Consumer complaint received 2015-12-07
Product: Bank account or service — Checking account
Issue: Account opening, closing, or management — 
Company: PNC Bank N.A. (MD)

My wife and I have been having an issue with PNC. We changed my individual account into a joint account around the end of XXXX. On XXXX XXXX they pulled money from the account for XXXX as well as a child support payment that was going to her that was around {$85.00} for a total of {$180.00}. We were giving not notification and when it initially showed as pending we thought it was some kind of fraud. When we called PNC they said they could n't see the transaction until it posted. We asked at that point well if the account has been compromised what can we do they said we would have to wait until transaction posted to see for sure. In other words if account is compromised they ca n't do anything until transactions start to post which sounds preposterous to begin with. 
After the transaction posted we called back in and they advised that it was due to charges to her old closed account. They could n't give us any details and even gave conflicting information, we were told it was all from XXXX old account and another time it was from XXXX old accounts, XXXX closed in XX/XX/XXXX and XXXX in XX/XX/XXXX. They would not provide us further information so not only are they charging us money but they can not even show us what it is for. 
We went to the branch where we changed it over to a joint account and the apologized for the issue, that they have no way of seeing that when they change over the account, and that they would open up a complaint case for us. A complaint case was opened, XXXX, that was assigned to XXXX XXXX at XXXX, extension XXXX. It took a couple weeks to reach her but once we did she advised it was due to right to offset and there was nothing they could do since it is in the disclosure statement. I brought up the issue that they did not even advise us the money would be taken out and it was n't done right away and she said they would work to make process better but there was nothing they could do to refund the money. I also brought up the child support issue and they advised there is nothing preventing them from pulling from that either, that only social security and XXXX are protected. At best this is unethical but I do not believe the right to offset includes automatically taking child support so it borders on being illegal. The account that we have is based in Maryland which usually has much better consumer protection laws than surrounding states so I believed that they need to also provide notification before taking any money from account, not that they did n't have right to non-child support money but have to at least provide notification prior to taking it. 
There have been additional issues in the past. XXXX in particular I have a large issue with is I wrote a check on the XXXX of a month. I did not see it post or even show pending until the XXXX. When it posted on the XXXX it actually posted on the XXXX. I had paid some bills early on the XXXX since I got paid and check did n't even show up against account yet. Luckily I had enough money in the account to cover anything but them posting an item that does n't show up on account at all until the XXXX for a back date seems highly questionable to me. PNC advised this was a standard practice and that you just have to account for check once it 's been written. I understand what they are saying but at same time if I see that something is n't even pending on account I should be able to use that money without fear of something being back dated on account. The only reason I paid bills early on the XXXX is I was getting paid on the XXXX so I knew money would be in there before anything else cleared.