About to have a minor stroke over bank issues....

AGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.

Okay, I had to get that out there.... Now, onto the problem...

My mother-in-law deposited $8,000 into my bank account yesterday. We both use Woodforest National Bank. Her branch is in NC, mine is in PA.

She knew I was trying to settle a lot of debt so she talked to the manager and he agreed NOT to place a hold on the $8,000 funds, since she has multiple accounts in good standing at that bank.

She calls me and tells me that the funds were deposited. I check online and sure enough they are in my available balance. She tells me the manager said it's okay to use them, they're all cleared.

I immediately start in on my debts. Sending out a few checks and buying a few money orders.

This morning my account balance is $57.... That's about $7300 less than it should be.

I immediately call the banks customer service line. They tell me MY local branch placed a hold on the funds, even though they were deposited in NC. AND my m-i-l was told they would clear immediately. They even show this morning in my cleared transactions!

So, I call the local branch and speak with the manager Bryan. He tells me he didn't place a hold any funds. He takes some time and looks into his computer system and tells me that this morning the bank manager at the NC branch placed a hold on the funds. This is after the same manager had cleared them yesterday.

I assume he just did that to please my mother-in-law who has multiple high-dollar accounts with them. Then this morning placed the hold AFTER I had already written checks out.

I was also informed that any checks that bounce while waiting 11 BUSINESS DAYS for the funds to clear, will be my responsibility and they will be charging me OD or NSF fees for each one.

Is this even legal? Can they one day decide to allow access to the funds, and the next day place a hold on them, effectively wiping out my bank account?

I have no idea what I'm going to do. They have every last dime of my money except $57. And even that will be gone once checks clear. What am I suppose to do about putting food on the table, gas in our vehicles, our mortgage bill, our electric bill. They've screwed me and now they're laughing about it.

Is there anything I can do to get them to release the funds. Had they told my m-i-l yesterday that the funds would not be available for 11 business days I would have NEVER EVER EVER written the checks. I would have lived off of the funds in our account until the deposit cleared.

I even asked them if they could waive the $35 fee they charge to stop payment on a check that way at least I wouldn't have bounced payments. I was told no, that they will not waive the $35 fees, and that I shouldn't have written the checks....

If I knew I wasn't going to have money in the account this morning, I wouldn't have written them!!!

was that a check or cash?with checks that large it does take about 7-10 days to clear.don't know why the one manager said that.if it was cash then it should be available almost immediately for bill paying.you can't retrieve it immediately,but you should be able to pay bills with it.

I work in a bank, ifit was bank to bank (regardless of branch), it should clear right away and be available as cash

It was a check. My m-i-l said the manager called the issuing bank Lincoln Financial to verify the funds.

I know usually there is a hold on checks that large. But is it fair and or legal to clear them for use and then the next day change your mind?

I could see if he had told her from the start about the hold. But he agreed to clear the funds. They showed up in my available balance yesterday. Today they show up in my current balance, but my available balance is $57. And they are showing up in my cleared (posted) transactions. Not a word on the online banking system about a $7,300 hold. The last time they placed a hold on funds, there was a notation and the check was held in the pending transactions section.

ANAC
Speak to your bank again, here where I work regardless of the amount, a bank to bank check clears right away.
Its the same bank, so THEY KNOW the funds ARE THERE TO CLEAR THE CHECK. The only reason banks hold checks is to be certain the funds are in the issuing bank to clear. It is not the case here

Okay. The local branch manager called me back. He said that the branch manager in NC DID clear the funds for immediate use. However, Risk management saw that and didn't like it, so they did an override and put a hold on the funds.

The manager in NC called risk management. Since my m-i-l has previously made a $12,000 deposit into our account from the same account these funds came from, risk management decided to lift the hold.

We'll have access to our funds tomorrow.

*breathes sigh of relief*

I'm still mad I wasn't notified in any way about the hold initially, but at least it's taken care of.

Well, I know at the bank I work at they have special deposit tickets that must be used for larger checks that need to be made available right away (once the funds are verified). Some banks have systems in place that will automatically place the hold on the check, but in your case the actual manager went in and placed the hold. Some banks also have rules that in order to make the funds available even when cashing the check, the customer has to have close to the amount available in their checking account. However, 11 days seems a bit long and the most I've seen is 5 days and that's when it's a non-local check...meaning the issuing bank is not in the same region as your bank. Did they at least make the fire $100 available to you. Check out this link from the federal reserve
http://www.federalreserve.gov/pubs/R...c.htm#determin

If they are holding it longer than usual, than the should have given you a notice.

Pink Lady,

They left me with $57 in my bank account. That's it. Luckily everything is cleared up and I'll have access to the funds tomorrow. I just about had a stroke today though. My husband said he's surprised I didn't scare myself into labor. Lol.

That is so so crazy. I am glad it all worked out but it is much like the situation where banks open accounts and the managers will approve it, maybe over ride a negative chexsystems report, and then later the Loss Prevention dept determines that it was a mistake and closes the account. Many times, direct deposit, bill pay etc are set up causing all kinds of problems for people

That's good, because I was confused on the 11 day hold..in my 9 years of banking i've never seen anything that long. Glad everything worked out for you though.

i am glad everything worked out.. that must have been so scary! i agree, you should have been at least notified.

It was ridiculously scary. I had myself worked into a frenzy over the situation. But, all my funds are here. I was even able to pay off one of my judgments today. I can't even explain how good that felt.

The down side was I found out I had to buy a new washing machine. Mine broke and they repair guy wanted $500 to fix it! But at least I had the money to buy one.