Consumer complaint received 2024-10-14
Product: Checking or savings account — Other banking product or service
Issue: Problem caused by your funds being low — Bounced checks or returned payments
Company: PNC Bank N.A. (CA)

I have checking ( virtual wallet ) and savings accounts with PNC Bank. PNC Bank offers a " Low Cash Mode '' option to manage overdrafts. In their marketing, they promise that customers will have " Extra Time '' of at least 24 hours to cover any overdrafts by transferring funds from another account, and they offer " Payment Control '' where customers can decide which overdrafting charges to pay and which to reject. My virtual wallet checking account is and has been enrolled in this service. 

On XX/XX/2024 at XXXX XXXX , I received an email ( attached ) stating that charges had been presented to PNC for processing that brought my account to a negative balance. The email states that I have options regarding these charges, as expected with Low Cash Mode. I logged in to my PNC account shortly after and made a covering transfer to bring my account back to positive, as I have done on other occasions when a charge has caused an overdraft. I received a confirmation email on XX/XX/2024 at XXXX XXXX stating that my available balance was now positive. The next morning, I received notice that charges had been rejected, even though I had transferred sufficient funds to cover the charges. 

I quickly called PNC and the representative could not provide me with any information for why this happened nor could they fix it. Unfortunately, one of the charges was a rent check, so we had to rush payment to the landlord, and we are now one bounced check away from them requiring money order/bank check payment going forward. The PNC rep suggested that we have the landlord present the check again, but that failed. 

I asked for an escalation and I was assigned XXXX XXXX in the PNC Executive Client Relations department. XXXX and I had a phone call in XXXX to get my side of the story. I left multiple messages after that, which were not returned. He eventually called back over a month after our first conversation and started describing what happened with a different check that cashed well after the problematic one. I cut him off and informed him that he was not discussing the relevant check. He apologized, then I didn't hear back from him for another few weeks while he looked into the correct check, despite leaving a few more messages. He refused to correspond by email, which would have certainly made things easier. 

His final answer is even more frustrating than the slow pace, mistakes, and lack of communication along the way. XXXX informed me that there is an overnight processing period from XXXX XXXX. If checks are presented during that time period, then there is no opportunity to address them via Low Cash Mode. He said that I should not have received the email saying I can cover the charge, but that it's probably an automated email process, and they are going to look into that. He did not state any specific plan to update this email to something more helpful ( for example, that I could have called early the next day and probably gotten the charge covered out of my savings ). 

I asked how this overnight processing period conforms with the marketing and terms for Low Cash Mode. The best he could do is point me to item XXXX at the bottom of the Low Cash Mode info page ( XXXX XXXX XXXX  ) : " 5. PNC will honor decisions to pay items at our discretion and does not guarantee that all items will be paid. '' This statement directly contradicts multiple large print marketing messages on the page stating that customers has Extra Time and Payment Control without exception. When I explained that to XXXX, he insisted that he was offering me the " correct '' and " final '' resolution to my complaint. 

XXXX and team refuse to even acknowledge the contradiction and lack of clarity in the product marketing and terms, nor offer any compensation for the incorrect automated email. XXXX informed me many times on the phone that I have no further escalation option, including no option to provide feedback on his poor service. Despite that, I emailed my relationship manager at PNC, XXXX XXXX, to explain what had happened and to see if she could help. She forwarded this message to Executive Client Relations again, and they put a new rep in touch with me ( XXXX XXXX ) by email. I attempted to correspond by email with XXXX ( attached ), but she refused and insisted on a phone call. After a couple weeks of phone tag, I had an unproductive call with XXXX where she repeated the same things XXXX said. 

I have since enabled automatic overdraft protection, using my savings account as backup. I couldn't find any specifically contradictory items in the overdraft protection terms and conditions, but I am spooked enough that I don't feel like I can trust that either. That means I miss out on interest every month ( my landlord sometimes doesn't cash my check for 45+ days ). I still have the reputation damage of the bounced check ( and now must be extra careful because another bounced check has a severe penalty ), the time wasted escalating this to XXXX and XXXX, and typing out the details twice ( once for my relationship manager and once in this complaint ).