Overdraft protection can have two effects. You may have a checking account that is linked to a savings or another checking account. In that case, if you write a check or use your VISA/MasterCard, and you don't have enough money on that particular account, the bank will try to pull out more money (usually in $100 increments) from the linked savings account to cover for ther charges. If you do have enough money on the savings account, no overdraft fee will apply. If you do not have enough money to transfer onto the checking that is bing overdrawn, the bank will withdraw the money and transfer it to the merchant, put your account in negative standing and apply one overdraft fee per transaction.
It sounds like you definitely had more than one transaction to charge that much. What you might want to pay more attention to, is that "available funds" and actual money on your account are not the same. For example, let say you just opened an account and paid $500 in cash at a teller window. That money is on your account in as "posted transaction". In that state, the bank already has the money and confirmed the amount. It is your money for sure. In the meantime. Let say you have a latte at at a coffee shop for $5. That transaction will go under "Pending Transactions" list, as the transfer have been authorized by your bank. Your available balance now dropped to $495. 3 days later if you look at your account, you may see, that your available balance is back to $500, so you decide to buy a cool gadget for $496. Transaction approved, your new available balance is $4. The next day you look at your account, and you see one posted transaction for $5 (latte) and one pending transaction for $496 (gadget). Your available balance is -$1. The next day you see three posted transaction. $5 for the latte, $496 for the gadget and $30 for overdarft fee. Even though your available balance always more than the amount of money the merchants were asking for, your actual available funds were less than that.
A pending transaction is authorized by the bank to be transferred to the merchant, but until that transaction takes place and the merchant requests the money, it will not be withdrawn from your account. After 3 days, if the merchant doesn't requests the money, which is basically on hold for the merchant, are credited back to your account and the pending transaction will be deleted. If the merchant requests the money a few days later, it'll be withdrawn from your account and will go under posted transaction (A transaction that have already been done, and money have been transferred). Also, if you deposit cash or check at an ATM, it'll be a pending transaction and will go into posted state only after the bank verifies the contents of your envelope the next day. As soon as they verify the cash it'll go into posted transaction, however, if it was a check it'll be a pending credit and will remain as such until they receive the money from the other institution, or account the check have been originated from. The amount of pending credit will depend on the amunt you've deposited and your standing with the bank. For example, if you deposit $100 at the ATM, the bank may grant you $90 pending credit that will go towards your available balance. But if you're in bad standing, they may only give you $40 towards your available money, until they verify that you've really put $100 in the envelope.
Let's say what could of happen in your case. You had $2000 in your account and you bought a laptop on the internet for $1800, it'll be shipped to you in a week. The next few days you buy a few stuff for $180, everyday expenses. After 3 days the $1800 will disappear from your pending transaction and will go towards your available funds since the merchant didn't claim the money. You've already forgot about the purchase and bought some other stuff. A latte, paid your bills, lunch, dinner, breakfast, etc... most certainly, your've had let's say 10 transactions on one day and it went well over that $20 you actually had. The next day the merchant claims the $1800 dollars and all the other merchants now asks for the money too, so they all go under posted transaction. Every single transaction that cause your account to go into - amount will have overdraft fee assesed to it. And even though your available balance reflected that you had $1820 in the bank, you should of know you only had $20.
I hope this helped a little bit.
2006-12-29 07:04:34
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answer #1
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answered by attila_ujvari 2
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Without any details as to what that $258 charges is for, it is very hard for us to give you any advise. The bank usually charge $25 over draft fee if you have not over draft protection.
I have no idea how you could be charged with $258 over draft fee, unless it was the amount over drawn.
Citizens Bank is owned by Vancity Saving. Vancity is the largest credit union in Canada. You should go to your branch and talk to the manager. I believe the manager will be very happy to help you with the problem.
2006-12-29 06:18:17
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answer #2
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answered by Anonymous
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over draft protection means that they will cash your check even if the funds aren't there, but you still owe the bank the money! And they charge you a certain amount of $ per day everyday your account is in negative balance.
2006-12-29 06:15:27
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answer #3
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answered by Anonymous
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I don't have that problem becuase I make sure that I have the money in the checking account before I write a check out.
No longer does it take 3-5 days for a check to clear. They usually take only a day, if that. I had one clear in less than 2 hours.
You could petition to get them removed, but then again, you knew their policies so you should have to pay up.
2006-12-29 06:52:53
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answer #4
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answered by parsonsel 6
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OMG! You have to be kidding! Overdraft protection only means that they're going to pay the check, they're still going to charge YOU! Your best bet is to quit writing checks when you don't have the money in the bank!
Start using a debit card. You won't have this problem. If it's not there, you can't spend it.
2006-12-29 06:08:34
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answer #5
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answered by UNI Panther 3
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go talk with the manager at the bank. I had that happen to me and there excuse was that the atm and the bank are not linked for the same day. Thus you take x amount of money out of the atm see a balance of x amount, take more out and really that is not what your balance was. I took my problem to the manager and told them this was a bunch of _____ and they removed them for me.
2006-12-29 06:08:41
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answer #6
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answered by steelnpleasure 2
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CONTACT THEIR CUSTOMER SERVICE LINE, BOZO
JK
ABOUT THE BOZO PART
OR AM I?...
2006-12-29 06:08:03
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answer #7
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answered by cryingrainbow 2
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