EFT ACT

The act refers to your right to refuse a creditor or payroll to require electronic payment or deposits as the only method accepted. You have a right to withdraw your agreement with a creditor or payroll compny at anty time and they are required to honor that request. Pay Day lenders rarely do.

Thank you Frogpatch. What section is this. I want to highlight it for the bank.

WHat type of fee did they charge you? Was it a stop payment fee?

yes, a stop payment fee. I wanted to close my bank account but bank said anything coming in would reopen it. The bank manager would not put a block on account. I did have another account with bank that I use. My employer only does direct deposit so I had to have a bank account. I called customer service and they recommended that I go to another branch for help, which I did, and they accommodated me. I don't know why the other manager would not. My bank manager had the attitude that they are not responsible for contracts that I signed. I was thinking to myself that it was none of their affair what contracts I sign and that I should be able to pay back loans without having it taken automatically from my checking account. Well, anyway I did get help from another manager at another branch. Right now my account is credit only. That is all they will do for me. I feel like I am being held hostage by my bank and internet payday loan. I want to close my account permanently that pdl has record of and not worry about it reopening. I hope this makes sense.

If you have no outstanding checks, or checkcard purchases, you may certainly close your account and have it coded for credits only when they close it. I would make sure that you have your direct deposit moved to another account at the time you close it. WHen you close an account it is very important to make sure all your items have cleared and that there are no "pending" checkcard purcahses and that the account is at an exact 0 balance. If the account even has a couple of cents in it the account will be in a "pending closed" status until the account is at 0.

Now... The reason they put the account closed and "credit" only is to make sure that the electronic items do not force the account back open. Credit only will just add another security level that no debit items clear the account.

If you haven't had your direct deposit moved to a new account yet you can close the account and have them mark it for credit only and then if the direct depoit comes in it will most likely post to your account. If that is the case I would make sure that you are in the banking center first minute they open on the day of your deposit to have them assist you with withdrawing the funds and making sure the account remains closed.

I know this was lengthy but sometimes you just need to know exactly what to ask them when you go in to the banking center.

The other truth is that they really don't need to know why you want to close the account to begin with.

One more note... when the ACH debits from the PDL companies are returned to them you will, or should, receive a notice from the bank that lists the items, similar to an overdraft notice, and tells you that the items were returned to the companies as unpaid and marked account closed.

Hope this helps!

Please give a reference to this act so people can show this to the banks.

DDT, The actual Electronic Funds Transfer Act is posted in many threads all over this fourm. You can also find it if you type in EFT Act in the search box at the top right corner of the page. Bj also has it on her main thread...that is how she knows what she is refering to.

Please see my post titled "How To Stop ACH and PDL". I really believe it can be helpful

Thanks for the information.......I will make sure I pass it along to all banks and other consumers. Have a good night or morning depending on where you are. :)