Consumer complaint received 2015-10-14
Product: Bank account or service — Checking account
Issue: Problems caused by my funds being low — 
Company: SANTANDER BANK, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION (MA)

I opened a bank account with Santander a few years ago. I very explicitly requested my account set up so it could never overdraft and would decline if a charge exceeded my balance. Later, I noticed on my bank statement that my account had over drafted and I 'd been charged {$35.00} fine. That happened multiple times and each time I went to the bank I was told it would never happen again. Eventually someone was able to fix it so that I did n't have problems with that anymore. I have been living abroad for several months and have been charged {$20.00} every time I use my card. On XX/XX/XXXX, I went to withdraw money, only to discover that my account was negative a XXXX, thanks to a {$330.00} charge that went through on XX/XX/XXXX. I contacted the bank to find out why the charge had been allowed to go through, even though it over-drafted my account. Then, a scheduled monthly bill ( student loan ) for {$38.00} ( XXXX what the amount was supposed to be ) was allowed to go through and overdraft the account. On top of allowing it to go through, against my express request to never allow overdrafts, Santander charged me a {$35.00} fine for allowing the over-draft. There was also a {$200.00} pending charge that I did not recognize. Santander said they could do nothing to freeze it or stop it from overdrafting my account further, even though the employee I spoke to acknowledged that I had opened my account with him and explicitly requested it not allow for overdrafts, had come in on multiple occasions to complain when they allowed overdrafts ( and each time was told it would n't happen ). He told me, " I am researching why some transactions are permitted, even though you have opted out of allowing overdrafts. I suspect that the answer will be that our systems work in the US, but that international transactions do n't go through the same verification process, so they go through. The {$200.00} debit card authorization is still pending, and I can see no more than you do. Often, transactions that stay pending for more than a day evaporate. We do n't have any way to block or freeze pending transactions. '' I was still held responsible for the money that overdrafted my account. I 'm currently in XXXX and have no means of accessing money, except through this account. Had I known that the {$330.00} expenditure would over-draft my account and send it XXXX into a negative balance, I never would have made the purchase. However, I did n't realize, so the payment went through and I was held responsible, even though, as aforementioned, I had repeatedly requested that never be allowed. Furthermore, the {$200.00} dollar authorization did " evaporate '' after a few days, but only temporarily. Yesterday, I tried to make a payment online, but it was declined. When I looked at my bank statement online, it said it had overdrafted due to a {$200.00} charge from XX/XX/XXXX. That charge vanished from the list of authorizations and charges a week before, only to somehow reappear and over-draft the account. I emailed XXXX again, and was told " I filed that all-debit opt out on XX/XX/2015 - you had previously had a general opt out which is not as comprehensive as the all-debit opt out, and it was clear from our email conversation that you wanted the all-debit opt out. On XX/XX/XXXX, you used your debit card for a {$200.00} purchase. The merchant apparently did not process the transaction for ten days, which is unusually long, but, because the transaction was done before XX/XX/XXXX, it went through. '' Again, that charge had " evaporated '' from the list of authorizations, only to reappear as a new charge that went through and overdrafted the account. The {$200.00} charge overdrafted my account {$100.00}. I very clearly expressed repeatedly that I wanted to opt-out of overdraft completely many times, because I do not have a lot of money and want my card to be declined if I do n't have enough funds for it.