I am currently in default on a line of credit. My financial situation changed due to personal reasons and unforeseen circumstances a little over a year ago. Consequently the line of credit was behind. A representative called me at work inquiring as to whether I could make a minimum payment of $250. I responded that I could not – seeing as how I only had $300 in my checking account to live off of until my next paycheck and most of that would be going to my childcare provider. I have a daughter to take care of and a mortgage that has to be paid. I explained that I could not make the payment and the rep responded "Okay – I will make note of that in your account here. Know that further collections proceedings will continue." I told him I understood that. 5 minutes later I logged onto my account to check the balance and what do you know – $250 had been taken out of the account as a default offset.in doing some reading I found that the bank does reserve the right to do this – but seriously? The representative is going to say Ok, hang up the phone and then take the money from my checking account right after I had explained that I could not possibly make that payment at this time. Maybe if I'd had thousands of dollars sitting in my account, I could understand them withdrawing the fee. But I had $300 and they took $250. I have a child to feed and household to maintain. And once the check I had written for daycare posted, my account would be negative and PNC would start slapping on the overdraft fees. I called the representative back the next day and explained to him why I thought it was the whole situation was handled very poorly and that it was a very underhanded thing to not tell someone upfront that if they can't make a payment it will be taken out of their account anyway. Why did they even bother calling to ask me in the first place if they were just going to steal it anyway? The representative replied with a snarky, childish "sorry". Obviously I will close my account as PNC has clearly shown the value they place on customers and treatment of people in general.
