I have had the same account with Utah Campus Credit Union for... my whole life. My whole family did all of our
Now? UCCU ain't your Pappies bank! They have places to go, and no time to lose. They will step on the necks of all of their customers to make the big bucks.
6-9 months ago my friend Veritas was going on and on about how much he hated UCCU, and how they had bent him over about some 8-10 small transactions that they held until he was overdrawn on his account, and then instantly they went through with an extra 20$ tagged onto them. Mmmmm, What a wonderful service they provide! Thank god for them letting through the 1$ charges as 21$ charges (20 for UCCU[Cha Ching!] and 1 for the vending machine.) Enjoy your fancy soda pop Veritas.
Anyway... I told him, "Hey, they treat me pretty good, but I haven't gone into overdraft. I think you are blowing it out of proportion."(SpoilerZ alert, They are the worst Credit union ever.)
Last month right before I went to Canada I started getting harassed by the credit union who gave me my student loan (Guess who: UCCU) because I was a week late on my loan payment. I received a letter (one of the days I received two, which... doesn't make any sense) for every day that I didn't pay the 50$ minimum payment. The last two payment were for 300~ dollars each, so it covered me for 6 months both times(see that college education shining through?). This caused me to forget all about the loan (They send me a letter every month reminding me it is time to pay the 0 [zero] dollars I owe them).
So a few days before I leave for Canada they start calling my home phone number every hour, on the hour. We don't ever answer that phone because we all have cell phones and everybody knows better than to call the land line. After they leave a message saying there are "Super urgencies regarding my student loan payment", so I answered the phone the next time they called.
I will paraphrase a bit here, because everything else will be perfectly acurate.
"Hey hey! Stephen? You need to pay it, QUICK it is an emergency!"
"Ok, I will transfer money tonight, you will get all 50$... The bank is saved."
"Credit union."
"Whatever. I will do it tonight, please don't call anymore you woke up my baby three times now." (I didn't say the baby part...)
So, I get on my computer, and transfer about 65 dollars to the loan. (I have to do it manually with a routing number and all that garbage, because it would be all too convenient to let me do in with my online branch).
I figure I am done with them until next month when I can put a large chunk down so I don't have to deal with them for a really long time.
Next day, the phone is ringing off the hook, they leave a couple messages saying "Oh no! you lied, we didn't get any money!!!"
I assume that I did something wrong when I typed in the super complex routing code.
I phone the Customer service people at UCCU and confirm all the data so I will know it will go through this time. I do some calculations and figure out that I can afford to put the big amount down on the account because I have more than enough money to pay for the trip (I put down 400 dollars, I still have 400~ for the trip, and I am getting paid next week... so it won't be a problem. (Foreshadowing) I wonder if there will be a problem...
So, they don't call again. I guess the second payment went through fine.
I get stuff ready for the trip, and it turns out I need to do a little work on my car (which we are taking to Canada). 120 dollars, ouch. Still, 280 for the trip. I fill up my car, 45$... I knew it was coming, but I have to sacrifice my money, because... there is a war on... so gas is more expensive, right? RIGHT?
235.
We leave for Canada... All is fine, We take turns filling up the car, some people take more turns than others, I won't go into it. I knew what they were when I picked them up. We get food, stuff, and things. First night in Canada is a blast, we meet up with our pals and have a good time. Good times.
180-170$... more than enough.
Fill up the car again, but with fancy Canadian petroleum. WOAH! its only 1$CN per Gallon! I guess they didn't know about the war... Sweet. Fillerup, fillerup... hmm... thats a log of gallons...oh... Liters. Ok... Not quite as cheep as I thought.
135$... I will have to make sure to let other people fill up the tank on the way home.
Day 2: We wake up, play video games (And have a blast) and we go out to eat.
My debit card is declined, ... I already know what happened. I can see the people at the UCCU branch now.
"OH LORD! Somebody has stolen this guys debit card and taken it all the way to Canada to buy illegal gasolines and food! Not on MY watch, this card is shut down!"
So I text my dad and ask him to go down to UCCU and tell those guys to please reactivate my card, I kind of need it. Also apologize that I didn't come and tell them about my trip so they wouldn't leave me stranded and penniless in the middle of this foreign wasteland. (This isn't the first time they have shut down my card. Last time I purchased a bunch of audio books from iTunes they shut my card off. "OH LORD! hackzers have his credit card and want to listen to harry potter while they drive/jog to crimeland.)
My dad texts me back (We are texting, which me and my dad never do, because of the cost to make a call while roaming... probably would use up the rest of the money I have... though not till my bill comes) Dad: YOU ARE OVERDRAWN ON YOUR ACCOUNT, SOMETHING TO DO WITH A $400 CHARGE. I AM PUTTING 400 IN YOUR ACCOUNT NOW.
I love my dad.
Dad: OK, YOU NOW HAVE 130 DOLLARS AVAILABLE. HAVE FUN.
... Sound like every... WHAT?!?! 130$?
I get on a computer and log onto my UCCU account to see what happened.
I see that the Energy bill, water bill, and both loan payments have gone through, and the Camera lens payment (Oops, forgot about that).
so... after those I was overdrawn by 13 dollars...
THEN!!! 6 charges for 3-11 dollars go through. (All gasoline purchased (45$+) have already been charged, contributing to the overdrawn status.)
Thaaaaats. 120 for UCCU, 43 $ for the places when I purchased things.
Ok, I am depressed because I kind of wanted to have that 120$ for ME.
Well, my credit card is off of level 14 alert lock-down, and I should try to enjoy the rest of my Canada trip with my pals. And I do, I have a really good time. I have to save every dollar I have so that I don't start giving UCCU 20$ for a bag of ketchup chips.
So far the story is just a sad one about me making a poor choice in how much to pay for my student loan.
When I get home I go over my bank account and figure out how much I lost for this mistake and I notice how all of the tiny charges are happening after the big charges. Oh man, that sounds exactly like what happened to Veritas. Huh, I guess he was right. Oh well, my paycheck will come out soon and I can pay back my dad. I will just have to be sad about the 120 dollars because I don't want to call the
Dodadoo, 2 days later. Hmmm, I wonder if my paycheck has hit my account yet, lets look and see.
...
WHAT THE HELL!!! (no ? mark needed)
Looks like I have overdrawn my account again. I thought every single bill had already gone through, but I forgot about my T-Mobile bill. ZING, Gotcha!
*Sigh* well, I will just have to not spend anything until tomorrow when my paycheck hits my account. Hmmm, it should have hit today though, it usually does on Thursday (night at the latest). There goes another 20$. Maybe I will call in to UCCU to see if they can reverse those meaningless charges.
Wait...
Something isn't right about this... Take a look.
I guess UCCU has invested a great sum of money in a Time Machine, and to cover the cost they go forward through time, find charges that are going to happen, and bring them back to the present so they can collect 20$ overdraft fees from starving working class heroes like me.
They made sure that it went through a day early, while my paycheck, (which I have confirmed) has had its payment sent to my account since Wednesday!!![yesterday]
OH this is AWESOME! I love it! Oh look, there is my charge from Cafe Rio, I was there... what... and hour and a half ago. There it is, already on my account.
From my understanding, the bank should have the courtesy of putting through my paycheck so I don't have to pay for the imaginary service being provided to me.
(Remember that 120$ worth of overdraft fees from Canada? Well, imagine if I hadn't been charged for that... I would have had enough money in my account to cover everything that is being charged now INCLUDING the overdraft fees... And they wouldn't have a reason to keep holding onto my paycheck)
So... I call up UCCU. They are going to have to refund these overdraft fees, this is ridiculous. Nay, ridonkulous! I get an agent on the line, and I explain the whole sorry situation to her, including the mistake with having to pay for my student loan TWICE because of their nagging collections people.
She apologized that this happened, but explains...
"We won't refund any of the overdraft fees if it wasn't the credit unions fault."
"Ok, but can't you do it as a favor to me, a faithful user that made a simple mistake?"
"Well, let me look at it," she says, clearly annoyed... rough job, "Since you haven't requested a refund for overdraft fees before I can put in a request for a refund, but you will only receive half of it back... if any, probably."
... Sigh...
"If I hadn't been charged the overdraft fees then the second set of overdraft fees wouldn't have happened. Isn't that a good enough reason to wave the fees that just happened today... Well, they are happeneing tomarrow, which doesn't make any sense at all."
"Um..." ... ... ... "Well, it looks like 400 dollars was deposited after the first set of overdraft fees, so that made everything right, then you overdrew from your account again. So it really isn't our fault."
"The 400 dollars didn't make the 120 dollars of overdraft fees right, it makes the mistaken large payment to my student loan right, but NOT the overdraft fees. If those had been refunded, even half of them, I wouldn't have overdrawn a second time."
"Um..." ... ... (Bless her heart...) "The 400 dollars looks like it made everything right again."
*sigh*
"Ok, so will you please submit that refund for the overdraft fees? thats 200 dollars caused by a simple mistake. Please?"
"Well I can submit the request but you understand that the board who reviews the request will probably only authorize half of it to be refunded. Do you understand?"
"Yeah. I get it..." (HUGE MISTAKE, I just gave them permission to only refund half)
"Ok, I will submit this ***Blah blah blah, she gets some information so she can contact me*** And I will call you when they give back their response."
"Ok. Now I am confused about the payments that are showing today, How come it shows charges that are going through tomorrow on my account today? That is really screwing me over."
"Oh, we don't have any control over when the charges go through."
[-This is bull shit. I do refunds all day long, I work with banks all the time. They have a huge amount of control over these things-]
"Well, my paycheck is supposed to have already shown up on my account, can you just have them put that through so I don't get these other overdraft fees?"
"We don't have any control over that." (She put a lot of emphasis on any... Nice.)
*sigh/frustration*
"Ok, call me with whatever happens to that refund."
"Ok, is there anything else I can do."
"Nope...Bye."
I walk around to Veritas' cubicle. "Did your paycheck show up on your account yet?"
He said, of course, "Yeah, last night. America First for the win, son."
"Yeah, UCCU... I am done with them."
"I told you, I told you..."
---
When I got home I looked for my father to see if he would loan me 100 MORE dollars so that it would show as being in my account before the time-vortex charges of tomorrow go through. He was gone, and he left his cell at home. I considered going to the pawn shop and giving them my guitar for a day, but I just got fed up and said... Whatever.
Later that night 2 more charges were charged overdraft fees. +40$ for uccu, for 4$ worth of charges.
---
Why Didn't I write this until a month later?
Yesterday I finished all my dealing with UCCU, I have transfered all of my accounts and money workings to American First Credit Union (Still not a bank...) And am washing my hands completely.
(yesterday morning my account was dollars away from being overdrawn again... I transfered a couple thousand dollars (enough to clean up my accounts) over electronically... The electronic payment just showed up today (after there was no threat of overdraft fees). I had to take a physical Cashiers check to UCCU and put it into their hands for it to show up on my account.
Also, my paycheck... No problem showing up in my account today, early... since I am nowhere close to having overdraft fees.
UCCU is the worst banking type institution in all of Utah, and probably the world.
If you credit and debit there, or know a loved one who does... please help them to leave that place as soon as possible.
Sorry this is so long.
