Well maybe not the worst but they do suck. What kind of business can survive by being anti-consumer? I ask this because rather than appease a loyal customer by crediting overdrafts fees, they would rather spite a customer for an honest mistake. Well this is an experience I had with them and wish not to repeat it.
Sure it’s bad business practice to credit every customer’s overdraft fee, but I wasn’t your typical customer. I have been a customer of Compass Bank since March of 2002. I didn’t have any problems with them as my account was always in the positive. I did have an overdraft fee in the past that was credited after calling customer service, but my latest battle was far from simple.
Well about two months ago I overdrew on my account by about 60 dollars. This included several charges under $10. The total amount of transactions that put it past the negative was 6. This all occurred on the 13th and my direct deposit went in on the 15. I was charged the overdraft charges on the 17th. Compass’ overdraft charges are $36 each. This means I was billed $216.
When I saw these charges I was shocked. This is when my battle with customer service began. I called them up, went through the usual prompts and got a rep on the line. I explained to him what happened and what I wanted which was all overdraft fees reversed. This is when the call got ugly. The rep started throwing the policy book at me. He told me Compass Banks overdraft policy is one reversal during the life of the account. This is a bad policy, especially if you are with the bank for multiple years.
Then the rep just started saying it was my fault and I should keep track of my finances. This is true but people make mistakes and Compass Banks policy acknowledges this but is insufficient. After talking to this rep for several minutes I realized I was getting nowhere, and talking to a brick wall. The final straw was when the rep said “this is not our problem, you’re wasting your time and my time”. Shocked by what he said I requested to speak to a supervisor. He then said “A supervisor cannot help you”. I said “I don’t care, I still want to speak to one”. He then said I was being unreasonable. I asked for a supervisor about 4 more times when he finally caved in.
The supervisor I spoke to didn’t really do much, she just took my information down and sent a request to have my account reviewed for a possible credit. She said I would receive a call in 24 hours.
The next day I did receive a call and a lady told me she could credit half. I took it, didn’t want to argue. At that moment I decided I was changing banks. For $60 I’m paying $108. What is funny is if I had a single charge of say $500 I would only have been charged $36. Worst part about it is the rep who called me back didn’t offer any service that will help me, like an overdraft protection service many banks offer, so that this will not happen again.
Well I have recently signed up for Washington Mutual online for a checking account with a savings account. They offer overdraft protection. Their web interface is light-years ahead of Compass’ and their branches have a unique layout. So far I’m happy and I’m not regretting making a switch.