General Music Chat

by way of $140 in overdraft fees!! Argh!

So yeah, I knew that they recently started "sitting" on checks, waiting days, and sometimes more than two weeks to post them, on the hopes that on any given day your available balance dips below the check amount, then they post it, do a paid bounce ($35 fee), and then an overdraft fee of another $35.

Haha, I see the scam, I make it a point to balance my checkbook and start using money orders to pay for any bills I can't pay directly online. Ain't gonna get me!

WRONG!

I got lazy, or busy. I dunno. I know that outside of buying gas for the car, no transactions I do anymore should be 'delayed'. So, over the last three weeks, I've assumed that my purchases were reflected immediately and the balance minus gas purchases was accurate.

Well, they got me. They sat on a few smaller transactions that I made nearly two weeks before xmas (literally three $5-$20 transactions.. ) That someone like me who didn't get to logging transactions and balancing the checkbook wouldn't notice.. as the transactions were small enough to slip past anyone who didn't know exactly how much they had in the bank...

So yesterday, when my balance hit about $15, they posted the $20 transaction first, caused the overdraft, and then posted the rest. All told, they tacked on $140 in 4 overdraft transactions, and have two more pending.

I called them, furious, of course. They agreed to refund *some* of the fees (about half) but gave me the old lecture about it not being their policy to give money away...

here's something I found interesting online:

Computerized Traps Sniff Out Time and Amount Opportunities

Aug 14, 2008 Rosemary E. Bachelor
Usually the more a customer pays, the more service or product is purchased. Not so with opportunistic banks who psych out clients with computerized fee traps.

As the mortgage crisis heightens and bank profits tumble, bank attempts to get non-service based fees have increased to nearly fraudulent proportions and the Federal Reserve is questioning these practices.
Banks Charge from When the Slip Is Signed

Now an overdraft fee can be charged before the transaction overdraws the account. This is a current practice of Bank of America, TD Banknorth and SunTrust.

Here’s how it works: Someone stops at the mall on the way home, sees that Penney’s has a two-for-one bargain on tee shirts and buys four, paying with a debit card. Thinking that may overdraw the account, the customer swings by the bank and makes a $100.00 deposit.

These three banks—and others—have computer programs that noticed insufficient funds when the purchase was signed for. That’s an automatic overdraft. Once upon a banking time, customers didn't get charged unless they were short when the signature debit transaction cleared a few days later.
Largest Purchase Debited First

Banks also manipulate customer funds by the order in which they process debits and credits. The bank computer looks at the day's transactions and sees the client made purchases totaling $99.00. A $100.00 deposit was made. The balance before these transactions was $75.00.

Read more at Suite101: Banks Use Overdraft Fees to Fleece Customers: Computerized Traps Sniff Out Time and Amount Opportunities http://consumereducation.suite101.com/a ... z0bBG0YAFV

Wells Fargo Bank is famous for this kind of stuff.

Don't even get me started on this one. Banks are nothing more than scam artist. Bank Of America is the worst. They can all Kiss My @ss! once I figuired out there scam I am on a mission to not let them get a floockin dime from me. They have gotten $3.00 from me in the last 3 years and in the next 3 years the swindelers are gonna get 0. When are we as U.S. citizens gonna rise up against these CROOKS

Bank I was with for a short while used to apply thier service fees on any random date, which made for some interesting overdrafts when I was close to the edge at the beginning or middle of the month. I don't use banks anymore. I belong to a Credit Union now, & I'll never use a bank again.

Don't even get me started on this one. Banks are nothing more than scam artist. Bank Of America is the worst.

I agree JH.

I will NEVER bank with Bank of America again.

And, you're right Kramer.... it is a planned scam. While true, that being dilligent about balancing the checkbook would prevent this... still... The way they process the checks, is surely designed to bring them the best overdraft fees to themselves, which with their lousy investing track record, is probably how they make most of their money I bet.


.

Count me down for being screwed by Bank of America.

They are pure thieves.

Only way to Rob a bank is own one.

I like Bank of Mason Jar myself.
AR-15 deposit slip in hand.

I like Bank of Mason Jar myself.
AR-15 deposit slip in hand.

LMAO!!!

.

Banks Roll Out New Check, Card Fees
New Charges Seek to Get Ahead of New Federal Rules Limiting Increases in Interest Rates
By ROBIN SIDEL
JANUARY 2, 2010

The nation's banks will be bombarding customers with new fees and products in 2010 as they try to replace more than $50 billion in revenue wiped out by new rules that clamp down on certain business practices.

So far, the changes are mostly concentrated in checking accounts and credit cards. In addition to attaching new fees to old products, banks are introducing new types of accounts that they hope will reel in new customers and reduce their funding costs.

For plastic, the new rules go into effect in February as part of the Credit Card Act of 2009. The rules will limit some interest-rate increases, require more disclosure to customers and prohibit banks from raising interest rates on current balances unless a customer is at least 60 days behind in a payment.



SOMEONE WILL PAY: Carletta King, right, makes
her purchase with a credit card at a J.C. Penney store at
a mall in Aurora, Colo., last year.

Credit-card issuers collected $22.9 billion in penalty fees—such as those assessed for late payments—in 2009, up from $19 billion in 2008, said Robert Hammer, who runs a credit-card consulting firm in Thousand Oaks, Calif.

Credit-card companies already have been racing to slip new fees and practices into customer contracts ahead of the law. Issuers are closing accounts, switching cards with fixed interest rates to variable rates and introducing cards that have an annual fee.

Christopher Moss, who regularly shops at sporting-goods chain Gander Mountain, recently was notified that he will be charged a $1 "processing fee" each time he receives a printed statement of his Gander credit-card account rather than an electronic one. The 50-year-old paralegal said he is prepared to cut up the credit card even though he likes the loyalty rewards that come with it.

"It's not like I can't afford it, but it's another little stick in the consumer's eye," Mr. Moss said.

The Gander Mountain card is issued by World Financial Network National Bank, a unit of Alliance Data Systems Corp., of Dallas. The company, which also issues credit cards for women's clothing chain Ann Taylor Stores and lingerie maker Victoria's Secret, says that the decision to charge the fee is partly tied to the costs that it will incur from the new rules.

"One requirement of the Credit Card Act of 2009 is that monthly billing statements will now have to include significantly more information pertaining to the cardholder's terms and conditions, thus increasing the amount of paper, production and postal expenses as well as having a greater environmental impact," the company said in a written statement.

Issuers also are likely to water down rewards programs and introduce fees for inactive accounts. "There are so many things that issuers can do that the Card Act doesn't touch," said Bill Hardekopf, chief executive officer of LowCards.com, a Web site that tracks the industry.

In addition to the credit-card rules, the government will crack down next year on ways banks charge overdraft fees, which are assessed when a customer overdraws an account.

New Federal Reserve rules will require banks to receive customer consent before they can be charged such a fee. That is a significant change from the current practice, in which banks typically honor withdrawals and then levy a fee if the account is overdrawn. The Fed estimates that banks generate $25 billion to $38 billion a year in overdraft fees.

The changes come against a backdrop of rising anger at the nation's banks—having been largely supported by hundreds of billions of public bailout dollars in late 2008 and 2009. One recent survey by Chicago's Bank Administration Institute found that 43% of retail-bank executives feel that consumer trust in banks has eroded in the past six months.

To make up for lost overdraft revenue, banks are promoting greater use of debit cards, which can be more profitable for banks than processing paper checks, and new types of checking accounts.

BBVA Compass, a regional bank with 748 branches, is promoting a checking account that it introduced three years ago as a way to generate revenue and attract new customers. Called "Build to Order," customers customize their accounts from a menu of options such as receiving interest on checking, no minimum-balance requirements or free usage of another bank's automated teller machines. The first two selections are free; customers then pay $2 a month for each additional feature they choose.

The bank is conducting research to determine if customers would be willing to pay more for heftier rewards programs, and real-time alerts for fraud or low balances, said Rick Claypool, director of BBVA Compass's consumer deposit products.

Other banks are expected to eliminate free checking completely, raise fees on safe-deposit boxes and charge customers more for issuing a stop-payment on a check.

"There may be some areas of opportunity that banks really haven't focused on because they had the engine of overdraft fees," said Chris Gill, who specializes in the community-banking industry at SNL Financial in Charlottesville, Va.

Alan Friesen, a consultant at marketing firm Haberfeld Associates in Lincoln, Neb., said such a strategy can backfire with customers. He is urging his community-bank clients to retain free checking and other services in order to differentiate themselves from big banks that are likely to increase fees.

Indeed, TCF Financial Corp., a Wayzata, Minn., bank that uses a "totally free checking" slogan, is re-thinking a plan to start charging a monthly fee on accounts that don't meet minimum balances.

The bank, which has 443 branches and $17.7 billion in assets, is putting plans for the new account on hold while it instead concentrates on getting its 700,000 checking-account customers to opt in to its overdraft program.

"We still think it's a good idea, but we are in a wait-and-see mode," said Jason Korstange, a TCF spokesman.

My CREDIT UNION credits any deposit I make the moment I make it. Another trick used by many banks is changing the due date on your credit card. This is particularly true for Bank of AMerica. One month it's on the 29th, next month it's on the 2nd, next month it's on the 30th, etc. Banks do whatever they can to generate fees. It's how they make a profit. Another is lowering your credit limit and raising interest rates WITHOUT NOTICE. Then you go over the credit limit (penalties). If you can get into a credit union ASAP. Banks don't deserve any of our business. You are a CUSTOMER. CUSTOMERS are always right. Become a CUSTOMER at a credit union...

This is all our own fault. Yes we could pull a barrak, and blame it on our predecessors. But the cold hard fact is most all of us live beyond our means.
And yes our society is structured that way intentionally by the thieves. And yes generation after generation of Americans have though that this is the way to do it.
Simple truth is:
Neither a borrower nor a lender be; that should be the golden rule not; He whom has the gold makes the rules:
I am busting my butt trying to get things paid off and to never again used borrowed / financed as an option for anything.

What a fool I've been.