Of course I am sure it was legal, but from my perspective the $ was stolen. The primary purpose of this diary is for me to rant so I can relax a bit. There is not much intellectual contribution- sorry.
I have had an account with Wells Fargo for close to 20 years. I opened the first account back when it was Norwest Bank and I was a graduate student who needed the free checking for life. I kind of miss those days when I had only one checking account and the savings account my mom set up for me when I was 5.
I liked Wells Fargo service- 12 years ago we got the mortgage for our first house (and a line of credit) directly from Wells Fargo instead of a broker. And when we moved, we did the same thing for our second house. And our current mortgage happens to be managed by them. In total, my wife and I have had ~8-10 different accounts with them.
Not any more.
On January 14th WF reduced the amount of our line of credit, but I was not notified until today. Based on our 2002 income, they think we have too much debt. Rather than giving us any warning, or requesting current income info, it was reduced.
During this Catch-22/Twilight Zone period of 13 days (after the 14th, but before I was told the line of credit was reduced) I transfered $ from the LOC to checking to cover upcoming bills. The transfer went through, but was reversed the next day. I bounced 2 checks before I realized it was reversed- WF drew from my LOC to cover the checks and charge me $20 to do this. If I had known the line was reduced, I would have transfered less and not bounced checks. If my transfer was rejected, I would have transfered less and not bounced checks.
In the last week I have talked with people in the checking department, who cannot do anything about my line of credit. I talked with people in the line of credit office, who cannot even see my checking account. When I received the letter today, I got a bit crappy with someone in the LOC reinstatement office, who cannot return my $20. In banking language she agreed I was screwed and apologized. I am not going to try to get my $20 back, or reinstate our original credit limit. I will just get more angry.
After being customers for nearly 20 years and never being late on a payment I expect to be treated better. And we will be treated better at a new, local bank. Our checking accounts will move for now, and with time all of our accounts will move.
We are blessed to have good, stable jobs- this really is trivial. But it irritated me and now I feel a bit better.