Charter One Bank

charges fees on Inactive savings accounts then expects payment for them

13th of Aug, 2011 by arishay62

I received a call today from Charter One Bank telling me that $76.61 was put into collection in my name from a checking account opened by one of my sons. I checked with that son who did not open any accounts with them so I called a local Charter One Bank branch. Turns out this was a savings account that had both our names on it, and in fact, there were three charged off accounts, one in each of my son's names, totaling fees of almost $225. In explanation he said they had begun charging fees on inactive accounts this year May and had sent out notices to the account holders in March informing them of this. Problem is, the address on file is one I moved from over 7 years ago and until I received the call today, I had forgotten these accounts even existed. It's something I did for my sons in the late 90's when I had a checking account with the bank. I closed that account at the time I moved 7 years ago and forgot all about the savings accounts.

I was informed that because they had sent me a letter, obviously no regard for the fact it couldn't be delivered, and per that letter I was given the chance to come in and close the accounts, the fees were valid and there was nothing they could do about it. I was given the number of the recovery service which I have to call tomorrow since they're already closed tonight, to see if I can talk sense into them.

I can't understand how it's legal for a bank to charge fees on inactive savings accounts and produce overdrafts as a result of it. It's not like writing a bad check where I've used their money and they have nothing in return. I'm the one who received nothing while they were collecting interest on the accounts as they just sat there taking up space on their general ledger. If you're going to charge fees on inactive savings accounts, why not just charge them until the account zeroes out? Why try to get money from someone whose money you've been using all these years?

Citibank and Bank of America were stopped from unfairly charging overdraft fees, let's hope someone hops on the bandwagon over Charter One and puts a stop to them too.

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