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kstew13 · Apr 2, 2008, 12:15 PM

I have been banking with pnc bank since nov 2003.. while living in philadelphia I never had any complaints.. pnc is based in pittsburgh and last year I moved just outside and have had a nightmare ever since.. of course my financial problems have got worse.. child support stopped coming for last year.. former fiancé was mooching off me.. and after putting him out.. got stuck with all the past due bills in the house we lived in.. but I have had some overdrafts before.. always covered them but now I just had my debit card deactivated until I can show them no overdrafts or returned checks for 6 months.. now I admit also that I had been put into chek sysytems by pnc because of a negative balance from a couple of paydayloans... I was forced to use to keep from being out on the street... they continued to honor the ach debits from the pdl companies and caused negative balances and overdraft charges even after I closed out the acct.. my payrol direct deposit goes to pnc but because I'm in chek systems I can't open any other bank accts... on top of this.. fri I had a payroll deposit of $1,490... after paying bills I had 150 left.. a check was returned and put me negative $15... the next day I deposited $300 on a Saturday.. I called and a rep said the 2 pending withdrawals were taken out already just not posted.. and all the $192 was available.. mon I found out that I no longer had the use of my debit card I took what I thought was my available balance out so I wouldn't have to go back and forth to the branch.. today wed.. I find out I have a negative $83.. because they waited the next business day to take out the overdraft abd returned check fees.. I went into the branch and checked on my available funds with a financial consultant.. so now I have to pay the $83 + 6/day charge if if t's not paid... I depoetied a check that was given to me by a relative which won't be effective until thurs/fri perhaps.. so more charges.. I think they purposely did not tell me when I went in the branch that I should still expect the fees to come out.. but ican't change banks either.. so already.. the same day I had anegative acct right after I was told to keep things straight fro 6 months.. how can I beat this horror story.. they say I can write checks but no debit card?. no way.. so they can charge me $4 for writng a check.. and more if something goes wrong.. what do I do for God's sake?

twinkiedooter · Apr 2, 2008, 02:29 PM

You're kind of stuck until you either keep scrupulous records of every single penny going in and out of your acount or get another bank account. I don't think they purposely forgot to tell you about any charge... you just didn't ask and they didn't tell you. Always assume that a bank is going to charge you, always. How you got into your financial mess unfortunately is of your own making. You'll just have to get another checking account pronto. Go to your employer and ask that you be given a paper check and open an account at another bank. Having the use of a debit card does not give you carte blanche to use and abuse. I guess the bank had a limit on bad transactions and just decided to cut your card off. You sound like you are under quite a lot of stress in your life and of course you don't need more, but you seem to be causing yourself more grief by not paying attention to your finances. If the bank charges you $4 to write a check maybe you should deal in money orders instead until you can get this mess straightened out.

Fr_Chuck · Apr 2, 2008, 03:46 PM

This is very easy, STOP writing any bad checks, and stop using a card to get money that is not in the account.

IF there is no available money, don't pay the bills.

That has to be done before anything else can happen.
Next so stop using the bank, cash your check and pay cash or money order if and when you pay something,

N0help4u · Apr 2, 2008, 04:53 PM

Changing banks wouldn't help any way because they are all pulling the same things.
I think a lot of it is highway robbery. My son overdrafted a few cents and then had a charge he didn't make which put him in the negative even more. We had NO money to put in the bank to cover it and the bank took $70. Out for the bounces and charged him $30. A day until he got money back in the bank. So when his electronic direct deposit was made the bank automatically took $400.
I have had my share of problems with PNC, Mellon and all the others.
I gave up on banks and cash my checks at the grocery store or the beer distributor and use strictly money orders to pay bills.

twinkiedooter · Apr 3, 2008, 01:13 PM

You should stop giving people reddies when they are telling you some information that you unfortunately don't want to hear. I am sure Chuck and I gave you some information you don't want to hear - like don't write bad checks. Gee thanks for the reddie. Don't feel I deserved it. NoHelp gave you the same advice I did - pay with money orders and stop using a bank.