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Posted: Fri May 18, 2007 7:53 am Subject: Negative Bank Account ...Fraud???

Hi,

I have a bank issue and I am afraid of going to jail or something for it. This was all caused by payday loans. I had two payday loans.. they started debiting my account because I was late a payment. Because of this my account went very negative because of NSF fees.. then my bank accepted two direct bill pays that I had set up through my insurance and gym, I called to stop these payments but couldnt stop them in time.. and two checks that I had written out to my mom bounced because of this also. The payday loan broke up the payment owed because it was late and I ended up with about 5 NSF's on top a few others they had caused. The bank paid the direct bills that went through and charged me a fee. The checks to my mom obviously bounced which is going to cause her fees and a negative balance. I am paying her and I know she isn't reporting me because she knows what happened. I am afraid the bank will report me for these items coming through and there not being money in the bank. I tried to stop the payments when I saw the payday loan charges going in but I couldnt stop them quick enough because of the amount of time it takes the other bank to process. I couldnt put the money into cover these items cause the payday loans and nsf fees they caused would have sucked it up leaving me with nothing to cover the legit bills. I had an arrangement with the payday loan to send in payment but they didnt get it quick enough so they just went back to my account. My bank says they cant not help me with stopping the payday loan charges. That because I originally gave them account info and agreed to this I have to pay them to make them stop. Also they will not close my account because it has a negative balance and that must be cleared first. Easier said then done. My problem now is that my account is negative $650 with a mix of the NSF fees and the bill pays they accepted. I cant pay this for about a month or two because it got me so behind in other things. I know I have to pay my bank back and I will and I also realize they may close my account.. what I am afraid of is that I will get into legal trouble with the bank? I will pay all this back but it isnt going to be a quick process.. obviously I wen tto the payday loans because I was short on cash.. now I am even worse off.. I can handle collections and harressing calls and I will do the best I can to eventually pay all this back .. but my biggest fear right now is can I go to jail for bounced checks?? I read online it is fraud if you write a check and the funds aren't in there. I had planned to put the funds in before the check went in.. but once the payday loan sent the notice saying what they were sending I knew I couldnt. What can I do now to protect myself agains check fraud.. anything??

Posted: Fri May 18, 2007 7:56 am Subject:

It is not fraud if you wrote those checking believing you had money in your account.It takes criminal intent to prove fraud. What that means is you know for a fact that account is nsf or closed & you still continue to write checks.

Posted: Fri May 18, 2007 8:02 am Subject:

Do you know if the bank will report you and then you have to prove that it wasn't intentional or would it be the person that received the bouned check that reports you?

Posted: Fri May 18, 2007 8:03 am Subject:

When I was going through my divorce in 2000, I wrote some checks out for car payment/house, utilities, well I thought the money was in there- my X husband cleaned out our account. I had all these NSF fee's...the bank paid the checks because I have overdraft protection- I paid it back but I had called the bank and said it would be X amount of time- They gave me some time and then I got a letter in a week saying that if I didnt clear it up they would close my account and THEN report me to chexsystem and THEN I may not be able to open another account in the future...I think banks give you time to clear up the mis-understanding....That's just from my experience.

Posted: Fri May 18, 2007 8:13 am Subject:

I too have a negative balance in my checking account due to PDL's and some other things.. but I am sending them what I can a month....sometimes it is only 10 bucks and other times its a 100 bucks....

Posted: Fri May 18, 2007 8:20 am Subject:

Try to set something up with your bank to pay it back . . . . Depending on the bank they will or won't report you to chexsystems, which will make it harder to get another bank account. PM me if you need help finding another account . . . .

I wouldn't worry about being prosecuted. You didn't intentionally set out to defraud the bank, and the checks you wrote you thought you had money to cover. It's not your fault the pdl's broke the payment into so many pieces and caused so many fees . . . . No one would look at the situation and think you were trying to pass bad checks.

Posted: Fri May 18, 2007 8:22 am Subject:

Leah,

Do you just send the money into the bank monthly towards your negative balance? Did they also pay some checks and is that part of the negative balance? That's what worries me more then the NSF's. I am surprised they paid these and didn't just bounce them.

Posted: Fri May 18, 2007 8:27 am Subject: bank

Go to the branch manager of the Bank and explain what happened. There is a good chance that they will refund some or all of the charges to you except for what the paid seeing it wasn't really your fault. Just remember it wasn't the banks fault either. Doing nothing is the worst thing that you can do. After 120 days they have to close your account by law. They will then put you into Chex Systems which will make opening another account difficult.
If you do not get anywhere with the branch manager, contact the overdraft customer assistance office at the main number. I am assuming that this is a national bank and not a credit union of state bank. You may get some satisfaction there.

Posted: Fri May 18, 2007 8:36 am Subject:

Some banks can be hard to work with, so don't get discouraged if you keep hearing that they can't do anything for you. Just keep trying higher ups until you find someone that can help.

Frogpatch - Who was it that you filed a complaint with that made your bank help you? That may come in handy for toby . . . . . .

Posted: Fri May 18, 2007 8:50 am Subject:

If a bank is giving you trouble to the point of not doing what they should,you can go to www.fdic.gov.Click on their consumer section and start reading or even file complaints right there on their website.

Posted: Fri May 18, 2007 8:59 am Subject:

That was the Office of the Controller of Currency. They are the watchdogs for National banks only. My leverage in that case was the fact that when my account was in the black the branch would not let me close it and it went back in the red despite my warnings. I am actually going there in 5 minutes to pay the bank what did come out of their pocket which was a little less than 300 out of a whopping 1200.00 total. They returned over 800.00 in fees. No bank wants the OCC crawling you know where with a magnifying glass.

Posted: Fri May 18, 2007 9:19 am Subject:

Frog,you are correct on that.At the Fdic website there is a link that tells you which agency you would contact depending on the charter of the bank. Another alternative that may help you is a state banking regulatory agency.They don't hold as much weight as federal,but must be dealt with so the bank maintains their state license.

Posted: Fri May 18, 2007 11:47 am Subject:

I know at my bank, they made my account a deposit only account since it was so overdrawn. That means that any debits that were attempted would be returned and I wouldn't be charged any fees. The branch manager just said to deposit money into the account to put it the positive and then she would close it. I went ahead and opened a new account at another bank anyways.

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