Overdrafts?

Question

Uggg! My bank is so irritating! Whenever I overdraw the account they hit me with a $29 fee. It is insane! I understand that overdrawing the account was my fault but $29??? I could over draw it by $0.50 and they still make $29 off of that. How is that ok? And this last time was a nightmare. I took an extra day before depositing my check and EVERYTHING that went through got hit with a $29 fee. Shouldn't it just be one fee? When you are negative you are negative. I can understand the $5 a day thing but is it necessary for them to rape me on each thing? And whats worse is I went to the bank and I told them to NEVER overdraw my account. Meaning, if the funds are not in there, then deny the check or deny the debit card while I am trying to use it. Guess what? Nope. They can't do that. I don't think this is legal. Whatever happened to credit cards being denied??

Answer 1

you should set up a credit card with the same bank and have the two accounts linked and if you are ever in danger of overdrawing they can tap the credit card and you can pay a nominal transfer fee (if any) I have two accounts set up this way at Wells Fargo....haven't paid a fee in years!

Answer 2

Credit cards don't get denied unless you are way over your limit, either. They just let it go through and charge you an overlimit fee. THIS IS HOW THEY MAKE THEIR MONEY!Your bank can charge these fees because you agreed to never write a check or use your debit card unless you have the money in your account (check what you signed when you opened your account). If you do it repeatedly, they can charge you criminally for fraud. So better just to completely keep it from ever happening again. Next time you get a paycheck, keep out how much cash you will need for a few days and DON'T use your debit card, ATM or write any checks. When you are SURE that everything has cleared, get online (or call your bank) and check your balance. You will have the accurate amount of money in your account. Now you can begin to use your checking account correctly. The easiest way to do this is to always keep your check register with you and fill it out every time you use your debit card or write a check. When you make a deposit, write it down, too. If you have things direct debited from your account, subtract it on the day it is going through. Then you will always know EXACTLY how much is in your account and know whether or not you have the money spend. Then, every month when you get your statement, make sure it matches what's in your check register. Yes, it is a pain in the ***. But it's way easier than knowing the bank just took a couple hundred bucks from you in overdraft fees because your account was only 20 bucks short.

If that's too much trouble, just cash your check. Pay for everything with cash. You can't overspend when you run out.

Answer 3

Read the fee schedule that come with your account. The fee for bouncing a check is probably $29 per item as well. Add the fee you will be charged by whoever you wrote the check to, and the $5.00 per day until you bring your balance back above zero will sound like a bargain. You said yourself that you waited to deposit you pay. You should have waited to spend the money as well. NEVER write checks that are not covered BEFORE you write them. In the current era of electronic check presentment, a paper check can clear your bank while you are standing at the checkout.

The answer before me suggested asking to have the fee waived. You can try and it may work, but don't count on it. The bank I work for has fired branch managers for being that 'nice person'. Your being a good customer is not considered a reason to waive fees.

Answer 4

My bank is evil too! I just switched from a credit union to bank in an effort to stop paying large fees whenever I use an ATM (I travel quite frequently and my credit union is local). So I switch to a mega corp that apparently holds payroll checks until they clear or for 24 hours. Except when you are a new customer they hold the check for FIVE DAYS until you have been a customer for at least 30 days or until you get direct deposit. Well, their representative never told me the new customer rule. I set up all my automatic payments for three days after my scheduled pay date for what I thought was being safe. Nope each and everything was overdrawn at a rate of $31 a pop. In the end my first pay check went almost entirely to fees (being the generous souls they are reversed two fees) On top of that, the companies I overdrew charged me too! EVIL!

Answer 5

Banks used to deny the debit card transaction. They do not now. They claim is to keep you from being embarrassed.

You can go into the bank and ask them to block any debit card transaction that would put your account in the negative. Only some banks will allow to do that.

Answer 6

Ok look...you dont want your check to bounce. Trust me. There are so many laws these days against NSF checks. For example if you live in CA its the CA Sec Code 1719 that calls for the assessment of three times of the amount of the check not to exceed $1500.00. And believe me there are agencies and creditors just waiting to hit you on it.

Just make sure you dont over draft.
Over drafting is taking money that doesnt belong to you. Simple, you have to pay a fee for that. And plus it effects your credit.

Just keep $100.00 extra in your account and pretend like its not there for that .50 cents you might go over on. By the way...if you get a nice person on the phone you might get them to credit the fee. Try it. If its not a nice person...hang up and call back for someone else.

Good luck.

Answer 7

why don't you just make sure that you don't overdraw your own account?

You still get charged even if the transaction is unauthorised.

They can't make it so your account cannot go overdrawn. If this is whay you want then you need a savings account and not a bank account.

Answer 8

Well, that's just it. It's not a *credit* card. It's a debit card. I have my credit cards set up like this. But, you can't do it with debit cards.