Consumer complaint received 2018-03-15
Product: Checking or savings account — Checking account
Issue: Managing an account — Fee problem
Company: BMO Bank, N.A. (IN)

This matter concerns a dispute with BMO Harris Bank over a NSF ( not sufficient funds ) charge of {$36.00} on XX/XX/XXXX on a personal checking account. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, an authorized payment of {$65.00} was taken out of our personal checking account which put the account into a negative balance. I happened to learn of this situation very early the morning of XX/XX/XXXX, by accident, as I happened to check the account on line. I then physically went to a BMO branch and made a teller deposit sufficient to cover the negative balance at approximately noon, XX/XX/XXXX. Then, several hours later, after the curative deposits were made, I received an e-mail notice from BMO Harris at about XXXX XXXX advising that, due to the negative balance, it was reversing the {$65.00} payment, and assessing a {$36.00} charge. 

I then contacted BMO Harris on XX/XX/XXXX and spoke with a " manager '' by the name of XXXX XXXX to request a courtesy reversal of the {$36.00} charge based on the prior deposits which provided sufficient funds to cover the {$65.00} payment. I note, too, that while BMO Harris system does provide an immediate e-mail notice to advise of the NSF charge, the BMO system provides no notice of the negative balance problem in the first place to allow timely curative action. I simply discovered the problem by accident the morning of XXXX. 

In the conversation with XXXX XXXX, he advised that he must decline any reversal of this {$36.00} NSF charge for 2 reasons. His first reason was that the NSF charge was imposed on XXXX, before the cash deposit was made. However, my on-line bank statement clearly shows the imposition of this fee on XXXX ( not XXXX ) and clearly shows the cash deposits prior in time to the reversal of the {$65.00} payment and imposition of the charge. Additional, BMO 's e-mail notice of these actions was provided at approximately XXXX XXXX, the evening of XXXX and state in the body of the e-mail that BMO 's actions were taken " today '', not on XXXX and, again after the curative deposits were made. 

XXXX XXXX 's second reason for declining a reversal of the {$36.00} charge is that I've had NSF charges in the past. And that is true -- BMO has indeed imposed NSF fees on our account in the past. In that regard, in XXXX, we attempted to set up over-draft protection for the account in question, which took several months & repeated efforts to set up correctly. In the first instance, BMO did not link our accounts properly, the over-draft protection failed to operate and resulted in NSF fees. This was finally corrected. In the 2nd instance, we learned that there is federal bank limitation which prohibits intra-account fund transfers more than 6 times in a 30 day period, which ( with our BMO accounts ) resulting in failed transfers of funds and additional NSF fees. ] Here, I'm not seeking to " re-litigate '' any past NSF fees. Here, I'm only seeking a courtesy adjustment of the XX/XX/XXXX {$36.00} fee based on ( 1 ) the XXXX prior cash deposits we'd made to address the NSF problem and ( 2 ) BMO 's policy of not providing notice of NSF problems in a manner calculated to allow the customer to address the problem timely. In a larger picture way, I personally believe that BMO 's NSF fee charges and policies are specifically designed to maximize the fees charged to the customers, to be difficult for customers to navigate, and to increase BMO Harris ' revenue from such fees, all in an unfair and inappropriate manner. I also can advise that we've had no similar problems with our banking relationships at XXXX XXXX or XXXX XXXX XXXX -- only at BMO Harris. 

Thank you for your kind inquiry into this matter.