Consumer complaint received 2016-12-05
Company: FIFTH THIRD FINANCIAL CORPORATION
State: IN
Product: Bank account or service
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Using a debit or ATM card

Complaint:
Fifth Third Bank fails to provide full disclosure to its customers in regards to " Overdraft Coverage. '' Additionally it processes debit card transactions as " Recurring Purchases '' rather than " Everyday Debit Card Transactions '' so it can ignore the consumer 's preference to decline overdraft coverage on debit card purchases and charge consumers overdraft fees without their authorization. 
On XXXX/XXXX/2016 I changed my preference to decline Fifth Third Bank Overdraft Protection after speaking to an agent and being told the benefits of having it. Specifically I was told that if you make a purchase with your debit card and the funds are there the transaction is approved and no overdraft fee will be charged on that transaction should your account not contain sufficient funds when the transaction post. 
Additionally on the disclosures it states : " As part of this service, we do authorize Checks and other transactions made by using your checking account number and pay overdrafts for the following types of transactions : Automatic bill payments. However, we do not authorize ATM transactions and pay overdrafts for the following types of transactions unless you instruct us to do so for the following Everyday debit card transactions. '' Further it reads " Overdraft Coverage for ATM and Debit Card Transactions Fifth Third Bank can no longer authorize and pay overdrafts pertaining to ATM and everyday Debit Card transactions unless you instruct us to do so ... '' Subsequent to receiving a confirmation from Fifth Third that overdraft coverage had been declined on my account I was charged additional overdraft fees for purchases made with my debit card. Upon calling Fifth Third Bank 's customer service I was told that while the purchase was indeed made with my Debit Card the transaction was processed as a " Reoccurring Payment '' and not as a debit card transaction. Further I was told that this decision was made by the merchant and not Fifth Third. 
The purchase in question was XXXX and is no way a " reoccurring payment '' as the transaction does not reoccur in a regular interval nor is it a fixed amount. 
Below are my concerns regarding Fifth Third Bank : Fifth Third does not disclose that opting out of overdraft coverage could save consumers overdraft fees on debit card purchases that had sufficient balance at the time of the transaction but did not have sufficient balance at the time of posting. Had Fifth Third explained this in their disclosures on overdraft protection more consumers might opt out. 
Fifth Third Bank has created a new type of transaction to skirt the customer 's opt out of overdraft coverage and charge overdraft fees. 
Fifth Third Bank NEVER mentions " Reoccurring Payments '' anywhere in its overdraft coverage disclosure and clearly states that transactions related to the debit card will be declined and not be charged overdraft fees. 
Fifth Third Bank fails to education its customer facing employees on types of transactions - specifically reoccurring payments using the debit card. 
Fifth Third Bank encourages merchants to process transactions as reoccurring payments rather than debit card transactions by charging merchants lower fees for processing the former type of transaction. Fifth Third then uses this loophole to charge customers unauthorized fees. 
Finally Fifth Third sets arbitrary limits on how much customer service can credit on overdraft fees. Customer Service representatives have told me that they would refund the fee due to the above disclosure issue however they are unable to because I have had $ XXXX in fee waivers already this year. 
I do have supporting evidence such as PDFs from the Fifth Third website and all disclosures related to overdraft coverage if needed.

Company response to consumer: Closed with monetary relief