There's nothing quite like trying to pay with a debit card that "bounces," especially when you're sure there's more than enough money in your checking account.
Fortunately, Denise Decooman of Monongahela had a credit card to pay for the purchases in her shopping cart last week.
But what was wrong with her debit card? The food and other items she bought for Maynard and Lyle, her 15-month-old twins, cost only $40. Had someone stolen her identity and emptied her account?
The 21-year-old single mother began to track down what had happened as soon as she returned to the home she and her sons share with her parents, William and Janet Decooman. She called her bank -- National City on Main Street in Monongahela.
The "real nice" woman who answered the phone said the bank had transferred $611 from her account to her parents' account to pay some financial obligations they owed the bank. Ms. Decooman asked if the money could be returned to her account. The woman said "no."
So, instead of having a balance of several hundred dollars or a zero balance, Denise Decooman said she was told she had a negative balance of $300.
How could the bank tap her account for money her parents owed? And why didn't it contact her first?
It turned out National City had sent her a notice of what it had done, but that notice didn't arrive until after her unsettling experience with the debit card.
Janet Decooman had helped her daughter open the checking account on Dec. 27, 2004. Although only Denise Decooman's name appears on the checks, her mother's name appears on the paperwork that set up the account.
When the bank's computer checked to see if her parents had any other accounts at the bank, it showed Janet Decooman's name on that paperwork. Acting with what is known as the "right of offset," the bank then transferred money from Denise Decooman's account to her parents' account.
When she called me, Denise Decooman wanted to know how the bank could do this. She said she had only $20 to her name at the time and had bills she needed to pay. She asked if I could help her get her money back. She also wanted the bank to waive the $34 charge it imposed on each of three checks that bounced because there wasn't enough money in her account.
I relayed Ms. Decooman's problem in a phone call and then an e-mail to National City spokesman Bill Eiler.
Mr. Eiler, who promises in his voice mail message to return all calls "like magic," got right on it. He called back to say the branch manager already was working to resolve the problem.
After meeting with Ms. Decooman and her parents Friday, National City representatives removed her mother's name from the checking account, transferred $611 back to Ms. Decooman's account, waived the fee for the bounced checks and set up a plan to help her parents pay what they owe the bank.
Among other things, Ms. Decooman learned that a parent's name on an account isn't automatically removed when a child turns 21. The child must ask the bank to do that. She also learned that children younger than 21 can open checking accounts if they can show they understand how they work.
"Thanks very much for your help," Ms. Decooman said. I said I'd pass her gratitude along to Mr. Eiler and the management and staff at her local bank.
First Published: October 4, 2006, 4:00 a.m.
