I suck - updated

[withing]

I get an email every day that tells me the balance of my bank account, and just before I left I saw that I was overdrawn by seventy cents, so I deposited $25 to cover that. The same night, thinking that I had money in the bank, I treated I2D2 and I to some ice cream out. (I can see some of you cringing now). I haven't had much internet access over the past few days, so I haven't really checked my emails.

I checked them today, and found that I'm $75 overdrawn. I can't deposit money into my account because I'm hundreds of miles away, and there are no branches here. So, every eight days, there will be another $5 added to that overdraft. FUCK!!!!

It seems that I missed the $34 overdraft fee when I deposited the $25 into my account, and it wasn't reflected on the reciept. Add the ice cream charge to it, and well... I suck.

I can't afford $100 in overdraft charges... I don't even know why I have a fucking bank account. I opened the stupid thing to have a local account in case I get a job, but fuck it - I'm just not meant to have a bank account.

I hate it when I do things like this. It really *really* sucks. >_<

[wondernut]

call your bank and see if there is a "sister" or "brother" bank in the area maybe? I have done this sometimes banks of other names are "related" and can accept deposts ..been there and good luck! I hate money!

[celestia]

Slowly I'm getting a grip on my finances. Emphasis on slowly. My acct. is with Wachovia. Overdraft fees are a bit negotiable come to find out (who knew?), and Wachovia uses a formula based on number of months since your last acct. adjustment or OD refund. One time (and I'm not proud of this fact,) I was so messed up with my bank account that they refunded me 421.00 in overdraft fees!. I shit you not. I had like hundreds, maybe thousands, worth of overdraft fees. I think it was then I started realizing how I was really being self destructive with the way I was managing money. I was spending it and in denial as if I were not going to live.

At the very least if you talk to your home bank's manager they might agree to waive the daily fee since you cant make a deposit. It's definitely worth the phone call.

eta: you don't suck. you're financial management skills might be lacking but it's not a character flaw. YOU are awesome.

[gizmo]

If I had a nickel for every time I overdrew my bank account, I'd have enough to buy a new car I have my good years and my bad years. Last year (while applying for SSDI) was a BAD year. And it really sucked, because that one NSF fee really hurt us when we needed that money the most.

I know it sucks, but if you don't do this very often, a planned-out phone call to a branch manager would probably take care of one, if not both, of those fees. It's only wasting the time of a phone call to try, so you aren't out anything.

[Anna]

Ouch, i feel your pain. I've had moments in my life where overdraft fees have killed me. It's always been when I am flat broke, when I have money I make sure to leave a $500 cushion in my account, because I am NOT the queen of balancing my checkbook.

But, during times of abject poverty when I haven't been able to do that? Oy, it sucks, man. To find all your money gone because of overdraft fees, from a relatively small mistake.

If it's any comfort to you, I think there's legislation going on right now where banks will no longer be able to do the overdraft fees racket. You'd have to specifically give consent for them, otherwise the banks will just not give you the money when you use your bank card. Which, in my opinion is so much better.

Anna

[crtclms]

I was in such bad shape financially when we moved out here 9 years ago that I wasn't allowed to open a bank account for 18 months. Since I was the main shopper in the family, I just used my fiance/husband's ATM card to buy groceries and things of that nature. His credit wasn't that great either, but he wasn't bouncing checks several times a month.

Ironically, 9 years later, my credit rating is above average, and better than my husband's who before he was laid off, literally made over 200% of my own salary.

When you are not making a lot of money, it is really hard to stay out of trouble. It has nothing to do with your character.

[celestia]

If it's any comfort to you, I think there's legislation going on right now where banks will no longer be able to do the overdraft fees racket. You'd have to specifically give consent for them, otherwise the banks will just not give you the money when you use your bank card.

THAT is great news. I have repeatedly asked my bank to deny debit charges if I have NFS. For some reason this is impossible for them to get right, how hard is it FFS. Greedy bastards.

[AnneMarie]

I get an email every day that tells me the balance of my bank account, and just before I left I saw that I was overdrawn by seventy cents, so I deposited $25 to cover that. The same night, thinking that I had money in the bank, I treated I2D2 and I to some ice cream out. (I can see some of you cringing now). I haven't had much internet access over the past few days, so I haven't really checked my emails.

I checked them today, and found that I'm $75 overdrawn. I can't deposit money into my account because I'm hundreds of miles away, and there are no branches here. So, every eight days, there will be another $5 added to that overdraft. FUCK!!!!

It seems that I missed the $34 overdraft fee when I deposited the $25 into my account, and it wasn't reflected on the reciept. Add the ice cream charge to it, and well... I suck.

I can't afford $100 in overdraft charges... I don't even know why I have a fucking bank account. I opened the stupid thing to have a local account in case I get a job, but fuck it - I'm just not meant to have a bank account.

I hate it when I do things like this. It really *really* sucks. >_<

Call your bank and ask them to waive the late fee(s). A .70 cent overdraw hit with a $34 fee is something most bank managers would agree is rediculous. Depending, if the rest of your overdraw is compounding late fees on that, you might be able to get all charges waived. I have done this with credit card companies and I think once with a bank a few years ago. I would be very, very surprised if the bank didn't write off at least part of the fees.

My big trick to avoid overdrawing was to save up enough to have $100 or so that I didn't acknowledge in my checkbook. That way when I hit zero, I still had a little cushion. It's just a psych game but one that worked pretty well for me. The other trick I did was whenever I used my charge card, I wrote it into my check book as if a check. I might go negative but I knew that I had to get back to positive before the end of the month. (I actually tried pretty hard to not go negative.) This assumes that you pay off credit cards each month to avoid the interest charges which saves lots of money. This worked well for me because it reinforced not racking up credit card debt that I couldn't afford.

[Anna]

Actually, banks have gotten pretty damn bumptious about late fees. It about takes an act of God to get them to waive them. I have tried in the past. They're like, hah, sorry. I once racked up bout $75 bucks in overdraft fees over getting a roll of quarters to do my laundry. And then, when I talked to the bank manager about it, she was all patronizing at me and tried to teach me to balance my checkbook. I freaking KNOW how. I was manic at the time, and had almost no income coming in at ALL. And, when I can keep a cushion in my account (and not crazed), a working mental total feels like so much less energy to me.....

After that (this was part of the poverty moment I was living) I started doing my laundry in the bathtub..... Until Mr. A made me stop. It was working FINE, though.

This is why I am so happy about the legislation, what they make out of overdraft fees is out of this world. And, it does NOT cost them any extra manpower, if you ask me, to have the computer put a little negative sign next to one's account balance, which is what they just LOVE to claim.

I fucking hate banks, man. Hate.

Anna

[celestia]

Actually, banks have gotten pretty damn bumptious about late fees. It about takes an act of God to get them to waive them. I have tried in the past. They're like, hah, sorry.

I have told them, I'm disabled, widowed and broke. There contention is everyone has a sad story. That is true enough I guess but until I was disabled I hadnt' had many of the problems that go with MI and poverty. Including overdraft fees. No points for time served in the rat race.

[withing]

I called the 1-800 number for my bank when I found out about this, and stood outside in the freezing weather to try to explain this to them (it was the only place I could get a signal). They were very patronizing and unsympathetic. I'm gonna go talk to the bank manager personally when I get back.

For the record, I don't have a checkbook, and I rarely use my ATM card - I try to work on a cash basis whenever possible. I had some extra money in this account so I used it for a couple of things before I went up north with i2d2. I miscalculated something - maybe fees or something, I dunno... and here I am.

I will try to straighten it out when I get back. I was just so upset when I got the email... it took me half an hour to calm down.

[recoverymouse]

there's been a lot of news about overdraft fees after a recent expose by the NYT showing that banks make as much from these fees as they make from interest on credit cards... on the backs of their poorest customers. here's an opinion piece about it: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/20/opinion/20thu1.html

In response some banks have agreed to allow customers to elect NOT to have overdraft "protection". Some banks have also reversed a policy whereby they apply the biggest withdrawl of the day before the smaller ones, even if the smaller ones were first (thereby allowing more $35 charges for each of the smaller transactions).

[withing]

Here's the thing... as far as I can remember, I never agreed to this overdraft protection. I distinctly remember asking them to not allow my bank account to go into the negative. I also asked to have an atm card vs. a visa check card, but they claimed not to have that option - which could be why I went 70 cents overdrawn.

But I have to go back home and look at the paperwork because it could be that they didn't give me a choice and I only remember asking about it - not chosing. I looked at today's email, and I'm now $95 overdrawn. They're adding $5 every day!!! not every 8 days like the woman on the phone told me. I still have over a week before I get home, and by then I'll be over $125 dollars overdrawn.

No matter what the outcome - I'm definately closing this account. They suck.

[beetle]

That really sucks that they're going to stick you with fees like that over 70 cents, knowing you're out of town and can't do anything about it.

I over drafted my checking account one time. Just once. I pay my car insurance premium all at once and it was a large chunk of cash and I just forgot to transfer the money from savings into checking and wrote the check and of course, my account over drafted.

Now I had savings with this same bank with more than enough in the savings account to cover that check many times over. But the thing that really chapped my ass (because I take responsibility for the one check) is that three checks posted all on the same day. They posted the biggest one first (the insurance check) and then the other two smaller checks over drafted too.

So they stuck me with three fees. Whereas they could have posted the two smaller ones, which I had plenty in the account to cover and then just post the insurance check last and hit me with only one fee. I yelled and screamed and did everything I could to make them see the error of their ways. Didn't matter.

So, I promptly withdrew all my savings and closed that account with that bank. Not that I'm some high roller or something but they lost my business none the less. I keep just enough in a checking acct. with the same bank to avoid any kind of "maintenance" fee and it doesn't cost me anything. So this bank ends up having as little of my money as possible.

I should have closed the checking acct. too but had way too much going on at the time to be switching checking accts. And now that I'm married that checking acct. has become somewhat dormant since payments for things comes out of our joint acct. To be honest the only reason I'm keeping it open is because that's the acct. that I designated in the event I actually win SSDI. After I, hopefully, win it I will probably have them deposit the SSDI payments into our joint acct. and close my checking and then they'll have none of my business...well, besides the joint acct. that is.

Some banks have also reversed a policy whereby they apply the biggest withdrawl of the day before the smaller ones, even if the smaller ones were first (thereby allowing more $35 charges for each of the smaller transactions).

Exactly what I was talking about them doing to me. Fuckers.

[MadMonk]

The hubby and I use a small local bank, and they are much more willing to work with us on stuff like this. Has anyone considered that? I know that the huge banks (Bank of America, Wachovia, Chase) are BRUTAL when it comes to shit like this, so is there a small, local bank you can use?

Before hubby bought his partner out, they used Chase for the business account, and I remember the hubby going in all the time with problems. Once he bought out his partner, he moved the business account to our local bank, and we haven't had any issues since.

Also, it is nice when you walk in to make a deposit, and everyone is like, "Hey Monk, how's it going?"

[withing]

So I went to the bank today (I went on Wednesday but the manager was not there) and guess what? it did no fucking good at all. They were willing to waive one fee ONE FEE! and "work with" me about the rest of the overdrafts (that's five dollars a day since December 15, you do the math). They were *not* willing to stop the continuous overdrafts, nor were they willing to waive anything else. She didn't buy the fact that if she waived the first fee (the original overdraft) then there would be no negative balance in the first place.

$200 for a seventy cents mistake??? And I tried to rectify the mistake as soon as I saw it? It's fucking ridiculous. I told her so (not in those words). I also told her that I'm a college student and simply do not have $200 to pay them, nor do I believe that I should be punished for being on vacation and unable to make a deposit. I said, "The bank can continue to assess fees to my account, but I still will not have the money to pay for it."

She actually asked if I could borrow money to "put my account in the positive."

I said it would go like this, they can either waive the fees, or they can continue to charge me overdrafts until it reaches the maximum, then the bank will put it into collections (because I can't pay them) and close my account (because they won't let me close it due to it being in the negative). I mean, there's just no way I can pay them, if I don't have the money, I don't have the money - I'm not a magician, I can't make things appear out of thin air.

I hate how people think I can just acquire money.

[Anna]

Tell them you will call the banking commission, particularly if they were charging $5 a day if they told you every $8 days. Banks sometimes get scared of that and will back down slightly.

Fuckers. I totally sympathize

Anna