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View Full Version : Can Banks be held accountable for their mistakes?


williamstack777
Jan 3, 2012, 11:45 AM
I requested my checking account be closed by US Bank.
The US Bank teller did it incorrectly as stated by a US Bank phone banker.
I went to close the account on 10/21/2011. In December I received statements that pay pal payments were being returned insuffisent funds. I figured they were payments I had already made and they didn't clear. So I made double payments. Again they came back returned insufficient funds.
I am disabled paying my own insurance premiums of $760.00 a month. I don't have allot of money.
The teller left money in the account I wanted closed which kept it open.
US Bank Bill-Pay was paying my bills from an account that was supposed to be closed.
This mistake has damaged both me and my wife's credit. US Bank denies any responibilty for the mishap.
I had to sell my motorcycle to be able to catch up on all the returned payments.
I am a honest man and believe people and instatutions should be held accountable for their mistakes.
The account not being closed as I requested has caused me great hardships. And by the way I was treated I would say that Customer Satisfaction is not much concern to US Bank even for a customer that has banked their for 10 years. I want restitution or some kind of Satisfaction for the damages done by their mistake.
Is there anything I can do Legally other that Tweet, Twitter, and yelp...
Paying the $700.00 in returned payments has left me short on my Rent payment so I sold my Classic
1981 Yamaha XV750H on Ebay to cover the cost. At this time I am ashamed to be assoiated with US Bank and would not recommend US Bank to anyone. The teller lied to cover her butt and said that I requested the account be left open until some payments had cleared. Which was a boldface lie. I went there to close the account. I was assured by her it was closed before I left their office. She did not close it correctly. What can I do.

JudyKayTee
Jan 3, 2012, 11:55 AM
What did the bank give you IN WRITING when you closed the account?

This part confuses me: "I figured they were payments I had already made and they didn't clear. So I made double payments. Again they came back returned insufficent funds."

Just so I understand - you made a payment, it was returned "insufficient funds" on what you believed was a closed account and you paid it AGAIN from a closed account? Writing checks on a closed account is a crime, so I don't understand. If you closed it you know the second check also wouldn't clear.

Are you saying that you closed the account but didn't notify the companies that were set up to be paid automatically? Or are you saying something else?

Fr_Chuck
Jan 3, 2012, 12:01 PM
When you go in and close an account you get a document stating it was closed,

Next you stated "pay pal" were you using the PAY PAL online system to pay bills and was it attached to your bank account?

Or were you using a online banking system to pay bills

Or were these bills automatically withdrawn from your account?

In case one,
You go into pay pal online and tell them which account is active, and delete any closed account, failure to do that is your liability.

Case two,
If you were logging into your own bank account, did you not verfiy what account you were using ?

Case three,
Automatic bill pay, did you notify each company due of the new account to bill to ?

If indeed, you went in and closed your account and they gave you full paymnet of the money, then you needed to go in and talk in person to the supervisor at the bank about the funds.

Also what is the time frame from the first fee to the last, how long did it take you to react and do something

williamstack777
Jan 3, 2012, 12:24 PM
I'm sorry I'm so stressed I can't think straight.
Not Pay-Pal, I meant to say bill pay.
They didn't give me anything after they closed the account. Not the first time on 10/21/11 or on
12/29/11 when they moved the $3.00 from the supposed to be closed accont to the new one.
I did not know the account was still open. I thought I was paying from the new account they opened.
I didn't knowing do anything ilegal.
I would have never thought they would pay out of an account that I was assured was closed.
I have paid my bills this way for 10 years with no issues.
When they closed the account the first time on 10/21/11 she told me some payments may come through and not clear because it was closed.
So when I saw the statements I thought that's what had happened.
So I went back into US Bank bill-pay and made double payments thinking they would now come out of the new account they had set up for me. I did nor relalize anything out of the ordinary was wrong until I received the statements again, then I called a US Bank phone banker and she told me the account had not been closed correctly. Does this help clear up any confusion?

williamstack777
Jan 3, 2012, 12:30 PM
I don't write checks. I go into my US Bank bill pay account which has all my debitors info and
Just put in an amount and a date to pay it, that's it.
I thought the payments would surely come out of the new account.
I notified all the companies I have Auto-Payments with. Took me a whole day to do it.
The bank didn't give me any paper, forms or other to show the account was closed either time.
Another mistake?

JudyKayTee
Jan 3, 2012, 12:59 PM
I don't see that the bank made any mistakes. You closed an account and "thought" this or that. What you thought is not the bank's responsibility.

I don't understand why the "auto pay" people didn't follow your instructions and use the new account. THEY made the mistake, not the bank.

I would have suggested cancelling the auto pays, making one payment in some other fashion (to make sure they got the message) and then closing the account.

I've closed accounts without getting paperwork. I've closed accounts with paperwork. Depends on the bank. The wording in my paperwork is that I AM RESPONSIBLE for any checks presented after the closing date.

Fr_Chuck
Jan 3, 2012, 01:09 PM
I would go to the bank, and talk to the manager where you bank.
If there is proof it was not closed correctly,

But the issue is, you did not change the bill pay info online, you were suppose to go online and change the account that was being used. Often there may be a drop down box, or you have to add that new account to your online bill pay

williamstack777
Jan 3, 2012, 01:25 PM
Again I did not receive any paperwork of forms from US Bank when I closed the account.
The second time on 12/29/11 they had me sign something and they said they would send it in.
This has nothing to do with auto-pay. I set those up completely separate from the bill pay that US Bank offers.
And I did not make a payment from an account that I thought was closed.
I thought the payments would come out of the new account.
And I must say you are confused.
It Cut & Dry. I went in and closed an account and had them set up a new one because of some unknown charges to my account. Online books and clothing purchases, I caught them and they did not clear.
The account was not closed correctly because the teller did not transfer the $$$ from the old account to the new one so it remained open. I did not know this. I pay several of my bills through bill-pay, not auto pay. Every month I go into BILL PAY and insert the amount and date that each company gets paid.
I did not know the old account was still open. I paid my bills in BILL PAY thinking they could only come out of the new account. But they did not.
The statements I received I felt were some of the former bills I had paid but they did not clear due to me closing the old account.
I notified all the companies I have set up with Auto-pay. No problem with auto-pay accounts.
US Bank bill pay was still using the account that should have been closed.
Now I have learned that you can not close an account with money in it.
Tellers Mistake: She did not transfer the money to the new account and it remained OPEN without me knowing about it.

williamstack777
Jan 3, 2012, 01:32 PM
Yes I later was told about the dropdown BILL PAY.
This matter should have been brought to my attenion at the time the account was closed.
As soon as the account was successfully closed the dropdown went away.
The old account no longer was shown.
So if they would have successfully closed it the first time there would not have been a drop down which I did not see or know about.
Do you work for US Bank. It sounds like it. You don't think a Bank can make a mistake that can impact a persons life?

JudyKayTee
Jan 3, 2012, 01:34 PM
So let me get this right - are we talking about a checking account, charge account, debit account, something else?

Quite frankly - I was very polite. Now you've given me a "not helpful" so... I have no idea what you are talking about. I assume the teller had the same problem.

Take the Bank to Small Claims Court. Maybe the Judge will be able to figure this out.

Or go to the bank and explain it to them - again (apparently). They haven't done anything so far and I doubt that will change.

Your story keeps changing there is not ONE WORD about transferring money in your original question. Suddenly the teller was supposed to close an account and transfer the money to another?

Good luck in whatever path you take to get this corrected. Please come back and let us know what you do, how it works out.

ScottGem
Jan 3, 2012, 04:36 PM
I don't use US Bank so I don't know how their online bill pay works. But on my bank when I elect to make bill payments, the first thing I have to do is indicate the account that I want to pay the bills from. It would surprise me if US Bank was any different.

So unless you are not required to select the account to draw from, then I don't see where they made any mistakes that cost you.

lw1129
Mar 10, 2013, 09:41 PM
I had a similar problem with a teller at the Bank of America. The teller, who was supposed to be a specialist, cashed my check for $140 and later claimed she had given me an extra $600. I never received the extra $$ yet $600 was deducted from my account. In addition, a numeral on my check had been altered to reflect a different amount than I had written on the legal line. The teller said that she "made a mistake". I am also on disability and a $600 loss is hard to take. I called the local district attorney who suggested I report the "theft" to the state police. They closed the case telling me that there was no proof of any wrong doing because the examiner FOR THE BANK said so! I finally ended up taking the teller to small claims court and having the case dismissed mostly because the judge did not understand banking law. The lawyer for the bank suggested that we just "put it all under the bank", thus circumventing my case against the teller. However, I intend to take the teller back to court. I do have proof that papers were manipulated to show that the teller gave me an extra $600. I am pursuing the issue because I am sick of being taken by the large corporations. If there is anyone out there who has had problems with the Bank of America make your experiences known and use the press if you can. I wrote a letter to the local paper describing the whole affair and managed to warn others about the teller fraud at the Bank of America. Going up against a large monster like a bank is daunting, but if we all protest by removing $$$ from any bank that is condoning fraud on any level it may be possible to make an impression and perhaps someday see the corruption on all levels brought to light.