A just-returned Iraqi war veteran says he was shocked at the fee his bank imposed when he paid off his car loan. He says there's no reason for the charge, but couldn't get the fee returned. So, he's turned to Local 12 Troubleshooter Howard Ain for help.
Staff Sergeant Jeffrey Klein of Independence, KY just returned home from another tour of duty in Iraq. "I had come back from Iraq and I had plenty of funds that I had saved up over the year. And I decided to use those to go ahead and pay off a car loan," Klein informed Howard.
Klein is an instructor in the army, who served 3 tours of duty in Iraq. He was looking for the easiest way to pay off his car loan, so he transferred the money to his Chase bank checking account. "I have a daily limit on the debit card. I called Chase to maximize that daily limit for 24 hours to make sure there would be no issues," Klein said.
He then paid off the car loan at another bank using his Chase debit card. A few weeks later he noticed he was charged a fee by chase bank of $386 because they treated the withdrawal as a cash advance. "They were like yes because you swiped your card. I said it doesn't make a lot of sense I had the funds to support it," Klein stated.
So now, although Klein has this car all paid off, he's stuck with an extra $386 charge, needlessly. "I could have written a check. I could have gotten a cashier's check from my bank. I could have got cash from the ATM in theory," Klein recalled.
Klein says he protested the charge to his bank branch, then the corporate office. "I tried and tried and tried and couldn't get an answer from either one. I just finally, that's when I called you," Klein told Howard.
So Howard contacted Chase bank and is happy to report that within minutes officials called Klein, apologized, and returned all those fees to him. Clearly, it should never have been treated as a cash advance. Howard is glad to have been able to help.
