Should Ally Bank Penalize Me for 6 Months over a $1.63 Mistake? [View all]

[bondwooley]

I’d really like your opinion on this. I feel like Kafka just took over the banking system and the first thing he did was gag Elizabeth Warren and lock her in a closet.

I opened an online Ally bank account because they claim to have a quick check clearance policy and not many hidden fees – and I don’t have a lot of money or the cash flow to let checks linger or to pay crazy bank fees for a simple checking account.

But it turns out that Ally can play a few tricks. Like, if you are overdrawn for any amount they will penalize you for the next six months.

I was overdrawn by $1.63 and didn’t even realize it until I made a subsequent deposit and was told that I was being penalized for being “frequently overdrawn.”

Now, according to “Regulation CC” of the Federal Reserve Board, being overdrawn allows a bank to delay clearance of a subsequent paper check deposit, and being overdrawn once is considered “frequently overdrawn”.

Okay, that’s fine. The bank can make some money back for the $1.63 it spotted. It is, after all, my fault for having no idea whatsoever that they spotted me $1.63.

But what Regulation CC doesn’t seem to say is that every check the customer deposits for the next six months will be held for 5 business days (which, of course, means 8 days because the day of deposit doesn’t count and there’s always a weekend in there).

Got that? Because of a $1.63 miscalculation, no check I deposit with Ally will clear for 8 days, regardless of the amount of the check – now through May of 2016.

Does this seem right to you? After trying to get a rational explanation from Ally for two days, I really need a reality check. (No pun intended.)

By the way, if you think it’s wrong of them to do this -- and you’re on any form of social media -- send out something with hashtag #Dollar63 @ally. They will know exactly what that means and maybe I'll get a response.

Most importantly, though, let me know if I’m crazy for thinking there’s something wrong with this picture.