Consumer complaint received 2019-08-06
Product: Checking or savings account — Checking account
Issue: Problem caused by your funds being low — Overdrafts and overdraft fees
Company: PNC Bank N.A. (VA)

PNC has overdrafted my account a total of 24 times inXX/XX/XXXXand XX/XX/XXXX. While I learned economic responsibility the hard way at times, starting in XX/XX/XXXX, it went from genuine overdrafting to re-arranging my transactions so that a posted deposit that would reliably hit my account at the exact same time it historically does would somehow be 'late '. Bank records show that the only times in the past two years my paycheck has posted late was when not posting it on time would result in an overdraft. I had trouble cancelling transactions with an automated app that caused me to overdraft, any refund I would issue in a hurry would also post later than it normally does with the vendor if I would overdraft first, or any other depsoits I could count on would always be later. A few times, a scheduled deposit would come much sooner than it historically tended to, such as a tip from a service that normally posted next day would suddenly post as soon as the transaction happened, very abnormally, and it triggered an overdraft. Any time since XX/XX/XXXX that I saw that I was going to over draft, I would transfer money as pre-emptively as possible from an external savings account in as timely a manner federal law allows. These always post by the third business day, but these deposits would always be much later in the day than average if my account would overdraft before. 

I overdrafted once on XX/XX/XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX. XX/XX/XXXX, and XX/XX/XXXX. While the XX/XX/XXXX ones were suspect in the transaction timing per my personal records, they then escalated, 6 times on XX/XX/XXXX, 3 times on XX/XX/XXXX, 4 times on XX/XX/XXXX, 5 times on XX/XX/XXXX, and twice on XX/XX/XXXX when I was abroad and could not call to cancel a transaction with limited service in the country I was in at the time. In XX/XX/XXXX, I called PNC to protest with records at the time to prove that the transactions were re arranged to make me overdraft multiple times, and for a period, I received a partial refund ( still never received the complete 7 times {$36.00}, only for the three ). I have lost, according to bank statements, {$1100.00} to overdrafts in this time, most of them I tried methods for that, if my account was not about to overdraft or re-arranged, would not have resulted in a fee. My statements do not have times on them. This is {$1100.00} that I could have used for medical use, my vacation earlier this year ( and I am submitting a separate complaint regarding an emergency I had that PNC completely dropped the ball on ), or to keep myself afloat inXX/XX/XXXXwhen, during the summer, I had hit economic difficulty and was trying to stop payments or defer payments as much as possible. I even attempted to change the overdraft policy to protect myself from further charges, which did not happen and resulted in the next wave of that month. I was not able to pay my student loans on time in XX/XX/XXXX entirely due to the economic hardship these incidents occurred. It has also incurred a lot of pain and suffering. I only submit this now because I have only learned of this process today.