Compass Bank - Overdraft fees and ILLEGAL transaction processing

Compass Bank, Dallas, Texas. January 20, 2007.

Compass Bank is doing what I assumed was illegal, by posting debits before credits. It was my understanding, based on a class action law suit I participated in against Bank of America, that the law mandates Credits to be posted before Debits when batched for processing at midnight. There's a slight difference here, in that Credit transactions are "offline" transactions and are posted to be paid at midnight the next day. Whereas, Debit transactions are "online" transactions that are posted against your account directly at the time of the charge.

So, a person may know an automatic deposit is to post to their account at midnight. They post Credit transactions that are batched to be paid at midnight. Based on what I thought was law, the deposit would post before the credit transactions are paid and thus no overdrafts will incur.

Compass bank DOES NOT operate this way. Compass Bank refers to Credit transactions as "pre-post" transactions - which means they knew the actual transaction occurred before the request for payment. So Compass posts all "pre-post" (or Credit) transactions in the order of their transaction date and time, NOT based on when payment is required. Therefore, Compass Bank DOES not post Credits before Debits and therefore are racking up ridiculous fees against poor, unsuspecting customers that EXPECT the bank to operate according to the LAW. Compass does not differentiate between Credit transactions and Debit transactions - they process them all as Debit transactions.

So, someone correct me if I'm wrong. Is it not LAW that mandates Credits be posted before Debits? And if it is not Law, then how did Bank of America lose the class action suit that I was part of. Isn't this a class action suit waiting to be filed against Compass Bank too? And if not, please explain because I'm ready to retain a lawyer and proceed with the lawsuit.

>From the research I've done, Compass Bank is taking more than advantage of their customers. Compass Bank is STEALING from their customers based on unfair (at best) practices.

Today, this very situation happened to me. They decided to deduct $200 in overdraft fees that we needed to pay for my sons Birthday party today. There was less that $30 in drafts charged to my account BEFORE the $101 direct deposit that was blatantly sitting there at the same time to cover it all. So what happened - they chewed up the entire deposit with overdraft fees and left me with a negative $150 balance. After many hours of begging and crying by my wife and myself, you can guess what Compass Bank's customer services' reaction was - "TOUGH, it's not our problem", is what they said. They didn't care that my 7 year old son doesn't get his birthday party now. They don't care that we can't buy groceries to feed ourselves now. They TOOK their money and left me sitting on the side of the road, broke and alone. PLEASE, someone - help me correct this injustice. Compass is screwing everyone and it's not fair.

Kevin K. Alexander

Email User

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I've been experiencing a similar "fee farming" scam by Bank of Oklahoma and I know people who have experienced it with Bank of America, as well. If I have one item that is a legitimate overdraft, the bank will then charge me an overdraft fee, not only for the item that was a legitimate overdraft, but for all items presented for payment when there were sufficient funds to cover those items. Thus, instead of one overdraft fee, the bank collects multiple overdraft fees, decimating my account and leaving me in chaos. I have have attempted to get them to refund the money they stole from me, but of course, thieves don't return their booty once they've taken it from you. The difference between the banks and a common thief is that the banks wrap themselves in a cloak of legitimacy that everyone buys into. The fact of the matter is, all banking, as well as the insurance "industry" (which is owned by the same interests) is a racket, a scam, a fraud. Since the Federal Reserve (which is a private bank in the hands of the international banking cartel, not a part of our government) was illegally created in 1913, all banks have operated on a system known as "fractional reserve banking." If you deposit $1,000, the bank then lends $10,000 or ten times your deposit, even though they don't have the funds to cover the $10,000. The money for the loan is literally created out of thin air. Basically, the entire banking industry is based upon this fraud. For more detail on this, see "The Creature from Jeykll Island," by G. Edward Griffin.

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This practice has been adopted across the board. I have noticed an extreme change in the way deposits and debits post to my account online. When i opened my account i was told that i should keep records (i do), but the online system is accurate to whats happening with my account. Now they tell me that what i see online had NOTHING to do with whats happening my account. Hello? The end result is my transactions "posting" in extremely dubious order and more recently re-arranging to create false overdraft situations that they leave me on the hook for. I overdrew my account friday because my paycheck, which used to post and become available on friday now becomes available on sunday but shows having posted friday. On top of that outrage, they then charged me 3 overdraft fees on transactions that had fully cleared my account before friday. Instead of having 20 bucks off my paycheck in my account, i have negative 135 and my paycheck hasn't posted yet. I bank with huntington for the record.

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count me in if you are going ahead with the lawsuit, i have been through hell with this bank and want to fight back! email me at miapaparazzi AT gmail.com

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Compass Bank became famous for the below prime loans. They lost their shirts on the loans that Bank Of America and Compass Bank did for people without background checks or proper I.D., ask yourself, who were those loans designed for? Only illegal people need a loan that will qualify you if you aren't able to legally prove who you are or your credit history. It was insane. Now they are screwing customers to make up for their losses. I had an unfortunate incident where someone stole a check from me, cashed it using her I.D., which means the bank is legally obligated to go after her. Because I happened to know who the woman was, the Compass manager decided to tell the police not to pursue her. Do you understand. Someone committed forgery using their own I.D. in a Compass Bank and committed a felony, stole money from me and compass bank not only did not file a complaint with the police, they told the police not to pursue it because they were going after me instead. I receieved a notice from the police saying that the bank refused to cooperate with them, so, they had to drop it as they didn't have any evidence. I filed a police report om front of the manager and filed an affidavit for forgery and fraud, and Compass Bank says in their policies and procedures that they will prosecute that person and refund your money. They not only told the police that because I knew what her name was and had met her that she and I were in collusion and then, they not only didn't replace my money and they then stole the money from my savings account. They left me with 19 dollars and a few cents and now they have started charging me a fee for a service that I never paid for to steal the rest of that at 5 dollars per month. I am going to take them to small claims court if I can find a lawyer.

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This bank is a rip off. I have direct deposit and they withhold my deposit till the next day. I can transfer funds to my account and they take the funds out and run all the debits through and then put the credits in. On a transfer the money goes immediately into my account and they still take out the funds and run all debits through holding my tranfers, deposits, direct deposits till the next business day. I even had made a deposit on friday and spoke with a banker on the phone who lied to me. After I made a 800 deposit they run credits through and gave me an nsf of 38 dollars. And if that isn't bad enough if within 7 days you are still in the red they charge you 45 dollars for not clearing up your account an then 7 dollars there after. Is this bank that hard up that they have to steal from the customers. I have changed to a bank that runs all credits through then the debits. Not debits then credits. I hate this bank and do not recomend them to anyone unless of course you are rich and can keep over 1000 in your account at all times, but then they will find a way to steal from them too.

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I have had the same problem.They told me they post the checks by the date I put on it.So if I sent a check to pay a bill in the mail on thursaday and my pay check is deposited friday they take the check back to thursday and charge over draft fee and then charge them a couple of more times.Compass Bank steals from there customers.I have had a least 2 overdraft fees every month.But I have always had money in the bank.

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I agree with all of you. Compass Bank really goes out of their way to charge excessive NSF fees. I would be willing to join any class action lawsuit against their practices. I know there is more to it than just debits before credits and I'm working on proving it. I've paid over 6,000 a year in NSF fees for several years now so they've givin it to me every which way.

The most recent and curious event... we have an ad campaign running with Google which automatically charges a debit card that is attached to one of my 3 checking accounts. It's a small monthly charge usually between 5 and 10 dollars. I had lost the actual card and had it replaced and never updated my Google ad account information with the new card number. I started receiving emails from Google letting me know that the account can not be charged and please update the info, which i didn't. A couple weeks ago the account in question went negative by a few dollars and low and behold Google gets paid there 8 and change when the account is over drawn and then I get charged $38. This month account is not overdrawn, Google is sending me emails it can't charge the account again. I'm going to test weather making this account go negative again will generate a payment for Google again.

Needless to say, I'm tired of Compass Bank, I'm willing to provide info to anyone pursuing a lawsuit.

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Thank you all so much for your comments, I have been ripped off by Compass bank too. I had a balance of 44,74 and charged 16,50. Then a day later I needed to pick up an item for the weekend and I knew that I would need to overdraft, because it was weekend and I had no other choice. I was willing to pay the $38,--. But I am here t o tell you that I had to pay 4 overdraft fees of 38,-- for this. They took a NF fee from me when I still had 44,74 for charging the 16,50. The next day when I charged the 36,50 for the item I needed over the weekend, they turned it around and charged me for the larger amount first, and since they already charged the first 38,-- NF(even so I had enough cover for the first debit), I now was in the red. I then called to the bank Monday morning to remove the NF fee out of courtesy, which they did. The next day I had another NF charge on there, so I transfered 50,-- to make up for this. But woe when I checked again a few hours later, there where 2 more NF fees. When I called they explained to me that they actually charged the first time as soon as the card is swiped, and then 3 days later when the items cleared on the bank they are charging again. So I was charged 4 times, for one overdraft. They seem to be playing some kind of mind and money games, I will leave this bank for ever and I hope many people will find out about these terrible practices and if there is a law suit I want to join. I am going Monday morning and talk to the bank manager I don't want to go to the FDIC which is the right place to put in complaints about problems with any bank, I was told by the Federal Trade Commission, the FDIC is the place to go. I will see what happens, but goodness Compass bank is defenetely designed to be a rip off!

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Hi, i too have been burned by Compass bank for the second time, & i rarely use my checking acct. there @ Compass but when i do use my account @ Compass i alwalys seem to be hit with ridicoulas overdraft charges. I made a deposit to bring my account to a positive after being hit with 38.00 overdraft charge for each transaction with left me with 10.00 positive then the following day they hit me with another 38.00 nsf fee which i had no idea because i had already brought my acct to positive so i just got a phone call 3 weeks later so i checked my account & sure enough now i am 300.00 negative. How could this happen if i had a positive balance then with out me knowing they charge me nsf fees when they should not have & they only want to refund me 76.00. That is bull & i have contacted my attorney because this is illigel. I have another acct. with Frost & that is the best bank. Frost alwalys does deposits first before credits, not @ Compass. I hope i can report them to the BBB. I too am not rich & live from paycheck to paycheck so the money they have tooken from me is a lot i cant even pay my mortage due to this. The last time they kept 170.00 in nsf fees. This is too much already.