Consumer complaint received 2022-12-21
Company: TRUIST FINANCIAL CORPORATION
State: NY
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Managing an account
Sub-issue: Fee problem

Complaint:
Hello and thank you for your time. 

Long story short, I turned my overdraft protection off on my TRUIST Checking account and withdrew consent from the bank to be able to overdraft my account. However, the bank still over drafted my account and charged me multiple fees. When I contacted TRUIST to alert them to the error and correct it, they said they still had the discretion to over draft my account without my consent and charge me any fees that we associated with their discretionary choice. This is clearly an attempt to collect Junk fees and unfairly steal from the accounts of their customers. 

Here is a full transcript of my attempt to get the problem sorted out : XXXX Good morning XXXX and thank you for messaging Truist. My name is XXXX and I will be happy to assist you today. I will look into your account, if you do not bearing with me please. Otherwise how are you doing today? 
XXXX - XXXX XXXX  Please refund the illegally taken fees immediately or I will report this infraction to the CPFB and the FTC Hello, I have been illegally charged overdraft fees because I should not have overdrafted because overdraft protection is turned off Instead of overdrafting you should have declined payment XXXX XXXX  Please refund the illegally taken fees immediately or I will report this infraction to the CPFB and the FTC You - XXXX XXXX  Please bear with me as I pull up the account and see what we can do. 
XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX Thank you for your patience. I do appreciate it. I do see the fees and how they occurred. I will be happy to explain this to you. I also see you recently received a fee refund. Therefore, you are not qualified for another one at this time. Each client is able to receive one courtesy refund every XXXX months based on the relationship with the bank. 
I do see you are currently opted out of Overdraft Coverage Decision. 
This means that everyday debit card and ATM transactions are declined when the available balance can not cover the transaction. 
Check/ACH/Recurring Debit Card transactions will be considered for payment if the available balance can not cover the transaction and are subject to Overdraft fees. The Overdraft Coverage decision does not affect whether checks, ACH, and recurring debit card transactions are paid. The decision to pay an item into overdraft is at the bank 's sole discretion, which allows the bank the right to decline payment of any transaction presented. 
You can read more about the Overdraft Decision using this link below. This information can be found in your online banking account by clicking Accounts in the top purple banner. Then, select your checking account. Next, you'll click on the white More button. Then, select overdraft services. If you select Manage Overdraft Coverage, there is a purple button that says, " Overdraft Coverage Notice ''. https : //www.truist.com/content/dam/truist/us/en/documents/disclosures/personal/truist-overdraft-decision-notice.pdf XXXX - XXXX XXXX  I am not asking politely for a refund, I am directly accusing Trusit of theft and allowing them to make things right before I report that theft of every banking oversight authority I can You - XXXX XXXX  I understand. I can show you how the fees occurred. Here is how and why : Dear Valued Client, On XX/XX/XXXX, your daily posted balance was {$230.00} The following items posted to your account : DEBIT CARD PURCHASE XXXX XXXX XXXX....... - {$31.00} DEBIT CARD PURCHASE-PIN XXXX XXXX XXXX NY XXXX. - {$37.00} DEBIT CARD PURCHASE-PIN XXXX XXXX XXXX NY  XXXX - {$37.00} DEBIT CARD RECURRING PYMT XXXX....... - {$64.00} DEBIT CARD PURCHASE-PIN XXXX XXXX XXXX NY  XXXX. - {$10.00} DEBIT CARD RECURRING XXXX XXXX *XXXX XXXX..... - {$9.00} DEBIT CARD PURCHASE XXXX XXXX XXXX..... - {$13.00} INTERNET PAYMENT XXXX XXXX XXXX.......... - {$11.00} INTERNET PAYMENT PAYMENT XXXX.......... - {$30.00} INTERNET PAYMENT PAYMENT XXXX.......... - {$20.00} leaving your account with an ending balance of - {$32.00}. 
As a result of a negative ending balance, Truist assessed the following charges against your account : XXXX - {$36.00} Overdraft Fee ( s ) leaving your Daily Posted Balance - {$100.00}. 
At Truist we have a variety of overdraft protection options available that are separate from our overdraft review process. Overdraft protection is a tool that can help you possibly avoid Overdraft Item fees. To explore these options, visit Truist.com today or call XXXXTRUIST. Member FDIC. 
XXXX XXXX - XXXX XXXX  There is a law against junk fees. one which XXXX XXXX was just convicted of breaking and fined a record amount. The disclaimer that you are telling me about should be presented when clicking to change the overdraft coverage. That is called informed consent, if I do not have that information readily available during my decision to change a policy in my account, I am not given the ability to consent You - XXXX XXXX  Here is a link as well to show how the fees occur across the board for all clients : https : //www.truist.com/content/dam/truist-bank/us/en/documents/rates-fees/personal/truist-one-personal-deposit-accounts-fee-schedule.pdf XXXX - XXXX XXXX  An overdraft fee can become a surprise fee when the customer doesnt reasonably expect their actions to incur an overdraft fee. For instance, even if a person closely monitors their account balances and carefully manages their spending to avoid overdraft fees, they can easily incur penalties when financial institutions employ processes that are unintelligible or manipulative. 

Todays Consumer Financial Protection Circular explains that when financial institutions charge surprise overdraft fees, sometimes as much as {$36.00}, they may be breaking the law. The circular provides some examples of potentially unlawful surprise overdraft fees, including charging penalties on purchases made with a positive balance. These overdraft fees occur when a bank displays that a customer has sufficient available funds to complete a debit card purchase at the time of the transaction, but the consumer is later charged an overdraft fee. Often, the financial institution relies on complex back-office practices to justify charging the fee. For instance, after the bank allows one debit card transaction when there is sufficient money in the account, it nonetheless charges a fee on that transaction later because of intervening transactions. 

In XX/XX/XXXX, the CFPB took action against XXXX XXXX  for charging surprise overdraft fees known as authorized positive fees. As early as XXXX the CFPB, as well as other federal regulators, including the Federal Reserve, began cautioning financial institutions against charging certain types of authorized positive fees, such as the ones used by XXXX  to unlawfully penalize customers. XXXX  is required to, among other consequences, reimburse consumers all the funds it unlawfully charged since XX/XX/XXXX and pay a {$50.00} XXXX penalty. 

Todays Consumer Financial Protection Circular on surprise overdraft fees and its bulletin on surprise deposited item fees are just the latest announcements as part of the CFPBs junk fee initiative, one of many effor You- XXXX XXXX  We do have an account that you can avoid fees. It is called Truist One Checking. If you are interested in it. 
XXXX - XXXX XXXX  I am only interested in holding Truist accountable for breaking the law. 
And being noncompliant You - XXXX XXXX  I will be happy to file a feedback form on your behalf. I do apologize for the inconvenience and frustration this has caused. The fee refunds are system generated and our policy is each client is given XXXX courtesy refund every XXXX months based on their relationship with the bank. 
XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX As I said, I am not asking for a refund. 
I am reporting Truist breaking the law and giving them a chance to correct their error before I escalate this issue to governing and oversight authorities You - XXXX XXXX I do apologize. We have overdraft review and overdraft protection. I will be happy to explain the difference. 
XXXX - XXXX XXXX  I specifically changed my consents to disable overdrafts because I don't consent to any overdraft coverage or fees associated XXXX XXXX  You - XXXX XXXX  I understand and I do see that you are opted out of overdraft coverage and overdraft protection. However opting out of those does not stop all transactions. We will still charge fees on recurring charges and any checks or ACH that may come through.as those can not be stopped. 
XXXX - XXXX XXXX  Well you didnt charge fees on recurring charges. You charged them on XXXX transactions which could have easily been stopped

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 explanation