STUPID TAX

[Rat Rod]

Had a lousy bank experience yesterday.

My wife stopped by the bank to cash a few checks and the teller told her they couldn't do it because we were overdrawn by $500. :shock:

We never use that particular bank account and we only leave the account open to cash checks because they are so close to our house. My wife came home and said that I better go check the account because something crazy is going on. I go login in to my account and see that I have been making a HUGE mistake for the past 2 weeks. It turned out that I had been using the wrong debit card for all of my transactions. Instead of using the one for the credit union we use I had been using the one for the bank by us....DOHHHH!

There were 13 overdraft charges which came to a total of $395 in bank fees. I immediately drove to the bank and sat down with the manager to tell him what had happened. I told him that we never received one letter or phone call over those two weeks alerting us of anything. He checked my account and said that we were signed up for online statements only and that I should have been getting email alerts. I told him I received nothing. He checks my email address that I had tied to my account and it was correct, but showed a note that it had been failing. None of the 33 email alerts that were sent ever made it through. He said that I should have received a letter notifying me that the email was failing...I never did.

So after going back and forth with the guy he offered to take off $175 of the overdraft charges, but wouldn't do anymore than that. Said that it wasn't a bank error. Ended up paying $220 worth of fees.

It was my own fault for mixing up my cards and I've chalked it up to stupid tax. Looks like I'll be selling some bike parts as punishment.

Moral of the story...pay attention when you're buying stuff and watch your bank accounts like a hawk!

 

[SkidMark]

Sounds more like extorsion to me...

 

[Hooch]

overdraft charges are ridiculous its should be a crime that they can charge that much. I realize some people abuse it but sometimes mistakes are made

 

[user 135]

That sucks .....that is a funds that could build or buy a couple of bikes. At least you sat down admitted your mistake, but banks should realize a simple phone call will fix most items. I bank where our company banks and get a little more service.

 

[Rat Rod]

Yeah...they were charging $35 for every transaction. The bad part was that I had some goofy "protection system" on my account that would allow the transactions to still occur even though there was no money there. I told them to shut that stupid option down quick. If that wouldn't have been on there then my card would have been denied when I tried to use it.

In my case all this was a total mistake. Unfortunately it ends up being my word against theirs.

 

[Rat Rod]

By the way...it was Washington Mutual. :roll:

 

[user 135]

By the way...it was Washington Mutual. :roll:

Should of figured. That is double taxation after the Bailout. :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

 

[Hooch]

ahh you were bailing them out!

 

[Rat Rod]

Ha Ha....JP Rat Rod.

 

[MonsterMetal]

Yeah.... Ive had some bank "issues"...... This last spring had a little issue where I was $296,000.000 overdrawn.... yes.. you read that right... I was buying a house and had borrowed money from about 6 diffrent sources and pooled it all in my checking account. On closing day I went the the closest branch and ask them to make me a cashiers check for the purchase price of the house... Which was $300,000.00..... the bank made the check out but then wouldn't give it to be because they couldn't verify one of the deposits (it was really because the branch manager was a moron.. she called the outfit I had the line of credit with and ask if a $20,000.00 check would clear... and it wouldn't because I had just deposited a $20,000.00 check in my account that had maxed out the credit line... she didnt get it) Anyway I had to drive 20 miles to the branch I bank with and after some fanagling I got them to issue me the check.... but the first check never got re applied to my account... So... I had two $300,000.00 checks drawn on my account and only $304,000.00 in there...... When I first when in to the bank a couple days later the manager thought I had pulled a fast one and ran off with both checks or something.... Anyway It just so happened all of this took place on the first of the month when my mortgage payment, car payments and insurance all get automatically deducted.... as well as several checks that where presented that day.... all where rejected..... It eventualy all got straitend out and the huge fees reversed since it was all the banks fault.... but I had to write letters to everyone stating what had happened and spent hours and hours talking to people.... the bank paid the fees the other people charged me but it still shows poorly on me (in my mind anyway)
But I tell you what.... Its a little unnerving to pull up your account online and see a minus sign in front of a number that big... Kind of makes your heart stop for a second....

 

[No cars on mars]

About 6 years ago the Fleet Bank got swallowed up by Bank of America. They brought out all these fees to do anything at the bank. One was a fee if you were to use the ATM more than 3 times a month you would get hit with a $3 fee for every time you used their own ATMs. The problem is that the max you could take out at that time was $300 per withdrawal. My pay check was $500 to $800 dollars a week driving truck. Which means that if I wanted to use just the ATMs I would have to withdraw about 10 times a month over my limit. The first time it happened I was charged $75 for 11 visits over. After talking to the bank manager, I got my money back and was told I could get around it if I had direct deposit. Next week I took almost all my money out of the account and put it in a small local bank. I left the minimum in that amount so that I could still have a safety deposit box at the bank. Next year when the money was due, for the box, they took it out of my bank account and charged me a fee for under the minimum amount instead of sending me a note thru the mail saying it is time to pay for another year.
The only reason that some of these banks are making money is that they are making it in fees not in interest or service.

 

[FaceOFFbikes]

I closed my Wamu account because there wasn't away to stop my account from going negative.. (did that make sense?) I said Stop my card from accepting transactions if I have no money.. They said they can't. I said close my account NOW!

 

[JoeyMac]

I had a similar thing happen with paypal earlier this year, I had bought a bunch of bike parts and stuff off the bay in a short period of time and paid with paypal. I thought that my paypal account was set up to charge my credit card, but instead it was directly pulling it out of my checking account, because it had been "verified". So imagine my surprise when all those charges showed up in my bank account, and over drew me, resulting in a couple hundred dollars in fees. Apparently you have to select "alternate source" when you pay with paypal. Duh.