Consumer complaint received 2024-07-17
Product: Checking or savings account — Checking account
Issue: Problem caused by your funds being low — Overdrafts and overdraft fees
Company: TRUIST FINANCIAL CORPORATION (NC)

My complaint is against Truist bank and it's business practices when it comes to how they handled a XXXX XXXX XXXX LIne account I had established with them as well as their overdraft procedures. First and foremost, my # XXXX complaint is about how they handled my forced closure of my XXXX XXXX XXXX LIne account which is a feature of the type of checking account I have. I requested to used the credit line months ago when I was having some financial difficulties. That money of course needed to paid back to Truist over time with monthly payments as you would with any credit card. I tried to make the payments but fell behind with payments. Fast forward. In late XXXX of XXXX, I received a notificaiton from Truist that my Cash Reserve account was delinquent and if I didn't pay the past due balance the funds could be force pulled from my Truist checking account. I called customer service at that time and asked what date I had until to to pay off the past due balance to avoid a force pull of funds because I didn't want or need any surprise debits from my account given I'm behind with my bills due to numerous circumstances. I was told by the customer service rep that I had until XX/XX/XXXX of XXXX to pay off the past due balance otherwise funds would be force pulled. Well, that wasn't correct. Truist not only ended up pulling the past due balance of {$590.00} out of my account but also proceeded to pull out the whole past due balance of {$780.00} on XX/XX/XXXX of all days! In addition, to pull that amount of money out at XXXX time when my rent was due and hadn't been paid yet was absolutely harsh and cold. Most people with common sense at Truist should know that people either pay rent or make their mortgage payment at the beginning of the month! As a result of their force pull on XX/XX/XXXX, I am now buried even more financially. I was only able to make a partial payment for rent on XX/XX/XXXX. I still have to pay off the remaining amount owed ( which is {$930.00} ) when I get my next paycheck on XX/XX/XXXX. Fortunately for me, I've rented at the same house for 8 years and the property XXXX is working with me as far as letting me pay late and not evicting me and my son. Nonetheless, also as a result of their force pull I've incurred numerous overdraft charges in the last week or so because I had to overdraw my account last week for living expenses for me and my son. Listen, I get that that money needed to be paid back eventually to Truist, I get that, but again to force pull such a large amount at XXXX time at a time when people are paycheck to paycheck and at a time when rent was paid or needed to be paid was absolutely ruthless and cold. I dont understand why Truist XXXX have just pulled smaller increments ( every paycheck ) over time until the balance was paid off?! 
On a diffferent note, as I mentioned above, I've incurred yet more overdraft charges as a result of their force pull of funds. I do appreciate the fact that Truist is now capping the overdraft charges they can charge in XXXX day which is now XXXX but at the same time I feel that is XXXX too many given recent events with the force pull. I asked for a waiver or refund of some of the refunds as a courtesy given I've had the same checking account with Truist since XXXX but they said no. Their policy is that they can only waive XXXX overdraft charge every 3 years and that is absolutely ridiculous! In addition, I just learned today that I couldn 've avoided recent overdraft charges by opting out of overdraft protection temporarily until I got my account back to a positive balance. I always have had it my head until today that that is how the account worked period. You overdraw the account, the bank will still pay the pending debit to your account up to a certain amount but at the same time will assess an overdraft charge. Again, thought that's the way the account always worked ... .until I did some research on the Truist applciation this morning. I realized this morning that on their app you can turn off overdraft protection perrmanently or temporarily so pending debits are automatcially declined and you can therefore avoid a {$36.00} overdraft. I couldve used this information a long time ago! And if I had known this, I would've avoided quite a few overdrafts in recent months as I have been having financial difficulties. My complaint is also that I had to dig and research on their application on how their overdraft policies actually work?! I feel their disclosures regarding overdraft protection are not prominently displayed in their application and are hard to find and can be overlooked. I feel they are being deceptive by purposely not prominently displaying their overdraft protection policies because they still want and need overdraft charges to occur so they can bring in revenue. In a nutshell, I would like some grace given I have been a long time customer at Truist and please do the right thing and waive or refund some of the recent overdraft fees that have occurred since the force pull so I can try to get out of this financial hole I'm in for me and my son.