not how I interpret the policy of the bank. Perhaps I am not interpreting it correctly, however, even if it is the policy does allow TCF to charge me XXXX overdraft fees between business days ( after XXXX and before XXXX the next day ) on an {$18.00} overdraft, that spells fraud. Because of a previous complaint I made to the bank, they had explained to me that when a transaction is marked " pending '' it means that there was a request for authorization to withdraw funds. The explained to me that the transaction is n't marked " posted '' until the merchant makes request for payment, which sometimes takes days. Additionally, TCF customer service was unable to describe for me how exactly each transaction incurred an overdraft fee. Furthermore, my call was disconnected twice conveniently when it seemed they could not explain something important, like how they get away with charging me a fee when they have not even received a demand for payment from the merchant and why two weeks ago they held my transactions in a pending state for days without charging a fee and only charged a fee after they conveniently posted several transactions on the same day as another transaction came through that would cause all transactions to overdraw, but not those same type transactions incur a fee within hours of authorization.

Company public response: Company believes it acted appropriately as authorized by contract or law
Company response to consumer: Closed with monetary relief