I do not know where to post this question!!!

Polly, it means that they will likely send you a few notices to collect it in house, then they will probably send it to collections. pm me for more discussion

Hmmm...now I am wondering. I just checked my savings account which was -$3.74...now it says charge off. I hope they are not planning on sending this account to collections for that small amount :(

~Mary

JJ was very helpful....my bank closed my account too...funny, they wioul dnot let me close it...not unitl i owed them 2500.00. I wrote a letter to customer relations, because now that the bank closed it, I am reported to chexsystem, which means, whether or not i pay off the amount owed, this will stay on my creidt report for 7 years!!!!! If you want at copy of the letter - i am happy to repost it here

i would love it!

hi Polly---I used to think, way back when, until I found out differently, that 'charge off' meant that you no long had to pay the debt. That it was charged off, written off...but its for their purpose not ours. Some creditors keep it in house and try to collect it for a little while like that and then send it out to a collection agency, others send it straight out to a collection agency. The term charge off means they've given up on trying to collect it from you but you are still responsible. when a debt goes into charge off, it is then reported to the bureaus as being in charge off mode. that sucks. I have several that have been charged off.
There is one thing you can do to get the 'charge off' off of your credit report, is to start back making payments right away, asap to the creditor before it goes out of house to a collection agency. Then you will most likely get an upgrade from charge off to paid as agreed. Once it goes to an outside agency, then the most you can hope for after it is paid off is 'paid charge off'.
You might not need all of this info, but posted it in case anyone else needed to know. shirley

sometimes, depending on the account, payment in house may even keep it from being reported

Ever thought of calling the bank/financial institution and asking THEM, not a bunch of idiots why haven't got a complete clue?

wait - why did I not get any Debt cc points for that post? ANd why did it post twice??

posts in the pub are no longer eligible for points

testing---testing---testing
The last post I made, I didn't get any points for it either. testing to see what happens now. shirley

Mary,don't know how it works in you state,but,I worked for a bank years ago,and any savings account with no activity was charged off. You didn't have to pay, you just lost the money that was in your account. Things may have changed,but that's how it used to be. Karen

my guess is that a small amount will be waived. large amounts are usually collected on

Cool...guess I'll e-mail and ask, just to be safe. Thanks guys :)

~Mary

To anyone with similar experience, my advice to you is this:

watch your bank statements carefully and religiously.

Each and every deviation from what you agreed to is an unauthorized debit. Do not tolerate any deviation from what you agreed to or you may waive your right to complain about others in the future.

You have sixty days from the date of the statement to contest the invalid debit.

You have to do it in writing, and it has to be sent to the correct address for the bank - it will be printed somewhere (perhaps on the reverse of the statement in fine light gray ink).

If you fail to dispute the charge in writing to your bank within sixty days of the statement, you lose your right to do so, absolutely and forever. If you do dispute the charge properly and the bank does nothing to correct the error, the bank will have to eat that charge itself.

Like most things in life, success is mainly a matter of getting the correct paperwork in on time.

Thanks everyone for your insights!

More stuff about electronic funds transfers - by the way, I told you wrong, you can protest the unauthorized charge orally (though I'd have both a witness and a tape recorder with me when I did it), and the same rule applies to all "financial institutions" including credit unions. The following statutory excerpts are from Title 15 of the United States Code.

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15 U.S.C. ?? 1693e - Preauthorized transfers

(a) A preauthorized electronic fund transfer from a consumer's account may be authorized by the consumer only in writing, and a copy of such authorization shall be provided to the consumer when made. A consumer may stop payment of a preauthorized electronic fund transfer by notifying the financial institution orally or in writing at any time up to three business days preceding the scheduled date of such transfer. The financial institution may require written confirmation to be provided to it within fourteen days of an oral notification if, when the oral notification is made, the consumer is advised of such requirement and the address to which such confirmation should be sent.

(b) In the case of preauthorized transfers from a consumer's account to the same person which may vary in amount, the financial institution or designated payee shall, prior to each transfer, provide reasonable advance notice to the consumer, in accordance with regulations of the Board, of the amount to be transferred and the scheduled date of the transfer.

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15 U.S.C. ?? 1693f - Error resolution

(a) Notification to financial institution of error

If a financial institution, within sixty days after having transmitted to a consumer documentation pursuant to section 1693d(a), (c), or (d) of this title or notification pursuant to section 1693d(b) of this title, receives oral or written notice in which the consumer -

(1) sets forth or otherwise enables the financial institution to identify the name and account number of the consumer;

(2) indicates the consumer's belief that the documentation, or, in the case of notification pursuant to section 1693d(b) of this title, the consumer's account, contains an error and the amount of such error; and

(3) sets forth the reasons for the consumer's belief (where applicable) that an error has occurred,

the financial institution shall investigate the alleged error, determine whether an error has occurred, and report or mail the results of such investigation and determination to the consumer within ten business days. The financial institution may require written confirmation to be provided to it within ten business days of an oral notification of error if, when the oral notification is made, the consumer is advised of such requirement and the address to which such confirmation should be sent. A financial institution which requires written confirmation in accordance with the previous sentence need not provisionally recredit a consumer's account in accordance with subsection (c) of this section, nor shall the financial institution be liable under subsection (e) of this section if the written confirmation is not received within the ten-day period referred to in the previous sentence.

(b) Correction of error; interest

If the financial institution determines that an error did occur, it shall promptly, but in no event more than one business day after such determination, correct the error, subject to section 1693g of this title, including the crediting of interest where applicable.

(c) Provisional recredit of consumer's account

If a financial institution receives notice of an error in the manner and within the time period specified in subsection (a) of this section, it may, in lieu of the requirements of subsections (a) and (b) of this section, within ten business days after receiving such notice provisionally recredit the consumer's account for the amount alleged to be in error, subject to section 1693g of this title, including interest where applicable, pending the conclusion of its investigation and its determination of whether an error has occurred. Such investigation shall be concluded not later than forty-five days after receipt of notice of the error. During the pendency of the investigation, the consumer shall have full use of the funds provisionally recredited.

(d) Absence of error; finding; explanation

If the financial institution determines after its investigation pursuant to subsection (a) or (c) of this section that an error did not occur, it shall deliver or mail to the consumer an explanation of its findings within 3 business days after the conclusion of its investigation, and upon request of the consumer promptly deliver or mail to the consumer reproductions of all documents which the financial institution relied on to conclude that such error did not occur. The financial institution shall include notice of the right to request reproductions with the explanation of its findings.

(e) Treble damages If in any action under section 1693m of this title, the court finds that -

(1) the financial institution did not provisionally recredit a consumer's account within the ten-day period specified in subsection (c) of this section, and the financial institution

(A) did not make a good faith investigation of the alleged error, or

(B) did not have a reasonable basis for believing that the consumer's account was not in error; or

(2) the financial institution knowingly and willfully concluded that the consumer's account was not in error when such conclusion could not reasonably have been drawn from the evidence available to the financial institution at the time of its investigation,

then the consumer shall be entitled to treble damages determined under section 1693m(a)(1) of this title.

(f) Acts constituting error

For the purpose of this section, an error consists of -

(1) an unauthorized electronic fund transfer;

(2) an incorrect electronic fund transfer from or to the consumer's account;

(3) the omission from a periodic statement of an electronic fund transfer affecting the consumer's account which should have been included;

(4) a computational error by the financial institution;

(5) the consumer's receipt of an incorrect amount of money from an electronic terminal;

(6) a consumer's request for additional information or clarification concerning an electronic fund transfer or any documentation required by this subchapter; or

(7) any other error described in regulations of the Board.


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15 U.S.C. ?? 1693h - Liability of financial institutions

(a) Action or failure to act proximately causing damages

Subject to subsections (b) and (c) of this section, a financial institution shall be liable to a consumer for all damages proximately caused by -

...

(2) the financial institution's failure to make an electronic fund transfer due to insufficient funds when the financal institution failed to credit, in accordance with the terms and conditions of an account, a deposit of funds to the consumer's account which would have provided sufficient funds to make the transfer, and

(3) the financial institution's failure to stop payment of a preauthorized transfer from a consumer's account when instructed to do so in accordance with the terms and conditions of the account.

... (institution not liable for acts of god, technical problems beyond its control, etc.)

wow....that seems like it will bode well for my situation with washington Mutual...Thanks, Virgina

polly - you can work out a payment plan with your old bank. Its good to do so because even though its closed banks seem to have their own reporting system that can prevent your from opening accounts with other banks.

But they will work with you to balance out the account and will not report you as long as you are active in paying down the account.

You also may be able to get some of those NSF's reversed - its worth a shot.

In writing the response that ended up here, I was attempting to respond to a question posted under a different subject. I don't know why it ended up here, but I've deleted the text and reposted in the proper place.

I was a bank auditor for about 10 years and we would periodically (spelling???) require branches to charge off accounts with a negative balance beyond a certain amount. It was more to clean up the "bottom line" than anything else...we would have to deduct the negatives from the branches assets otherwise. We rarely (in fact-i don't recall that we ever)sent these accounts to collections. Sometimes, if the negative balance was intentional (ie; the account had been out writing bad checks) we would try to internally collect. I really doubt that they will try, especially since it will cost them to do so and chances are they would not collect. I can't promise...wish I could...but commonly in my experience, when banks charge off, they have pretty much given up. I hope this is true in your case!!!