My story begins one fine day in 2007 when my friend JM and I were on a motorcycle trip to Joshua Tree National Park. JM and I had known each other since the early 90′s when we worked for the same Video Production company in Dallas.  Since then, I had moved out west to continue a career in Video Production while JM had started a new career in the Banking Industry. In fact, he had done quite well for himself, landing a job at the corporate offices of a bank that’s a major player throughout the U.S.

But when it came time for a vacation, JM liked to get away from the corporate world and ride motorcycles. Often he would jump on a plane and visit me in California. We would ride the Pacific Coast Highway to take in the ocean vistas or up to the mountains to try some twisty roads. This trip had taken us out the desert where Springtime temperatures made for pleasant riding punctuated by brief rest stops for re-hydration.

At one of these stops JM casually asked me where I was doing my banking. I told him I had just changed my checking account to Wells Fargo and he laughed. “They’re one of the most evil banks around.” he stated matter-of-factly but with an almost undetectable grin on his face.

“Oh?” I queried non-chalantly. “And I suppose your bank is good?”

“No, all banks are evil to a degree.” JM responded. “Your bank is running a computer program that’s designed to prey upon customers by maximizing overdraft charges. Lot’s of banks have predatory practices like this, but Wells Fargo is one of the worst.”

“Well I don’t ever let my account fall below $500.00 dollars, so that’s of no concern to me.” I stated proudly.

JM just smiled like he had heard this all before. We got on our bikes, started the engines and continued our ride through the huge quartz rock formations of Joshua Tree National Park. I forgot about our conversation until a few years later when the country was in a recession and my business was suffering along with most.

It was coming up on the Thanksgiving holiday and I wanted to do some Christmas shopping that weekend. I looked at my online checking balance and discovered it was quite low. I decided to move some money from my savings account at another bank into the checking account so I would have enough to cover the purchases. Then I watched each day to make sure the money was on deposit in the account. On Wednesday the funds were shown to be present, so on Friday I started spending. I made lots of debit card purchases secure in the belief that funds were on deposit in my Wells Fargo checking account. In fact I didn’t think twice about it until the following Tuesday when I received an email from Wells Fargo alerting me that my account was overdrawn and recommending that I add additional funds immediately.

I was totally baffled. I had spent a lot of money but according to my calculations I should still have excess funds in the account. I immediately went on line only to discover I had seven insufficient funds charges at $35.00 each. Mysteriously the funds that were shown to be in my account on Wednesday were now showing to have arrived on Monday after I had made all my purchases. What’s more, the order the purchases had been processed by the bank had been altered so that the largest purchase was processed first even though in reality they hadn’t. If this had not been done, there would have only been two NSF charges rather than seven.

Immediately JM’s words came ringing back in my ears.  I was filled with fury. I called the Wells Fargo Customer Service line and was cheerfully greeted by a young lady who pleasantly asked how she could help me. When I explained what had happened she immediately advised me she was transferring my call to a Supervisor.

The tone of the Supervisor was not cheerful at all. If anything I would call it emotionless. It was like talking to an implacable automaton. I explained what I had seen concerning the deposit date of the funds and she insisted her records showed the funds had not been deposited into the account until Monday.  “Often when a transfer is initiated, the funds will show as pending. That doesn’t mean they are on deposit.”  She instructed me.

I responded that I had been banking for over 20 years and I knew what “pending” meant. I assured her that there was no indication the funds were pending. She insisted her records showed they were.  I made the case that transfers from my other bank had never taken longer than three days in the past and she just brushed that off by again insisting her records showed the funds were pending until Monday.

Then I asked her about the way the purchases had been processed. I was curious as to why they had been re-ordered. She replied that “California law requires us to process the debits to your account from highest to lowest.”

“Could you give me more information about that law?” I requested with incredulity. “I can’t imagine there would be a law on the books of any State that would allow you to act in such a predatory and larcenous manner. As far as I’m concerned what you’ve done is tantamount to theft!”

“All I can tell you Sir, is that we are acting in compliance with California law.”

“I think what you mean to say you’re going to take advantage of your customers as long as the law allows it?”

To this she had no response. She simply asked if there was anything else she could help me with.

“You haven’t helped me with anything except with the decision to close my account with Wells Fargo and go back to my previous bank. Congratulations.  I hope the money you’ve gained in NSF fees is worth losing a customer. ”

“I’m sorry you feel that way Sir, but I assure you, we value you as a customer.”

“And I assure you, I’m an ex-customer.” I corrected her.

Within days I closed out my account and decided I should have put more stock in the words of JM who had tried to warn me.  I vowed I would tell everyone I could about this incident. Over the next few months I spoke to dozens of people about it and most just laughed as if I was telling some wild-eyed tale. They couldn’t believe any bank would behave this way. Many assured me that it had to be against the law. Finally on August 12th, 2010 my vindication came. I opened my email and friend to whom I had told about my treatment at the hands of Wells Fargo sent me a link to a story on Yahoo Finance with the headline:

“Judge orders Wells Fargo to pay back $203M in fees

Judge orders Wells Fargo to change overdraft policy, return $203 million in fees to customers.”

Perhaps, like some of my friends, you found my story hard to believe.  I invite you to follow this link and see for yourself how Wells Fargo was preying upon the accounts of their customers when they were most vulnerable. It should serve as a lesson to us all about The Evil That Banks Do.

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