 While talking to my father recently, I found out that he ended up paying $85 in "Statement Rehandling Fee" to Provident Bank. Reason? Apparently, the bank had been sending monthly statements to my father but they had been returning back to the bank as non-deliverable. For almost two years, they been deducting $5 per month from my father's account. Since my father doesn't use Provident Bank much, he didn't notice the fee until he went to the branch in April 2009. My father told me that he thought that he had informed Provident Bank about updating his address when he moved but apparently, the bank was still sending statements to the old address. To avoid further charges, he went to the bank and closed his account.
When my father told me about it, I went with him to the Provident Bank branch near our house. Fortunately, my wife also has a account at that bank and we have used that branch a few times to deposit/withdraw money. I met with the one of the representatives there and told him about the situation. He looked at the system and found that my father had indeed provided them with his updated address but for some reasons, the statements were still getting send to the old address. However, he mentioned that since the account is closed, the bank may not credit $85 back. In addition, he mentioned that in case of any amount discrepancy, we are supposed to notify the bank within 60 days. Before we could say anything, he himself said that since we were not getting the statements, it wasn't our fault that we didn't notify the bank within 60 days. He put in the request for opening the account, and crediting the $85 in fees. After about 2-3 weeks, my dad's account was opened but no amount was credited to our account. We went to the branch again and met that person. Fortunately, he remembered us. He took our info again and told us that he will talk to his branch manager. A couple of days later, we checked the account and lo and behold - $85 was there in the account! Lesson learnt: It pays to talk to the bank to see if the charges can be waived. As mentioned in one of my previous posts, if the fee was due to an infrequent mistake, chances are they will waive the fee. Labels: bank, bank bonuses, Bank fees, frugal, saving tips, savings |
