Suntrust Bank charges fees for pending items

Suntrust Bank

I have/had been with Suntrust bank for over ten years. I had a car loan

with them and have a checking account. When I first got my checking account

with them I assumed the debit card worked like the one from my previous

bank. If you did not have money in your account, your card would be denied.

I'm sure we all learned this lesson the hard way. The explanation I was

given at the time on why they allowed me to make three purchases under $3

each and then charge me $32 for each of them was that they allow me to

overdraw on my account as a sign of "good faith" that I will be depositing

money into my account to cover these purchases within 24 hours. Okay, it's

shady, but whatever, I should've realized how much money was in my account.

I'll let that go. Besides most debit cards work this way these days thanks

to the increased profits from this "good faith" effort.

Fast forward to today. I recently got two "UAF Fees" charged to me the day

before my pay check gets direct deposited. For anyone keeping track, as far

as I can tell a "UAF" fee is something new and different from a "NSF" fee.

UAF is for Unavailable Funds, while NSF is for Insufficient Funds. Well,

let me explain what happened. I had $72 in my account on a Thursday. I

know my paycheck gets direct deposited at midnight on Thursday. It has for

six years now. Several times in the past I have used my debit card after

business hours on Thursday to overdraw my account, and every time my

paycheck was posted before any of those transactions were. Besides, this is

how it works according to Suntrust themselves. I can overdraw my account as

long as there is money deposited and posted while the transaction is still

pending. We all know that any transaction made as a credit card transaction

with your debit card takes a day or so to post at least. So, on Thursday at

6:30pm I used my debit card for a "credit" card transaction. The next thing

I know I'm hit with two "UAF" fees for a total of $64. Why two you ask.

Well, I wasn't actually charged for the transaction I made at 6:30pm, I was

charged for two other transactions that had indeed posted that Thursday,

which would have been covered except for the fact that Suntrust mysteriously

took out $64 in "UAF" fees that same day. That is, the Thursday on which I

made the transaction that would have overdrawn my account. The transaction

that overdrew my account didn't actually post until four days later. So, as

far as I can tell, they charged me fees for having a "pending" balance that

was in the red, even though everything posted in the black. I've never been

charged for having a "pending" balance in the red. Well, apparently now

they do this. It makes me wonder what would happen if you use your debit

card at a merchant that places a hold on your card for more than the

transaction ends up being for (i.e. gas station, hotel, restaurant). You

know, when you use your card at the gas station they place a hold on a

certain amount that's typically more than your final bill in order to ensure

that you don't start filling your tank up on a card with only three dollars

left on it. What if the final transaction amount is within your budget, but

the hold they placed puts you briefly in the red? Without the "UAF" fees I

was charged I would have never bounced anything. My collected balance was

always in the black.

Anyway, so I went to my local branch to discuss this matter. The bank

representative I sat down with agreed that something seemed amiss and that I

appeared to have had money in my account at the time I was charged these

fees. I make the mistake of getting excited, briefly. Then he says he

needs to make a call before he can remove these fees. Another news flash,

Suntrust branch managers apparently no longer have the authority to remove

fees. He had to call corporate. They explained to him, which he then

explained to me, that this was a case of a "delayed debit". That's right, a

"delayed debit". The merchant had not tied out his machines that night,

causing a delayed debit. He said that as soon as I swiped my card the money

was gone, but the merchant screwed up my account by not reconciling their

machines at the end of the day. He really actually said that it was the

merchants fault, those words came out of his mouth. While this really

doesn't make much sense to me, I assume he means that if the merchant had

reconciled their credit card machine that night then the debit would have

posted to my account that night, thereby causing the UAF fees that I

sustained. How this would have posted and not been pending for at least

half a day I don't understand. So, since the merchant did not do this the

transaction was pending for four more days, yet I still sustained UAF fees

resultant from this transaction that had not posted.

The other interesting thing is that I would assume that the two transactions

that I got UAF fees for would have posted some time before 6:30pm on

Thursday. Yet, the $64 in UAF fees and the transaction at 6:30pm had to

come before those two for any of this to make any kind of sense at all.

This seems really sketchy to me.

Maybe I'm just missing something here. Maybe it's my fault for running my

account down to zero. I just feel like I'm being robbed, and I have to say

it's not the first time Suntrust has made me feel this way.but it will be

the last.

Comment On This

I have had the same problem with suntrust. It is absolutely outragous! i really think they wait until your balance is close to 0 and then tack on that fee for shits and giggles and then because they charged you that fee, you are now in the negative, then they can take the largest item out first and continue to charge you $36 for every $1 and $5 transaction you made! there was a time this happened to me and i ended up paying $360 in FEES alone!

for the "former suntrust employee" - if it is a fee for the available balance on items that have not posted yet, then why is it call a PAID items penalty? if they haven't paid it how can they charge a fee for paying it? no matter what this is a bullshit fee and i will be closing my account today... my direct deposit has finally been changed to my new account at chase, where, hopefully, they won't screw me like suntrust has been doing for years!

you know, it is a really terrible thing for a bank to create a new fee in the middle of a recession (that was mostly caused by banks) to screw over poor people even more... as if BANKS havnen't screwed americans enough! we need to show them they can't get away with this! if everyone keeps closing their accounts and goes elsewhere they will eventually have to close, wouldn't that be great?!!!!!

Comment On This

They are definetly robbing us.I started to suspect something was going on with suntrust, so I started watching the account through email notifications and constantly checking the website for two weeks.Transactions will go pending for up to 3-4 days.While on my other account I could make the same transaction and it would not be pending.Im going to start collecting proof of this scam, and get my money back.

Comment On This

Okay here's a good one My daughter has been trying to close out her account with suntrust for over a month. She has to do it in person, well she is now in Maine and there are no suntrust in Maine. She calls C/Service and now there are 2 overdraft fees for an automatic fee that comes out of 19.00. They tell her she can send them letter in writing with money order in the amout of 88.00 to cover the 2 overdraft fees for 19.00. They have continued to do this to her since she opened her account. Now I am heading to the branch in our town to straigthen this out for her tomorrow We shall see what happens They must think people are made of money and have money to just give them.

Comment On This

I have had the same exit problem with my suntrust account here in FL. Sounds like someone needs to get a class action suit against SUNTRUST.

Comment On This

I do not have suntrust bank, however I had Bank of America and they pull the same bullshi**. Only thing is I would use my card for four or five transactions, then I wouldn't use my card for a few days and then I would have no choice but to use it to get gas which would be a much larger purchase compared to the other transactions. Well these wonderful people will automatically pull the money out for the larger transaction then bounce every other transaction I did days earlier and charge me $35 for each transaction. Even though the smaller ones should have had no problem going through. Yes I am aware that this last large transaction would have overdrafted my account, but it was for gas (another complaint entirely) and I wouldn't have been able to get to work had I not done it. I figured this one transaction would put me in the negative, but my check that would go through the next day would clear it. Hence the 1/2 day float. However I was not aware of their sneaky practices until after this event. It just seems to me like they find all these little sneaky little loopholes to get you and there is no way to get out because you are already having a hard time getting by and after they take money you weren't expecting to lose, it is hard to pay the things you were suppose to. THen it just keeps getting worse and worse until the big corporate guys are buying rounds of golf on our hard earned money, because we can't stop the cycle, because some new stupid new bullsh** little policy comes and screws you over and over again. Oh I'm sorry got lost there. I am just tired of people who work for banks trying to say it's all legit, and keep better track and it's not their fault. Aaaa yes it may be my fault that I let my account get down to the very last dime, but that is why they call it living paycheck to paycheck. If it were possible to have extra money in my account I would be gaurding it with my life for my 4 kids, not giving it to the banks. Seems to me like we don't have to protect our money in vaults when the thieves are locked in their with it and have the government on their side.

Comment On This

I USED TO WORK FOR SUNTRUST AND WHAT THEY DID TO YOU IS LEGIT. IT IS OUTLINED IN THE RULES AND REGULATIONS BOOKLET YOU RECEIVE AT THE TIME YOU OPEN AN ACCOUNT. BASICALLY, IT WORKS LIKE THIS: IF I HAVE $100 AS MY AVAILABLE AND CURRENT BALANCE ON MONDAY AND I SPEND $50 AND $40 BEFORE 4:00 P.M. MONDAY, THE $40 AND $50 TRANSACTIONS WILL POST MONDAY AT MIDNIGHT BECAUSE THEY WERE DONE ON THAT BUSINESS DAY. AFTER THE TWO TRANSACTIONS, YOUR CURRENT BALANCE WILL STILL BE $100 AND WILL NOT REFLECT THE TRANSACTIONS UNTIL MONDAY AT MIDNIGHT, BUT UR AVAILABLE BALANCE WILL BE $10, REFLECTING THE TWO TRANSACTIONS ALREADY DONE BEFORE 4 P.M. MONDAY.

HERE'S WHAT PEOPLE DON'T UNDERSTAND, IF YOU DO A THIRD TRANSACTION FOR $30 ON MONDAY AFTER 4P.M., ALTHOUGH THE $30 TRANSACTION WON'T POST UNTIL TUESDAY AT MIDNIGHT (CUZ DONE ANYTHING DONE AFTER 4P.M. IS ON NEXT DAYS BUSINESS CYCLE), THE AVAILABLE BALANCE WILL REFLECT THE $30 TRANSACTION. SO RIGHT AFTER YOU DO THE $30 TRANSACTION, UR AVALAIBLE BALANCE WILL DROP TO NEGATIVE $120, BUT YOUR CURRENT BALANCE WILL IS STILL $100 UNTIL MIDNIGHT.

ONCE MIDNIGHT HITS, THE $40 AND $50 TRANSACTIONS DONE BEFORE 4:00P.M. WILL POST WITH A NEGATIVE "AVAILABLE" BALANCE, HENCE UNAVAILABLE FUNDS, AND ALTHOUGH THE CURRENT BALANCE WILL BE A POSITIVE $10 UNTIL THE THIRD TRANSACTION DONE AFTER 4P.M POSTS ON TUESDAY NIGHT, SUNTRUST CHARGES UAF'S FOR ANY ITEM THAT POSTS WHEN YOUR AVAILABLE BALANCE IS NEGATIVE. THEY CHARGE "NSF"'S WHEN ITEMS POST AND YOUR "CURRENT" BALANCE IS ZERO.

ITS A SYSTEM THAT YOU CAN ABUSE IF YOU UNDERSTAND IT PROPERLY, BUT IT IS A SYSTEM THAT GET YOU GOOD IF YOU DON'T KNOW WHEN TO CHARGE AND WHEN NOT TO.

THE BEST PIECE OF ADVICE THAT I CAN GIVE YOU IS THIS. THE "AVAILABLE" BALANCE IS REAL TIME OF WHAT YOU HAVE SPENT OR DEPOSITED. THE "CURRENT" BALANCE REFLECTS ONLY POSTED ITEMS, NOT PENDING ITEMS.

Comment On This

The same thing happened to me. I now owe Suntrust almost $500 because of the pending thing. The charges I was overdrawn on actually had the funds to cover it and the transaction that I actually overdrawn on, I placed the funds back in my account in less then 24 hours and they say they can't refund all the overdraft charges. What I don't really get is that the problem transaction is STILL PENDING from 3 days ago so I'm going to get one more NSF Fee according to Suntrust. Grrr!

Comment On This

I AGREE WITH YOU. WE ARE IN THE SAME BOAT WITH THE PENDING. THEY HAVE LET US OVERDRAW BY LETTING US GET MONEY OUT THEN GET CHARGED A $35 FEE. IT IS HARD FOR ME TO KEEP UP WITH THINGS BECAUSE MY HUSBAND WORKS OUT OF STATE AND HE SOMETIMES FORGETS TO TELL ME THINGS TO WRITE DOWN. WHICH I KNOW THAT IS A MISTAKE ON HIS PART. ALSO I HAVE TRIED TO CANCEL A CHECK AND GET THE CHARGE OF $35 TAKEN OUT OF THE ACCOUNT AND THE CHECK STILL GOES THROUGH. THIS HAS HAPPENED SEVERAL TIMES. ALSO THE PENDING ITEMS ARE CONFUSING. AT NIGHT I CHECK EVERY NIGHT TO SEE WHAT GOES THROUGH AND WE HAVE MONEY IN THE BANK AND USUALLY BY 4:45AM WE ARE NEGATIVE BEFORE MY HUSBANDS CHECK GETS DIRECT DEPOSITED INTO THE ACCOUNT. 12 AM FINE 4:45 AM NEGATIVE SO THE AT LITTLE CONFUSSING YES BUT THEY GET THEIR MONEY ONE WAY OR ANOTHER.

Comment On This

I really don't understand why people complain about stuff like this. We all know that most banks are shady, so why don't you keep just $100 or even $50 on your account at all times? If you stop floating the numbers, you will not have to pay a dime in banking fees. I have two accounts with Suntrust, had a total of over 6 accounts with Bank of America and have two accounts with Key Bank. NEVER did I experience a problem related to the fees because I leave some money in my account as a buffer. And please don't say that you live paycheck to paycheck so you can't afford to keep money sitting in your account. That's the stupidest excuse ever, but people use it all the time. I make only $26,000/yr and have NEVER overdrawn an account or incurred in non-sufficient funds or any other fees. Start planning in advance and be more responsible with your finances and you'll see that you will never have to pay banking fees.