[letsjustsay]

I recently received overdraft notices from my bank account [a month after the fees were applied.] My account has been set up since the day I opened it to have overdraft protection using my credit card to cover any negative balance that does occur.

A few days later, my mother calls me to ask me about my account balance; I never gave the bank my consent to share my account information with her. She then informed me that when she opened her account the month before, she had asked that any overdrafts that occurred from my account be deducted from hers.

The woman agreed without my written or verbal consent, which is supposed to be required because I am not a minor. To top that off, she did not do what my mother had asked, she merely removed the overdraft protection on my account.

I checked my account & at the end of last month my balance was at almost -$800 because automatic bill pays were not being taken from my credit card once my balance reached $0. I regularly deposit $1,000 during the last week of each month, which temporarily brought my balance to a little over $200. Soon after, my balance went back to over -$500.

By the way, every transaction that occurred while my balance was negative added a $35 overdraft fee. Around $700 of the -$1,200 is from overdraft fees.

I had my bills and bank account set up to be completely automatic. I deposited money into my account at least once a month and didn't deal with it otherwise, which also means that I do not receive paper statements.

Since my mother opened her account and decided to meddle my health insurance has been canceled, my student loan payments were never made, my hospital bills and utility bills have gone unpaid, and I can't afford to buy grocieries or my medication.

I do blame my mother some for thinking that she had the right to meddle, but I feel that the bank is at fault for allowing her to. She doesn't have the same last name as I do and we don't have a joint account at this bank.

I don't know what I should do. My mother wants me to contact the bank and take what they are willing to return, but I don't really trust them anymore and would prefer not to deal with them directly.

Do I have grounds for a lawsuit?

Should I try to get them to return the overdraft fees even though they are very unlikely to return all of the overdraft fees and are not at all likely to care about the late fees I now owe or the severe inconveniences they have caused me?

I am located in Central Texas and the bank my mother went to is located in Middle Tennessee.

[TraceyD]

I do know that time is of the essence. You need to contact the bank asap, preferably in person. When I changed my overdraft from one account to another, the banker did it incorrectly and I had no od protection. They (Wachovia) refunded all the charges and also contacted the utility company that wasn't paid. I do have good relationship with the people at my branch, which helped.
I don't blame you for wanting to change banks but you definitely should get back what they owe you. Their computers should show that the changes were made in TN and you aren't even there. It would probably be smart to contact an attorney as well. A consultation won't cost you anything and you'll know for sure what your options are.
Good luck! I have a meddling mother too so I feel your pain.

[ScottGem]

IF the bank does not refund the charges and reimburse you for any expenses you incurred over this, then yes you can and should sue them.

I would march into your bank branch first thing Monday morning and demand to speak to the branch manager immediately. Tell him that an unauthorized change was made to your account which has now caused you multiple problems. Tell him that you want your balance restored and all overdraft charges and penalties credited to your account immediately.

Tell him you will be compiling a list of charges from your creditors for any payments that were bounced or unpaid because of THEIR error in making the change.

If the manager gives you any flack on this, tell him your next action will be to report this to the State Banking Authority and to file suit against the bank and the manager personally for the damages you suffered.

I am assuming here that your mother is not listed as a joint tenant on the account. My daughter's account is listed that way for survivorship reasons, if anything were to happen to her. If she is listed that way, then she did not need authorization from you to make changes. However the bank still screwed up by not making the change your mom requested (from your charge to hers. So they are still liable for expenses incurred due to this error. But then you have to back off on the unauthorized issue and just go on the fact that they made an error in not transferring the overdraft account.