Don't got to your local bank for a money order if it is Sovereign Bank...The post office charged me 1.50 but my own bank wanted 7.00. That's not even competitive...

I saw a Sovereign Bank advertisement that said if I open a checking account, deposited $200, use the debit card to spend $200, I can get $150 promotion. I opened one with $300 deposited. The odd thing is they mailed a contract to me. Unfortuanatly, I didn't review it carefully, just signed it and mailed it back.

After I received the debit card, I began to use it to do purchase. I thought I spent up the $300, the case get closed. Today, I received a letter from the bank unexpectedly. I was told that I already spent up $300, and I overdrew the money for 3 times. I was charged $35 each time. Also, because I overdrew money, the promotion is cancelled.

I called the representives. Surprisingly, the representatives' attitude was very bad and gave me same answers that were "no way to waive the $105 charge", "it is legitimat charge", "you needn't open the account, it is your mistake". I began to realize I stepped into the trap the Sovereign Bank already designed for us. They just use this way to defraud customers' money. They already get ready to deny any complaints and appeal. The final result is I open a account with $105 cost and I get big experience that some banks like Sovereign Bank designated to cheat customers. Can you believe it? The bank industry is full of cheaters.

Hello,
Like many people I am trying to stretch money as far as it can go. And I (and many others it seems) am being taken for a ride by my bank. Sovereign Bank is charging their "customers" $33 each for overdrafts on multiple purchases with checks or check/debit cards by delaying the posting of deposits THEN debiting accounts with the latest purchases first THEN posting the deposit.The deposit is ALWAYS posted last. It is happening time and time again to many Massachusetts residents and it just happened again to me (I noticed it on my account in April and noticed the same robbery but put it off until later and then of course forgot about it). By the looks of my search of the Internet, more than just a few here in Massachusetts have had the same done to them. It is creative bank accounting at it's worst for the consumer. When I received a mailer today from Sovereign it held for me $165 in overdrafts from May 26th. I made a deposit over the weekend that would clear on Tuesday the 26th. When I looked at my current bank account statement on-line, it held the five "charges" on my account debited the 26th AND the Deposit credited the 26th. So we can be clear, they were posted on the same day, BUT Sovereign posted my charges first -- in descending order from largest to smallest NOT including the deposit -- THEN the deposit which put me in the red. They are placing their most at risk customers deeper into holes they cannot get out of. It is frustrating and oh so maddening. I am visiting my local branch Monday morning but hold no hope based upon what I have read. I am however, hoping that the team at Channel Five here in Boston can look into this heinous practice and bring it into focus so Sovereign Bank will stop this corrupt corporate larceny.

"I will pay them the 75$ that I overspent. I do HAVE that money. I'm not some sort of irresponsible idiot. But Sovereign Bank charged me $264 and tried to hide it from me."

Here's a great story. Sovereign Bank blames all of this on a SkyNet-like AUTOMATED COMPUTER SYSTEM *gasp!* that is responsible for billing clients, as seen in the complaint about the 7-year-old girl. I recently spent some money that I did not have. Meaning that my account balance went 75 below 0. I was not notified, BUT Sovereign Bank almost immediately billed me $264.

Due to some sort of a computer error on their part, I was not able to view my Sovereign Bank account online. I am only an 18 year old high schooler, but these conglomerate white-collar thugs are threatening to ruin my credit BEFORE I go to college. I want to send this message to my Congressman. To the CEO of Sovereign Bank. Anyone! I am desperate here.

I had no problem keeping my cash in a safe at home. But my parents gave me this account as a gift. I did not realize that as soon as I transferred/spent funds out of my Sovereign account, they could disproportionately, incessantly bill me.

Sovereign Bank is holding my money hostage. I recently got a letter in the mail saying something along the lines of 'THE FOLLOWING FEES WILL BE APPLIED AS OF NOW.' With a list of new fees, charges, and taxes that all Sovereign Bank customers would now have to pay.

Come on. That is insane.

My husband and I added my name to his accounts to make a joint account after we were married. They were clueless and unforthcoming about why they wanted-required various pieces of information. Their customer service automated call in number is insane and contridicts itself. For example it requires you to use your social and a telpehone pin (this is different than you ATM pin), however if you listen to the full message it states that if you have never used the telephone systems then to put in 4 digits followed by the #, you do that three times and then you are locked out and put on hold. I asked the rep if that was the intent to make the caller talk to someone at Sovereign to avoid fraud. He said no it is so that the customer can do the transactions themselves, he clearly did not understand the flaw in their automated phone system. I have called that number on two different days in have been hung up on repeteadly. And the most recent failure one rep tells me that yes I do have online banking and bill pay this was at 4:55 and then after I call back because he hung up on me the next rep tells me no you don't have that set up.

And probably the most galling part of this situation is that we added my name on a Saturday, so of course I understood that in order for it to process it would take time and probably not start until the following Monday, a "business day". I asked specifically when we would receive our new checks, because quite frankly I don't want the checks laying about and well I don't want to have to ask my husband to write checks when I should be able to do it myself. I was told 7-10 business day that I would have them, not that they would ship in 7-10 business days but that they would be in my hands. On the 11th business day I called to find out where they were. I speak to the branch manager, she doesn't know but she sees that they were shipped (and yes they had already deducted the money from our account). So I ask where they were shipped from and on what date, hoping to extrapolate when they may be coming. She doesn't know but she can call the company and find out, great call me back today I say and let me know where they are. She calls back and asks if they would have been sent to an alternate address, and I say no we gave you the correct address when we made the addition and you have been using the correct address for the statements for the past 14 months. Oh she says well they are being sent to X address, which is my street and complex but there is no such apartment number in my complex. At this point I am furious and I say well stop the delivery or have them change the address, her response is no she cannot do that once they are shipped they have no control over the situation. She offeres to overnight us new checks at no charge however I point out that these checks with our account info are out in limbo and how does that help or protect us? She offers to set up a new account, which would nessetate us setting up more paperwork and new direct deposit and bill pay information. At that point I am done with the bank they have provided crap for service and make a serious error and don't seem concerned about it. I hand the phone to my husband to deal with them. The bank manager then asks my husband a few questions and she tells him that the checks were sent to Y address, yes a completely different address than what she told me two minutes ago. The address she gave him was the last place he lived and in a not so nice town so you really don't want to have any personal financial information floating around there. We are very lucky in that my husban's cousin is the landlord and he was able to get his tennat to look for the checks, and we hope to be getting them back, but at this point we do not trust Sovereign. We will be moving almost all of the money from that account out into mine, (which is no prize bank either but they haven't demonstrated crappy customer service or lack of regard for my personal financial data), and we will be closing both accounts and moving them to a credit union. We figure if we have to jump through all the hoops for opening a new account why stay with classless and careless Sovereign Bank when we could go with a smaller bank or credit union, they all have bill pay and online banking which is what we use 90% of the time anyway.

So way to go Sovereign you just lost the checking and savings accounts of both my husband and myself. Not to mention any potential business we were planning on doing with you like say umm, for a home mortgage, maybe a car loan.