Consumer complaint received 2021-02-24
Product: Checking or savings account — Other banking product or service
Issue: Problem with a lender or other company charging your account — Transaction was not authorized
Company: M&T BANK CORPORATION (DE)

Financial Institution Involved : M & T Bank Transaction Type : Direct payment between M & T Bank accounts Checking ( DDA ) / Savings ( TDA ) and Auto Loan Payment Due Date : XXXX of every month Reason for complaint : Unnecessary hold by M & T Bank on payment from one internal account to another, thus fostering situations where I was debited twice for the same amount. This bank procedure potentially places customers in jeopardy of unnecessary fees and/or other essential outgoing debits being returned. 

I had forgotten that I had signed up for automatic billing on my Auto Loan account when it was initiated. I have a continuous pattern of making a manual payment from my M & T Bank DDA/TDA to my M & T Bank Auto Loan, often several days before the payment due date with no evidence of duplicate debits. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic and its related financial difficulties, it has become even more necessary for myself to manually monitor my account and manually control debits. 

There are two instances that I have identified where M & T Bank unexpectedly debited my account a second time for the same amount, despite my prior payment. Both of my payments were initiated the day before the due date. 

Example 1 : XX/XX/XXXX : Manual payment of {$300.00} was made to Auto Loan from DDA/TDA  with payment posting same day ; XX/XX/XXXX : Duplicate payment auto debited by M & T Bank from my DDA ( despite payment the day before ) and posted on XX/XX/XXXX -I didn't contact M & T Bank because I thought that I had mistakenly paid the account twice. 

Example 2 : XX/XX/XXXX : Manual payment of {$300.00} made by self to Auto Loan and posted XX/XX/XXXX ; XX/XX/XXXX : Duplicate payment auto debited by M & T Bank from my DDA ( despite payment the day before ) and posted on XX/XX/XXXX -I contacted the bank recently after seeing a discrepancy in my bank transfers which only showed my manual payments to the Auto Loan and not the Auto debits made by M & T Bank . I was advised that although funds are debited the same day that a manual payment is made, they are essentially held by the bank before later posting to the account. I advised M & T Bank that this shouldn't occur since the funds were originating from an internal M & T Bank and not from an external financial institution ( it would be understandable if M & T Bank needed to verify funds or similar from external source, thus placing a hold ). In addition, my account at the time didn't have an uncollected balance or other issues which would have possibly affected my payment, nor do I have any history involving returned payments on any of my M & T Bank loan accounts. Nevertheless, I was advised that this was their procedure. 

The M & T Bank representative I spoke with advised that I could dispute my most recent payment, but made it clear that there was no recourse for the prior duplicate payments. I made a payment on XX/XX/XXXX, which could have resulted in another duplicate payment had there not been a one the month before, thus resulting in my next payment being due now in XX/XX/XXXX. 

I am waiting for a response from M & T Bank, in what form it will be, I do not know.