Oh since I’m naming names. The bank before that, Wells Fargo, honored a check I wrote > 2 years earlier. Sure, I wrote it and I was good for it at the time. I forgot about it. Maybe I could’ve left that money in limbo but at a certain point I assumed my moderately wealthy aunt wasn’t gonna cash it.

Well it doesn’t matter what I assumed, the law said the check was no longer valid. When Wells Fargo honored it and overdrafted me they disregarded the law and said I was committing check fraud if I didn’t pay up. That’s how I ended up at US Bank, because fuck if I’m going to pay you for illegally processing my check.

Edit: and yeah I had “check fraud” on my record for years after because Wells Fargo said they didn’t care about the law and just lectured me about being responsible for checks I wrote.

Again (to other cases in this page, ref. reordered transactions): should not this be a case for legal action?

A contract has a time limit, one part arbitrarily extends it and claims rights: this is completely absurd.

I’m sure it could have made a case. But I wasn’t exactly in a financial position to hire a lawyer.

Wasn't there some money to be made for you and the Lawyer? Sue the bank, make lots of noise, then offer a settlement in which they pay the lawyer and some amount of damages for getting your credit score in jeapardy.

Okay this is absurd. I was being wrongfully overdrafted. I had no legal recourse. No one being overdrafted has any legal recourse unless they’re researching overdraft abuse.

The lawyers I could hire are advertised on billboards and park benches on spin off TV shows.

You got charged and convicted of a crime?

Not the OP, but having it on his record likely refers to his credit record, maintained by private agencies, not a conviction record.

Probably ChexSystems. Kinda like a credit report, governed by the same laws, but distinct from the big three bureaus everyone is familiar with. All the banks use them. And anything negative on that report will prevent you from opening up an account somewhere else until you get it removed.

As mentioned in replies, I was flagged in ChexSystem for check fraud.

Oh man, I banked with US Bank back in 2003/2004. One day I overdrafted my checking account by about $5. "Overdraft protection" kicked in and they automatically transferred money from my savings account, but not before charging a $25 fee that caused... another overdraft. This repeated automatically over a dozen times in one day to the tune of around $300. I noticed what was going on that evening and manually transferred some extra into checking to stop the cycle.

The next morning I went in to sort it out and was told I needed to travel an hour away to the branch I had originally set up my account at. Upon arriving at my "home" branch I was told the manager was on vacation and no one else could help, but she would call me as soon as she got back. Two weeks later, having received no call, I went back in and saw the manager sitting at her desk. I closed all my accounts on the spot and never looked back.

There're several of stories of some level of craziness here in the thread. I wonder why none tried to sue bank? Are banks in the US really above the law? Or probably not too high to be sued, but enough to make good money.

Lawyers cost money. There are a lot of bad actors in the US that know they can get away with stealing small amounts from people because the legal costs will quickly eclipse any returned gains.

Anyway, in my case the bank did ultimately return my $300 as they desperately tried to retain my business. Pretty sure this is another way they get away with stuff like this, just refund the squeaky wheels. "Oh, sorry for the mistake."