I screwed up big time

Avatar for fire_bug
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-25-2003
I screwed up big time
13
Fri, 01-02-2009 - 12:12pm

And I don't know if I can fix it. It was my mistake, but it doesn't look like the credit union is willing to help us out.

Here's the story... I had two automatic payments coming out of that checking account. When things started to get really bad I canceled them - or at least I thought I did. I think all I did was cancel one payment for each of them instead of canceling the recurring payment. I didn't realize what I had done and because we should have had money, I was still using the debit card. One payment came out a couple days before Christmas and the other one came out a couple days after Christmas. Normally the CU will decline charges if the available balance (not even the actual balance) isn't enough to cover the charge. For whatever reason that didn't happen this time so I kept happily using the card, oblivious to the fact that we were overdrawn. We ended up getting slammed with 17 overdraft charges at $27 apiece.

When I realized what happened (when they finally did decline a purchase when I still thought I had money) I called them to see if they could do anything. The woman I talked to said she put in a request to have the overdraft charges reversed and it would take 24-48 hours and if I see the changes being reversed, the request was approved. If not, it wasn't. She said we can appeal if it's not approved. Wednesday would have been 48 hours, but I thought I'd give them until today since there was a holiday, but so far they haven't done anything.

I don't know what, if anything I can do at this point. I don't know how the appeal process works, so I don't even know if we have a chance. Is there anything we can do to improve our chances of getting the request approved? I'm so upset because that's the account our spending money comes out of and with all the overdraft charges, it will eat up most of our next deposit, too.


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iVillage Member
Registered: 07-02-2008
Fri, 01-02-2009 - 12:31pm

17 overdraft fees at $27 bucks a pop comes out to $459. I'm sure you already knew this.


I am saying if that were me I'd be calling the credit union every morning at open and every evening before close. Find out exactly what you need to do to reverse the charges and/or appeal this.


Hugs to you - not sure what else to do - I don't deal w/credit unions but still. Have you called these two companies and talked to them about what they understood about cancelling your charges from this checking account?

Avatar for fire_bug
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-25-2003
Fri, 01-02-2009 - 12:52pm
The charges were through the credit union's Bill Pay, so it had nothing to do with the payee. I'm sure it was my error, but IMO it's ridiculous that the CU let all those charges go through instead of declining them.


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Avatar for earnhardt_jr_fan
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-25-2003
Fri, 01-02-2009 - 1:20pm

Is there anyway you can stop your next direct deposit from hitting this account? It won't change the fact that you owe the credit union money, BUT it would save your deposit from being eaten up by fees. You'd be able to pay them back slowly vs losing an entire check to the fees.


As for the reversal, I would call again and talk to someone about it.


I don't understand why a financial institution would allow something to go thru when there isn't enough money to cover it. I honestly think they do it to cash in with overdraft fees. We've gone through a similar situation and they slammed us with 10 OD charges at $42 a piece. OUCH.


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Avatar for fire_bug
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-25-2003
Fri, 01-02-2009 - 1:50pm
You know, I never thought of that. I could have DH see if he can get it changed. He gets paid on Friday, but maybe if he gets the form in on Monday they'll be able to do it. I'll have him check.


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iVillage Member
Registered: 07-05-2006
Fri, 01-02-2009 - 2:13pm
Oh MAN! That stinks! I've been there before and I don't any advice, just my sympathies!

iVillage Member
Registered: 06-25-2006
Fri, 01-02-2009 - 2:39pm

As soon as you hear back from them I would call them

iVillage Member
Registered: 11-14-2008
Fri, 01-02-2009 - 4:50pm
So sorry to hear this. Good luck Fire bug. Hopefully someone has a heart.


Avatar for cl_phocid
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Fri, 01-02-2009 - 5:08pm

Ugh.

All my best,
Danni

Avatar for earnhardt_jr_fan
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-25-2003
Fri, 01-02-2009 - 6:47pm

I had something similar happen and I went into my employer at the time and IMMEDIATELY cancelled my direct deposit into that account. I kinda fibbed and said that I thought someone had gotten ahold of my debit card number (I know..I know.. never is a lie a good thing, but I didn't want to tell them we'd overdrafted because I had boo-booed). They were more than accomodating. Now, I WILL tell you that it did cause my check to be a day late since they had to print a check for me at the last minute.


Waiting the day was worth not losing my entire check!

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iVillage Member
Registered: 06-09-2008
Fri, 01-02-2009 - 11:16pm
First of all I am sooo sorry to hear about the overdrafts. They absolutly make me cringe. We have been there before too and its no fun. If you were supposed to hear something from your bank by now and haven't I would be calling them. Your bank sounds a little different than mine but this is what I did when we had this happen. We were hit with 5 overdraft fees so I called our bank and told them that I noticed we'd had several overdrafts and that we were already struggling and that was a lot of money even though I know it was my fault that it happened (our bank charges $34/each NSF). Since we had never been refunded before for an overdraft they were able to refund our bank account 1/3 of the fees. No we didn't get it all back but I was happy with atleast getting something back. We ended up getting about $68 back. This was all done over the phone and within a few minutes. I understand the point of the NSF fee but it is riduculous to me that it gets charged for each item. Sometimes mistakes happen KWIM? If you do get denied I would def. appeal it. Write them a letter, explain your situation, etc. I hope you get your $$ back. I have my fingers crossed for you!

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