This story got longer than I expected. See TLDR at the end for the short version.
I wanted to let you all know so that you don't have to deal with this like me. So here is what happened:
3 years ago I got Amex card with cashback rewards an no annual fee. Used it for 2 years and then got other cards to keep building my credit that I started using. Put this one in a safe. A month ago I decided I should start using it again so that I they don't close the account for inactivity. Now I have autopay setup on all my credit cards so they are paid off in full at the end of each month. The problem is that this one was still setup with an old credit union that I no longer used (but didn't close. It is nearby and I like to have it in case of cash deposits but my direct deposits go to another credit union with much better interest rate).
So yes, the first time they tried to get $58 it was completely my fault that the funds were not there. I declined overdraft protection on my account from the beginning hoping that my card would simply be declined rather than incurring fees if I tried to go over my available funds. Unfortunately, ACH withdrawals from online payments and checks sort of supersede this and will still try to process and charge you an overdraft fee. I saw the fee thanks to mint/credit union email warnings. That same day I went to amex.com and asked them to charge my other account. They said they tried but since the other payment was processing they couldn't run the new payment but I could try back in 24-48 hours. That is all they told me and at the time I did not see any fees from the CC side.
I called the credit union and explained the situation. I asked what I could do to and they said that they don't normally waive the fees but they do offer overdraft protection. I asked if I get the overdraft protection (a $500 line of credit) could I get the fee refunded? I was told yes and I decided that the credit pull would be worth the $22 and the chance to avoid this hassle in the future.
What American Express DIDN'T say is that they would keep trying to run the old payment 2 more times for a total of 3. So two days later after being too busy to check my email, I see two more overdraft fees. I immediately went to Amex and chatted with them again. I told them to look at the last chat and see that I asked for payment to be run on a different account. That is when they said their standard is to try the payment 3 times over 3 days. So now I had 3x $22 overdraft fees on my bank account and $27 fee with amex for the returned payment. I asked amex if they could credit my account for the overdraft fees but they said no, I had to work that out with my bank. Then I asked if they would at least be able to refund the $27 and she looked at my account history with very little activity and said that I did not qualify. She asked why I did not use my account very much so in a last ditch effort I tried the pity card and made up a sad excuse. I said that I had the card in the back of my wallet and was using another joint card until recently but said I would be experiencing a divorce this holiday season so I was going back to my separate accounts and closing the newer shared accounts. This was enough for her to say "I am sorry to hear that. I went ahead and put in a one time exception to waive this fee"
Now back to my credit union. After my first call and agreeing to setup overdraft fee protection they called me back and left a voicemail saying they needed some more info to complete the setup. I called back the direct extension of the person who left me a message but either they were on the other line or out of the office so I left them a voicemail. 2 days later I now see 3 overdraft fees and I call back in to see what is going on. The new guy at the credit union tells me they don't typically reverse an overdraft fee even when you are enrolling in their overdraft line of credit. I told him that I specifically allowed a hard credit pull because I was told that my fee would be refunded. I asked him to look at the last call notes and try to talk to the two people that I spoke with the first time and ask them to verify what was said.
Luckily the first guy had my back and because the phone tag person was out of office they said they would just go ahead and reverse the three overdraft fees. 30 minutes of phone calls and chats saved me $93 in total fees.
How to avoid this in the future:
First, try to set up small recurring payments like netflix on cards that you tuck away and set them to autopay. Then if you ever switch your main credit union/bank make sure to update ALL of your autopay settings on all of your cards. Finally, if this happens run to the bank and deposit enough to cover the charges+the first overdraft fee, otherwise it will probably cost you more than three times as much.
TLDR: I had my AmEx setup to the wrong bank. I gave them a new account to use but their system charged my old bank 2 more times. The bank charged me $22x3=$66 in overdraft charges and then the CC charged me $27 for the returned payment fee. I was VERY lucky to get these refunded but for most it would be better to fund the bank account right away if you are aware they will keep trying.
Submitted November 23, 2017 at 08:59AM by rtowne http://ift.tt/2Bgbd7y
