Warning: Rant Incoming
Right now, Intrust Bank is treating me to the most financial frustration I’ve ever had in my life. Over the course of the last three paychecks, I’ve paid over $360 in overdraft fees in huge chunks. None have been blatant overages, instead all have been the result of “holds”.
It works like this, when a merchant runs a debit or credit card, they have the option of placing a “hold” on the money before actually making the withdrawl. Despite the sound of it, this money is gone the instant that the hold is placed, even though the merchant might not actually make the transaction for up to a week.
While this money is gone, and can (and will) most certainly cause overdrafts, there is absolutely no mention of this hold on any of the online services. Business appears as usual, only showing up on the online system after the transaction has actually “posted” to the account. Not really that big of deal, just don’t spend more money then you have.
But then arises the challenge. As a college student working full time and schooling full time I’m cutting it close. I have good chunks of credit card debt that I’m struggling to overcome and sometimes I really have to cut it down to the wire to make ends meet. I watch my check book fanatically to avoid overages, but in this day and age not all transactions are initiated by me directly. The vast majority of bills and services are automatically debited from my account. And I can handle that, they tell me what day they debit the account and I’m more than capable of making sure the money is there (at least, when I honestly have the money.)
But what I don’t know, is what day they put the hold on the account for that payment. It’s not the day of the actual payment, and the day of the actual payment is the only day that is ever in writing anywhere. T-Mobile, or Blizzard, or whomever have a due date, and the transaction to make the debit always takes place on that day. But that’s not really the day that the transaction took place. The transaction truely took place on whatever day they requested the hold, because on the day of the hold the money was removed from my account and I can overdraft myself on the lesser amount. The lesser amount that I cannot see.
My local branch, who has been very kind as I’ve called to bother them each week to find out why I’ve lost another $29 x 4 to over draft fees can look right up on a computer and let me know what day the hold was put into place and why I overdrafted. But they’ve never been able to tell me why I can’t see that on the online system. At least, until today.
I called the 1-800 line for customer service on Intrust, to more or less beg and plead my case that showing the “holds” on the online banking system would make my entire life better. She was quick to ask if I knew why that wasn’t the case, and I was eager to hear. Apparently the debit card tracking system is not integrated with system that the online reporting software accesses. Instead, the online reporting system only has access to those transaction that have been “posted” to the account.
Of course, my simple solution would be to simply post the holds. The bank is literally taking out the money and holding it in escrow, and while I’m not an accountant that appears to be a seperate account to me. But they don’t and I’m left blind with only overage charges to remind me of what really happened.
I don’t even have a problem with this practice, this is fine. I just want transparency, I want to see it happen. Of course, the bank is quick to remind me that if I was keeping a checkbook register that I would know how much money I had “really” without using the online system. But in the same breath she would inform me that when a hold is placed, it doesn’t even have to be for the amount of the purchase. Even by the explaination of the bank manager, if a bar runs my card, they might just put a $60 hold on the account to make sure I have enough to handle the night’s drinking. As soon as they place that hold, the money is gone. But if I only end up spending $9 and the bar posts to the bank a week later, I (in essense) get a refund of $51…. but I will never see that happen. However, if it took the bar a week to post, and I had started with $70 in my account and spend $20 at Chili’s that week; I will be overdrafted. Despite the fact that I only spent $9 at the bar and my well kept check register says I have $61 dollars remaining in my account. And the teller’s statement regarding that scenario? “Well, that’s the merchant’s fault, not the bank’s.”
It’s true, I agree. But I don’t care whose fault it is. I want my bank to protect me from financial institutions that I might not completely understand. It might be the merchant’s fault, but if my bank just posted the hold like a true transaction, I would have known there was an issue and I could have avoided any fees or, in my case, huge financial trauma.
This is because holds are invisible transactions, but they are really taking place. Well, Intrust Bank, as I have told your kind customer service representatives, I need help. I need to see these holds taking place, because I do not have the financial stability as this time to leave a couple extra hundred dollars in my account “just in case” some merchant decides to cover their potential risk using my money. I have your credit card with overdraft protection, but thanks to all of these overdraft fees it is now maxed out. I’m not asking for fees to be removed, or the system to be changed. I’m asking that you integrate holds as first class transactions that I can see, so that I can protect myself from “lazy” merchants that do not post their transactions for long periods of time.
Especially, over weekends. As a mere mortal, uneducated in banking magic, I have little idea how to resolve a weekend of transactions that all “take place” on Monday. But it changes from difficult to impossible when there are invisible transactions that no one will even talk about until I’ve already been charged at least $29.
To make it more frustrating, my last two paychecks have been the largest I’ve ever received, because I’ve been working my ass off to try and get ahead… well, at least not behind. And now I sit at -$262.68 and won’t be able to do a thing about it for two weeks, when I get paid again.