Consumer complaint received 2023-07-13
Product: Checking or savings account — Checking account
Issue: Problem caused by your funds being low — Non-sufficient funds and associated fees
Company: TD BANK US HOLDING COMPANY (PA)

I have a TD bank checking account. Overdraft protection was set up on the account originally. If I overdrafted my account, sometimes they would still pay it and then charge me a fee. Those types of fees I don't have an issue with. When cash flow was tight, but still coming in, being able to overdraft helped keep things moving. It was like a short term loan to cover the expenses for when I knew money was coming in, just might be in another day or two. I pay a fee for the benefit of borrowing that money for a few days. No problem there. 

Last month things changed and my business went through a big drought. We have not been generating revenue. I called customer service on XX/XX/XXXX to alert them to my issues and that I wanted to get my account positive and then turn off the overdraft protection. Just need some time to tread water and work with my suppliers without the extra burden of fees. I paid the money required to cover my negative balance that resulted from the overdraft-paids and the overdraft paid fees and maintenance fees for my account. The rep then gave me a credit to cover the portion of the fees that came from the NSF transactions. This got my account into a positive status. She then turned off the overdraft coverage on my account so that nothing would be paid if there were not enough funds. They then have a program where they refund overdraft fees so long as the account is returned to a positive status by the following day. In theory, this protection should always negate NSF fees and help for those instances where an overdraft-paid comes up and then one day later you deposit cash to cover the overdraft paid and in that case you wouldn't be charged the overdraft paid fee. " Please note that if you made sufficient deposits to bring your available balance back to at least {$0.00} by XXXX XXXX. EST on the next business day after the items that overdrew your account posted, we may have refunded any overdraft fees that were assessed to your account for those items. '' Since we turned off the overdraft-paid feature, this should have always been the case. I start with a positive balance, transactions then hit that overdraft the account, the charges are then all returned for NSF the next day, any money out should equal the money back in. Since I turned off the overdraft-paid, those deposits should always be sufficient to bring my available balance back to at least {$0.00} by XXXX. on the next business day. However, this did not work as they would lead you to believe. Here is how it actually worked with my balances... 

For one day- everything worked out as it should : XXXX XXXX this is the day I worked everything out with the customer service rep. My balance started the day negative and then at some point during the day we got the balance back to positive {$1.00} two transactions hit that day for {$210.00} and {$170.00} account ends the day- {$390.00} XXXX XXXX the two transactions are credited back and my balance is now back to positive {$1.00}. A {$70.00} NSF fee is charged and my balance drops to finish the day at - {$68.00} I receive a notice saying : " The available balance in your TD Bank account was not enough to cover items presented for payment on XX/XX/XXXX, XXXXAs a result, an overdraft fee of $ XXXXmay be assessed for that day 's activities. Please note that if you made sufficient deposits to bring your available balance back to at least {$0.00} by XXXX XXXX. EST on the next business day* ( *BusinessdaysdonotincludeSaturday, Sunday, orFederalHolidays. ) after the items that overdrew your account posted, we may have refunded any overdraft fees that were assessed to your account for those items. To avoid accruing additional fees, please establish and maintain a positive available account balance. At the time of printing this notice, the minimum deposit needed to bring your account to a zero balance was $ XXXXThis deposit amount does not take into consideration any outstanding items. '' XXXX XXXX an NSF grace fee refund is credited back to my account for {$70.00} and my balance is back to {$1.00} ... all is well Now here is where it starts getting messed up again... 
XXXX XXXX three transactions hit and the account ends the day- {$2600.00} XXXX XXXX those three transactions are credited back and the account is back to {$1.00} again. Everything that caused the account to overdraft on the previous day is back. {$2600.00} came out, {$2600.00} was then deposited back in the next day. The account is back to positive {$1.00} and now it's a new day .... later that day, three more transactions post- XXXX XXXX XXXX - {$170.00}, XXXX- {$36.00}, OVERDRAFT RET - {$100.00} .... the account ends the day - {$310.00} I receive another notice same as before- " The available balance in your TD Bank account was not enough to cover items presented for payment on XX/XX/XXXX, XXXXAs a result, an overdraft fee of $ XXXXmay be assessed for that day 's activities. Please note that if you made sufficient deposits to bring your available balance back to at least {$0.00} by XXXX XXXX EST on the next business day* after the items that overdrew your account posted, we may have refunded any overdraft fees that were assessed to your account for those items. To avoid accruing additional fees, please establish and maintain a positive available account balance. At the time of printing this notice, the minimum deposit needed to bring your account to a zero balance was $ XXXX.This deposit amount does not take into consideration any outstanding items. '' XX/XX/XXXX ( next business day ) - two credit transactions come in XXXX XXXX XXXX {$170.00}, XXXX {$36.00}. My account balance is now at - {$100.00}. The only thing not credited is the nsf grace fee refund for {$100.00}. Had that been credited, I would be back to {$1.00} again by XXXX and all should continue. For some reason that {$100.00} was never credited this time. I'm still unclear why. I think it has something to do with XX/XX/XXXX being a federal holiday now and maybe their system that credits these things did not understand that. The rep on the phone kept spitballing out possible reasons but none of them made sense. Now because of this, the account never returned to positive that day and created a snowball effect after that. I told the rep it really makes no sense. Everything that caused the account to overdraft has all been credited back except your fee. You already know I don't have money right now, so you charge me a fee that you know I can't pay, telling me if I pay the fee before the day is done, you won't actually charge me the fee anymore, but if I can't come up with the money for the fee, you're going to charge me the fee? It's like a " gotcha '' it's just crazy. The other items that caused the account to overdraft were paid back. If your system had just credited me back your fee, my account would have been back to positive. 
the XXXX continued and out came XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX - {$180.00}, OVERDRAFT RET - {$70.00}. the XXXX finished with a balance of - {$350.00} Now I receive the same letter as before for those {$70.00} overdraft fees saying : " The available balance in your TD Bank account was not enough to cover items presented for payment on XX/XX/XXXX, XXXXAs a result, an overdraft fee of $ XXXXmay be assessed for that day 's activities. Please note that if you made sufficient deposits to bring your available balance back to at least {$0.00} by XXXX XXXX. EST on the next business day* after the items that overdrew your account posted, we may have refunded any overdraft fees that were assessed to your account for those items. To avoid accruing additional fees, please establish and maintain a positive available account balance. At the time of printing this notice, the minimum deposit needed to bring your account to a zerXXXX balance was $ XXXX.This deposit amount does not take into consideration any outstanding items. '' So now the snowball begins. the amount on this notice is that {$100.00} fee plus this new {$70.00} fee minus the {$1.00} I had in there. The account never returns to positive again and none of the fees are ever credited again. My balance is now - {$460.00}. all fees. {$460.00} that I never receieved any benefit from, all resulting from your system not crediting me that first {$100.00} fee back.