I opened my account with Charter One about a year ago, and have nothing but problems since...

Most of the issues i've had have to do with their "online banking"...it shows something has cleared, then clears "again" the following day. I've been told by customer service to "not rely on the online banking ledger, it's often incorrect"... REALLY? Then WHY HAVE IT?

Today was the straw that broke the camels back for me though.

I used their online bill pay to have my car payment taken out. I've done this before, with no problem. I selected my date based on my deposit going in (which most of us do).

I checked my ledger this morning and seen that they took my payment out 2 days early. Because of this, 4 other debits cleared and overdrew my account. We're talking 4 overdraft fees at $39 a pop!!! Knowing that this must be an error, I called their customer service line.

The first time I called, I explained my situation. The lady seemed nice enough and even said she understood what happened, and that she looked at the digital check and saw the date was for 2 days later than it was taken out. I explained that if they had taken the payment out when I authorized it, the other 4 items would have cleared no problem. she said she realized this and could see it based on their stupid "ledger".

She puts me on hold for 4-5 minutes. I'm assuming she's doing the necessary things to reverse the fees that will no doubt be accrued (after 11am which is when they add on all their fees). She gets back on the phone with me and tells me, "ma'am, um, the company took the money from your account after recieving your digital check. They don't have to wait til your authorization date."

WHAT???? Are you freaking kidding me????

So, I say, "Um, that doesn't make alot of sense...you select the date you want your bills paid. So, if they can just take the money whenever they want (which ironically has NEVER happened before) then WHY even select a date?"

At this point too, I'm realizing where this is going, and i'm starting to cry. I'm a single mom and in my head i'm adding -$114.00 plus 160.00 in fees and it's not even close to what i'm depositing. So, i'm about to be screwed for 2 weeks!!

I say to the lady, "This can't be right!!! I chose the date and they took it out before that. that wasn't authorized.. Now i'm gonna get charged 4 fees when you clearly can see that I had the money to cover everything."

Her response:

"I can understand why you're upset, but unfortunatley there is NOTHING we can do. Is there anything else I can help you with today?"

Yes, she actually ASKED me that.

my answer:

"Why yes there is. You can explain to my kids how you just stole money from me and now they wont be eating very well for the next week or two."

Then I hung up...and started sobbing.

After I composed myself, and tried to understand HOW this was happening, I called back.. this time determined to get some help!!

I spoke to a guy named John first. He explained this wasn't his dept. I told him get to an online banking supervisor or manager. I work in customer service (not for a bank) and I know that supers and mgrs will help more to keep customers and have more authority.

So, John puts me on hold for another 4 or 5 minutes after I explain what happened. He transfers me to Tamika, NOT a supervisor, who immediately told me she was just waiting for her supervisor to transfer me. She again told me she understood my situation and how it was indeed the wrong date and there should be some way they could help me. At that point I told her if they didn't reverse the o/d fees, I would simply close my account. If making $160 was more important to them than keeping a customer, then fine.

Tamika puts me on hold for ANOTHER 4-5 minutes. I'm thinking for sure now this will be resolved. How wrong I was!!!

She gets back on the phone and says, "Ma'am, i'm sorry but we have a disclosure that states that online bill pay can be taken on or BEFORE the date you select. Unfortunately, we are unable to reverse any of the fees, but thank you for banking with us."

Thank you for banking with us?? Well hell yeah, making money like that off people like me, i'm sure they are VERY thankful!

So I told her I would be in later today to close my account and would be happy to take my banking elsewhere. I deposit about $4000 a month, so I hope that $160 was worth it.

Charter One is definitely NOT a customer oriented bank, but they are surely a fee and "disclosure" bank. Even when they have to steal your money to get it!!!

I have several accounts at a CharterOne Bank, personal and business and I have been going there for many years. They recently started charging me tons of fees and they will not reverse them. I own a retail business and accept credit card payments. Those payments go through a processing company and are supposed to be deposited to my account within two business days. That processing company, Heartland/Bank of America, has now delayed those deposits up to 7 days. Those delayed deposits have put my account in the negative when my bill payments are posted. I was never informed of this change and I am supposed to take the over $1, 000 losses in fees and accept the changes made.
CharterOne also transferred funds from my savings account and drained that to cover the checks that were posted earlier than what the deposits were supposed to be posted and they charged me the fees anyway. Is anything ever going to be done to end the bank corruption?
So the bankers get billions in taxpayer bailout money and now they turn around and rob their customers on top of it? This needs to be stopped!

This bank is really killing me. Can anybody tell me who is the regulator for this bank. How can I officially lodge a complaint against this bank? Please post it here.

Where is congress in all this. Why aren't they looking at the way this goons get away with all these fees?

My husband has been a customer with Charter One for nearly 5 years, and 4 months ago I was added as a joint account holder.

I have been a customer of several banks, as well as worked at the corporate headquarters of a very large midwestern bank for some time. Through my experiences as both a bank customer, and a bank employee, I can honestly say that my short 4 months with Charter One has proven to me that it is the worst banking institution I've ever had the misfortune of dealing with. Every staff member I've ever spoken to, at several different branches and the telephone banking service, has displayed consistent and flagrant negligence, poor customer service, a complete ineptitude for simple tasks, and an unwillingness to resolve issues (most of which were generated by them in the first place).

In the past month alone, my husband and I have been the victims of these so-called "trained" bank personnel. Gabrielle at the Mack Ave., Saint Clair Shores branch 'helped' us more than once, and each time the process was ridiculously drawn out as she took several customer calls while we were at her desk, interrupting her focus from us. This resulted in a mistake that I now cannot fix. She entered my social security number wrong, despite me reminding her twice to correct it before I left the branch! Now, I cannot use the telephone banking service because I have no idea what number sequence she mistakenly put in, therefore cannot "accurately verify" my identity (hah!) and apparently I have to go to a branch in person to have this corrected. That would be a little difficult, as I now live in England, and at the time of her mistake, Gabrielle knew we were moving overseas just days after this visit.

On another occasion, at the same branch, a young man at the counter first told my husband he could not apply a credit card payment to our credit card without the card itself. Now, we both know this isn't true. After telling him this, he insisted that he had never applied a payment without the card before but that he would 'try to do it without the card'. After 20 minutes of standing at the counter dealing with his poor attitude, the payment was finally applied.

In a Grosse Pointe branch, we attempted to purchase British pounds in preparation for our move to England. The woman behind the counter appeared to know what she was doing, only to call us several hours later saying she had mistakenly charged us for Euros, not Pounds, and that we'd have to come back in to pay the remaining amount, as she had undercharged us by nearly $1, 000. Not only did she call us, complaining about her mistake, but her poor attitude in general throughout the course of the telephone conversation earned her a reprimand from the branch manager, whom we had to speak to several times to correct this mistake.

Most recently, I signed on to our online account to monitor our activity, and noticed over $300 in exchange fees. Outraged at these fees, I emailed Charter One requesting to be contacted. No one has contacted me yet regarding this matter. I also called the telephone banking system to resolve this, was then put on hold for several minutes, only to have the young man come back on the line to tell me these charges are from MasterCard, not the bank.

The call was dropped by my cell phone before he was able to help me further, so I immediately called back and spoke to a woman who informed me of the aforementioned social security number error. After bypassing her and speaking to her supervisor, my husband and I got the same run-around as the first time; the fees were from MasterCard, and Charter One would be taking absolutely no responsibility for them, even though the card used is a bank issued debit card.

My husband patiently and calmly explained to this woman that he's visited Europe on several occasions and each time these fees have not been an issue. She remained adamant that she could not resolve this issue for us, and advised us to contact MasterCard. I question why no one, at any branch, thought to mention this fee to us? We sat with Gabrielle for nearly an hour on two separate occasions and talked about our impending move to Europe. She said she would have to note on our cards that we were planning to use them in Europe, so as not to falsely alert the fraud protection feature on our account.

At no time in this discussion did she mention that using said card would result in a fee. We were assured by her that using our cards over here was completely safe; obviously she was mistaken. I hardly call $300 in ridiculous fees being 'safe'.

I sent Charter One a complaint outlining all these issues, and in response I got a very generic "We're sorry you feel that way" email. Not only that, but since lodging my complaint, our Online Banking Bill Pay feature mysteriously has been disabled. This is fantastic news, as we have no way of issuing checks from this account now!! Now we have to spend yet another 20GBP on an international phone call to their customer service line which will probably result in nothing!

Charter One is untrustworthy, unreliable, unhelpful, and is a stunning example of appalling customer service. Henceforth, we plan to do whatever we can to undermine this bank and ensure no one else need have an experience like we have.

I bank with AmTrust, and I wrote my landlord a check for 250.00, when he went to his bank and deposited it into his account they accidently posted it for 252.00 ($2 more than what I wrote it out for). It cleared, another check I wrote cleared then my check for Time Warner Cable bounced by .22 cents. I was charged a fee by my bank, and when I brought this to their attention, they refunded me the fee of $35 they had charged me. After a couple days the two dollar difference was back in my account. Then a $25 charge was taken out by Time Warner for their check bouncing. Time Warners check would not have bounced if Charter One had not made the mistake in the first place. Charter one is refusing to pay the fee. They told me it is my banks responsibility, and if I was a customer they would take care of it. It is not my fault, it is not my banks fault, it is Charter Ones fault. They will not pay that fee. Because a teller does not know how to use a key pad, and took 2 dollars more from my account I have to pay someone else $25. They told me it wasn't their problem. They are in hurry to collect a fee from someone if they do bounce (account holders), but when they make a mistake and it costs me money, they are refusing to make good of it. This is not fair. It is beyond the money, it is now a issue about principle and good business.