I’ll never see a single penny from WF, but I’ll also never forget they helped turn a smallish life catastrophe into a decade of my life being chaotic hell. They were not the root cause. They weren’t even systemically the worst challenge I faced. They were the gigantic multiplier on both though.

I had a persistent medical issue I couldn’t treat because it was determined by insurance companies that treatment would be elective. Not my insurance, mind you, I couldn’t afford any. But they got to decide whether I’d be able to get surgery on debt versus paying up front.

After months trying to find a solution, family footed the bill, somewhat gofundme style but strings attached. And I was expected to go fund them back. I dutifully obliged, as soon as I could go back to work. I sent the first check, 10% of the surgery…

That check sat gathering dust for over a year. I’ll never know why it got deposited, but WF knew it was illegal to honor it. They knew it didn’t matter what I had already been through, the check was expired and they could not legally honor it.

I had of course forgotten the check was written over a year later. When I got hit with compounding overdraft fees I couldn’t opt out of, they would not discuss the fact that they illegally processed my check. I’m supposed to be good for my checks, they said. So for a decade I was guilty of “fraud” because WF illegally debited my account and then hit me with recursive fees for illegally charging me money they couldn’t charge. My only recourse was to just hunker down and manage my money carefully as I always had, for ten years. 1/4 of my life so far was set back because they knew I couldn’t afford a lawyer to do anything about the law they admitted knowing they broke.

And that’s nothing compared to what they did to most of these victims.