Eastern Bank miscalculated a foreign conversion exchange and left me $200 short. They refuse to accept responsibility. Lynn, Massachusetts

22nd of Dec, 2011 by User399079

Eastern Bank does not know how to perform foreign currency exchanges. On Aug 3 I deposited a personal check for CAN$5K (drawn on my Canadian bank account) into my US bank account with Eastern Bank. They deposited US$5K in US funds, then on Aug 4 they withdrew US$79.50 to account for the exchange rate, and they also withdrew US$5 for a conversion fee. No problem so far, though I would question their method of depositing the funds in US currency then sorting out the conversion later. What if I had deposited 50K pesos? My check got returned for insufficient funds. That was my fault (mostly) because I forgot about the CAN$5K check I wrote against my Canadian account, and Eastern took its sweet time requesting the funds from my Canadian bank, probably to maximize the exchange rate in their favor. In the meantime, I let my Canadian account dip below the level needed to cover the CAN$5K check and WHAM! So be it. The simple fix would be to reverse the US deposit process, right? put back the US$79.50 they withdrew and take back the US$5K they deposited, plus a check return fee, if any (there wasn't one). Why involve exchange rates at this point? Anyway, Eastern wanted to involve exchange rates for some reason, so on Sep 1 they withdrew US$5,121 from my US account. Am I crazy, or are they? A total of US$5K minus US$79.50 went into my US account in early Aug, so (given that they want to involve Sep exchange rates), simply convert CAN$5K to US$ based on the Sep 1 exchange rate and remove *that* from my US account. It would be something less than US$5K since US dollars are worth more than Canadian dollars now, and have been so for a long, long time. By my calculation, Eastern Bank is stealing about US$200 from me. Assuming I'm right, what's my next step? I want to file a criminal report with the local police. What do you suggest?

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