I wanted to post this sooner but I had to calm down first. I know. It’s never stopped me before but I really wanted to take a breath on this one.
I had some accounts a TCF bank for a while. I would hear from people that they sucked but they had always treated me OK and they got the money back that I lost in an evil ass Chase ATM. But starting last year I began having more than the usual problem (female teller’s at my local branch being snotty with me for god knows what reason) with the TCF call center.
I called in one day to find out why there were 2 overdrafts on my account but the operator informed me that she wasn’t going to give me that information because it was obvious (by my deep voice) that i was a man and trying to fraudulently gain access to my own account. When I asked why she couldn’t just ask me the security question that I had set up on my account – she said “ma’am (remember she thinks i’m a man), you could have gotten that information from anywhere.
When I asked how I could prove that i was not only a woman but indeed me, she said i would have to go into a branch and prove to the manager i was a woman and then the manager would have to call the call center so that they could notate on my account that despite my deep voice – i was indeed a woman.
The request to speak to a supervisor only got me a nastier woman who mistook me for the bitch fucking her husband or something. That conversation did get a waive of one of the ATM fees a a lecture about how I need to keep better track of my finances because TCF could not be responsible for notifying me when my account was getting low and even though there were insufficient funds in the accounts (unbeknown to me) they would continue honoring and paying any and all charges that came into the account all the while racking up $34 a pop NSF fees.
I did ask about overdraft protection and was told that i could get that for $36 a month/per account (whether i was overdrawn or not). I also was given the address of a complaint department and I did write a scathing letter to them but never heard back. I’m thinking the address was a fake or they just don’t care.
But that situation only rates a kiss my ass.
What rates a kiss my ass in hell you ask?
Keep reading…
On 6/30/08 I went into my TCF branch to close all of my bank accounts. I was helped by the banks manager. On that day (to my knowledge) he closed those accounts. I was issued checks for the balances of all the accounts but one because i was told there was a pending charge on the account and that money would be left there to cover it.
On 7/3/08 i received a postcard in the mail from TCF saying that my account (that had the charge pending when i closed it) had a balance of -$36.00 because of insufficient funds to cover a $24.90 charge (the pending charge) plus an additional $34.00 for NSF. I thought it was an oversight and would reconcile itself.
On 7/11/08 I checked my account at my new bank to see if my payroll check had been direct deposited. I found out that despite putting in a request to change my direct deposit to a new back weeks prior, the the money was deposited into my closed TCF personal checking account. I told my human resources person immediately. They said it was too late to do anything that day but said they would get the money back from TCF and would deposit the money in my new account on Monday 7/14/08.
On 7/14/08 I checked my new account and saw the posting and thought this matter was settled but when I got home that evening there was another postcard in the mail from TCF, this time on my personal checking account saying that the account i believed to be closed now had a balance of $-200.00. After receiving this postcard I immediately called the call center (because TCF doesn’t have a direct number to the branch) and asked what was going on with these closed accounts. I was told that the one account was still open because I had NSF to cover the pending charge. When i tried to explain that the accounts were closed I was only met with, you’re not listening to me ma’am and its obvious that you don’t want my help. I asked for a supervisor and was told the same thing by them. The accounts were never closed. I had NSF on the accounts and that it was not possible to close accounts over the phone and that I had to go to a branch and I could not be given the name of the manager or the phone number of the branch but I could give them my number and someone would call me back.
By their attitude i didn’t believe anyone would call me back so I called them back. After a lecture about why they can’t give out the banks phone number i was told again to leave my name and phone number and someone would call me back. when i asked what my recourse was if no one called me back and i was told i could call the call center.
On 7/15/08 I called my new bank to see if they could offer any advice. They said the bank should be able to give me the number of a regional manager. I called the call center again was told that I had to go into the branch if I wanted any help so I left work early to get to the bank before it closed.
At the bank a customer service person reiterated all of the things I was told on the phone. The one account was overdrawn because of the pending charge. The personal checking and savings were open because they had existing transfers on the accounts. There was a record of the direct deposit coming in but then a record of it going back out. There was no record that I had ever closed any accounts with them, just that for some reason on 6/30/08 I zeroed out all of my accounts.
I was getting tired of this and asked what it what it would take to close the accounts a second time. I was now told that would be a problem because the closed checking account was now -$250. The other checking was +$14 and the savings was +$196. So if i would pay the -$250 it would put the account back in good standing and they could help me close the accounts for real this time.
I refused to give anyone any money. I did not know why the accounts were open or why money was being transfered. They said there were automatic transfers set up on my account and then explained to me what automatic meant and asked me if someone had fraudulantly accessed my accounts and made these transfers. I tried to explain again that I believed the accounts were closed because i had closed them with the manager of the bank. I had not made any transactions and was not aware that transfers set up by myself and the bank would still be active after the accounts were closed.
Eventually a supervisor came over to see what the problem was. The fact that I believed that I had closed accounts were lost on everyone. The supervisor explained this was not a time for finger pointing and if I would settle up on these accounts they could actually close them this time for real. She also informed me that it wasn’t the pending charge that caused all of these problems but a $4.00 charge from TCF for using a non-TCF ATM that posted after I had thought I closed accounts. She said she could take care of everything and reverse the other banking fees if I paid $2.00 for the ATM fees. I did.
The supervisor then walked me through every screen on the accounts i had previously closed to show me that they were at $0 and that they were marked not to accept anymore transactions of any kind. She apologized for me having to go through all this. We shook hands. I left the bank.
On 7/16/08 I was leaving work and the human resources person said that he’d have to talk to me in the morning because the check processing company said it never got the money back from the TCF and when they tried they were told the account had NSF. I thought he was joking. He said that he wasn’t.
When I got home it was too late to go to the bank. I went online to see if could still access my TCF accounts. The accounts were listed as closed but all had money in them that (minus TCF NSF fees) added up to the amount of my payroll check that my job thought they had reversed.
According to TCF, despite what I was told at the bank, saw on their screen and saw online in my bank account, the payroll check was never reversed back to my job, it was reposted to me (yet again) i’m guessing after I left the bank on 7/15/08 because the supervisor and teller seemed to be unaware of the funds being in the bank at the time. And now since the officially closed account had a positive balance it reactivated the transfers and opened the other two closed accounts again. When the payroll office tried to get the money back a second time, it no longer had the full amount in the single account so the “bounced” the transaction and charged the account another $34 NSF fee.
UGH!
I didn’t see any point in calling the call center because no one from the bank had ever called me back on my initial inquiry. Not knowing what to do I called the call center and asked what I should do if I believe someone is committing fraud on my account. They gave me the number of the Federal Trade Commission (1-877-438-4338). They took a complaint from me and suggested I call the Regulatory Commission for Banks (1-877-793-3470). I called that number and was told that TCF’s official name had an NA after it and they gave me the number to contact the Comptroller of the Currency Administator of National Banks. All of the organizations suggested that I file a complaint even if the issue is resolved because it just really sounded suspicious.
Contacing the comptrollers office got me the number of the Senior Vice President of Branch Support Services at TCF, Jennifer Doherty (630-286-5989). That number got me her assistant Her assistant put me in contact with Valerie Flores (630-286-5883) who indeed gave me a call back. Valerie listened and tried to resolve the problem.
She was able to remove all the fees and take the money out of all of the accounts and return the payroll check to my closed personal checking account but not to my companies payroll department. She said that TCF could issue me a check for the amount of the payroll check, that i could then deposit that in my new bank account and then i could write a check to reimburse my company for the money or i could find my checks for the closed account and write a check to my payroll department.
I am not willing to do this. That money does not belong to me. I received my payroll deposit from my job at my new bank. The money that they are talking about was accepted by TCF on a closed account. Even if it wasn’t “actually” closed the first time, it was closed the 2nd time when they accepted the money again. The money belongs to my job. TCF took it from my job. TCF should have to return it to them.
Valerie said she would have to look into that. She called me back with the number of the Regional Manager of my TCF branch. She said his name was Dan and his number was 773-525-9020 and that he would be waiting for my call to resolve this situation.
I called Dan immediately. There is apparently more than one Dan. We found the right Dan but he did not answer the phone. I called back later and someone answered the phone and said they hadn’t seen Dan. I left a message on his voice mail but have not heard back from him. I am going to try to call Dan back now.
I will let you know what happened.
Thanks for the information. I hope it will help with my situation. TCF is terrible. They should be shut down or bought out immediately!!!
I want to take a huge frothy steamy, stinky shit on every TCF bank entrance!
The devils closed my account, BUT the day they closed it my direct deposit went through, clever huh?
For the last four days they have kept my money, first claiming they did not recieve the direct deposit, or the company I work for bounced my direct deposit check. (I work for the government, they don’t fuck around!).
Soooo…..
I went to the neighborhood TCF and re-opened my account, mind you, I have overdrawn twice in three years, this was my second. They claimed my account was over-drawn for over a month, how was that when I get direct deposit e/o friday, fuck shits.
so when I re-opened my account I took out $150.00 bucks (weekend ya know), TCF bitch told me the rest of my account would be available to me monday,…wha, wha, what was that you say? Why would you give me money if you claim you never recieved my deposit? Fine whatever give me my 150.
This is where shit hits the fan…. Check my on-line balance saturday, because I was really curious how TCF could fuck this up. This is where I need drink…
Not only was my account still closed but NO evidence that my direct deposit went through and my balance is an extra $150.00 over-drawn. Bastards.
Called, said they would call me when the “unfortunate situation has been rectified” the only people who talk that are crooks.
Needless to say I never got a call back.
Come monday, now that I have starved and not washed my hair because I had no money to go tho the store over the weekend, I took my lunch break to deal with hte fucker fucks, (still havent eaten) they reassure me my bank account is full of money waiting to be spent and it should be in my account by the time I got back to work. LIARS!!!
My account is still closed with plenty of money in it.
How does that work?
So after work it will be the third time I have walk through the gates of hell and try like hell to get my money from these thieves, wish me luck.
Thank you for letting me vent.
yeas! I am so sso sick of tcf. friggin a holes. So i go in there just the other day and i was about to lay the guy flat. I wanted to hurl over the counter and.. huhumm. Whatever so any ways. they said that my account was going to be closed due to it being inactive. blah blah. So i set that all up again cuz i had to put my check in there etc.. i tried to tell the chinese lady my friggin problem cuz i had overdrafted supposedly before in another account and they said they already fixed it and it was paid from another account that we had.
NOPE! i just put a big check in there before my present new one and i thought i could get books and stuff for school but they froze my account because it was from that damn overdraft fee before in a old account. OK why would they let me even open a new account if I owed on an old account? that doesn’t make sense. They didnt mention a word about it until later not even when i went into the branch like 5 times after opening it!
Ok. so i called the lady the that i did in the first place. She is actually very nice and said that she remembers my account and that she will take care of it. So. ok
Now to the present.. i just took my check in and they said that i have to have proof that i paid that overdraft fee off from before! which i friggin DID! i have plenty of money in the bank right now and my card doesnt work or anything. So i cant get books or anything for school until these lazyworkers get off their asses and actually do something important for the day. So i am going to call the cuntes now and tell you how i feel after.
Well let me know how it goes.
🙂
WOW, I thought that I was getting screwed. I cannot agree more when you say the people at the call center are rude. I called to make a stop payment (Which didn’t work but they still charged me a fee). I am thinking about leaving this bank in the dust. IT SUCKS!
TCF is a bunch of sharks. Stay away. You have been warned!!
If you understand the waiting period for money transfers and balance your account you should never have a problem. Over drafting should never happen! I have been banking at TCF for 15 years and my whole family banks there!I live check to check (not by choice) but balance diligently! Every bank will charge you nsf fees and if they don’t they will honor it on a high intrest charge card which makes get the same as or more money from you in nsf every bank has an angle to benifit them! they all do! I think some of the tcf staff need to be replaced if they were rude. On a bright note in April TCF is allowing you the choice to not over draft. 🙂 so if you don’t have the funds then it will be declined! :)so no more nsf, Great!! right! oh also next time you close an account they give you a paper (like a ticket) stating the ammounts in the accounts, how much given you, and date the account was closed. for legal proposes if they dont ask for one and take there business cards to cover your self.then if something crazy happens you have ammunition. and they can make it right no questions asked. 😀
Great Post Jay!
Thanx for the info.
I owe them $294. Haha- they’ll never get it!
TCF is a bunch of sharks. Stay away. You have been warned!!
Agreed. Stay away, they have not standard accounting practices which are designed to screw the customer. I have two business accounts with them that we are migrating from. Stay away!
I work there (for 2 more weeks, anyway) and agree with everything you (and all of the commenters) just said.
TCF sucks.
I had almost the same problem…and they added charges to my account after their “new policies” came out with out notifying me! I made a call to the call center and was very upset about the unknown charges. The call center rep kept schooling me on how to read and how I couldn’t manage money she said. I got a call back from the Vice President of TCF bank the next day. She closed my accounts with out me knowing, told me I couldn’t enter any of the banks and charged me with Disorderly conduct for “being mean” to the phone bank operator which carries a 90 days in jail and $3000 fine. The jury trial is set for jan 26 in Minneapolis. Even though the TCF vice president and I (I have the recording) clearly states that I was upset but never any intention of of even going into the bank what so ever to do anything. I wanted the call center to clear up the problem because they told me the bank manager didn’t have the capability to do it.
these fuckers are crooks..
their policy states cash deposits go in same day, yet they only show up daaaays later.
meanwhile they bounce your checks..
they manipulate the order to fuck you out of more money.
the manipulate your ledger, there is absolutely no way these numbers should change..
these fuckers need to be prosecuted under RICO…
I opened an account with TCF in March of 2011 and deposited $50 in there and completely forgot about the account, then in June of 2011 i receive a statement from them saying I owe them $186.00 because of overdraft fees. How did i get the overdraft fees if I NEVER used the account you ask? they were charging me a “Monthly Maintenance Fee” and when my money ran out of the account I never got any notices so they started charging me overdraft fees because i over drafted on one of their fees! I sucked it up and paid it because they said they were going to report me to Chex Systems, now the icing on the cake is I got a call from a collection agency yesterday saying i owe $186.00 and that i have been reported to Chex systems and she had a real bad attitude and i told her that has been paid and the account is closed and she asked me if i had the receipt and i wasn’t sure i told her i would call her back and i found the receipt so today i am going to call her and shove it up her ass!!!!
It’s really amazing to me that they do this stuff to people. I hope you win this fight and glad you didn’t have any more than $50 in there. We have to stop letting these people mistreat us.
We should get together, and start a class action suit!! I hate this thieving ASS bank!!
“I got a call back from the Vice President of TCF bank the next day. She closed my accounts with out me knowing, told me I couldn’t enter any of the banks and charged me with Disorderly conduct for “being mean” to the phone bank operator which carries a 90 days in jail and $3000 fine. The jury trial is set for jan 26 in Minneapolis.”
Really? The vice president of tcf charged you with a crime? That’s amazing. Only a prosecutor can bring charges you fucking liar. Go spread your bullshit elsewhere.
I will be closing my tcf account this week because of the bullshit $9.95 monthly fee they are charging now.
TCF ignored my requests to close my account, continued to charge me some ridiculous fee for an account I didn’t use for 6 months and now has put an almost $70 check systems as NSF and put the debt on my credit report. It was suggested to me that I pay it off and try to be reimbursed so at least it won’t be leaving these ugly false marks on my records.
I’ve just recently had the same problems as everyone else has stated. Sometimes people make mistakes which is understandable with their accounts. I can protest to this because I’ve made that mistake before with thinking I had money and then forgot about a payment or something and then I ended up negative. It happens but that doesn’t give TCF the right to rape us with overdraft fees whether they be the 35 per transaction or the stupid 28 a day they have going on currently. I have had more issues with TCF in the past 5 days than I have in all the 6 years I’ve been banking with them. I have dealt with lots of lies and running around with circles from their “customer service” reps which has caused me nothing but inconveinance and a lot of headaches. I also had a problem because I made a deposit on friday and my account was positive and covered my overdraft fees and left me with a positive balance. I thought hey let me try and get some of the fees reversed because TCF has been real good about helping me out with that in the past. So i Called them and let’s just say it was a terrible experience which caused me to not even want to go into work the next day. They informed me that because my deposit was made after their 2pm deadline that my money basically didn’t count and that I would be charged a overdraft fee on monday and that there was nothing that i could do to avoid this bullshit fee. Long story short I’ve been sent in circles to figure out what is going on with my account and mind you I’ve been trying to close it for about 4 days to which the tellers at the branches I’ve gone to have told me I can’t because of pending transactions. And then they’re going to tell me I have a pending transaction that hasn’t gone through for 5 bucks and that I needed to put 5 dollars in the account before 2pm or I’d be charged the 28 dollar overdraft fee. When i went into a branch to give them the stupid money they informed me my account was negative over 100 dollars! Keep in mind this all happened within a 45 minute time frame.. I went from just having to put 5 to cover the transaction to now owning this bullshit 117 and some change which I’ll tell you they’re NOT getting for as long as I live. Needless to say this TERRIBLE experience has caused me to switch banks and leave my job. Oh and as far as customer service I agree with everyone.. they were absolutely NO help this time around. I was honestly floored by all the trouble I had in the past 2 weeks. And I’m beyond disappointed with the bank to say the least.
Closing my TCF account as soon as my latest ebay purchase goes through. Not going to use the card at all and I’m going to open a checking account with Wells Fargo tomorrow. The $9.95 service fee for going under $500 a month in your checking account is just ridiculous.