Entire account frozen due to one (legit) deposit

[Sidewinder]

Morning of December 13, 2023. (Fifteen days, six hours till impact)

Sidewinder opens a checking account at a branch of Associated Bank in Bloomington, Minn., with an initial deposit of $100 in the form of a check Sidewinder has made out to himself, drawn on the U.S. subsidiary of Bank of Montreal.  Bank of Montreal, despite its name, is in actuality headquartered in Toronto.

 

The banker compliments Sidewinder's handwriting.

 

Evening of December 18, 2023.  (Ten days, three hours till impact)

Sidewinder deposits a $1,000 check, made out to himself, drawn on the BMO account, at an Associated Bank ATM in North Branch, Minnesota.  Sidewinder is in North Branch en route to the Duluth area with the main purpose of visiting the Sinclair station in Two Harbors.

 

The ATM is an envelope-free ATM that has successfully read the amount written on the check.  Sidewinder interprets this as a compliment on his handwriting.

 

Evening of December 27, 2023.  (Twenty-eight hours till impact)

Sidewinder deposits a $3,250 check, made out to himself and drawn on Bank of America, at an Associated Bank drive-up ATM in St. Louis Park, Minnesota.  Sidewinder drives away not having paid attention to the updated "available balance" on the ATM receipt, as he is already aware of the likeliness of an EFA hold due to the size of the deposit combined with the minuscule age of the account.

 

Afternoon of December 28 (six hours till impact)

Sidewinder logs into his American Express account and transfers several thousand dollars from his Rewards Checking account via ACH into the account at Associated.

 

Morning of January 2 (four days, thirteen hours past impact)

Sidewinder visits the Associated branch in Bloomington and deposits one thousand dollars in the form of ten crisp Benjamins.  The account balance is now sufficient to qualify for the $600 new-account bonus that was the whole blamed reason for this clown show in the first place.

  

Afternoon of January 2 (you get the impact thing already)

Sidewinder initiates a $100 ACH transfer to an online HYSA at another bank from the account at Associated.  The account at Associated is newly linked to the HYSA and the purpose of the transfer is to verify that the linkitude is functional.

 

Evening of January 4 (we're like, way impacted at this point.  (Gross.))

Checking the overall status of his bank accounts, Sidewinder observes that the HYSA transaction history lists an ACH transfer credit of $100 on January 2 as well as an "ACH debit return" on January 4.  He phones the bank where the HYSA is and asks if they have any details on why the ACH debit was returned.  The banker investigates and reports that Associated returned the ACH transfer with a note that the account is frozen.

 

Sidewinder calls Associated to find out what in tarnation is going on there.  The best explanation the banker can offer is that the $3.250 ATM deposit is what caused the account to be frozen.  This was not an EFA hold on funds deposited and not yet verified; indeed the account already had several thousand dollars in funds that could not possibly not have been validated by that point.  Sidewinder, intending to take this matter higher up than to the person who answers the customer service 800 number on Saturday night, simply gets the banker to confirm that Associated had made the exasperating move to A) respond to a non-mammoth $3,250 deposit not by placing an EFA hold on the funds, but rather by FREEZING THE ENTIRE ACCOUNT, INCLUDING ALL THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS DEPOSITED IN PERFECTLY GOOD FAITH AND INEVITABLY VERIFIED and 2) not bother to NOTIFY THE ACCOUNT-HOLDER VIA TEXT, PHONE, OR EMAIL THAT THEY WERE FREEZING HIS ENTIRE FREAKING ACCOUNT.

 

The account was unfrozen on January 4th which does not undo the unacceptability of never notifying the account-holder in the first place.  Did they break the law by not notifying?

 

 

[greendeh]

Roughly 11 days after impact

Sid E. Winder is found wandering aimlessly around random Sinclair gas pumps so severely damaged by Associated Bank that he has begun referring to himself in the 3rd and 4th person vernacular.