Consumer complaint received 2021-05-06
Product: Checking or savings account — Checking account
Issue: Problem with a lender or other company charging your account — Money was taken from your account on the wrong day or for the wrong amount
Company: SANTANDER BANK, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION (RI)

When i process a charge through my debit account, the transaction will appear on my online banking app as " processing ''. This amount that is processing is deducted from my overall available balance, and reflect in my available balance. The bank has confirmed this to be true. Once a transaction is issued into pending status, the funds from that transaction, are no longer available. However, days later, when my bank account avail balance falls below the " pending '' charges amount, the status of the charge changes from pending to processed, and my account falls negative. They then return the transaction and charge me a fee unless i deposit funds, or my savings account balance transfers and covers the transaction. This is alarming because, originally, the charge was already deducted from my balance, and appeared as not avail. and was allocated to the transaction. This has been an ongoing incident and i have mentioned this to the bank on numerous occasions. Transactions will sit in " pending '' status for days and days, being processed up to 7 days after the initial transaction. In many cases, the funds process once my account balance falls below the amount of the pending transactions, in which case i am charged a fee and the payment is returned. The most recent incident, was the bank reflecting 6 charges that had been processed days earlier as " completed '' and paid. They used my savings account to cover the charges, and i had no access to my savings account money, in order to transfer, or withdraw. The bank places my funds from the savings account on " hold '' to pay the transactions that could not be covered by my checking account. On my mobile banking app, and as well as at the bank, these 7 charges reflected as " completed '' and paid. However, later in the morning a transaction from XXXX came through my account and over drafted my account. This was a XXXX error and has happened in the past. I was educated by the bank the previous times i needed to call the merchant. In which case, i was going to allow the bank to return it, and contact XXXX directly. The next day, Santander returned all transactions on my account and charged me 8 over draft fees. I called and was told XXXX came out FIRST and was the reason the rest went over drafted ( payments that had already been in a pending status and reflected as taken out of my avail balance days before ) I requested a transcript from the bank, indicating this as the case, since my negative balance ONLY reflected the XXXX transaction, and not all 8. As a consumer, that would look as if, everything else went through and processed except the one XXXX charge. This is exactly what the bank account reflected. I then spoke to a supervisor who explained everything was processed at the end of the day, and if the funds aren't avail in checking or savings everything rejects. I elaborated that my bank account did NOT reflect that, and there was no way for me as a consumer to know, those items were not paid, she offered to return up to 3 fees, but that i was responsible for the rest because it was not their error. I elaborated again, that when something is indicated as pending, the funds for that charge are removed from your account, and placed on hold. This was again confirmed. In which case, when the 7 pay pal transactions were placed on hold, the funds were removed, allocated to pay the XXXX charges, and were not available for me to spend out of my account. Yet, when they were completed on XX/XX/XXXX, they caused me to become over drafted due to the funds being " unavailable ''. I was charged 8x for returned items, that they had said, were deducted when placed into a " pending '' status. This is a common occurrence. I have to continuously monitor my account and keep extra funds in order to avoid being charged a fee when the bank decides to move the status from pending to completed. Even after being reflected in my balance. The last tine this happened i was told the computer " glitches '' if too many items are processed and returned at once, in which case it returns all of them. No one could provide me a transcript of my charges or funds, and i was told this is how this bank " works '' double charging customers, or misleading customers into believing an item is paid, and completed, only to return it the next day, or 2 days later. There is no way to guarantee an item as paid, and available funds, since the bank misleads its customers with the online banking by showing items as paid, but then returning them. There is no way to ensure the consumer, the items are paid, when the online banking is not reflecting accurately.