Bank Overdrafts: Overloaded!
Posted: Friday, November 14, 2008
by Ronyae
Writings by Ronyae
I know many of us have been victims of overdraft charges with our banks. And it's not because we deliberately try to write bouncing checks, but simply because our banks handle our money they way they want.
Take for instance: You know you have a balance that will cover the checks written, but of course you want to stretch that money and keep bills paid. So you write a check that hopefully will not be sent to be paid until you deposit some extra money. But somehow, your bank deposits that 'post-dated' check instead of the smaller checks, causing you to have an overdraft; needless to say the fees are outrageous.
Now you have an overdraft fee of more than $30 for a check that was written for $25. Talk about being overloaded! And of course when you call the bank, there is no help in the matter, and they want their money. Is there anyway to get around this? I'm afraid not.
You would think that since you have been a loyal and faithful customer of the bank, by always keeping your balance positive, except this one time, that the bank would be understanding and pay the check for you. Another slap-in-the-face reality: They will not. Although, there have been times that the bank will go ahead and pay the insufficient check for you, but there's a catch. And, the catch is this: You can only be admitted to use this generosity once. Once!? When you are said to be a valued customer-how is this good customer service?
Well, the best way to prevent this bite of reality: don't write checks that you don't have enough money in your account for.
Take for instance: You know you have a balance that will cover the checks written, but of course you want to stretch that money and keep bills paid. So you write a check that hopefully will not be sent to be paid until you deposit some extra money. But somehow, your bank deposits that 'post-dated' check instead of the smaller checks, causing you to have an overdraft; needless to say the fees are outrageous.
You would think that since you have been a loyal and faithful customer of the bank, by always keeping your balance positive, except this one time, that the bank would be understanding and pay the check for you. Another slap-in-the-face reality: They will not. Although, there have been times that the bank will go ahead and pay the insufficient check for you, but there's a catch. And, the catch is this: You can only be admitted to use this generosity once. Once!? When you are said to be a valued customer-how is this good customer service?
Well, the best way to prevent this bite of reality: don't write checks that you don't have enough money in your account for.
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More commentsThx Avis! And I must say, that is a great lesson to be learned by all check writers...and a lesson to practice at all times!Stay Blessed!
You are so right, Ronyae. I get so irritated with my bank. I can deposit money one day, but it doesn't show up in my account for several days! And yet now days, you write a check and in is scanned in electronically so that the money is taken from your account right at that moment. It really gets frustrating. Thanks for a well-written and to the point article.SandraThank You Sandra,And like I stated earlier: the banks are looking like modern day loan sharks...pun intended. Thank You for commenting
You are absolutely right, Ronyae. About 3 years ago, I made a humongus boo-boo in my record keeping and I failed to enter a $200. debit I made. As the month grew long and my account grew smaller, I tried to watch it, not knowing I was $200. shorter than I showed. Anyway I made 3 debit card purchases one day, one for over $60. and 2 others for about $10. or under. When I got my statement, after my deposits were made, I was charged $90.00 overdraft fees. I went to the bank and told them I knew it was my fault but I had ample in there to cover the 2 small purchases, but they had processed the larger first and busted my account. I complained that I should not have been charged but the one $30.00 fee. You know what I got for this? He refunded the entire $90.00. Now that is a good banker. There ain't many left like that.Thank Goodness for that banker Joel!
I use my credit card for all purchases (I get the points that way) and then at the end of the month, before the bank can charge me any interest, I pay the whole balance on the card from my floating mortgage. Every cent I get eahc week by way of income etc, goes into my floating mortgage to keep the interest down there as well - so I actually use the bank's credit without paying any more interest. I only spend what I know is below my income and all round I have a lower mortgage at the end of the month, free interest, and free points to buy luxuries later. Works well for me.Michelle,Thanks for sharing this method; perhaps it can be of great use to many of my readers!...and by the way: smart thinking ma'am :)!
Very true...Thanks for sharing. If I buy certain thing like that I don't feel its mine as it was not bought in my money. I don't get the satisfaction. It's better to buy things if your pocket allows...Exactly! Thanks for reading "The Candles"!
With the economy going down like it is, this advice is very good, and could be almost impossible for some to follow. I don't know what desperate people are to do when things get very, very bad. I'm almost to that point myself. It is better, I agree, that you don't write checks when you have no money. It can be a crime. But what are people to do if the baby needs medicine and you have no money? I just worry so much about all of us. Worry doesn't do much good, but I worry anyway. I have great hopes in Obama, but he can't do magic and we have allowed Bush to have 8 years to get us into this mess. Obama can't just make it all OK. This is going to take time and effort on the part of us all, I guess. Thanks for writing: texTex! I couldn't have stated this better myself! I feel you on every point made; and it took former POTUS Bush 8 years to digg this hole for the U.S. and it's gonna take POTUS-elect Obama more than one term to get us out! Thanks for sharing and reading!
Well, I work for a bank, so let me analyze this article - you write a cheque that you don't have the money for, hmm...Would you take your shopping to the cashier's till if you couldn't pay for it?? Would you let a stranger borrow your money without permission and expect them to get away without any consequences?I don't think people are saying you shouldn't pay an interest on the money you have 'borrowed', just that the service charges are way out of line.I used to work in the customer relations department for an airline. I had a fellow call me because we charged a service fee to change his ticket and he didn't think that was right. He told me that it would be good public relations for the airline if I dropped the service charge. I asked him what type of business he worked in. Guess what? He was a bank manager. Seems what goes around, comes around.Good One David, and thanks for responding to that comment with a level head and snazzy reply, (smile)
Ronyae, the way to overcome this problem is to not live in the edge where you have to micro-manage your checking account. Take a certain amount from your savings account and move it over to your checking account to use as a floor. For example, I keep $1000 in my checking account that I don't count and don't intend to use. When my checking account gets down to this amount, I count it as zero. That way, I never have to worry about overdrafts. By the way, I have an interest-bearing checking account, so I am getting interest on this money, just as I would by keeping it in a savings account.As an alternative, some banks offer their customers the opportunity tie their checking accounts to their savings accounts, thus avoiding overdrafts. Then, when a customer writes a check for more than they have in their checking account, the bank will simply pull the extra money from the person's savings account, generally without charging any fee.Another trick I use is a what a I call a plus-for-them/minus-for-me rounding method. I manage my checking account in whole dollars only. When I make a deposit, I do not count the change; when I write a check, I round up to the next whole dollar. For example, when I deposit a check for $120.30, I only add $120 to my running total, dropping the change. However, if I wrote a check for that same amount, I would subtract $121 from my running total. This adds up over time. That way, I almost always have more in my checking account than I think I do.Nice method, Terry!
I can "feel your pain as they say, but as the story goes they have there rule and we must go by them.We have to be sure we don't write that"post dated" check. It will always come back to bite you so to speak.That said lets look at the banks today(Right!)boy now who thought these rules up.(Goverment Bail Out) they error we bail them out, you error "insuffient funds" pay the fee. How does that work for you?It works like eating dirt, Anonymous.....translation: HORRIBLE!Thanks for reading and sharing!
Last night I went to a B of A ATM to withdraw money form my Wells Fargo account and realized tht I would be charged $5.50 for the $40 withdrawal I was going to make. $3.00 by the Bof A and $2.50 by my own bank - for an electronic transfer with no human involvement.Since the price of gas has dropped so much lately I decided I would drive another 2 miles to find a Wells Fargo ATM.But now I know how banks are planning on paying back the $700 billion that we gave them - through overdraft and ATM charges.EXACTLY! Mark,and that's sounds a lot like "loan shark'ing!Thanks for reading and sharing your story...Glad those gas prices has dropped, hey?
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