It's taken me hours to find this site, I need HELP... Here's my story..I'll make it short: We moved here 6 years ago leaving Montana, both born and raised. Early 40's (then) with two kids and a great job. We didn't owe nobody anything. Our financial slate was clean. A year later, we bought our first home and moved in. My husband worked alot of overtime, with stock options, top time, bonuses, etc. Life was great. I got a part time job (just for my entertainment) in which I matched his hourly wage. Things were good, too good. Of course credit cards, and then teenagers, and recession raising it's ugly head. Still everything was good. Our payments had started at $700 but with rising costs every year for insurance and taxes (included) it ended up being $1000 last year. Tight, but okay. We bought a new used vehicle at another $420 per month, and had been paying on that for 2 1/2 years. Now, I was ignorant not recognizing the recession, but was making triple payments on the credit cards and still living well. My bank handled my auto loan and I had a different mortgage company. Then, Wells Fargo came along and bought the mortgage company and a few months later bought out our bank. Mind you, our credit was good and my books were well kept on our bill paying. Actually I was a month ahead on everything. By this time things were tightening up, and we only had a lilttle in our savings account. The first month Wells Fargo took over, when I got my bank statement, there were over $400 in check charges. I had never bounced a check before that, and thought that maybe I had made a mistake. Well, friends that was the beginning of my nightmare. Every two weeks from that time on (excluding maybe one month) for the last year and a half, there was at LEAST $200 charged for supposedly insufficient funds. I hung on so long because I wanted to figure out their scam. In the meantime, their banking practices cost us thousands upon thousands of dollars with the snowball effect in outstanding checks and such. I figured it out but at my expense. Now, we have until 10/31 to give them $2700 or they start forclosure. We've paid over 54,000 into this home and they will not get it. Liveable, anyway. What I need to know though, is I am going to make a formal complaint, but don't know the procedure. Is it to the attorney general, or who?????? If you knew the entire version of my little story, you would probably find the humor in the saying "I'm so far behind, I think I'm in First Place!!" Food for thought: Business has slowed so much, 1) There's been no bonuses 2) Overtime is Over with 3) Stocks are all cashed in 4) Already borrowed against 401K, and last of all 5) I lost my job.. Any advice out there???? I'm waiting and wondering.. All tapped out, marla
I guess I'm confused. You owe them $2700 for back mortgage payments or $2700 for banking fees? If you're current on your mortgage I don't see how they can foreclose for banking fees. Also, I think that if I had $400 in insufficient funds for just one month, I would have marched right into that bank the next day and straightened things out. Did you try that? A branch manager is sometimes very helpful and forgiving if it's a one-time mistake.
What does Wells Fargo say about the money disputes? Do they have a logical explanation? Did you ignore the charges or what? If not go to the Branch Manager, District Manager. If what you are saying is true there has to be an explanation as to why this is happening. There is a Wells Fago guy on the board. I don't remember exactly what his name is, davidkinde, davidkinde1, something like that. Do a search and email him, hopefully his email is on. Charlie
It's taken me hours to find this site, I need HELP... Here's my story..I'll make it short: We moved here 6 years ago leaving Montana, both born and raised. Early 40's (then) with two kids and a great job. We didn't owe nobody anything. Our financial slate was clean. What area are you located in now? ===================================== A year later, we bought our first home and moved in. My husband worked alot of overtime, with stock options, top time, bonuses, etc. Life was great. I got a part time job (just for my entertainment) in which I matched his hourly wage. Things were good, too good. Of course credit cards, and then teenagers, and recession raising it's ugly head. Still everything was good. Our payments had started at $700 but with rising costs every year for insurance and taxes (included) it ended up being $1000 last year. Tight, but okay. We bought a new used vehicle at another $420 per month, and had been paying on that for 2 1/2 years. Now, I was ignorant not recognizing the recession, but was making triple payments on the credit cards and still living well. My bank handled my auto loan and I had a different mortgage company. Then, Wells Fargo came along and bought the mortgage company and a few months later bought out our bank. Mind you, our credit was good and my books were well kept on our bill paying. Actually I was a month ahead on everything. By this time things were tightening up, and we only had a lilttle in our savings account. ===================================== The first month Wells Fargo took over, when I got my bank statement, there were over $400 in check charges. I had never bounced a check before that, and thought that maybe I had made a mistake. Well, friends that was the beginning of my nightmare. At this point you should have gone into the bank and asked what was up with all these fees. Depending on how long ago this occurred, I would check with an attorney to see what your options are. ===================================== Every two weeks from that time on (excluding maybe one month) for the last year and a half, there was at LEAST $200 charged for supposedly insufficient funds. Again, you should have gone into the branch that you banked at and asked what was going on. ===================================== I hung on so long because I wanted to figure out their scam. In the meantime, their banking practices cost us thousands upon thousands of dollars with the snowball effect in outstanding checks and such. I figured it out but at my expense. If a scam was perpetrated on you by the bank and you can prove it, then go to an attorney and then the banking commission. ===================================== Now, we have until 10/31 to give them $2700 or they start forclosure. We've paid over 54,000 into this home and they will not get it. Liveable, anyway. You have lived in the house for 5 years correct? What was the purchase price and what is the appraised value of it now? You should, if not able to save the house (be careful of preditory 2nd mortgages) you should be able to sell and at least come out of the situation with a nestegg to rebuild with. ===================================== What I need to know though, is I am going to make a formal complaint, but don't know the procedure. Is it to the attorney general, or who?????? What is your formal complaint going to be based upon? That will help to answer who to go to. ===================================== If you knew the entire version of my little story, you would probably find the humor in the saying "I'm so far behind, I think I'm in First Place!!" There are additional suggestions that I could make that deal with lifestyle changes but it is probably better to leave them to someone else who is better qualified in that area. ===================================== Food for thought: Business has slowed so much, 1) There's been no bonuses............How much were the bonuses? 2) Overtime is Over with..................How much was the overtime? 3) Stocks are all cashed in...............Hope you didn't take too much of a loss 4) Already borrowed against 401K, and last of all.....................You may want to consider cashing your 401K out completely if you can. 5) I lost my job...................What type of work were you doing and do you think you can find another one? Any advice out there???? I'm waiting and wondering.. All tapped out,...................You are never all tapped out unless YOU decide you are. marla ===================================== Good luck to you Marla and I hope that I have helped you. fla-tan
"The first month Wells Fargo took over, when I got my bank statement, there were over $400 in check charges. I had never bounced a check before that, and thought that maybe I had made a mistake. Well, friends that was the beginning of my nightmare. Every two weeks from that time on (excluding maybe one month) for the last year and a half, there was at LEAST $200 charged for supposedly insufficient funds. I hung on so long because I wanted to figure out their scam. In the meantime, their banking practices cost us thousands upon thousands of dollars with the snowball effect in outstanding checks and such. I figured it out but at my expense." I'm sorry, I would never want to kick anyone when they're down, but I'm just so curious why it took you a year and a half to address this?? Why would you pay for something that wasn't yours? Most people would have been in there to raise a ruckus big time (I've seen it first hand). I worked in banking for 13 years, they DO make plenty of mistakes (especially after mergers or buy outs) but they also tell you right on your statement "If you believe something is incorrect you have 60 days from the date of the stmt to notify us...etc.". I can't speak for WF, but the bank managers I've had over the years would have bent over backwards to try to figure out what the heck was going on. I agree with the other members, get a lawyer asap. It sounds like you're going to need it and could probably reach an agreement. Enough time has gone by with no action, now it's for sure time to do something. Please don't put this off. Good luck to you. Newstdt
You have got to be kidding me. This post smells something fierce. How can you sit there and let a bank steal over $400 a month from you and not say anything because you wanted to figure out their scam? You're talking $7800 here. Gib
You mentioned you have equity in your house. Was it 54K or somehting like that? See if you can get set up with a HELOC (home equity line of credit) if you need to tap that equity for some financial relief. If you are having problems with Wells Fargo, I'd suggest using another institution. I am confused about certain parts of your post. Most important is classifying the charges Wells says you owe them. Are they delinquent mortgage payments? Or are they overdraft/banking charges? Its a very important distinction. Please clarify. I would suggest taking ALL of your banking (issued since the merger) statements into the bank and have a manager go over them with you. Between the two of you, it should become readily apparent if the charges are warranted. If they are, the bank might work with you on them, if they aren't perhaps the manager can clear it up in a expedited fashion. Good Luck Wichita
I believe she said she had PAID 54K towards the house. If they just moved it 6 years ago, most of that is probably interest. I do agree with what another poster said that this post "smells." I just can't fathom NOT talking to the bank after over a year of fees that one feels isn't warranted.
This doesn't make a lick of sense. I think you must be leaving some info out. Are you saying that you started bouncing checks? It sounds like you are acknowledgeing that you are at fault. No bank that I know of would let you bounce checks after check like that without closing your account. And no consumer that I know of would tolorate a bank making such mistakes without raising holy hell with the management. It you want constructive help, please lay out the facts and try to minimize the spin. Thanks.
I live in Boise, Idaho. I am behind in mortgage payments over $2700. This just didn't happen that one time. It was for about maybe a 3 month period or so that it DID NOT happen. I did go down and ask for explanations. It's pretty disgusting when not only the second person in command can't figure it out, neither could the branch manager. It had something to do with using the debit card. It took me months of monitoring my account to finally figure part of it out. All I do know is that Wells Fargo and their banking practices are something to be desired. If what they did was legal, it was about as close as it could get before crossing that line. I call their practice snowballing. I was just coming and going and always several steps behind. I was decieved every step of the way, as if SUCKER was stamped on my forehead. The first "Snowballing" put us behind over $5000. I humbly called my mother in Billings and begged for $4000. Mailing it would have taken too long, and she didn't really care to wire it, so she figured that since she didn't bank at Wells Fargo, she withdrew it from her bank and made it a certified check. She got my account number and routing number (just in case) and proceeeded to Wells Fargo. It took a week for it to reach my account, and of course, over $300 in check charges again. When I called after the 2nd day of it not being deposited, I was told that since it was deposited in Billings, Montana, that it takes several days, (3) to be routed and chaneled to get to Boise. It actually sounded believable at the time. But it was a week before I recieved it and Wells laughed all the way to their bank account. Asses.
Gib, For awhile I figured maybe it was my mistake, and pardon me, it wasn't always $400, but the very least would be $100. That cost is for 2 seperate checks run through 1 time. a charge for insufficient funds and a charge for return check fee. Also, an additional charge if the account wasn't brought up to the Black. But you see if you would miscalculate in your adding or subtracting on your register, it's 7 or 8 days before your even notified. All these banks in Boise and the notification comes out of Salt Lake City. Our last automatic deposit did the deed. You see I checked my account online every day, several times a day. It was right down to the wire. Payroll goes in Friday morning. I had always previously sent out my paid bills on Friday afternoon. I didn't. Over $1300 was deposited on Friday. Withdrew $100 to live on. Friday night, no transactions except for deposit and the $100 debit from Atm. Had not written any checks for 2 weeks and they had all returned. checked online all weekend through Monday night. Tuesday morning there was $380 left in our checking account and all the rest went for PREVIOUS CHECK CHARGES. Now, wouldn't you take that out immediately upon a deposit???? That's where they hooked me up was that after I was led to believe all was even, I would pay my bills and then there was always the LATE check charges. I went in and asked her to use her magic finger and she refused. I flashed my atm card at her and walked out. Withdrew the $300 and then drove through and cashed a check for $80. By that Wednesday I was over $500 in arrears so emailed the online bank and told them to close out the account. I went on to tell them that come hell or high water, they would not get another $1 from me. I even went on to say that I was surprised no one had ever gone in any branch and went "postal". Reminded them also of how lucky they were just to recieve an email from me and not my lovely presense, although I could go in and PERSONALLY thank them for their deceptive banking practices and our financial ruin. Now I am in default after paying over $50,000 in house payments, and they are laughing all the way to a new PROSPECTIVE CLIENT!!! And finally I recieved my WF bank statment in which they charged off the fees of $525.07 and closed the account. Not a bad trade, huh??? Four months ago they threatened to turn over $130 into collection because I didn't run down and take care of their check charges. I had exhausted all of our financial tracks at that point, but they just now figured that out. Another one bites the Dust!!!!
Wouldn't it have been nice to recieve a notice in two days?? But then none of this would have happened. I would never have hesitated when I was younger to go down and close my account immediately rasing hell all the way out the door. But honestly I don't like change and HATE confrontation. After all, one little peon standing up to a huge corporation such as Wells Fargo?? Please!!!! I thought it had to be me because they can't make mistakes over and over. Maybe, initially I did bounce that first check, But did I deserve this?? The bank is only four blocks from my house and an overdraft notice comes from Salt Lake City????? Like I said before, it's undoubtedly legal, but these banking practices are unwarranted and should be brought to someones attention. I easily could have landed in jail over the two confrontations I did have. Maybe it would have been worth it. The kicker is that Wells Fargo refused to refinance because our credit was so bad. If all this is CHOPPY, I apologize but I'm angry and upset and kind of lost my faith in the "All American Dream" and Corporate Joe. If it was JUST a saga.........
I'm sorry, but this is one of the most confusing posts I've come across on CreditNet. If you want our help, I suggest you start over with a new thread and KEEP IT SIMPLE! Try using bullet points: - this happened - and then this happened - and this is what I need help with I'm still scratching my head... You have a series of bounced checks and erroneous bank charges as a result and now WF wants to foreclose??? IT DOESN'T ADD UP!!! Many of us are here to help, but PLEASE help yourself FIRST by giving us JUST THE FACTS, WITHOUT THE SPIN as another member mentioned.
I understand about the check fees. This happened to me with TCF Bank when we were in hard times. But while I was complaining about it to my mother it dawned on me... And please don't take offense to this but.... Stop writing checks unless you know under all circumstances that if they were to clear as soon as you write them, you would be ok. I played the games of making deposits in the atm to intersect checks written etc and sooner or later, you get caught and it seems like the bank is taking your money. Granted, they are but if they money had been in the bank when you wrote the checks, you wouldn't be getting the fees. Maybe you should get another account somewhere else. Maybe it won't replace this account but to have another place to do business with when you get in a bind with the WF account. That way, you have a place where your money goes into without the inpending fees and you can decide what to do instead of the bank taking money upfront. Good luck!
So in other words, you kept writing checks on an acct that was already overdrawn. Obviously your mortgage checks weren't paid by the bank and now they want to foreclose on the house. Is that what actually happened? I don't understand why you just didn't mail the checks into the mortgage company. Why would you even play around with losing your home? Just doesn't make sense to me.
My Bullsh*t meter is SCREAMING! I agree with Milkmom, 2-3 days after an OD has hit the bank, they send you a letter. Don't write checks unless you can cover them. Like my pop used to say: "Money's not in the bank until the money's in the bank." Sounds to me like you don't know how to effectivly budget OR don't know how to follow one. Use this budget at www.nickmattern.com/budget.php and follow it. It helped me and it'll help you and it's non commercial and free. And for gosh sakes, get some willpower on your spending.
