U.S. banks make 38 billion from overdraft fees
 

http://www.reuters.com/article/newsO...5790YM20090810

I finally changed out my bank for a credit union. When I was with the bank, they would allow you to make purchases and ATM withdrawals even though your balance was zero and you were not aware of that fact. Then they would charge an overdraft fee on every transaction.

One weekend I thought I had more money than I did and I assumed the transactions would be declined if there was no money. So I made 5 or so small purchases with my card. When I got my statement I was livid. They charged me well over 100.00 in fees for 5 purchases that might have totaled 35.00 in all.

I was furious. I called them and the customer rep smugly responded that it was up to me to know my balance and that they allowed the overdrafts as a convenience to the customer.

Now I'm with the credit union. Need I say more.

They stand to make 38 billion usd in overdraft fees, and much of it coming from their less affluent customers. Now that's what I call customer service! Not!:1orglaugh

I agree i just switched all my accounts from Wells Fartgo. The cunts did the same to me on piddling small amounts. Now i get charged zero for checks, zero to accept cash and a free overdraft limit...

That was my bank. One of the biggest problems I had was using their online system to check your balance and view transactions.

Let's say you had 100.00 in the account. You would look in the online system would show this as your balance.

Next you make a credit card purchase for 50.00.

You would watch the online system until you see that 50.00 transaction posted and your balance available would show 50.00. No problem.

Once the credit card transaction has been posted you forget about it, and assume it is reflected in any future balance that you see.

However frequently for some reason I could not understand these posted transactions would be unposted I guess because authorization was slow or something.

So if you use the online system to get your balance, you will log back in and see that you have 100.00 available in your account. In your mind the credit card transaction has already been paid.

So you spend the 100.00 on something feeling comfortable that your account is in good standing. Only to have the credit card posted again and causing an overdraft.

It was an unmanageable situation. Having the online system practically bait you into overdrawing your account is just not something I wanted to deal with any longer.

I became better about managing my account with them and my banking relationship improved, but as soon as I had a chance to do it I joined the credit union. The fees are lower and they are much more user friendly.

Newsflash: Credit unions do too. I'm with a CU and managed to go below zero without knowing it til I got a piece of mail indicating I was being charged a fee...by then I was back above zero, d'oh! I was admittedly playing tight with incoming/outgoing payments but a large incoming payment took 2 biz days longer than it should have to hit and I got whacked with a fee for overdrawing funds. Hope my CU enjoys that money...as soon as I get back to normalcy, I'm leaving that f'in place. Half the time I go there to send a wire I get a retard that needs to call someone over to do it for them.

Sounds like a shady bank.

The topic of banks and fees has been a seriously hot one over here for the past year or so. All sorts of people are taking banks to court over overdraft charges in particular.

Yep, I am with a CU and they do the same thing. My cable bill comes right out of my account and one month they double billed me. I didn't have enough in the account to cover it (I keep my money in savings then transfer just enough to checking to cover the bills). So I bought 4 things for a total of $18 with my debit card and got hit with $100 in fees.

YEa at $35 a pop those overdrafts willg et ya

TIP: Don't run your account close to zero. But, if you are the type who does or doesn't have a choice, just pad yourself with $100 - $200. Then, when you reach that point, stop using the card.

Another issue i have with Wells Fargo is with their after hours cash deposits. Say you put in a night drop of $10,000. You would think the next day the money would be in your account right ? Wrong, if you make a drop on Sunday your money ( cash ) is not counted by the branch its sent to a central deposit bank and counted there, then and only then is the money available in your account. So monies dropped on Sunday are not available until Tuesday and its cash not a fucking check. This seems to be standard for all banks?

Banks fuck you coming and going.

The best new charge I have found was a fee for an INCOMING wire. I have never seen that bullshit before. Charging for a wire is fucking stupid in the first place but to charge me money for a wire coming into my account?

The lower rung on the totem pole with always get fucked.

Wal-Mart Money Card. I kid you not. Works great, and you'll never get an overdraft fee. Never. Even in the card disclosure, the issuing bank (GreenDot) states $0 overdraft fee.

Costs around $7 to buy and load the temp card - then after they send the personalized card, it's $3 per load after that at any Wal-Mart. $3 monthly maintenance fee, but load around $1K per month and that's waived.

I know ... evil Wal-Mart, but the card works as advertised; great for small purchases.

Ron