Banks Get worse with Overdraft Fees

[SkylarV217]

Good Lord, I thought they were sneaky enough and charging me fees when they knew i would overdraft so they could get that fee from me too... Now they are getting even worse.... At least the Government is looking at doing something about the practice

Purchases Trigger Overdraft Fees Before They Clear - WalletPop

Be Careful ... I used to do the transfer money thing all the time Guess I can't anymore

 

[reesesilverstar]

Bank of America is NOTORIOUS for that. I noticed it in my account. The stuff says pending... but I'm already charged for overdraft "protection" pfft, plz...

I said I was gonna cancel that overdraft thing this weekend. But I forgot. Thanks for reminding me.

Plus I don't understand why they should charge you $10 to access your money if you LINKED your accounts anyway, and the amount of interest I earn each 1/4 or whatever is a couple cents compared to that... Financial institutions are ridiculous man!

Sorry, mini rant... grrr...

 

[aziajs]

This is an awesome article which brings up a lot of issues I have with banking. I hope the that the government does get involved because it has gotten really ridiculous.

 

[COBI]

[This is where I deleted a long posting pointing out the inaccuracies of the article and the mistake of painting all banks will a single broad brush based on industry giants, but I really don't want to get into a "spending vs. banks are robbing us debate".

]

I remember when I had an account with Fleet Bank years ago, and they instituted a "teller fee"; you were literally charge $2 or $3 (I forget now) if you talked to a live person (in a branch or on their 800-number) for something you could have done electronically (through an ATM, online, or automatic phone system). That was CRAZY! What type of customer service charges you to talk to a person? I closed my account shortly thereafter for that reason alone even though I NEVER went into the branch and did everything electronically. The concept of the fee alone put me off enough to change banks.

 

[SkylarV217]

Quote:

Originally Posted by aziajs This is an awesome article which brings up a lot of issues I have with banking. I hope the that the government does get involved because it has gotten really ridiculous.

I agree, I really do wish that the you could ask the bank to decline a charge if you don't have it in your account .... but "Since you are a valued customer we will kindly pay the amount you have charged " ..... and the charge you out the Butt for it.... But they do that "for" us since we are so valued.... give me a break

 

[COBI]

Quote:

Originally Posted by SkylarV217 I agree, I really do wish that the you could ask the bank to decline a charge if you don't have it in your account .... but "Since you are a valued customer we will kindly pay the amount you have charged " ..... and the charge you out the Butt for it.... But they do that "for" us since we are so valued.... give me a break

This was one of the points that I had issue with within the article. Although, it is not required, many banks will do this for you. Call your bank and ask someone about it. In all honesty, make sure you feel like the person you are talking really understands their system and what you are asking.

For example, our system has a mass default setting that pays as long as you have overdraft protection available (which is again a default on most of our personal checking accounts); however, we do have the ability to turn off overdraft availability on an account-by-account (or card-by-card) level. That being said because it is deep within the system, it is NOT something that a teller may even be aware we can do, so they may not give the most accurate answer.

Worth asking your bank for sure, as long as people remember that if it is off, it will be off even if you end up in a situation where you wish it was available.

 

[MiCHiE]

It's a mess. I agree, people should only spend within their means. I know I've purchased gas and overdrawn my account but, luckily, the banks I use will only charge an overdraft if the account is not brought back to a positive by the end of the business day, which I think is more than fair.

 

[SkylarV217]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ♥MiCHiE♥ It's a mess. I agree, people should only spend within their means. I know I've purchased gas and overdrawn my account but, luckily, the banks I use will only charge an overdraft if the account is not brought back to a positive by the end of the business day, which I think is more than fair.

Well that would be amazing. You are lucky to have a bank like that... I've always had the money ... Just had to transfer it from another account.

 

[COBI]

Quote:

Originally Posted by SkylarV217 Well that would be amazing. You are lucky to have a bank like that... I've always had the money ... Just had to transfer it from another account.

Your bank charges you an overdraft fee even if your account is brought into the positive before the end of the business day?

In general, these fees are assessed during the bank's "end-of-day processing", so as long as transfers and/or deposits are made prior to the bank's established (and posted) cut-off times, it seems odd to hear that a bank is charging mid-day (or "daylight") overdraft fees. Even banks have what is called "daylight overdraft" limits at the Fed; this is an amount we are allowed to be negative during the day with our account at the Federal Reserve Bank (and we are talking millions of dollars at any point during the day that banks can be overdrawn). For this reason alone, I would have an issue with a bank charging an overdraft fee for an account having a daylight overdraft (assuming it is brought to the positive before the end of the day.)

That being said, not all deposits are equal. Some will have legitimate holds on the funds before allowing your charge to go against them.

 

[MiCHiE]

^That's what I thought. I'm speaking primarily of the practices of Chase and Capital One. I've been banking for 14/15 years now, so I know just about all the tricks of the trade and I monitor my accounts very closely. I don't think banks should have to police people's accounts. Of course, we all make mistakes, but I don't think this is so much about making money off of people as it is about financial responsibility on the consumers' end. The only action I've heard about and really disagree with is the per-day charge for an overdrawn account. That's ridiculous.

 

[kokometro]

This is an ongoing trend and EVERY consumer should take it upon themselves to stay up on this stuff.

There is a documentary called Maxed out that is incredible and scary. It's on DVD and also on Direct TV currently so set your DVR.

MAXED OUT

If you use a bank or have a credit card then you must watch this movie.

2cents

 

[COBI]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ♥MiCHiE♥ ^That's what I thought. I'm speaking primarily of the practices of Chase and Capital One. I've been banking for 14/15 years now, so I know just about all the tricks of the trade and I monitor my accounts very closely. I don't think banks should have to police people's accounts. Of course, we all make mistakes, but I don't think this is so much about making money off of people as it is about financial responsibility on the consumers' end. The only action I've heard about and really disagree with is the per-day charge for an overdrawn account. That's ridiculous.

We do not use them, but our system has the ability to assess both "per-day" flat fees (usual practice for banks who use this is to give a 5-7 day grace period to bring your account to a positive balance before it starts being assessed) AND interest charges on overdrawn accounts. We consider it to be artificially inflating income because if a person elects to never make another deposit, all we are doing is increasing fee income and increasing the eventual write-off, and the more you increase the overdrawn amount, the less likely they are to come and make it whole again. But the capability is built into the software so some bank somewhere at some time must have asked for it.

Federal regulations now require us to show customers the how much they've paid in overdrafts for the current statement period and year-to-date on every statement. Regulations also now require banks to provide/suggest counseling for "abusers" (i.e. over-users) of overdraft programs through a formally documented notification.

 

[COBI]

Quote:

Originally Posted by kokometro This is an ongoing trend and EVERY consumer should take it upon themselves to stay up on this stuff. There is a documentary called Maxed out that is incredible and scary. It's on DVD and also on Direct TV currently so set your DVR. MAXED OUT If you use a bank or have a credit card then you must watch this movie. 2cents

I have only read the synopsis and not watched the movie. I would say that this is in some ways another broad brush view of bank's attitudes. Just based on the attitudes assigned to banks in the synopsis, I would disagree with the statements made in general about banks. For example, we do NOT want people to be late. We monitor our late accounts very closely, and it is NOT a good thing for banks to have a lot of late accounts AT ALL. First, we have built in 14-day grace periods before a late fee kicks in. Second, late accounts (especially in today's economy) are something of concern not revenue-driven elation.

Perhaps, the views indicated to be in the movie (based on the synopsis) are true of the megabanks, but I can tell you that not all banks feel this way or conduct themselves in this manner.

As mentioned by a previous poster, none of this is an issue when we choose to be fiscally responsible. I work for a bank, and I've slipped and ended up paying fees, so I am in no way trying to judge. However, if you are *routinely* paying fees, it is time to address your own habits versus being angry at the bank for charging fees.