Consumer complaint received 2020-10-15
Product: Checking or savings account — Checking account
Issue: Problem caused by your funds being low — Overdrafts and overdraft fees
Company: JPMORGAN CHASE & CO. (CA)

Dear Resolution Team : I write with great frustration at the Chase Policy on overdraft fees that has been used on my account in a very deceptive manner.

I am not against Overdraft fees. Over the course of the last 5 years, I have paid Chase over {$4000.00} in overdraft fees because of my XXXX due to failing XXXX that have prevented me from getting a regular paycheck and caused my earnings to be very non-linear. 

However, I have an issue with how overdraft fees are charged and whether the policy is applied in a fair and reasonable manner. I provide below a detailed analysis of how this particular set of overdraft fees were charged on this account by manipulating the timing of transactions and amount to sheer deception. 

Due to the high amount of overdraft fees that I have been paying over the last few years, I make it a point to check my account at XXXX EST to make sure that my account is not overdrawn and so that I can transfer money from my other Chase accounts or use XXXX with external accounts to cure the overdraft. This is exactly what I did on XX/XX/2020. 

I checked my checking account ending in XXXXXX at XXXX EST on XX/XX/2020. At the time my account was overdrawn by slightly more than {$50.00} due to two transactions that posted to my account earlier that day. 

These transactions were as follows : XX/XX/2020 XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX WEB ID : XXXX ACH debit {$17.00} XX/XX/2020 XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX WEB ID : XXXX ACH debit {$39.00} I cured this overdraft by XXXX on that same day by transferring {$65.00} from one of my other Chase accounts. Note that the cutoff time to cure overdrafts is XXXX. 

Online Transfer from CHK ... XXXX transaction # : XXXX Account transfer {$65.00} At XXXX EST, my account was in the black and it was not overdrawn. Note that the cutoff time per Chase policy for overdraft fees is XXXX XXXX. 

So somewhere between XXXX XXXX and XXXX XXXX Chase cleared a check I had written for {$470.00}. How the system chose this time is anybody 's guess - it was to maximize overdraft charges. 

CHECK # XXXX | See details of this check XXXX Check {$470.00} Note that this transaction was cleared right before the cutoff time and gave me no time to cure the overdraft. I suspect that the transaction was cleared with less than 15 minutes to the cutoff time just so that overdraft fees could be charged to my account. 

On the morning of XX/XX/2020, I log into my account and lo and behold, my account is overdrawn by $ XXXX. Overdraft fees of {$100.00} have been charged on all three of the above transactions and the timing of my transactions have been redone so that the {$470.00} check appears first causing all the three transactions to be overdrafts while the {$65.00} that I used to cover two of the overdrafts has been thrown to the wayside. 

How is this fair practice? I spoke with XXXX a supervisor at Chase who agreed to all of the above but when I asked him if I thought this was a fair practice he refused to answer the question and instead kept talking to me about Chase policy that processed the largest amounts first. Here is the problem. There is no clear indication of when Chase does this. They seem to do it at their discretion. Many times before, a check that I wrote has shown up as a " Pending transaction '' and has given my time to cure the overdraft so that I am not charged the fees. In this case, the Chase policy claim is that with checks and ACH transactions " anything '' can happen, per the Supervisor XXXX. It can show up as " Pending '' or it can directly clear all to my detriment and to the benefit of the bank. The check could have been cleared by Chase by XXXX that same morning or the next morning. But it was timed so that my account would go into overdraft mode and generate overdraft fees. 

Chase claims that they provide all kinds of tools - SMS alerts - and the like to manage my account. But how is one supposed to cure an overdraft with 15 minutes to spare even if you were to get an SMS alert. For the record. no SMS alert was sent. On asking about this, the claim is that SMS alerts are only sent to XXXX phones. So if an Overdraft occurs at XXXX, XXXX has until XXXX to cure it else one is charged the {$34.00} Overdraft fee and with the manipulation of the timing of transactions, additional overdraft fees as well. 

Keeping the overarching discussion of whether Overdraft fees are fair or not out of this discussion, I would like to point out that this application of Overdraft fees is completely malicious, fraudulent and designed to deceive me out of {$100.00}. I have swallowed Overdraft fees without a hiccup whenever I have seen it to have been my fault. But in this case, I am unable to swallow this sheer deception and malice. 

I am hoping that CFPB can help me to resolve this issue and help me reverse these overdraft charges to my account. 

I would like a copy of this complaint sent to - Chase Executive Office, XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXX TX XXXX. Of course chase doesn't make it easy to complain either. There is no phone number or email for this address.