Overdraft Fees SUCK! (but USAA rocks!!)

As I'm sure most of you PF fanatics are diligent about account bookkeeping, I, too, consider myself to be organized when it comes to my accounts. I make sure that I have sufficient funds when writing checks (especially that hefty rent check at the end of each month), transfer money if necessary before paying credit card bills, etc. My checking account is linked to my smaller savings account for overdraft protection, but what happens when you overdraft your savings account? By accident, of course!

I recently opened an HSBC account to get a higher savings rate for my anticipated bonus, and I decided to make a "small" transfer of $750 to make sure that everything worked correctly and that I had it linked to the right USAA account. I intended to make the small deduction from my checking account, since that's where my bonus would be directly deposited. This morning, I got an email notice that "the transfer failed due to insufficient funds..." HUH? Impossible! Investigation ensued.

As background info, my relevant accounts at USAA are arranged as such:
Checking: $2k
Savings 1: $500 (for overdraft from checking, has low interest rate)
Savings 2: $20k (a higher interest rate because of the higher balance)

"Savings 1" only exists as an overdraft account, which is why I keep the balance so low. I checked all debits and transfers to this account after receiving the rejected transfer email, and sure enough, they had tried to transfer the $750 from this account, hence the rejection. Also in this account was a big red $29 overdraft fee >:( I quickly transferred another $500 into this account for when they re-attempt the transfer.

So how did this happen? Well, it's my fault, of course. Computers don't make mistakes, right? When I set up my external transfer account, I copied and pasted the account and routing numbers directly from my checking account info page. However, the way the page is set up is that it lists the checking account number, followed by the overdraft account number linked to the account. In my haste, I accidentally copied the overdraft account number!! Sigh.

What makes me mad is that this is exactly what I was trying to avoid! I set up the smaller transfer so that when I made the big one, I would be sure that it was coming from the right account and not overdraw my smaller ones by accident. What I should have done was select a test amount that was smaller than the lowest balance of any of my accounts. I just didn't think that transferring from my smallest savings account was even an option, since the only two accounts I thought I had set up for transferring were my checking and larger savings accounts.

Fellow blogger J Money recently had a situation in which he was able to kiss enough USAA butt for them reverse his overdraft fee- I have every intention of calling them when their offices open this morning and pleading my case, I hope I have the same luck. Will keep you updated!


Update: Whoo hoo! I called USAA and they refunded me the overdraft fee as a one-time courtesy, since I do in fact have enough funds in my other accounts to cover the transfer. As it was my own dumb mistake, I was prepared to just take the hit, but it's nice when your bank is actually serviced by human beings (unlike Jet Blue... GRRR! Still mad at you, Jet Blue! Take some customer service notes from USAA!)

Fraud?

I decided to go ahead and open up an HSBC Direct online savings account to put my Countrywide CD that matures at the end of this month and my bonus that will be paid to me later this month. HSBC is currently offering 3.5% for accounts opened before September 15. I'm not a rate chaser, but HSBC has been consistently higher than other high-yield savings accounts, including ING with whom they seem to be in a rate war. So, even though the 3.5% won't last forever, I feel like I can trust their rates to be consistently high, whatever they are.

The account opening process was easy, but I got tripped up by something that hopefully means nothing. I'm used to being asked all kinds of identity verification questions when opening up new accounts, such as "what county do you live in?," "what is your most recent address?," etc. But today I was asked: "You recently opened up a mortgage with which lender? What is the amount?" and "You recently initiated a car loan with which lender? What is the amount?"... I answered "none of the above" to all of the options to these questions, as I have neither a mortgage or a car loan... but when I submitted my answers, I was told that my identity could not be verified and that they would be contacting me for more information!!! Does this mean that there is a mortgage or loan out there in my name??

I tried to get more information, but the Equifax number they gave me won't let you speak to a person, it just tells you to mail your request to some address in Georgia. Only paying Equifax members have access to personal customer support. I called the bank back a few times and they said that it's probably nothing, those are standard questions, but still, it got me worried, because they shouldn't ask me those particular questions unless they have reason to. They will be able to tell me in 24-48 hours if there is something wrong with my answers to those questions. Still, I'm unsettled, and I've already gotten free credit reports from all three agencies this year, so I can't get another free one (unless they make an exception for fraud concerns).