I can't believe these jerks. Back in February, I opened a 2nd account with Wachovia. I received a check/debit card. I used the card in Arizona on vacation. When I returned home, the wife and I went to dinner, and I tried using my old card for the 1st account. It was denied. I called the bank, and they said it was expired. I said, no, it isn't. They said oh, well, I see it doesn't expire for another 3 years, so we will re-activate it.

Went to use it again, it was denied. It took me 8 calls to Wachovia to finally get the problem fixed. It turns out that since I used the new card on the 2nd account, it automatically deactivated the card on the old account. They couldn't explain why, it just did. So they corrected the problem. I decided to cancel the account and go to a credit union, where this crap just doesn't happen. I let the account dwindle down, but I knew exactly how much money was in there to cover pending charges.

Meanwhile, because of the card screw-up, Wachovia decided to charge me $8.00 in SERVICE FEES for CALLING THEM!! I had $220.84 in debits clearing my account. I should have had 220.96 in the account, but because of the 8.00 service fee, I got dinged for an overdraft AND an Non-Available Funds (overlimit) fee, totaling $70.00.

I called them, and the supervisor said she will refund one of the fees, because I didn't have enough in the account to cover both transactions. I said go ahead. But after taking the time after work to actually count the money, it turns out I did have plenty of money to cover the debits, with .12 left over.

I call them back, and say, hey, you made a mistake and I want the other fee refunded. This idiot supervisor says, no, she can't do that because they already gave me a COURTESY refund!! WHAT??? They screwed up, I didn't overdraw my account and they are not going to refund my money for their mistake??? All she kept saying, like a broken record, was since they already gave me a refund of half, then I am not entitled to the other half of MY MONEY. These people have the IQ of a d**n rock. Look up stupid in the dictionary, it says 'See Wachovia'. I wish I had been there when she said that to me, I've never hit a woman in my life, but I would've b**ch-slapped that stupid c**t across the room!

It's not over. I will get my money back.

I called Wachovia to prevent fraud on my account and received no help from them, only a guarantee that they intended to honor the fraudulent charges (even reading a memo stating that Shopping Essentials was legitimate and that customer requests to prevent charges were to be ignored).

I received an email from a defrauding company Shopping Essentials, stating their intention to charge me a recurring charge. I was frightened, because they had my NAME and correct email address! I do NOT respond to unsolicited email. I do NOT click on any links. I delete all spam. I have never done business with Shopping Essentials, nor had I authorized any charges to them, but I do do much business on the internet. I am pretty savvy and do my best to avoid any internet fraud. I called Wachovia Bank to block charges from this company.

In the past, Wachovia's Fraud Department has demonstrated pretensions of being active, calling me in a panic when I have had $11 charges at my usual Publix, and when I have my regular, monthly appointment with my physical therapist, so I have had some misplaced sense that they might be sensitive to a report of fraud before the fact. Further research shows me that Wachovia has had class action suits against them for this sort of fraud, which makes me need to be extremely pro-active.

I called Wachovia to fend off this charge in advance. Instead, the first service rep read me a Wachovia Memo, telling me that they communicate with Shopping Essentials, and that I must have clicked on something on the internet which gave Shopping Essentials the right to use my account. They told me that Shopping Essentials is a legitimate company. And that Wachovia would honor all charges to Shopping Essentials unless I closed my card and opened a new card.

We all know that closing a credit card or bank account CAUSES BAD CREDIT and I have an 'excellent' rating right now. Further, I am about to renegotiate my mortgage -- which will require my present high credit rating.

I asked for a supervisor.

The supervisor, confirmed all the CSR had said. She instructed me (according the Wachovia memo) to call Shopping Essentials and cancel the fraudulent charges. She gave me a new telephone number (which wasn't open). And told me to respond to the email and try to cancel it from there (despite all my training and alertness to never respond to fraudulent email!).

She told me that I must get the account / card to which Shopping Essentials planned to charge me before Wachovia would do anything. This would require me to contact the company to ask them what account they planned to use to defraud me.

Everything she told me was against my training and protocol to prevent fraud, and seemed to encourage more fraud. But this was her instruction, handed down from Wachovia Corporate -- despite their prior experiences with Class Action suit won against them for what seems like similar problems.

Despite my reluctance to call the company or to click on any email, I felt I needed to follow her instructions, because I was powerless and it was clear that Wachovia's so-called fraud protection was useless. The supervisor made it clear that they would NOT protect me, that they would compromise my credit rating, and there was nothing I could do through them to protect myself. It also seemed that they were complicit in an arrangement with Shopping Essentials.

Cut off at the knees by Wachovia, (so much for their fraud department which seems to be a sham) I have contacted Shopping Essentials, with great trepidation. I clicked on their information wondering what other fraud was being spawned by my responding with legitimate information.

They had all sorts of information on me, but NOT my telephone number. I did cancel online. However, this does NOT feel legitimate. I fear the upspring of all sorts of possible internet fraud from now on. Where did they get this information? When I joined CostCo? When I bought from Sears? According to Shopping Essentials, the account they fraudulently opened in my name, is now closed. But how can I trust a company that perpetrates fraud in the first place? Who are they selling my information to? What can I do to protect myself in the future, now that I am compromised?

What internet sites should I now report to in order to protect my credit?

Recently I attempted to get clarification on over draft fees charged to my account by Wachovia Bank. I got the same explanation from every person I spoke to. Apparently, if you have transactions already deducted from your available balance and due to post the next business day Wachovia can/will kick the transactions back to take money out for a HOLD transaction. This of course results in lining their pockets with all the insufficient funds fee for each transaction made before the HOLDing transaction was placed.

When I asked for full refund on the 4 NSF charges I was told that they did nothing wrong, but offered a refund on 20% (that's only $28 of $140). I just don't get it. I even wrote to Wachovia's correspondence department fighting these charges and the answer from them was that they did nothing wrong.

I asked the numerous customer service representatives why and how a transaction that is HOLDING can override the transactions already made and deducted from my account and due to post on the same day the HOLD was placed can cause all of these charges. I was never able to get a straight answer, on their system it showed that the charges were correct, but when I told them over and over again why then does THEIR online service show my transactions clearing then AFTER they've cleared the over draft fees totaling $140 show up. HMMM, no one can explain this.

So after all of this I get stuck paying them $175 in over draft fees and causes a snowball effect on my end because money I was counting on is being stolen by Wachiovia's bad business tactics to make money.

My latest and greatest problem I'm having with them is that they are honoring transactions made on an EXPIRED debit card. A card that was no longer valid on 06/30/08. Yet they posted a transaction made with this very card on 07/25/08, almost a month after the card expired. Oh, yes... it generates more overdraft fees for them.

I called the customer service line to ask if it is normal business practices to honor transactions made with EXPIRED cards and was not able to get a straight answer. I got a legal answer claiming if i authorized the transaction then it's possible to a transaction to be posted. I'm sorry, if the card is expired why would I authorize a transaction to made on it??

How is it LEGAL for the banks to do these things?? After reading everyone else's stories, I'm glad to know that I'm not the only one dealing with this, and that I'm not crazy! I've been banking with Wachovia for about a year and a half. I have a checking account with them. During the year and a half that I've had the account, I've paid out around $1, 000.00 in bogus "overdraft" fees to Wachovia.

I'll give you an example - say you have $200.00 in your checking account, and you make a $100.00 purchase using your VISA debit card. If you do not use your PIN, the transaction is run as "credit", the $100.00 is immediately deducted from your available balance, and the transaction is moved over to the "pending transactions", where it sits for 3-5 days. At this point, you have an available balance of $100.00. So now, let's say you make three more purchases - one for $10.00, one for $20.00, and one for $30.00. That leaves you with an available balance of $40.00...

A few days later, you look at your account and realize that you've been hit with several "insufficient funds" fees. You HAD an available balance of $40.00, and all your transactions were already deducted from your original available balance, so HOW can you be negative???

Here's the explanation I got from Wachovia...

According to them, when you make a purchase with your debit card - whether it's run as a debit or a credit transaction - the money is immediately deducted from your available balance, and the transaction is shown as "processing" or it sits in the "pending transactions". However, once the each transaction is posted to the account, they charge them against the available balance AGAIN. You are charged twice for each transaction you made - once when the initial purchase was made, and again when the transaction posts to the account.

So, with the example I gave above, here's what happens...

You have $40.00 in available funds in your account, and your transactions are pending, ready to be posted. Your total transactions are $160.00. Well, since your current available balance is only $40.00, it's less than the amount on hold, so they count it as a negative balance. WHAT??? They already deducted it from my balance... why do they deduct it TWICE???

To get bogus fees, that's why. They are ripping people off left and right, and if you ask them about it, you get nothing but nasty attitude and excuses. No one at Wachovia can seem to give a reasonably intelligent answer as to why they operate this way. The only answer I've gotten is "that's just our procedure".

I honestly don't understand how this is legal. It's THEFT.

I recently had NSF Fees charged to my account and they could have been avoided, if they had placed them in another order in which they were deducted from my account, as there were Sufficient Funds in the account to cover the payments, all except one, but instead they deducted the payments in such a way as to insure that they would get the absolute maximum amount of NSF Fees that they could possibly get from my account... I asked them about it and was told that they usually charge accounts for the larger amounts first and then the others, which is a very POOR excuse for doing what they did in this case... I have complained about this to them, but it does NO GOOD!!! Supposedly they are suppose to HELP people with managing there Money and try to Save them also, but they sure do not show it here with what they did with me... They are only out to take your Money and nothing more, they are Thieves and something needs to be done about it... I have had other circumstances with them also involving similar problems with NSF Fees charged without any regards for Senior Citizens, as they get Paid only once per month and they seem to pick them out of all of the others and harass them with charges and multiple Fees, etc... I even had a Overdraft Protection with them and all of a sudden I now do not have it for NO Reason of my knowledge, they just canceled it and now I cannot get it again... so they charge me for the Full amount of NSF Fees...
Wachovia Bank, I have seen by others and myself, is a very BAD Bank to do business with, and I suggest that everyone remove themselves from it and Do Not have anything to do with them, as also I will be doing this, shortly from now...