Business practices of US Bank.

[nando]

as far as overdraft fees - fine, I didn't have enough money in my checking account, money isn't free, etc. that's not what bothers me.

This is what bothers me. Say I have $1000 in my savings account, $99 in checking (I get paid at the end of the week). I have my account with Bank of Assholes. I miscalculate a little, and write a $100 check to pay some bills, spend $40 on gas, $20 on food, and $5 and $1 on misc. crap. B of A charges $35 for each overdraft.

How do they order the transactions? They put the largest charge FIRST. that way, I now have -$1 plus -$35, and I'm fucked. I get charged $75 for my gas, $55 for the food, $40 and $36 for the misc crap. They won't put the $40, $20, $5 and $1 first, because then they would only be able to charge for ONE overdraft fee, but now they get to charge me for FIVE. that's $175 vs $35. A bit of an extreme example, but it's happened to me before, and lots of people I know.

BoA does this all the time - and the $1000 in savings? meaningless. They won't set it up to transfer from savings, but they will offer you overdraft protection with a credit card. And then not approve you for it.

My credit union charges $1 to transfer from savings to checking in $100 increments. if you don't have any money at all, the overdraft fee is $10. And I doubt they will purposely order the transactions in a way to extort the maximum overdraft fee they can, unlike Bank of Assholes.

Banks are losing their customers to credit unions in droves, and for good reason. better service, better interest rates, lower fees, etc. etc. etc. They're scared, and fuck them - especially BoA (I had an account with them for over 10 years).

[delatlanta1281]

Wait a sec, you're upset b/c you couldn't balance your checkbook? I don't get it. It sounds pretty cut and dry, if you don't have the money in your account, DON'T over spend. If you are planning on depositing the money, do it before you spend it. If the bank drafts you for services and or savings transferrs, note it in you ledger. If you don't use a ledger, remember that the money will be withdrawn. This is all your fault, you signed up for it.
Black and white here, they aren't bad business practices, they are the way the word works.
If you mess up, pay the piper and DWI.
I have been with BOA since High-school, It was Nations Bank then. I have never ever been charged for something I didn't mess up on. And when I messed up I didn't complain. i learned from it and I moved on.

[TheEtaUnderdog]

Wait a sec, you're upset b/c you couldn't balance your checkbook? I don't get it. It sounds pretty cut and dry, if you don't have the money in your account, DON'T over spend. If you are planning on depositing the money, do it before you spend it. If the bank drafts you for services and or savings transferrs, note it in you ledger. If you don't use a ledger, remember that the money will be withdrawn. This is all your fault, you signed up for it.
Black and white here, they aren't bad business practices, they are the way the word works.
If you mess up, pay the piper and DWI.
I have been with BOA since High-school, It was Nations Bank then. I have never ever been charged for something I didn't mess up on. And when I messed up I didn't complain. i learned from it and I moved on.

EXACTLY

don't spend what you don't have. your debit account is NOT your credit card

[TheEtaUnderdog]

as far as overdraft fees - fine, I didn't have enough money in my checking account, money isn't free, etc. that's not what bothers me.

This is what bothers me. Say I have $1000 in my savings account, $99 in checking (I get paid at the end of the week). I have my account with Bank of Assholes. I miscalculate a little, and write a $100 check to pay some bills, spend $40 on gas, $20 on food, and $5 and $1 on misc. crap. B of A charges $35 for each overdraft.

How do they order the transactions? They put the largest charge FIRST. that way, I now have -$1 plus -$35, and I'm fucked. I get charged $75 for my gas, $55 for the food, $40 and $36 for the misc crap. They won't put the $40, $20, $5 and $1 first, because then they would only be able to charge for ONE overdraft fee, but now they get to charge me for FIVE. that's $175 vs $35. A bit of an extreme example, but it's happened to me before, and lots of people I know.

BoA does this all the time - and the $1000 in savings? meaningless. They won't set it up to transfer from savings, but they will offer you overdraft protection with a credit card. And then not approve you for it.

My credit union charges $1 to transfer from savings to checking in $100 increments. if you don't have any money at all, the overdraft fee is $10. And I doubt they will purposely order the transactions in a way to extort the maximum overdraft fee they can, unlike Bank of Assholes.

Banks are losing their customers to credit unions in droves, and for good reason. better service, better interest rates, lower fees, etc. etc. etc. They're scared, and fuck them - especially BoA (I had an account with them for over 10 years).

bank of america charges me $0 to transfer money between my accounts and I have no fees on my checking account. All because I have never overdrafted... they reward good behavior

[delatlanta1281]

Same here. I haven't paid for transfers or checking/ savings ever.

[nando]

bank of america charges me $0 to transfer money between my accounts and I have no fees on my checking account. All because I have never overdrafted... they reward good behavior

no, that's not what I said. the credit union will automatically transfer from your savings account - it's impossible to overdraft if you have anything in savings. BoA won't do this.

[delatlanta1281]

no, that's not what I said. the credit union will automatically transfer from your savings account - it's impossible to overdraft if you have anything in savings. BoA won't do this.

I believe they will if you ask them to. But as far as i know they won't support different accounts without the owner's consent.

[TheEtaUnderdog]

I will agree BoA can be a bunch of shit heads. But I think you can talk to a manager about setting up your account to transfer like that. They are all about keeping customers in this economic state we're in

[rockinthe80s]

Big banks use "pending transactions" to generate over draft fees. It doesnt matter if an item hasnt "officially" posted, just so long as it theoretically took your account into a negative amount the system will charge you a fee. There's no way to prevent it either.
Go credit union, with mine i have until the item posts to get the money into my account. Ive been with them well over a year and ive yet to see a fee pass through my account.

[Aptyp]

Lol, BofA did it to me, and Wachovia did it to me.

Bank of America went apeshit on me. I deposit money and never really worried about how much I had. I had a credit card in case I overdrafted from checking, and payed that off within a week every time..... Well one day I went to deposit my check and take some cash out and they told me they couldn't cash out, because I was way under the balance. I asked how that could happen, and they told me that it didn't get overdrafted to the card. I was depositing money to pay rent/bills and to cover credit card. There was no credit card bill, and with 14 overdrafts at $35 each they wanted me to pay my entire check to cover overdrafts. I took the check and went to Wachovia across the parking lot and opened a free student checking account. Called bank of America and told them if they remove all overdrafts I'll pay the difference. Difference was $73. Paid.

Wachovia was slightly worse. I had money in the account, and I had some unforseen expenses. So what I did was, I paid off all my small bills that wouldn't overdraft me. Paid off as close as I could to be 0. When I did that, I knew i was going to be overdrafted anyway, so I thought I'd have one overdraft charge and not a dozen. I paid my rent with a check, knowing that I was $150-200 short. They took the check out before they took all other payments, even though other payments were made before check was written, and dated. They took the largest amount out first, and then all the small ones to follow. I ran into 6 overdrafts. On top, they charged me a $5 service charge (free student checking account) and another 7th overdraft fee on top of it. Again, called the bank and told them to remove all overdrafts but 1, because i knew i deserved that 1.

Since, I went to bank of Oakridge, they are locals here with only 3 branches. They allow me to use any ATM for free. And they know their customers by name, which makes me personally feel good. I have overdrafted before, but came and deposited a check right away, and they forgave the overdraft as I was standing at the counter, with out even asking about it.

[thectrlguy]

Honestly, I can't believe there's a thread about this..... the bank is a business, it's not your personal babysitter.... if you can't manage your money, ask your parents for a weekly allowance until you feel comfortable doing it yourself.

[equate975]

Credit Unions FTW. I used IBM here, I would go negative all the time. Never got fees. They would send me like 2 letters before doing anything about it.

Unfortunately they held a "vote" and everyone voted to make it a bank. Its still better than bigger banks, but not nearly as good when it was a credit union.

IBM was real good. If you deposit at the ATM it goes into your account instantly. A few times when I was broke, I would deposit an empty envelope on the weekends (for like $20 or something I could pay back) get the cash and spend it. Then go in on monday and tell them I forgot to put the money in or something. They never really got mad.

[Midnight Sun]

My WAMU account has an overdraft forgiveness of one a year. I hadnt had any in like 3 years, and went in and talked to them about and the lady said she will let me roll them over. So technically I have 3 right now, and she told me to talk to her or anyone in that branch if I ever have an issue.

Big banks suck dick, but when you go in and talk person to person, they will do anything to keep you as an account.

[smonkbmw]

i had a fun experience with US bank back in the day.

went over on my account via 2 transactions. lost my job. had 2 overdraft fees on my account for over 4 weeks. went in to pay the $70 (had to borrow money). turns out they charged me a over draft fee for every day in the past month since the overdraft, and double on weekends.....my $70 overdraft was over $400 in their eyes. they pulled out a print out of the fees that was 4 pages long. i told them that was ridiculous. they told me they were "black listing" me (wouldnt be able to open a account at any other bank till the balance was paid). i asked for the branch manager, he agreed and told me the same thing the teller told me. i told him to F off in a volume that got the other customers attention. i left, went to WAMU and opened a account there. ive been doing business with them ever since, it hasnt been the best but it hasnt been the worst either.

to all that preach about "managing your funds" "balancing your checkbook" you can piss off. people make mistakes, if the bank made a error with all your data keeping, what would you do? thats what i thought, youd bitch about it too. so stfu, gtfo.

[AndrewBird]

I bank with WaMu and haven't had any problems. The first 10 times I think that you overdraft, they refund the OD charge. The number of times resets after a year. They also only charge you the first time you overdraft, as long as you put money in your account within 24 hours of the overdrafts.

I hate using my debit card though. I'm so paranoid that I missed or forgot a payment somewhere and that I might OD. Cash is king IMO.