Wachovia Personal Finance Software $5.95 Fee Can Be Waived
Wachovia's Web site allows account holders to email customer service requests. I decided to send a request to see if I could get the $5.95 fee for downloading personal financial software transactions removed from my account.
I started with this simple request:
Hi,I was inquiring about this service charge I received on my account for $5.95. I stopped using the automatic feature in MS money to download my account transaction back in March, 2007 however I still seemed to have been charged for use.
05/07/2007 Other PFM MONTHLY ACCESS FEE - APRIL 2007 $5.95
And got this response:
Thank you for contacting Wachovia.I have received your e-mail concerning the $5.95 monthly service fee. In response to your inquiry, the $5.95 monthly fee applies to existing customers who access Wachovia Online Banking or Online Banking with Billpay directly from within their PFM software (Quicken, QuickBooks, Microsoft Money).
Customer communications were sent February thru March to all account holders, and additional specific mailings to affected financial software users. Customers have been notified multiple times and over 60 days, prior to charges hitting their accounts.
The monthly fee does not apply if you download your personal account information from www.wachovia.com into your personal financial management (PFM) software (Quicken, Quickbooks, Microsoft Money) or if you have any Crown account or Command Asset Program account.
If you would like to upgrade your account and avoid the monthly fee, we make it easy to switch to an account .......
If you so desire, you may request this service be canceled at your convenience by replying to this message or by submitting a new request.
Hmm. The end sounds promising. I basicaly replied, said I do not want to pay for this feature and please cancel this service on my account. I got this response back.
I will be happy to assist with your e-mail request to cancel your PFM service.Your Free checking account ending in XXXX and Express Access checking account ending in XXXX are not eligible to be exempt from the monthly PFM fee.
Per your request, I have cancelled your PFM service. This will be effective immediately.
Note: Your account may be assessed with the $5.95 PFM service fee on your next statement cycle. Please contact us via secure e-mail or telephone and we will be happy to credit your account.
The net is it looks likes you can ask them to cancel this feature so you won't be billed for the $5.95 whether you try and use it or not. I'm still waiting to see if they refund the $5.95 fee that they already charged me.
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Comments (12)
Cancel Your Account with Wachovia!!! This is a perfect example of horrible customer service, let alone their audacity in charging you for this to begin with!!
Posted by Anonymous | May 17, 2007 9:23 PM
I went through the same thing a couple weeks ago. I have been very happy with Wachovia but manually downloading the file into Mircrosoft Money while not a huge pain is a pain. Check out their crown account. You only need to maintain an avg monthly balance of $2500 in your accounts and they waive the download fee.
Posted by Anonymous | May 21, 2007 9:09 PM
To anonymous, I'm not sure how this is horrible customer service? but whatever.
I came to this blog entry through googling the PFM fee. I sent a secure message to Wachovia stealing the language from their email above:
I was inquiring about this service charge I received on my account for $5.95. I've stopped accessing, access Wachovia Online Banking or Online Banking with Billpay directly from within Microsoft money many months ago. However the charge below is on my statement:
05/07/2007 Other PFM MONTHLY ACCESS FEE - APRIL 2007 $5.95
I understand that you sent communication regarding this charge but I've not seen the message. I would like to cancel this PFM service, and if possible I would like a refund of the above fee as I did not use the PFM service in the month of April at all.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
We'll see what happens...
Posted by ChrissMari | May 22, 2007 6:08 AM
Just got hit with the "PFM MONTHLY ACCESS FEE - SEPTEMBER 2007", found this site through Google. First they removed "One Stop", now this. Time to switch away from Wachovia. I am not going to keep a 5k balance in checking to have features other banks give for free.
Posted by Shawn | October 10, 2007 9:57 PM
As soon as i got the letter saying they would be charging me I stopped using quicken and canceled the account link. It is now over 5 months later and I am still being charged. I don't know what is going on at Wachovia but they better get their act together.
Posted by Anonymous | October 18, 2007 11:26 PM
I also got hit with the PFM fee. I found this site by googling the PFM fee. I called Wachovia Customer Service and they refunded the fee with no problem. I was told that I had enrolled in either Quicken or Microsoft Money, which I had not (not that I was aware of) and didn't want, so they un-enrolled me and refunded the money.
Very pleased with the customer service and the way this was handled. It could have been more aggravating than it was.
Posted by Anonymous | September 9, 2008 9:15 AM
Frankly, Wachovia is about to lose my business in the coming weeks.
Their customer service is absolutely horrid. They offer promotions they do not deliver on. And they charge for things other banks hadn't even considered trying to make a cent on.
First and foremost, I've yet to be satisfied with their customer service from any of these issues. They take weeks to get a response to me telling me they have to forward the issue elsewhere and then I never hear another word.
Wachovia has failed to send me a new debit card, as mine is not working well. I put my FIRST request in over seven months ago. Several other requests have gone unanswered. Note the first request was in person, at a branch. My address is up to date and I still receive my statements.
This charge makes me laugh about as hard as the 5 bucks they charged me for calling Customer Service more than two times in a single month (about account issues that were their problem to begin with).
Yeah, I've had my fill of Wachovia. Credit uninion is clearly the way to go.
Posted by Anonymous | September 9, 2008 10:14 AM
Wachovia is awful. I have 8 accounts linked to Quicken, and I just got hit with this charge, ONLY from Wachovia!
I asked them to remove it immediately, as I am a longtime customer. I then googled (should have googled first!) and landed here. If it comes down to it, I'll skip downloading into Quicken to avoid the fee, but that is just sleazy of them. They are nickel-and-diming their customers to death simply because they have mismanaged an otherwise profitable business to the brink of collapse.
I'm sticking with other banks primarily, but want to keep this open for convenience (unless it continues to cost me, then they can kiss my business goodbye entirely).
Posted by Tony | December 9, 2008 8:53 PM
I just noticed the PFM charge today. It's been six months since I used Quicken, so that monthly payment definitely ticked me off.
After about 20min on the phone [(800) 950-2296] I was able to explain the situation to a person and have the fee cancelled, plus the past two months of charges put back into my account.
The fee itself is the problem. There was no red flag to customers of Wachovia when the fee was initiated, and even when you stop having data pulled to Quicken the fee continues to be charged. This is a problem Wachovia had better pay attention to.
It's not enough to lose my business though.
Posted by Jack | February 13, 2009 5:52 PM
I would like to know why you keep charging me $5.95 a month?
Posted by Tony Depta | March 25, 2009 1:27 PM
I just got charged with this fee again this month. They charged me the PFM fee about 4 times last year although I have never used Money management/quicken or anything else that would warrant this fee. They have gotten enough money. I'm about to switch... This is absolutely ridiculous.
Posted by Stephanie | July 9, 2009 2:12 AM
I got hit with this, talked to Wachovia last night. The only way to avoid the fee is to sign up for a specific account, but you must be 50 to be eligible for that account. If thats not discrimination I don't know what discrimination is. I've reported this to the State AG, along with this charge without notification. F@#% Wachovia, I'm no longer a customer!!
Posted by Keith | November 10, 2010 3:07 PM