I hate my bank!!!!!

Friday I went to the store to get milk. Now don't get me wrong.....I'm broke. Can never get ahead since we found out DH has cancer 3 years ago. Treatments are very expensive if you don't have ins.

Anyway.....after I bought the milk, I checked my balance. It was (-)20 cents. I got an e-mail alert from my bank this morning. I checked the balance and the @ssholes at the bank charged me a $35 over draft fee for 20 CENTS!!!! I just want to SCREAM!!!

How do I climb out of this hole? I can't seem to get out of it!

SHEESH!!!!!

i hate yor bank to. my hubby was out of work for a while and i had the same problem with my bank too. i feel your pain.

The bastards!

I've never understood overdraft fees. I mean unless you are a crook (which I'm sure no one in the Pond is), you have made an honest mistake or are "playing the float" hoping nothing hits the account until payday. With so many (including me) living paycheck to paycheck-why does the bank take money that is obviously not there? IMHO it is kicking someone while they are down. Maybe a fish who works in a bank topside can explain this?

Momhart, you have my sympathies. In a hole myself that seems bottomless.

vicalana wrote:The bastards!

mods are all asleep. Lana got away with bastard but I still cannot say **** or ** or ****.

Momhart, I'm sure if you speak to bank branch manager he/she will delete overcharge fee for .20. If not tell the manager you will write a letter to the bank president explaining how priviledged the bank is to have such a caring person at the helm of one of the bank's ships.

If you'd like I will pm you the name of my bank. They give you 5 "freebies" on over drafts a month. After that it is $35.00. I don't know what it's called ,but everyday I get a statement e-mail telling me my current balance and what the pending activity and balance is.
If I 'm out of money on a Thursday, but they can see hubby electronic deposit that comes available on Friday, then they won't overdraft me, even if I have used up my freebies.
They aren't all over the country yet, but since they have more then tripled in states since I signed up 4 years ago, I doubt it will be long before they are.

ETA: Also I absolutely LOVE my mortgage company! They worked with me two years ago when son's health took up all our cash. We went 4 months with out making a payment! They just added it up split it in 24 equal amounts and let us pay it back! NO extra INTEREST.

I've been reading that banks are getting more and more vicious about stuff like this all the time, and I'm really sorry that this happened to you.

I read about a fellow in Colorado who made three debits on the same day, each purchase being less than $15, and he didn't have quite enough money to cover them in total. The bank charged him $60 APIECE for each item covered on the overdraft. The article stated that he was trying to get some legal assistance to fight this, but good luck to him on that one.

There's some really scary stuff going on with banks right now and there's no telling what they might try to do next to the customer. One false move and POW!

I will hope that you can contact someone at your bank who proves to actually be a HUMAN being.

IMO it's the banks that start off this vicious circle that you can't get out of! So.... you're the teeniest bit over your limit.....they step in and you're miles over your limit! No-one can afford these fees just now and the 'rolling' mess they cause is criminal in my mind!

I feel your pain...

I am in financial straights myself, and have no income, have been living off of a small inheritance ~ last week my cell bill was due to be automatically withdrawn - I didn't have the money to cover it, so, cancelled the auto draft ~~ was told the cancellation was successful, and thought, good, I will have a few dollars to use and hopefully be able to take care of the bill later (or not, whatever was neccessary)...go to grocery store, 40 bucks, have my DD Faunashpere $2.49 - everything should be fine - oh no... the cell company drafted the account, of course there was not enough money there, well, bless 'em, the bank pays it, which results in the grocery and FS bouncing as well ~~~ 35 bucks a pop ~ my account is just under $400.00 overdrawn...have no idea when I will be able to take care of this...lol...liable to end up arrested...lol...I have to laugh at it ~ I had to cancel my BFG membership (before the 7th of this month, which would have been my 2nd anniversary ~ and still no Felix), I will have to cancel both my DD and my FS membership - there was enough in the account originally to cover these for this month anyway...

I, too, don't understand ~ really wish the bank had just let the cell draft bounce because there wasn't enough money there, I actually had no idea they would cover, didn't realize I had 'over-draft' coverage on the account...and, of course, the fact that I have no money to pay these fees, doesn't keep them from adding up.

...and thanks for the vent, obvisiouly needed it!! lol

As someone who has worked in both banks and credit unions, this is what I learned in all those years.

Banks are a "for profit" business so they set their fees high, because they can and they want to make as much money as possible. Credit Unions are a "not for profit" business so, although they have fees, to cover costs, they tend to be lower.

Do talk to your bank. They may be willing to work with you, especially if the overdraft is not something that happens often.

weeharleyboy wrote:IMO it's the banks that start off this vicious circle that you can't get out of! So.... you're the teeniest bit over your limit.....they step in and you're miles over your limit! No-one can afford these fees just now and the 'rolling' mess they cause is criminal in my mind!

Perfect description....."Rolling mess"

i am so sorry to hear that momhart! its just terrible what banks can get away with, i think it is just rediculas(sp) .20 cents over and they charge you that much!

That's why the rich get richer and the average working class get poorer.

They are just a bunch of Sons of Biscut eating Basset Hounds, my Grandma use to say it was her way of cussing in front of me. Cussing but not cussing she was such a funny lady.

Good Luck & God Bless you & your DH

Never having posted in chit chat before i feel this subect is worth diving in for!! I too hate my bank and have opened accounts in various banks looking for one that will work with me. I have lost money I thought was safe in savings acct due to monthy fees in a small non for profit no less!! As for overdraft charges I don't know any one who has't received several. Why do banks need all those bailouts when they must be taking in billions of dollars in charges? The reality is they don't care! I am old enough to remember a time when banks were your neighbor. A kid could open a pass book savings and watch interst grow no fees. Hang in there Momhart somehow we will all make it through this mess! "I can get by with a little help from my friends" Maybe all of us will learn a lesson and find by skicking together an d supporting one another we could make a difference In the mean time put your money under your matress Only kidding Look at it this way at least you'l know it is safe from the big instutions! Please let us know how you make out

momhart, you should be able to get that overcharge reversed if you go to your local branch and speak to the manager (I find uncontrollable sobbing loudly tends to make them more cooperative ). If your account has always been in good standing they should be willing to take care of it for you. While your're there ask about an opt out option for overdraft protection. If they have that option you should take it. Then if there isn't enough in your account your purchase will be declined instead of those charges incurred.

firestone, if you have proof of cancelling your auto draft, you should have recourse to get them to reverse the charge. You will have to go to your bank with that proof and show them that it shouldn't have been taken out. Once that charge is reversed the bank should remove the overdraft charges since they wouldn't have been incurred if the cell phone co. hadn't done that. Most banks will take care of something like this as long as you haven't done it before. I went through this once myself and had to learn the hard way. Since then I don't use auto-draft for anything anymore no matter how hard a company tries to talk me into it. This is of course with the exception of BFG and a few other online subscriptions I have had in the past.

I got a letter from my bank telling me it was against federal regulations for me to move money from my savings account more than 6 times in one day, which I had just done that day due to a large influx of cash that I was using to pay bills online. HOWEVER, I could go to the ATM a hundred times a day and withdraw cash from that same savings account and the federal government could care less? WHAT THE HECK IS THE DIFFERENCE?????

GoldenGills wrote:I got a letter from my bank telling me it was against federal regulations for me to move money from my savings account more than 6 times in one day, which I had just done that day due to a large influx of cash that I was using to pay bills online. HOWEVER, I could go to the ATM a hundred times a day and withdraw cash from that same savings account and the federal government could care less? WHAT THE HECK IS THE DIFFERENCE?????

That's silly!! It your money! You should be able to move it to the moon if you choose to...one penny at a time!!

Oh Momhart, I'm so very sorry!! The only thing I can suggest is talking to the branch manager like others have suggested. Sometimes they will be reasonable and will reverse the overdraft if you explain the situation to them. $0.20 is way too low an overdraft to be charging $35.00 for. I believe this is automatic with the banks, so if the account even goes a penny in the negative, an overcharge will be added to the account. This had happend to me a few years ago where I had accidentally overdrafted my account by $0.05 and I went into the bank right away and talked to the branch manager. He was really nice and approved the teller to reverse the overdraft charge that one time. I know they don't like doing that because that's where they get all their money it seems, but I was pretty stern with him about how stupid it was to charge me $35.00 for $0.05. I even told him I would be more than happy to dig a nickel out of my purse for him if it was that big of an issue. He backed down after that.

Good luck!!

toast - thanks, I have been so upset at this situation that I haven't been thinking straight, I did call the cell company and have yet to speak to a live person!! Maybe I can copy the thing about the successful stop of draft and take that to the bank and it will at least help to sort all this out.

With my bank, we have overdraft protection...as long as we have money in our joint savings account they will just take the money from there and not charge us an overdraft fee. I think it's been years since I overdrafted in any case, but the protection is there if we need it. I just have to make sure we keep some money in savings.