Consumer complaint received 2016-01-06
Product: Bank account or service — Checking account
Issue: Problems caused by my funds being low — 
Company: M&T BANK CORPORATION (MD)

I switched to M and T Bank to avoid small fees I was being charged by XXXX XXXX XXXX to transfer money from my savings to my checking account. I was very upset with XXXX and looked into M and T as an alternative and was impressed with what they had to offer. HOWEVER, now having been with M and T bank I will NEVER bank with them again. On numerous occasions M and T bank has imposed a {$38.00} fee to my account because they are processing pending debits BEFORE processing pending credits that will more than amply cover any pending transaction. On XXXX/XXXX/XXXX I spoke with a Supervisor named XXXX ( she was the XXXX person that day I spoke to after being on the phone for more than an hour ). I had " overdrafted '' by {$26.00} because M and T processed a pending check before they processed my pending payroll. XXXX understood this and somehow was able to reverse the fee I was charged even though it seemed that was going to be an impossibility based on previous fee reversals ( some I admit and take responsibility for and some are from these exact same circumstances ). On XXXX/XXXX/XXXX they reversed the fee per XXXX 's request. Today, XXXX/XXXX/XXXX I am in the same boat as they are charging me for " overdrafting '' by {$3.00} when I had a pending credit of a higher amount. The debit was my mortgage payment that had NOT posted as of midnight on XXXX/XXXX/XXXX ( or XXXX/XXXX/XXXX am depending on how you look at it ) however on XXXX/XXXX/XXXX at around XXXX my account shows my mortgage payment having been posted on XXXX ( which it had not, it posted on the XXXX ) and it showed a credit pending for XXXX in an amount higher than the {$3.00} I supposedly went over by. My account balance was {$0.00} ( a positive amount ) when they charged me a {$38.00} fee for overdrafting!!! This is bad business, you should not make money off of your customers based on when you decide to processing pending items. I repeatedly asked the Supervisor, XXXX ( employee id XXXX ) to send me to the retention or to the customer complaint department to which she finally shared with me that M and T bank does not have these sorts of departments within their organization. Well let 's just say, I 'm not surprised. 

XXXX had a grace period so that if you did happen to overdraft based on process timing such as this you would not be charged a fee. If it was due to your own error, as long as you fixed the discrepancy within ( I think ) 24 hours they would NOT assess a fee. They would also not charge a fee if the amount was under {$10.00} ( which I thought was a Federal mandate but maybe not ). 

M and T bank is very creatively capturing my money and I am sure many other customers money with this clever practice of charging a fee based on the timing of THEIR processes, nothing to do with the client and even less to do with overdrafting. As a single mom living paycheck to paycheck every cent counts. {$38.00} may not make most people bat an eye but to me that 's groceries for a few days or gas for the week. I believe if there was a class action suit against them that many many clients would fall into the right category to qualify to sue M and T based on this issue. I will gladly go back to XXXX XXXX XXXX and pay a fee for transferring my own funds between my own accounts before I would EVER bank with M and T again.