The down economy has hurt more than just general public – banks are feeling the pinch as well.
In an effort to generate extra income, they’ve become quite creative and sneaky in their tactics. We refer to these at 720CreditScore.com as banking scams.
They are the ways banks “legally steal” from you month after month, most times without you even realizing it.
Whether you want to hear it or not, the truth is that the banks are in bed with the government and although the government tells the banks to “treat people fairly,” they continue to steal your money, while greedily taking money from you (via the government and your tax dollars) at the same time.
To spread the message and help people avoid these banking scams, we’re inviting everyone to share their stories of banking scams that may have happened to you. The goal is to make the public aware of what’s really going on so you can protect your hard-earned money.
A few dollars here and there may not seem like much, but when you add up the thousands of accounts they are doing this to, you can see how much banks depend on these banking scams.
This is an important issue that we believe strongly about and we greatly appreciate your time in sharing your scam. If you don’t have a story to share, take a few minutes and read through the scams to make sure you don’t become a victim, or share this page with others who you think will benefit from the information.
To make it easier to find your story, if you’re sharing a scam please start your comment with the words “BANKING SCAM.”
If you have a facebook account, post this via the Facebook Comments below so we can get this message out!
In the spirit of sharing, here is one that happened to me recently.
US Bank: BANKING SCAM
If this isn’t a scam from US Bank, I’m not sure what is.
Last week I was helping my Mother in Law close out her lease with US Bank, she owed the final payment of $395, so I called to pay it.
Before they collected the payment, I told the US Bank Representative that my Mother just moved from California to Arizona eight weeks ago. She gladly took the information and then told me that she will have to charge my credit card $405 instead of $395. I asked,
“Why?.”
Well, I found out that it is US Bank’s policy to charge an extra $10 fee for billing addresses in Arizona. Interesting.
Hmmm… I have clients all over the world and it doesn’t cost me extra money to charge a person’s credit card in Arizona vs. California. Even if it did, NO WAY it would be $10. And, even if I were charged extra, I wouldn’t even think about passing that on to the client.
Here I am, five days after this happened blogging about this US Bank Scam… to my entire client base. These companies need to start focusing on building more value to their clients instead of penny pinching all of us.
Here is how I got around the $10 scam. I told her to change my address back to the California address and rerun it. I told her,
“If you charge me the $10 fee, I refuse to pay the bill.”
She changed the address, I saved $10, and I’m not using US Bank again!
Share your Scam!!
Philip Tirone is a Credit Scoring Expert and Champion for the Human Race
This guest post was submitted by Philip Tirone who is a credit expert and teaches consumers about credit and avoiding scams.
US Bank disenrolled my phone number from Zelle without my authorization. When I asked who authorized the disenrollment, they said it must
have been due to “maintenance.” I kept
asking for more explanation which they won’t
give me. They don’t consider a security breach! I’m closing my checking account.
Huntington bank is another bank stealing money from its own customers. Inventing and charging new fees to customers that no other bank charges
I do not know if this counts but typically when you swipe your card at a grocery store money automatically comes off. WHICH mine does i just got a email at 7am say my account balance i look at 10 is different now all of a sudden I have 2 pending transactions for two stores i went to 2 days ago !!! & money was already taking out i would have known if the money was put back !
Yes this is my problem. It’s starting to happen alot.
I had the same problem with my phone bill they took it off the day of payment and now another time again am I took a screen shot because we were low on money to make a purchase and waiting for my husband check they took it off at payment left me a balance of 120 than next 1 hour my husband check come
In and they take it again but the stammer shows one time.
I had 2985 deposited in my account from The irs And It showed the funds as being available For use. I transferred 1300 to my savings I only made Small Purchases and kept count on usage Within a week they said they had to take half the money from my savings to cover the amount I used basically saying I didn’t have the funds that were spent available for use at the time Transactions I know I performed wasnt showing on my statements And they charged a fee for withdrawing from my savings within a certain period of time I may be paranoid but if I didn’t have the funds available for use why were they made available and not shown as a pending deposit instead Since this issue I’ve been trying to think of another way to manage my money safely Me having a safe isnt much use because then it’s within my reach to spend Ugh Am I being paranoid? Or is this another way for the bank to rob you blind using the pandemic as an excuse to hike up interest rates and charge you an excessive amount of fees Awhile maintaining their innocence saying it’s totally legal?
BANKING SCAM : Tri City National Bank
I’ve been with this bank and had the same acct .Beyond adding a few for 10 years.. in the last two months I’ve received overdraft fees 3 this month and my savings account it’s charged $5 service charges I went last month to find out what the deal was they apologized and said they changed the date of the direct deposit from my checking to my savings so instead of it going on the 15th of every month like it has been they now pick and choose when they want to take it and they ll take it twice in one month so they can charge you a $5 service charge for not making a deposit in the next that’s the SAVINGS….. now back to the checking over that I’ve always had my account setup to where they were not to pay any Bill and or debit card purchase that will make the account overdraft it been that way forever got an overdraft charge last month.. literally out of nowhere so I went in they apologized and said they will do me the courtesy of courtesy mind you giving it to me back not to mention it’s setup to never be overdrafted and he promised that would never happen again I got three of them this month in one day an account again that doesn’t allow I need Bill and their debit card purchases to go through if it’s going to overdraft I even looked on my online banking and sure nuff all my accounts say no to the overdraft option but yet they still feel they can charge three times in one day suffice it to say I’m changing Banks and talking to a lawyer
Yes trully Banks are a differrent kind if theif. I have an account with BOA. I requested an account review because I saw a withdrawal posted on a day I did not do any activity on my acct. I had also had a negative situation with an ATM that declined to give me money when I knew I had a big bal. I was afraid it had charged off my acct and did not give me $$. Suffice it to say I filed a claim of $203. After revviewing acct. I found the charge to be ok. However they did not cancel the claim. They said they extended .me the credit in a $1400 bal. A credit was unnecwssary on a $1400 bal. They come back and charge me $203 when my bal. Is less then $20 and say they are adjusting my acct. With a ghost $ amount. The charge had canceled out 2 weeks before. Beware a new scam.
Bank of the west lost $100 in cyberspace. I transferred from my bank to Venmo $100. The money never showed up on my Venmo amd also never showed back up in my bank account. I called Venmo and my bank and they both blamed the other. I wasn’t on the phone with the about 5 times over a course of 2.5 months. My bank person even admitted over the phone to me where she could see where the money was removed. It was never resolved and I never got back my $100. Bank of the west isn’t what it use to be.
Center state bank in Georgia just charged me 400$ in overdraft fees! I had money being transferred into the account but obviously not fast enough for them, they saw an opportunity to take from the poor and give to the rich. I lost my job during the pandemic and I’ve been struggling to make ends meet. I told this to them and then was told that I knew what I was doing, and I’m irresponsible. Then was hung up on by the manager of this bank. Do not sign up for overdraft “protection” they are not there to help you. They literally took every penny I have and I can’t get food or gas or pay any bills at this moment. It blows me away how bad this country has fallen into the hands of the wealthy and theres little help offered to the hard working people of this country. Everyone needs to wake up and stop all of this nonsense before it’s too late. We need a real voting system to make sure corruption and greed aren’t at the top or major corporations!
Deposited a check with 2,000 going to my debit card and 1000 in cash. Been using the cash and when trying to use my card it keeps getting declined. Go to the bank and they say that the 2000 isn’t in the debit account . I don’t have the receipt for the deposit and the account but the date they gave me for the check is different than when I cashed . Lord help us….
My fiancé and I have been banking with Woodforest for several years. But up until recently we have been noticing that money is going missing from our account. Our balance doesn’t add up on a weekly basis now. At one point we had 200 dollars in our account, spent 24, and somehow had 30 dollars left in our account the next day. No charges that we were not aware of showed up. It’s like our money is literally disappearing. We haven’t had that much disappear since then, but it still happens in smaller amounts. Something definitely isn’t right. And after reading the stories on this page, it just verifies that banks don’t deserve their customers and they act like criminals more than anything else.
Rbc
my acc went to -45 for a day and my account was dinged for it No courtisy for 30 yr customer!
Also, transferred from savings to checking which is instant deposit for a pmt due after the transfer. They registered the transfer as going in after the pmt came out instead, made it look like the money wasnt there plus dinged my account 45 for nsf fee. Pay attention folks
I really don’t know if this is a scam. I found a charge on my debit card . Called to inform bank that it was charged and I did not charge it, nor did I order the product that they say I did. Our bank stated that we would have to send in all info about transaction. There was no transaction. They kept sending refusal letters because we could not give them the information they requested. Just got another letter stating that we did not send info during time frame given. Case was closed. They in pas have always contacted us when someone gets our no# and charges . They immediately shut down acct. So what is their problem? I am very ticked off now, so I am going to get them one way or another and change banks. Oh yeah, been with them more than 20 yrs.
The reality is that if you pay a loan for the 30yr note, you are paying 3 times what the house is worth. Our country, let’s the banking and ins companies, steal, without reservation, the money we all sweat and bleed for. I do roofing. It’s so disheartening to pay 15 yrs on a note, and hardly see it move. I have a cap, of what I can charge, and if I go over it. I go to jail for price gouging but if the banks do it, they get a nod from the goverment. Not cool, actually its criminal. Banks should have a cap of 20% on home loans, for the ppl of this country..Henry Paulson? Treasury Sec? Creator of the mortgage melt down? Goldman sachs? 230million he retired with, before the crash? Smells like a duck
Taxpayers should refuse enmasse to pay taxes while banks steal our hard-earned. No taxation without proper financial representation….
3 banks have aloud over 500,000 my money to be wired into criminal account! I’ve been fighting in court system for 5yrs! They’re refusing to refund me. The Philadelphia Inquirer is reluctant to expose these banks! I’m not They’re wellsfargo, BB&T and vanguard
Last week I deposited a check at BBand T. They put a hold on my account, allowing different amounts to be credited at different days. I waited a few days and then used my card at a cafe for a small amount. It went through just fine, and went through fine each time after that. Then all of the sudden it was declined. When I signed on to my account, they had held the check for a WEEK, yet allowed me to use the card, and yet charged me a fee each time I did, until the day they had decided they would credit the full deposit, then it was declined, even though the full amount was credited that day as of five oclock. CRIMINAL THIEVES. I have a friend who works in the bank industry who tells me this is how the bank makes money. I will get this money back or I will guarandamntee you I will make sure it costs them well more than what they have stolen, one way or another. This is CRIMINAL.
Washington Mutual: Banking Scam
About 5 years ago I opened an account at Washington Mutual. The teller I spoke to told me that for a limited time when I open a new account I get a savings account for free. I told him I didn’t need it yet he insisted in fact I literally argued with him on the matter for a good 5 minutes or so. In the end I gave up and told him “fine, but it will never be used”. About 5 months later I went to make a purchase and my debit card declined though I KNEW I had money in my account. It ended up being a two week long issue with the bank. $100 had mysteriously disappeared and even Washington Mutual couldn’t tell me what happened to it. In the end we found that the money had been put into my savings account without my knowledge or consent. They apologized and admitted the fault was on them. So I asked if they were going to drop the $90 in overdraft fee’s since it was their mistake. They told me no. At that point I wanted to end my services with them but was forced to pay the $90 in overdraft fees just to close the account.
Valene – thanks for sharing your Washington mutual banking scam. It amazes me that for $90 they would let an unhappy client walk away – basically, losing you and your friends for life.
Make sure you check your credit to make sure that nothing was reported by them erroneously. Keep in mind, 79% of American’s have an error on their credit report, many of them are reported by our banks.
Keep us posted.
Ah, just another one of the many surcharges that are popping up everywhere. Banks know these types of charges are bogus and are profiting on the people that are too shy or nervous or uninformed to say anything about them. It’s the same with overdraft fees. There’s no way that an overdraft costs the bank $35. It’s up to the end user to speak up and save themselves some cash.