New Bank Overdraft Fee Laws For Your Debit Cards & Checking Accounts
As of August 15th, 2010, there are new laws in place regarding overdraft fees from your bank. Up until that date, many banks and credit unions automatically enrolled customers in an overdraft service that could run as much as $35 each time you over-drafted your account. This service was there (in addition to padding the bank’s bottom line) to “protect you” from having your card declined due to having insufficient funds in your account. Granted, if they had just left the $35 IN the account, maybe you wouldn’t have gone over the limit, but still – this was an automatic enrollment and not something you could opt out of. Well, that all changed on August 15th, when the overdraft section of the financial legislation overhaul went into effect.
An overdraft fee is a financial penalty that the bank takes from you when you try to spend more money than you currently have available in your account. Ranging from $20-$35 or so, banks have been making a fortune off this fee for many, many years, without you having a choice if you wanted to pay it. Overdraft your account, they take the fee. Period, the end. But now you can opt-out of the fee, and your card(s) will just be declined if you do not have enough money to cover the purchase. I really appreciate this new rule, because I think it encourages people to be more diligent in knowing the balance of their accounts and just how much they can spend. By opting out of this service, it’s almost like using cash to buy things with, in that you have to actually have the money to spend it! (True, this is for debit or ATM cards only, and I will touch on using credit cards instead a little later) So what can you expect from your bank now that the rules have gone into place?
The new Federal Reserve rules state that your bank and/or credit union, (or any financial institution you may deal with) has to send you an explanation of how their overdraft rules can apply to your account. This is for all debit and/or ATM cards that you have at your bank of choice. You now have a choice to enroll in their overdraft service or not, and you will be marked as opting out if you do not specifically opt in and agree to their rules. If you do opt in and agree to pay for the overdraft service, you can still change your mind and cancel at any time in the future. You may also do the opposite – opt out now and opt in later. (But I say you stay opted out) These new rules do not necessarily apply, however, to writing checks and/or any bills you have automatically paid out of your account. Banks may still charge you overdraft fees on these transactions, and it’s up to you to make sure you have enough in the account to cover those type of drafts.
Anything to reign in the absurd profits that banks have been making off people is good news in my book. Yes, they need to make money, otherwise they don’t have any money to lend out to borrowers like you and I. But there is a difference between making a profit and just gouging your customers – and thus I like this new rule. Personally, I have never overdrafted my checking account for anything, so I would never have needed this service on my account and have never paid the fee. But if you run that risk on occasion, a better alternative to the bank fees would be to use your credit card for purchases and pay off any balance at the end of each month. I rarely, if ever, use my ATM card for buying anything. I always use my rewards credit card so that I have protection against fraudulent activity and my checking account doesn’t get cleaned out. And to make sure I always pay off my card each month, I make 4 monthly payments every Monday that equal an approximation of my monthly expenditures and automatic payments to bills. So if my monthly credit card bill is $500, I send $125 every Monday to the credit card company. This makes the balance easier to pay every month and assures me that my balance is always paid off. So while the new Federal Reserve rules can help you avoid overdraft charges, there are also other ways to keep annoying fees from raiding your bank accounts!
Photo by frankh
I think that the new law sucks. Just last week I got hit with a $35 fee for overdrafting.
Then you should actually like the law.
I find it kind of amusing that since I’ve opted out (emphatically and immediately) when given the choice at every bank where I have a checking acct with an ATM/debit card, the banks go out of their way, especially online to make opting back in REALLY REALLY easy if I change my mind. I mean it’s usually this huge neon-green message with a huge link button to click and I’ll instantly be changed back to this really helpful overdraft service they so desperately want to offer me 🙂 Oh well.
I am STILL being charged the $35 overdraft fee….AND I had enough money in my savings account. But Wells Fargo Rep. informed me that because I have two separate checking accounts…one of them is protected by my credit card and the other is protected by my savings account (which, by the way I had enough $ to cover the purchases). But I was supossed to KNOW that each checking account could only be protected by one or the other. THEREFORE…I had 4 (Yes, four) overdraft protection fees applied to my account!! That’s $140 of fees!!!!! EVEN though I had the coverage in my savings..it was my credit card that was attached (which did not have enough credit to cover it). THEY always seem to find a way!!!!!!!
To top this FRUSTRATING experience off, I called to question the charges and the man I was talking to, flat out, told me I should just move my accounts to another/different bank since I’m not satisfied!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ARGH!!!!!
Same here got hit 5 overdraft fee wtf i hate Wells Fargo/ wachovia now i have no money to take my kids to school .
@FRUSTRATED, I dealt with the similar problems with wells fargo, except i had proof that they rearranged the order a bunch of transactions went through to maximize the overdraft fees. what happened was that after a couple days of buying trivial little things (a candy bar here, bottle of pop there) I had to pay my power bill. I knew the bill would push me over the limit, but i figured it would be fine, it was only one fee. what happened instead was that they had been stopping any of the small transactions from going through until AFTER the bill, so there was a overdraft fee for each and every one of them. on top of that, my savings account was tied to it, for the protection, and for every transaction, they attempted to transfer money from savings to checking, discovered that there was no money in savings, and charged me $10 for the non-existent transfer, which in turn became another overdraft fee. all in all, for what should have put me a manageable $100 in the hole, put me nearly $2000 in the hole instead! I immediately dug up every scrap of paperwork, receipt, printout from my online banking, and went in to talk to a representative, who basically blew me off until i threatened to sue, at which point he immediately fixed it all to the way it should have been. it amazes me that they would do something sooooo obviously illegal, and they probably get away with it every day!
by the way, that sort of scam is EXACTLY what the new law is going to prevent. if you cant charge your card, they cant pull off their scams.
I thought a new law was passed that also protected us from the banks gauging us by clearing the larger check amount before the lesser check amount, creating two overdraft fees instead of one. for example, say I had $200.00 in my account and two transactions came in to the bank for payment, one for $15.00 and one for $190.00. The bank processes the larger amount purposly first so they can get two $35.00 overdraft fees insted of one. My bank is having a ball with this! Isnt there something to protect us from this?
I used to bank at different credit unions, but when we got a loan at US Bank we had to have automatic debit so we moved there.
Several years ago we closed that account and went to Washington Mutual, who I loved. They had a branch in every town int the Pacific Northwest and several in the larger towns. I loved them. If you debited something and it would overdraw your account, as long as you covered it by midnight, there was no overdraft. I could stop somewhere on my way home on payday then stop at the bank and make my deposit or my auto deposit would go through and there were no overdrafts. They put all checks through at night so no surprises in the middle of the day.
When Chase took them over I moved my account to a local credit union.0p
Cont Oops
When Chase took them over I moved my account to a local credit union. This credit union is worse than any bank I have dealt with
We made an error and had were short in our account. I forgot about an auto debit that was due and had check out that at the time there was enough money to cover and my husband bought gas on the debit card instead of the credit card. The put a hold on the $11.95 auto debit then ran the large check through, which overdrafted our account. Then they ran the $11.95 they then release the hold and run the $11.95 through as if it was a new charge which now there wasn’t enough money to cover it due to the $28 charge on the other item. Then the $16 debit my husband made went through and another charge. I knew there would be an overdraft for the $16 and and one of the others but how can they hold the $11.95, overdraft a debit that would have cleared without the other hold and then run the $11.95 through and charge me for what they were already holding for that debit. I finally got them to reverse one of them.
Today I went to the bank and took out $80 to pay off a loan and get a new one to cover what I had out, I know my mistake again. When I took out the money there was $21 left in the account, less than an hour later, I am $143 in the hole, two checks cleared during that time. I think they held them for later but ran them when the money wasn’t in there. They ran the largest one first so that the $12 check also bounced. I have never banked where checks were run through they way the do it.
One day I made the mistake and forgot the bank went and bought something then ran straight to the bank but too bad, already overdrafted me.
In the past week they have made $112.00 off of me. I take part of the blame, but I am tired of them running the large one before the others to run up the tab. What are the odds that 2 items will go through, large on first during the hour I between the $80 debit and the $200 deposit I made less than an hour later.
Well of to find a reasonable credit union, I know some of them have to be more like the ones I have done business with for years.
I still miss WAMU!
What I don’t like is when an idem has cleared the bank and it shows that it cleared in the online banking account and then a big check comes in and the bank in effect recalls the smaller transactions then cashes the larger transaction then clears the smaller transactions hitting you for a fee for each examble this week we were hit for 10 $35 fees totaling $350 sucking up all of my wife’s paycheck
Chase has crossed the line. They send a notice that your account does not have enough funds early in the morning. If you have 2 accounts, as I do, and transfer funds from one account inside of Chase to another account inside of Chase, Chase holds the transfer funds for 3 days. The funds are immediately removed from the one account, but won’t appear in the other account for at least 3 days. That allows Chase to charge overdraft fees for “each” and “every” charge to your account awaiting the transfer. So Chase makes money on the transfer, charges you fees of $34 for each ‘hit’, and politely tells you that they can’t do anything about the process because…it takes time.
All banks are the same they are out for your money. I assure you that the little white collar girlie men bank execs are laughing. They are raking in the money while we work our friken butts off. They are taking food and clothes out of your families hands. I bet they don’t plan their weekends around little or no money. We need to stand together. Time to end the raping and pillaging of our bank accounts.
Unbelievable but the bank I bank with hit me for $245 dollars for one auto draft not posted but pending they actually drove my account negative with a $140 OFD charge one day and when the pending transaction hit 2 days later they gouged me another $105. This is called double dipping and if any business got caught doing this they would face legal ramifications. Why don’t the banks have the same rules!
Exactly, why don’t they have a law making it illegal for banks to honor the larger amount before the smaller! Sure they pass the debit card law, but the banks still have a recourse through this method, robbing people.
If your tired of overdrafts get a walmart money card. You can check your bal. by phone or web and in seconds after using the card you can get an acurrate bal. It will never allow you to get more money out than you have in. screw the blood sucking banking system get a card that works for you with no overdrafts.
I got hit with 18 overdraft fees from Chevron Texaco that automatically gave me a $900 dollar overdraft protection line – I think the whole thing should be illegal – it feels like robbery
This overdraft protection law is a complete JOKE and FAKE !! why?? If you “opt-in” then the bank pays your transaction and assesses a fee. If you “opt-out” the bank declines the transaction and still assesses a fee for the transaction being presented.. So where is this law helpful again ? IT ISN’T!!! Just another example of political ping-pong with legal jargin to confuse and trick the consumer into thinking they are being protected by congess… BULL$&!% .. If the bank charges you $35 either way then nothing has changed other than the fact it requires even more paperwork to fill out and more trees cut down each year !! GREAT JOB CONGRESSIONAL IDIOTS !!
Tired of banks period. I run a small business and we had hotel pass through $6,000 fraudulent charge and a client check bounce some how the same day. We have a lot of little charges go through our account everyday and got with close to $1000 in fees in our operating account.
They should have a daily, monthly, and annual limit on bank fees
Banks, credit unions and whatever! My last months paper statement wasnt even suitable for my puppy to make dewdew on. Right now I”m trying to keep my head above water. How can I succeed ? Its happening and they control my means. Pissed off in az..
Omg you guys are all so right. This is such crap,I am so tired of Wellsfargo and the way they handle there banking. They already were sued for all this crap from someone like us,,out of NY and CA together and lost and were ordered by a judge out of Ca. to pay back $203 million back to its customers.
Judge orders Wells Fargo to pay back $203M in fees
(“NEW YORK (AP) — A federal judge in California ordered Wells Fargo & Co. to change what he called “unfair and deceptive business practices” that led customers into paying multiple overdraft fees, and to pay $203 million back to customers”)was in 8/2010
So why and how can they continue this crap. I thought banks were suppose to be there to help there customers from being taken and the such… Not take from us. We pay them fees to what take more from us. If we all took are money out and didn’t use the damn banks they would learn big time…Why do we really need them anyway. Before banks people did something right ok then….
I would like to know if this is legal. I live in California and bank with Citibank. I think they found a loop…according to them.
I have direct deposit which is there at 12:01 midnight. I will go to the atm about noon and see that it was deposited and that ALL funds are available. So sometime about 3pm I start paying my bills.
Well later I find out they charged me an OVER DRAFT FEE because according to them they first take out all debts then add the credits are added later. Even though it was Physically and electronically deposited before I started making my payments.
I don’t think this is legal since payments were made after the fact. I really feel this is a tactic so everyone can fail and they can make money.
I went in and tried talking to the Customer Service Rep. But she kept humiliating me in front of other customers by raising her voice so everyone could hear. She was accusing be of doing and being a person that I am not. She kept raising her voice and say sorry ma’am but you cannot balance your account through the atm. She kept stating things that weren’t even relevent to the situation. It was humiliating so I just left, after trying to talk to her.
I belone to Umpqua Bank. I have only been using my checking account as a backup account when I have to start paying back my school loan. This account has been for the most part, in active for months.other than a three three dollar monthly fee that I pay to keep the account open. I did not have the three dollors in my account and over drew $1.87. I put $10.00 in the account when I reolized I was over dranw. They have been charging me $7.00 dollars a DAY. for that $1.87. Is this legal?
i think we all should clsed are account until the banks get rid off overdraft fee once in for all so we can save.
i also hate wells fargo – they bounced a house payment due to their computer system “THINKING” i wasnt goin to have enough funds in my account! It cost me $75.00 in NSF Fees with my mortgage company!! What really pisses me off is that they “KNOW” this is ethically & morally wrong and yet they continue to rip us off on a daily basis with no reprocussions!
I bank through TCF bank and they just hit me with a 35 dollar fee.
I thought it was supposed to automatically opt you out if you did not opt in?
I called the bank and asked to opt out and they said that it only applied to personal checking accounts and it did not apply to business checking accounts! They would not allow me to opt out even when I asked them!
Is this legitimate?
p.s. don’t get me started on wells fargo. They stole $800 from me one time.
I have read the comments/complaints above but wih there were responses/answers to the frustrated consumer, Where can I find the responses/answers to questions asked?
Where can I find information regarding the suit that Wells Fargo lost concerning overdraft fees and other items? I banked with Wells Fargo for about 10 years and want to claim overdraft/insufficient fund fees that were illegally charged.
In a society where we are all treated equal, and our friends and neighbors ran the bank, things would be different.
The reason they will not stop the banks is simple. The government is in bed with the banks.
It all makes more sense when you realize this fact.
Overdraft fees are insane, I’m not used to this stuff. In Norway, banks will charge interest at the end of the month, depending on how much your account is in the negative. If you had like -$100 at the end of the month, they’d charge something like -$10, but if you fixed this on the last day of the month, there’s no fee. I can’t believe banks in the US are allowed to scam you guys (and me since I live here now) for so much money. It should be banned by law.
TCF IS A SCAM I had trouble with overdrafts and in May 2010 I opted out
I had a 105$ overdraft fee and just recently i was hit with 300$ plus fee i called the branch where i live by and they put me on hold i asked them when i OPTED IN to this NSF scam they are pulling they said they would get back to me on this matter then i called TCF’s number on website and talked to a guy and asked him when did i EVER OPT IN for this BS SCAM he told me May 2010. Then i asked him did i have any overdrafts then he told me 105$ NSF that month . WHY THE HELL WOULD I CONTINUE TO BE OPTED IN TO THIS SCAM WHEN THEY JUST TOOK 105$ in NSF from me??? Im pretty damn shure i OPTED OUT. IM FRUSTRATED AT THIS WHOLE ORDEAL.
PISSED OFF!!!!!!
I chose to opt out in person and I made damn well sure that I kept a copy of that paper for myself. It’s right there with my personal items. I’ve never overdrawn my account, but just in case… for that one rainy day in which I accidentally MIGHT… I have that paper laminated and ready to be shown.
we have no one to blame but ourselves. haven’t you all heard the saying, burn me once shame on you but burn me twice shame on me? well shame on all of us, for electing all these a,,holes who run this country. not that we have much of a choice but the one choice we do have is to wake the f,,k up. as a society in general, we are made up of mostly sheep. but worse, sheep with blinders on. you know, the blinders that they put on horses during a parade so they can only look forward and not deviate from the task they are a slave to. when are all you sheep going to lead your own way? its time America, time to wake up and put and end to this crap. its not only banks but corporate business in this country is the root of this country’s financial devastation to the middle and lower class. yet the rich keep getting richer. theres to many people dipping into the cookie jar leaving no cookies left for the poor guy who actually has to work for them. theres way too many people making exhorbitant amounts of money off of the labor of others and the reason it continues is because we all allow it too and are too scared to do anything about it. our founding fathers are rolling over in their graves because we have disgraced them. they did not shed their own blood against their superiors for this. they did it to get away from dictatorship. we are not a democracy or even a republic. if we were, then something would have been done long ago. so we can either continue to line other peoples pockets with our hard work or we can wake up, voice your dissatisfaction and take the inconvenience that you may face, suck it up and put a stop to the gouging of the public.
What about when you have a positive balance and they fee you into overdraft , then close your account without notification and send you to collection to make money on you twice after ninety days. Then they start on your savings?
I am confused because my bank is STILL doing this crap. Then I find out unbeknownst to me when I would use my debit card to put gas in my car, the gas station (Maverick) is putting a $75 hold on my account although I only bought $40 in gas!!! So you can imagine how many things have come back insufficient due to that. And the real cute thing is I had just enough in the bank to fill my tank for the week ($50) so my husband went to get gas and next thing I know I’m overdrawn!! Well that is when we found out that they were putting this hold on my acct. The gas station is like well it will go back on in a few days….well yeah but now they just got me penalty fees!! How the hec can they run a DEBIT card for more than I have and not be declined?? I have never signed up for overdraft and what is real interesting is they do this sometimes and other times it will be declined. This freaking back has cost me soooo much money. I am a fulltime college student, raising 4 kids and we live pretty much off of my student LOANS! So I am not only getting charged these arbitrary fees BUT I get to repay them with interest!! When I contact this bank they just tell me they “are looking into it” and nothing ever happens. It is through a bank called Higher One, the college opens this acct for you.
Yes, its me again, bitching about Wells Fargo! I just went over my account with a fine tooth comb & boy what an eye opener!! 2 mortgage payments which were NSF really WERE NOT! This f.up on Wells Fargos part caused me big problems with other bills i paid after – I then decided to read the “Wells Fargo Overdraft Services Guideline” which they had provided when i opened my account & come to find out – I had the wool pulled over my eyes, HOWEVER, THEY ARE WIDE OPEN NOW! First of all I had an “Opportunity” Checking account which the overdraft services are NOT available for?? MINE OBVIOUSLY WAS! I also found out that there are no enrollment fees except for mine & there transfer fees are at random – i guess whoever happens to be debiting or crediting your account that day charges whatever they want from $10 to $15??? WHAT THE HELL?? How do these people get away with this crap?? Can anyone answer this question? Probable not!!
Suntrust has done the same thing to me, just added a little more insult to injury! After first receiving notice from Suntrust that I was overdrawn on account of an auto-ship program from Luminess Air that I canceled months before, I immediately e-mailed customer support alerting them to the fact that I had OPTED OUT of ODP, even attaching a screen shot from my online banking account which proved this. I thought it would be a drawn out process however, the representative replied the next business day, and agreed to remove the $25 OD charge. In return, I informed him that I would be making a transfer from a separate account right away to cover the transaction they paid, and ask him to please note my account accordingly.
Foolishly, I thought this was settled until the day I received another statement from Suntrust informing me of an additional $36 extended ODF! Again, I went straight to customer support, admittedly, I thought this, too, was a simple oversight and would be settled easily. Man, did I underestimate the tactics of thieves! When I argued my case, citing the original fee was removed, and added I’d already transferred funds to cover my portion, the rep denied any funds had ever been sent to cover the balance. I verified the transfer with the other account, even sending another screenshot showing the transfer already had taken place, still no cooperation. Even after the funds were posted to my Suntrust account, they still denied ever receiving it! I stopped arguing because it was obvious this wasn’t a fair fight, and started looking at my legal options/rights pertaining to the matter. Since this is a fairly new law, I have’t gotten very far and frankly, I am at a loss as of what to do next.
I know $36 is a minuscule amount, but it’s the principle! If we continue to pay these enormous, erroneous bank fees when we’ve taken the appropriate measures to protect against them, life with the banks will continue as before. To top it all, I now receive calls at 8:00 a.m. from Suntrust collections! As if this couldn’t get anymore frustrating….
Well I for one agree banks should make money as well however is not true in this situation. knowing several people in the banking ind, I have found out what these banks do with this $35+/- charge. I have been informed they let it build up untill the end of the year and in Dec they divide the total up and split it all among themselfs for there christmas bonus. I found this out to be a fact and for atleast 7 diff banks around me. I do not know about any others for I did not ask. Many of the banks I do know for a fact will not tell the gen public. I found out from employees whom are friends. There needs to be a law in place for where the money goes that were collected. It needs to go into a fund of some sort other than into employee pockets.
I see the old “protection against fraudulent charges” fallacy to promote credit card use is alive and well. Debit cards are protected too. I know this because it’s happened to me.
I’m sorry but the author has no idea what he’s talking about. He/she thinks the banks “make money to lend” by “making money”?? No they don’t! They make money every time you deposit money into the bank and they create what is called “credit” through the fractional reserve system. Money is never lent out, instead credit is lent out.
The fractional reserve system allows banks to only have 10% of their reserves on hand. So if you deposit $100 then they gain $1000 worth of lending power. Get it? It’s all fake, 100% manipulated. The banks give up NOTHING when giving you a loan.
So let’s say you actually take out cash for whatever loan you get. Let’s say, someone buys a car for $10,000 from another person and the bank finances it and that person wants cash. What’s the person most likely to do? Take it to THEIR bank and make a deposit. Now their bank can loan out $100,000 based on that $10,000 deposit. See the scam??
So don’t think “banks need to make money” off of you. Banks “make” money, literally. It’s called INFLATION and guess what.. YOU GET THE BILL!
On 12/21/11, had a $57 balance. On 12/22 made a $7800 deposit. Because they did not release “make available” $2800 of the funds until 1/3/12 I’ve been hit with $576 in fees. WTF!
Pay the largest debit off 1st my arse!
Put them all to the guillotine.
I haven’t seen this posted on your site yet, but get this. My credit union has started not only charging me $30 for their own NSF charge, but also, the companies that my checks were written to, have been debiting my account for $30 fees because my checks were returned to them! What the hell? This has happened to me several times since the new year started and I started out with a positive balance both times. So far, I have had $120 dollars taken out of my account for a $44.80 check and the check has still not been paid! This is no different than embezzlement.
THAT IS ONE REASON I STOPPED BANKING WITH THEM; IF YOUR ACCOUNT GOT LOW; OR YOU DIDNT HAVE THE FUNDS IN THERE TO COVER THE AMOUNT YOU DRAWED OUT; THEY WOULD LET YOU DRAW IT OUT ANY WAYS; AND THEY THEY CHARGED A BIG OVER DRAFT CHARGE; ONE OF THEIR LITTLE GET RICH DEALS; AND PEOPLE HAD TO PAY IT; IT REALLY SUCKED ; ESPECIALLY WHEN; PEOPLE HAVE A HARD ENOUGH TIME GETTING TROUGH LIFE AS IT IS; THEY SIT THERE IN THEIR IN THERE OFFICES AND MAKE MONEY OFF OF US LITTLE PEOPLE; SOMETHING SHOULD BE DONE ABOUT IT;
PayPal said when my account ran low, that it would run 3 purchases through listed bank account, if the funds were not there, it would go to my visa card, well they ran it through a zion bank account that I thought was closed and I ended up with $125 in overdraft fees!! Zion bank is about the most unmerciful organization around, never bank with them, wouldn’t waive a single penny, CROOKS!! I should have just left the negative balance and let it go to chexsystems. These banks let you think that a zero balance will result in just a simple “Decline” costing nothing, don’t let them fool you. Its a shame a business has to legally ROB people just to make a profit and take advantage of people. What comes around gos around, maybe more people will have 2nd mortgage strips through chapter 13 and they can screw them just like they screw everybody else.
I have an account at Insight Financial credit union, I just got hit with an overdraft fee while having enough money in my account, How that worked was, I made a purchase that would of went over my balance late the previous day, the next morning I went and deposited funds to cover it and then some before it posted to my account, so what they said was it doesn’t matter when it post but when the purchase was made. so my account actually showed + cash then the over draft fee then my deposit and then the purchase… These banks are out of control just like are government, trying to keep the people down and in slaved to the grind. Its about time we stand up to these corrupt, deceitful bankers and politicians. We are to protect are country which is the people…from enemies wither foreign or domestic.
Wow the comments are just amazing, handle your bills well, check your balance frequently and instead of going to a Chinese buffet or go shopping open a damn savings account and stop complaining.
You get charged for 35$ for every 1$ you go over, I had that happen once and I learned from my mistake.
You should never be that close to 0$, if you’re then you have a problem, not the bank.
Banks are there to screw you over, get used to that.
I have 10,000 in my savings. my Checking had 2000 atall times, all of a sudden i am overdrafted.
i made some purchases, and did not realize my account was over drafted for 10 days until i finally called in to find out why i “declined” for a TOOTHBRUSH. MIND YOU I WENT TO LOUIS VUITTON AND PURCHASED A BAG FOR 1828 AND IT WENT THROUGH, I RETURNED THAT BAG, AND WENT TO GUCCI AND BOUGHT ONE FOR $1256. I HAD A RENT CHECK GOING WHICH GOT PAID WITH A NEGATIVE BALANCE. i never OPTED IN OR WHATEVERRRRR.. ANYWAY SO I GO TO THE BANK THEY TOOK OFF 198 OFF THE $600 FEES I HAD OVER 5 DAYS OF THIS B/S.
THEY DECLINE $1000, BUT ALLOWED $1253.. THIS IS BULLSHIT MIND YOU I ASKED THEM WHY DID YOU NOT CALL ME T WARN ME OF POSSIBLE “FRAUD” THEY SAID WELL YOU AUTHORIZED THESE CHARGES.. AND WE MAILED YOU A LETTER./. CROOKS ! NEVER DID. AND BY THE WAY ON MY ONLINE BANKING I NEVER DID AGREE TO THIS B/S YET YET THEY ARE DOING IT TO ME
SO THEN I DECIDED TO READ THE GUIDELINE WHICH CLEARLY STATES ” THEY WOULD ONLY PAY FOR BILLS, AND CHECKS” AND NOT” EVERYDAY DEBIT CARD CHARGES” HELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLO I WAS CHARGED $37 FOR A $3.5 PARKING METER CHARGE 5 TIME !!!!! I AM SOOOOOO SUING I DO NOT GIVE A SHIT ! I WILL SHOW THEM WHAT I HAD TO GO THROUGH.
hay guys,
my Bank guaranty bank, refused to opt me out of the overdraft. I asked them in 2010 when the law was passed and the claim they did it. Manage my checking well I did not have a incident until 2011.
I went back and forth with their unprofessional customer service dept supervior. They later decided that a
misunderstanding took place. WHAT? please opt me out of all overdraft. What misunderstanding is that. Hold on this get better April of this year it happen again. A company sent in a electric check and I was Short to pay it by $5.00 Guaranty charge me 28.00 then another 28.00 5 days later and on the 7th day of overdraft they charge me $36.00. This time they told me I did not opt out over all. I just said Opt me out of the overdraft. I had to say OPT ME OUT OVER all. What the “F”.
Can you believe that! later after refusing to pay and reporting them for breaking the 2010 overdraft law. Like before they cleared THE illegal CHARGES. Guest what it happen again on a $4.95 check electronic sent.
This time Guaranty Bank says they have me on a recorder telling them to put me back on the overdraft program.
Now they are “dam lier” is their no end here, here I go again.
OK… I WENT TO THE WINDOW.. WITHDRAWN 80 BUCKS THE LADY SAID I HAVE 2 DOLL LEFT OVER…. THE MONDAY THEY SAID I WAS OVERDRAWN.. WTF!!!!! BNOW THAT IS DECEPTIVE.. IN MY FACE U DECEIVED ME.. OVERDRAWN MY RASS…
Any folks out there in the banking industry???…had an experience where I made a deposit to an ATM…it included a $700 check that the bank is stating was not included in the deposit envelope … noted on the envelope were instructions to deposit so much into my checking account and the other was to be applied toward my credit card…when I looked at my account online it indicated the deposit had been made… the bank sent me an email later related to the deposit…it was marked “URGENT”…and its purpose was to inform me that I am not to use the ATM to request a transfer of funds to pay my credit card… never once was there any mention the check was not in the envelope…thus far they have charged me almost $250 in overdraft fees…does anyone know if there is anything that can be done about this?…doesn’t seem this is ethical on the bank’s part…if the check was truly missing, why wouldn’t they say something during the “Urgent” message that was sent addressing the deposit and the notation placed on the envelope? Can they legally charge me this money knowing that according to them, the check was not in the envelope, but yet send an “URGENT” message overlooking a detail as important as this?
“FIT TO BE TIED” at the moment…
Huntington does the same thing! I deposited $60 and used my debit card, ok? Right – not overdrawn.. Ok next day charged $200 .. over 24 hours now .. should have been the next business day, right? Well, Huntington waits ( on purpose ) and didn’t do posting until the $200 overdrew me, so they posted the $200 first, then the $53.00 + charge that occurred under the $60 positive balance, yet they combined both business days, didn’t post Monday night when I was positive, but waited until Tuesday night posted both items, larger one first, and charged me 2 overdraft fees of $37.50 instead of only one due me for the $200 covered by my overdraft option.. should have only been charged 1 fee, but they wait 2 days to post… * Definitely they do this ON PURPOSE to take the consumer’s money!
Can a bank keep charging an overdraft fee each time the same check is submitted? Banks usually submitt a check twice. So I am charges twice for the same check. Is this legal?
I just opened a new account, and the bank informed me that their overdraft fee is $39, and their insufficient funds fee is $39. At least with the overdraft, the company I wrote the check for doesn’t charge me a $25 NSF fee in addition to the $39 insufficient funds fee at the bank.
Bottom Line:
If you can’t keep enough money in the bank to be 100% sure you will never bounce a check or be declined on your debit card, use ONLY cash. Consider the Fee an educational expense and don’t use the bank. The post office will sell you a money order for times when you need a check, and it will be a whole lot cheaper unless you write many checks a month.
Another fun practice, what Wells Fargo just did to me: I made 2 payments to ebay which did not immediately come out of my account. The day before a direct deposit went thru i had the extra money so i decided to use it since the purchases hadnt went thru and had to go thru next morning at earliest when i would have more funds. So my bank processed the transactions the next day after my deposit and i had sufficient funds n then charged me 2 fees of $35 one for each ebay item. I asked them n they said it went thru day before? But they didnt take money out n they said no well it went thru yesterday but cleared today so basically the 10 hours i was insufficient is when they claim the transactions cleared??? Interesting. If they went thru n took the money out the day before i never would of debited the money. They then charged me another $35.00 because the money they took made my account insufficient to pay somehting else i processed prior to them taking the first 2 fees… they should have to give u until 5 pm to deposit funds before they can charge you and should not be able to take the funds immediately causing more to bounce they should have to give 72 hours notice that theyll be taking funds… its pure BS
oh and another thing… i banked with BOfA for years and had a ton of Over draft fees due to them posting largest items 1st and then smallest to make you have more fees… well they did a large lawsuit n i recieved notice that i would have those fees returned if they won and the ppl won but i was given a check for $4… thats right prob paid a thousand in fees over the 6 years i had the account maybe more but i got $4 retribution… amazing so if youre waiting for yours from another bank do not hold ur breath!!!
I recenty received an overdraft notice from guaranty bank. I never overdraft so i went to the bank to discover that i had been charged 4 overdraft fees of 35.00 a piece because i used my debit card at a KFC and they made a mistake, the total amount that was to be charged was 20.85 and the girl behind the counter accidentaly put 200.85 of wich she corrected and the 200.85 was never actualy taken out of my account. However, the 200.85 was held for 3 days causing my “available” balance to be negetive, but my actual balance was still in the posative, and i was charged overdraft fees for each transaction. I have opted out of the overdraft protection but still got charged. the bank clerk told me that the trasactions were allowed to go through because technically i had the money to cover the transactions. “If this was true why then did i get charged the overdraft fees?” I asked him. His reply was ” well you did not have sufficient available funds” I responded” then under the new laws the transactions should have been denied and no charges should have taken place.
He said that I should go after KFC for my money back for the overdraft fees even though they never actualy took the money from my account. Can anyone help me on what I can do as I think the bank should refund the overdraft fees.
I am livid and have been for years about this subject. I don’t want to go into too much detail, but they take out ovrdraft fees immediately after a deposit posts. Yes, the transactions clear before the deposits post, but we have had Direct deposit on our account ever since we have been with the bank…. 10+ YEARS. AT LEAST EVERY FRIDAY, money comes into this account….this particualar time, I had failed to write down an automatic debit….Yes, it was my fault. But the transaction posted on Thursday and therefore the two transactions that my husband and I had to make, which were for fuel for our vehicles (not some frivolous purchase, otherwise we would have waited another day, but we had to get home) bounced as well as the transaction I had failed to write down. I pride my self in not getting overdrafts but they do happen occasionally. It just preturbs me when it happens just AFTER a deposit is made, which generally, is a day AFTER the NSF causing transaction happens. I have contacted the bank and told them how angry I am that it happens this way. The only thing they offered, was to take the overdraft protection off our account…now seriously, how is that going to help the situatiuon? It won’t. It would just make me have to go all over town to take care of those transactions that did not clear. I feel that there should be some stipulation in the policy that states that if there is not a deposit made within 24-48 hours of said transaction that causes my account to overdraft then that’s when they can charge me….and if a person has direct deposit they should be a little more lenient, as there will be money coming to this account shortly. I cannot help when the automatic withdrawals come out. BURNS MY HIDE!!!!! Just this month $170 in fees from our bank….GRRRR If they had left MY MONEY alone, there wouldn’t be sooo many dang fees. I cannot tell you how much this hacks me off!!!!
[…] overdraft fee laws for debit cards on checking-accounts […]
for the last two months one of which seems to be their tardy payment of my phone bill they take as much as seven days to pay it, now I have had a serious problem for the same two months with my bank not sure if I should name it but I think the public needs to know .. Bank of the South West NM u.s.a. The problem for me started when I went online to check my balance it showed a 12 dollar balance so I went to my game site and charged some premium points, the transaction was declined so I called the bank they told me the account was in a negative balance which should be impossible since I have opted for my account to never go into any overdraft situation, and I reported to the lady that the balance I was looking at had no -10.00 it did not show a negative balance.. she seemed to want to debate this issue and I let it go but again this month they seem to have an inaccurate balance and again tried to charge a small amount 5 dollars which was again declined however the lady called me and informed me of the declined charge and stated that there was a fee attached to the declined transaction that made the account again go into a negative and there would be a daily fee now for a 2 dollar fee that should not have been applied because the convince fee was attached to the charge that did not go through, and the bank is making a daily charge for an overdraft that yet again I say should be impossible, this is a debit atm card that should never make any overdraft
and I call the phone company and make the charge to pay the bill, its not any automatic draft(s) that’s being made at all on any of these transactions
I have read a lot of concerns and hoped to find an answer as I too have some of the same concerns. I finally found this.. Hope it helps everyone else…..
Federal law does not regulate the order that banks post checks to your account, but some state laws might. Bank computer systems may be designed to process checks randomly, from the largest to the smallest check amount, or based on some other method.
Some banks post the largest checks before the smallest checks assuming that larger checks are the most important payments being made by the customer, for items such as mortgage or rent payments, or auto loans. You may want to ask your bank which method it uses to post checks.
was charged 35 dollars for 1 dollar over charge
i have a checking account that the bank took away the overdraft protection because they said i was abusing it. then this week i had a check go through and they covered but allso had 6 additional overdrafts fees on debit card and they are refusing to remove the 200 plus in charges when clearly it was their mistake. is there anything i can do to get my money back?