I bank with Wachovia in Georgia and up until last month I had never had a problem with them. They decided to let an unauthorized transaction to go thru my account and when I called and asked that the account be closed they didn't do it and allowed other charges to come thru and charged me several Hundreds of dollars in fees. I complained to them but they told me it was my fault and to deal with it. They also took it upon themselves to drain my other account and put that money in the account that had unauthorized transactions even after I explained to them that the money they took had already been spent. They told me that it was my problem and I would still incur other fees and would not get them back!

I had to apply three times in order for someone in Wachovia's underwriting department to finally APPROVE my application on a property that was / is an investment property.

Wachovia was way understaffed in both their loss mitigation department and their underwriting department. Since August of 2009 when I started this whole process I found the following to be true of Wachovia;

1) They are understaffed in the all the departments which handle their loan modicifiations

2) The rules surrounding loan mods change daily and even on the hour so customer service representatives in their loss mitigation area do not speak with one voice and often one person will tell you one thing, the next hour tell you something totally different. As a result, as a banking institution they loose all credibility. They lack the foresight to properly train their representatives to answer questions correctly the first time. Wachovia also needs to streamline the process, have better software and tracking of loans in process, and also assign one UNDERWRITER per file, not a room and people who pick up files randomly and supposedly work the file. In this process one day I had and UNDERWRITER pick up my file, bounce it back and said I need to update my P+L statement. The very next day after I spent 3 hours fulfilling the request and faxing it in, another UNDERWRITER - totally different person (I verified this) said my file was fine and no update was needed.

How ridiculous is that. It would be like seeing a different dentist every few months and wasting time having someone become reaquainted with your teeth every time you see the dentist.

Yet this is concerning a expensive property that you want help retaining.

3) One of their representatives told me AFTER I was approved Feb. 2010 that only 5 percent of all the people who apply for a loan modification get approved. Pretty bleak odds I would say.

4) If your going to apply with a loan modification with any bank, load all your documents on a computer in the form form of a PDF file and use an online service such as efax...this way when someone tells you in customer service - "oh we never got your fax" - you simply keep sending what they need - relentlessly.

5) The reason why UNDERWRITERS will ask for ridiculous items in paper work is because often times, behind the scenes issues like an in house appraisal or requesting copies of your previous tax returns from the IRS take a long time to complete and get in your file...so if they are falling behind in obtaining these issues...they will start asking for crazy items to be faxed, like a letter from your employer as to when you started your job, if your belly button is an innie or an outie, important issues like this.

6) You have to hold UNDERWRITERS feet to the fire and actually at the start of your application, FAX them way more than they ask for - that what this greatly diminishes them asking for more later on. If you get a new pay stub along the time line of doing this process, fax it in everytime, if your bank generates a new bank statement fax it in.

7) One of the most disconcerting things is at least a Wachovia,
on loans that are being modified outside the government program called HEMP, as MAP program which is modeled after the government program, are given a 70 day time clock where even IF all you paper work has been faxed in and scanned into your file, the computer is governed to automatically kick you out of the system, they use the word EXPIRED...which means to NO FAULT OF YOUR OWN, you have to start the whole process all over again. In my case, since I had to apply all over again, which in my case, being self employed, I have to REFAX OVER 400 DOCUMENTS THREE TIMES FOR THREE APPLICATIONS...this is absolutely ridiculous.

8) This point is the MOST IMPORTANT of them all.

When you do your initial financial interview over the phone where the put all your expenses on your file all your income, you never get to see a copy of this - even though there could and usually are some human input errors. In my case, the second application, the customer service representative typed in that per month I paid $1, 600 per month for a property management company to manage my rentals - WHEN THE CORRECT FIGURE I GAVE THEM WAS $198 - just that wrong amount alone got me turned down because my debt ratio was totally off. I had no idea this error was there until during my third and final interview, a customer service represent compared the figures and brought it to my attention. How you respond and the figures you give in the initial interview are CRUCIAL - and can and will make all the difference as to whether your file will be DENIED OR APPROVED...Make the representative read back you line by line ever item before you close your interview.

9) Lastly, and this is kicker of all, when I was approved, no where on the entire two page offer (approval) does WACHOVIA bother to mention that because my offer involved about $50, 000 debt reduction, reducing my principal balance substantially, that they will send me and the IRS a 1099-C
form, making me liable to pay taxes on that amount.
How they can get away without fully disclosing this is beyond me. I happy to be a detail person and love protect myself, so I did my own homework on this issue. Only if the loan modification involves your primary residence, you might can be 'excused' from this 1099-C making you financially responsible for taxes on this amount and even kicking you potentially into a much higher tax bracket than you normally would have been.

If some of these details empowers you to not give up on your own pursuits of a loan modification, it would make me really happy to have extended some helpful advice.

Since August 2009, I called Wachovia at least 2 times a day to finally get this approved in 2010.

I banked with Southtrust before it became Wachovia . Since the change to Wachovia, I have had nothing but trouble. I have never bounced a check in my life and have excellent credit, clearly not someone who is check kiting, but on 3 different occassions, my checks have been presented for payment BEFORE my $2000+ deposit, even though they were entered the same day. This is only one of a million things that have gone wrong while banking with them.

I asked to file a complaint and they said that they don't accept customer complaints. Well no wonder they are #1 in customer service, they don't take complaints. Everytime I have called, I have gotten a rude, person with horrible grammer, hardly the face of what the business is trying to convince you of. They have cost me over $1500 in fees and random "service fees" over the past year.

HORRIBLE!

I was charge for 15 nsf fees totaling 525.00 when in fact there were NO overdrafts except for the ones caused by the nsf fees themselves. After sitting down with the Bank Financial Specialist, who could also find no reason for the nsf fees, she makes a call to someone who then takes about 30 minutes to try and configure some explanaation for the charges, at which point, the specialist tries to relay that to me. Looking at the account, there was no basis for these charges. And I am but one voice standing up for fair banking procedures, but if enough are heard, maybe changes will be made.

Wachovia predatory fees

About a year after opening a chequing account with Wachovia, I opened a savings account and deposited 15, 000. In 2 Months I made 10 dollars in interest. Since I had an account with another bank which payed noticeably higher interest, I decided I was going to close my Wachovia savings account. I began transferring money from my savings account to my chequing account in 1000 dollar increments online. Each time I did this, I was shown a message informing me that if I continued transferring funds out of my savings account the bank was obligated to report this to the government and that if these transfers continued, the government would compel them to close my savings account and transfer my savings into a non-interest bearing chequing account. I thought this sounded preposterous and was incensed that the bank was telling me what I could and couldn't do with my own money ( this wasn't a CD account just an ordinary savings account), but since I was going to close the account anyway, I really wasn't bothered by their bullying scaremonger tactics. Recently, I inadvertently withdrew 40 dollars from my savings at the ATM. I meant to withdraw from my chequing account. I was charged a 45 dollar excessive withdrawal fee! After having 100s of dollars stolen in ISF fees, this was the straw which broke the camel's back. I once had someone deposit two cheques concurrently. A supposedly lost cheque, and the replacement I had given them. I had enough money to cover one of these 325 dollar cheques, but the bank bounced then both and assessed a ridiculous ISF fee. The usurious, predatory fee schedule this bank uses to steal it's customers' money really makes me wonder how they manage to keep any. I am closing my accounts with Wachovia and expecting to be hit hard for my outrageous consumer proactivity. Hopefully my true story will cost them a few customers and at least compensate me with a small moral victory. I am waiting for the Obama administration to address the fact that banks make 60% of their profits in predatory fees. I fear I wait in vain.

AngryConsumer