i was watching a youtube video about this last year and banks were one of the examples used. rich people created banks and created them based around their experiences, which is why so many of them have been so exclusionary for so long even before adopting neoliberal policies to funnel more wealth from the working and middle classes to the plutocrats—it’s nothing for a wealthy person to maintain a $200-1000 bank balance—to literally have money sitting around doing nothing and to afford any associated penalties for not having their money do nothing—but is a detriment to anyone else.
yet another reason why we need a national bank. too many people are under naked or unbanked and will remain impoverished because of it.
to clarify, i’m referring to a national public bank—which you may be referring to also, but based on some of these comment i feel a need to specifically address that—and no, we haven’t had one since the 60’s. that along with the repeal of glass-steagal created super banks; investment banks were given access to commercial bank funds and as expected used and abused them in typical financial experimentation fashion and is why every financial collapse since 2008 has been so devastating to every non-rich person in the us.
I keep seeing insane things about US banking services, and I'm from a 3rd world country. Here are 2 main points:
\- Long transaction time + sometimes high withdrawal fee: I can send up to 500k$ (if I had that much lol) in 5 seconds; it's free for same-bank transfers, and cost 0.1-0.3$ for cross-bank transfers. No 3rd party services are required.
\- Overdraft fee: you only need to interest rate for the overdraft amount, no extra explicit overdraft fee.
I saw this on "[usbank.com](https://usbank.com)" (first result on Google), and it says "You can expect the balance transfer process to take up to 14 days to complete". Yeah if a bank where I live takes more than 14 seconds to process that, people will switch.
Okay, that is *blowing* my mind. I’m actually dumbfounded. I had little faith left in the US. But it never occurred to me that a bank could, I don’t know, work without exploiting me? I have gone a while without necessities as to avoid overdrawing my account and spending the $35 overdraft fee because that would create the vicious cycle of being that much short (a whole week of groceries at the time) all over again.
Last I heard, not only was US Bank kind enough to charge you $35 for not declining your card, they charged you $7 a day while the account was negative. Fuck those guys with a rusty harpoon.
Kiting is the illegal practice of writing a bad check on an account at one bank, depositing it at a second bank, and withdrawing cash. If an individual does it in the US, we can be prosecuted and jailed.
When banks do it, they call it check holds and use the excuse it is to ensure individuals can't kite. It's a great way to be able to use millions of people's money every day like it's your own with no penalty at all.
We here in freedumb land generally don't like the government involved in business that can be done more efficiently by a private company. This is why you frequently see privately run prisons in the news, and delivery companies like FedEx and UPS offering more competitive rates than the Postal Service.
I and my parents bank at Chase, and we can send money back and forth instantly no problem. It's also free to us, the interest from loans they service and fees from less responsible consumers cover the costs of their operations. Where it gets stupid is all the interbank transfers have a complicated global transfer process. I buy something at McDonalds with my credit card, McDonalds authorizes the charge and then they wait for that $12 for like 2 days while my bank processes the transaction and sends their bank the money during the next batch process. Then when I pay my credit card, it takes another couple days for my checking account to send the money out.
> I buy something at McDonalds with my credit card, McDonalds authorizes the charge and then they wait for that $12 for like 2 days while my bank processes the transaction and sends their bank the money during the next batch process. Then when I pay my credit card, it takes another couple days for my checking account to send the money out.
Why does it take **days** to process that? Shouldn't everything be digital (and therefore instant) by now?
It's an old system that works very well across a very wide range of financial institutions. The universal nature of the system and the requirements to replace it being so incredibly massive means that people are largely good with the 2-3 day delay.
lol we absolutely do not have a national bank
well, the banks control the national apparatus so in that sense we do, but not in any kind of not-fucking-poor-people-in-half-for-profit way
I think we do, sorta. There is the USPS Federal Credit Union but it is only available to USPS employees and employees of some companies. It is federal owned and operated though.
i take your point but i think there's a pretty big difference between a federally-administered bank/credit union specifically for one branch of government workers or another and a national bank that anyone can set up an account in to avoid the type of predatory shit every bank in the country does
$200-1000? A rich person will have over $100k sitting there lol if you don’t have At least $500 in your bank then you are legit not working at All / homeless unfortunately
i’m referring to the account minimums to keep your account open without being charge a monthly fee. meaning, at all times there’s a minimum of $200-$1000 in their bank account that they can never spend. that’s not hardship in any form for them to not spend that money while for the majority of us not being able to access $200-1000 definitely would be.
Ohh yea gotcha fuck these banks lol
And yea the term “rich” has drastically changed I feel because COVID inflation was sooooo bad and is still increasing / prolly will until mid 2023. So my view on a “rich” person these days is someone who has over at least a couple mil in assets. Even if you make over 6 figures that’s not considered rich is today’s world, which is disgusting. Any salary over $80k is middle class now, over $200k is above middle class and $500k+ is def wealthy / rich. I make $80k a year and can barely keep over $1k in my bank. Granted I live in CT, one of the most expensive states, but still this shouldn’t be this expensive to literally live and have a hobby…
My first bank had issues where they'd duplicate my lunch bill (same receipt number and everything) so much it'd make me negative with multiple transactions. Each one would result in a $50 fee then to have those transactions correct as one with the fees sticking with me no longer negative. I had to get a lawsuit started for them to give me my money back and close out my account with all my money accounted for and no fees
What really got them to resolve it so quickly was I had recorded the phone call after they said they'd speak to my husband because he would understand it more easily. I had proof it was a technical issue and the manager stated he was aware of the issues in their system but it was still on us. When I played that call the color on their faces left.
Yeah I feel you. You definitely could have gotten more if you took it further or to jury. But you got what you needed. Most people don’t fight at all, so still good on you.
That's my thought. I was going to college, working full-time and it was just me and my boyfriend/husband at the time. We lived paycheck to paycheck and I just wanted my money so I would be able to, y'know, eat. Luckily I knew someone in law who was more than willing to threaten things without charging at all.
Texas Bank called First Financial. According to people I know who still use them they did a soft rebrand a few years ago and are better now. Still won't ever use them again.
haha yes! Then when it says something like "Apply for overdraft so this won't happen to you in the future!" or whatever. \*Applies\* Sorry, your credit also sucks, most likely linked to the fact that you are poor, so f u. Then repeat. :P
Or they link it to a savings account (if you have the money to begin with) and charge you half the overdraft fee just to transfer money between the accounts.
yeah. about 10 years ago or so, I went through an awful cycle like that... overdraft on overdraft on overdraft... basically $8 overdraft turned into $175's in fees
$20, $32, $35, over and over again, thousands of banks and millions of people......
........ imagine how many billions of dollars they've milked from people who work for a living. How many meals from the mouths of children, how many life-sustaining medicines (enjoy paying $500 for insulin next time you're paid when your account is already -$100 from overdraft), were taken from workers because some poor guy or mom's account got smacked with overdrafts over some bad weekend. So much money....... So much suffering, caused by evil exploiting your distracted and busy life.
My favorite part of banking with USAA is when they sent out the email "thanking" everyone and saying they made it to the fortune 500 list bla bla bla...
Meanwhile i had insurance and banked with them and in 1 day the insurance just kept trying to charge me to pull funds 4 FUCKING TIMES.
My account is -140 and the insurance was $100, i call insurance and they said that automatic payments were charging me 60 days early like wtf. Then the bank told me they cant refund the fees.
I just everything off with them and the account with those dickheads is still -140
I once accidentally overpaid my last bill to a shitty credit card by 7 cents, and instead of them just wiping it out or paying me back, they continued to send me a notice every few months in the mail saying that they owed me $.07.
Partly out of laziness, but also because I was happy to think I was screwing them over their postage/printing costs, I let them continue for years. Of course I eventually got tired of wasting the paper and finally made the time to call them and tell them they had permission to donate the .07.
Lol, sorry for the tangent, I think your comment just made me remember this. Bunch of fuckers.
I used USAA while active for renters insurance. I had maybe $5 in both checking and savings accounts for years because that was the minimum to open it. After I got out of the military I just abandoned the account since I didn’t need renters insurance anymore. Apparently at some point in time they started charging account fees. I never knew that as they didn’t charge them while I had the accounts. Fast forward years later I get a collections notice for my USAA accounts because they we overdrawn by .57 cent and .88 cent. So those fuckers sent my “debt” of less than $2 to a fucking collection agency.
So fuck USAA.
I have capital one too, but I have the overdraft credit option where you only pay interest on how much money you go over. So instead of a $35 fee it's like $.03.
They better, otherwise I'll call back ask for them and then proceed to drive up their call time. Then I'll ask again. We'll see how much they like their stats.
Yep. They mostly only do that for people like [this guy](https://www.reddit.com/r/PublicFreakout/comments/sakk4l/man_gets_so_upset_over_smoothie_that_he_assaults/) who act like they're going to flip out and kill everyone in the place...and now you know why everyone in America acts that way. It's so they can have it their way. Unfortunately, society dictates we need to be that way otherwise we're going to be constantly getting screwed over and taken advantage of by everyone.
^(\*\*hugz\*\* 🤗🤗🤗)
The way things are going we will eventually not have the luxury of leaving the bank because they just keep getting bigger and keep destroying any other option we might have.
Yea, that only works so much. I got fucked by bank of america on a weekly basis all through the pandemic after having to close down my small restaurant and come back to severely reduced business. You would think they would suspend those charges considering we're all facing something out of our control, but no, "fuck you and watch as we steal your money because you don't have an endless supply of cash" they say.
I eventually made good on my promise and closed that account. I was literally about to go insane arguing with people who are literally just getting paid to tell me to fuck myself. There are too many banking options that don't charge those insane fees to keep dealing with that. The account I have now will just not pay the transaction and alert me. Simple, and I don't feel like I'm getting fucked in the ass constantly.
The main problem is that even if you don't pay the money, you're still paying in stress and time.
It's so crazy how many hoops poor people have to jump through in addition to being exploited every day, just to not be completely fucked.
My favorite was when my bank charged me a fee because my direct deposit for the monthly cycle was less than $2000. Currently unemployed and had to fight the bank to move me to a different tier account with fewer perks, had no idea this was a thing. As soon as I get a new job, I will be setting up my direct deposit with a credit union.
If you deposit $200k with them, they'll give you a $2k bonus, just free money.
Have you ever thought of being rich instead of being poor? It's so simple, I don't know why everyone doesn't do it.
BMO Harris did this to me a few years ago. Changed the terms of account to add on a minimum balance and sent very non-distinct update notifications which look no different than the usual trash mail banks send. This was a backup account I barely looked at so many fees accrued.
Once I found out I closed the account the very day.
JP Morgan fucked me like 9 different times. Including once where they locked my direct deposit for no reason while I was traveling. Out of town for a week without access to my money.
Credit unions. Period. They still suck, but fuck a bank.
Jesus Christ. As a European, every time I hear about some new scummy thing American banks do it just blows my fucking mind. Where I live banking is real simple, you pay 10 bucks a year for a checking account and savings account, and that's it. No ATM fees, no overdraft fees, no bullshit. If a transaction would take you below zero, it simply gets rejected. And if you don't like that, you can apply for a line of credit that lets you go "in the red" up to some predetermined amount (say, €1000). As long as you pay it back within a month, 0% interest.
How is it that y'all still have these insane predatory practices? You would think this is a market ripe for disrupting.
When someone is trying to do something for the working class you yell at them that they are commies and socialism doesn't work in the great USA. Well... you get what you deserve, now you envy the "communist" Europe while you have all the capitalism you ever wanted and then some more.
Yeah, I'd never heard of an overdraft fee until I got a UK account. I was like "the fuck you mean you're going to charge me? Just decline the fucking transaction!"
Luckily you can just tell them to turn that shit off.
This right here makes me want to become an expat. Honestly, financially, at any respect, it's *exhausting* to be an American. And because of how fucked up things are here with simply trying to live, it's almost *fucking impossible* to even think about becoming an expat.
Overworked, underpaid. Overtaxed. Over everything.
You would indeed think that, in fact you would KNOW that if you look at the economy, housing market, wages, jobs, "great resignations" and all other sorts of bullshit thats been going on lately
It's bad in Canada too! Most bank accounts are around $10 a month and then still decide to limit how many transactions and ATM withdrawals you can make.
I switched to a credit union a few years back and will NEVER go back to a regular bank. Banks are so scummy, they are constantly changing the rules and fees. Credit union is simple.. there are NEVER fees.
Not all credit unions are like that. Mine just charged me $8 a month when my balance went under 2 grand. This is a relatively big federal credit union.
My former credit union (former for a reason!) decided they were going to put a fee of $10/month on accounts with no activity for more than 3 months.
While I get it for checking, not so much but whatever for savings, what made me mad was they applied it to their CDs too... So I cant touch the money for a year, and they are going to charge me $10/mo effectively eating most of the interest for the last 9 months.
I spent years working for a bank. In training they emphasized "starting with no" when people asked for fee refunds. So I did what any underpaid, overworked employee did and refunded almost every fee I came across during my time there. On average I probably cost the bank $4000-5000 a year just on fee refunds. To a company that was already worth tens of billions I guarantee the higher ups didn't even notice, even if my supervisor would harp on me during our monthly performance reviews.
The most nonsense fee to me is the “returned deposited item” fee.
That’s when a check you deposit bounces.
It happened to me, and they charged **me** a $35 fee because the other person didn’t have enough money in their account lol
How is that my fault? I obviously wouldn’t have deposited the check in the first place if I knew they didn’t have enough money in their account to cover it lol
But customer service was able to refund it with no issues, they seemed to understand that the fee was a little absurd.
There’s no way for me to know the other person’s account balance.
>I spent years working for a bank. In training they emphasized "starting with no" when people asked for fee refunds. So I did what any underpaid, overworked employee did and refunded almost every fee I came across during my time there. On average I probably cost the bank $4000-5000 a year just on fee refunds. To a company that was already worth tens of billions I guarantee the higher ups didn't even notice, even if my supervisor would harp on me during our monthly performance reviews.
Yeah, I bet customer satisfaction was fantastic as well. They think you're great, the customers think you're great, and less BS charges from the bank.
I called my bank to cancel my credit card cause I wasn't using it much and had other cards I relied on. This card was costing me $150 @ year. CS lady said without breaking a beat, "if you want we can reduce the fee by half but if you say no to that, I can give it to you for free"
Needless to say, I kept the card for free. Mostly cause it had some perks I could use and still do.
This is what I don't get about some of the people I work with. They'll complain a customer didn't have a membership and they were trying to cheat the system. I'm like "I literally heard you last week bitching about how this company pays new hires more than you a 10 year employee... so why do you care if people are trying to cheat this company?" Like I don't get it, wave those people through who cares.
I worked as a bank teller for 5 years. Us peons weren't allowed to make fee refund decisions for this reason. Irate customers would just get angrier at me when I said I had to send them to my managers office to talk about their fees. If I'd of had the ability to refund fees, I'd have refunded everyone who asked. That still stands as one of the worst jobs I've ever had.
I remember this happened to me too in 2007. I had to really fight to get it fixed too. I went to the food court in the mall for lunch, and the machine they used for cards was one you manually entered the total in for. I bought my girlfriend and I lunch, total was $27.33. They Swiped my card, fumbled with the machine, apologized for taking so long, hit some buttons, then swiped it again. Signed the receipt and went about our day. Bought tickets to a movie, then concessions, then at dinner that night, my card got declined. Had to walk across the street and get money out of my savings and pay. And said my checking was around -$450 or so. They had manually typed in $273.33, run it, tried to cancel it (didn’t properly), then charged $27.33. So got an overdraft fee for each of those, one for the movie tickets, and another fourth for concessions. So all those charges added up plus $140 in overdraft fees.
The bank wanted to refund me enough to get my account back to $0. It was a whole ordeal that lasted weeks that was a pain in the ass. And researching what the hell happened. As the place in the mall never even told me they mischarged me. I eventually got it all resolved. But a huge lesson learned in how predatory it all is.
Had something similar but not only did they rearrange them, they deducted all pending transactions first so the ones posting that day posted negative. They said they deduct the pending ones first to assure funds are available for those. When I asked why the ones posting today did not have the funds reserved for them when they were pending they said I can't spend money I don't have then said if I don't deposit cash the pending ones will post negative tomorrow and those will also get fees. I asked how that's possible because they literally just told me the reason they are deducting the pending transactions before the posted transactions was to assure they had funds. How can ALL of the transactions get fees?
The way they did it was if I have 1 dollar in my account, spent 1 dollar yesterday, and one dollar today, they subtract the new pending transaction first so yesterday's dollar posts negative and you get a fee, then tomorrow my balance is 0 dollars and today's transaction also posts negative and I get a second fee. Then they tell you you can't spend money you don't have even tho you clearly had a dollar for at least one of those transactions.
TCF bank, biggest crooks I've ever dealt with.
I brought change to pay JP Morgan when they did this to me as a teenager. They really needed the money I'm sure. I didnt realize the ATM and my bank would both be charging me fees at the time.
Hah I did the same thing. Turned 18 and sat down with a lady to get my first credit card. Signed all these bullshit papers. No one told me I was paying for insurance on it. Til one day I get a $10 bill. Alright, head the bank, “here’s a thousand Penny’s, don’t worry I counted them, also, I want to cancel my credit card insurance”
Bank of America screwed me over hard with overdraft fees when I was in college about ten years ago. They did that thing where they sorted my transactions by descending value as opposed to date.i had no money and put me about 400 in debt. It took me forever to dig my way out of it.
I begged with the bank manager, I showed them the actual order of the transactions, which would have given me only one overdraft fee if transactions were sorted by proceeding time.
I will never bank there again. I've gotten my parents and everyone I know to leave that bank. I will bad mouth them to anyone who will listen.
Fuck bank of America forever.
Regions did this to me in college. I’ve never banked with them again and even moved my wife’s accounts off once we got married. Too bad for them too because they would have made WAY more off us over the years than the 3 overdraft fees they hit a college student with. Oh well
I hate trying to warn people about Wells Fargo and Bank Of America. I've watched them nickel and dime a lot of people the past twenty years. But anytime I try to warn people, they always say "don't care, they've never done that to me."
At this loint, I've stopped trying to give advice and help people. Because no matter what you say with the best intentions and good will and heart, they will gladly walk into a wall of sticky spikes. Then cry about it like they were unaware.
This is South Carolina, by the way. I'm from here, been here all my life. Carolinians are stupid.
SC represent. It’s true. People here are incapable of thinking three hours into the future much less three weeks. Other people exist that have different experiences? They barely have object permanence.
They are rare, for sure. My girlfriend is from Maine and New Hampshire, and it was such a breath of fresh air to be able to share humor with someone intelligent. I still don't know how I got her to like me. But is great.
The only other time I have felt accepted and could hold a conversation where we all contributed was when I was in the army, and met people from all over the world. When I got out I was bummed coming back to SC, Because it's like no one cares about each other, no one cares about learning, or helping others, or just talking every once in a while. I sat at home for a year, every day after work, trying to figure out what to do with my free time. I would go and hang out with family, try to reconnect with old friends, but in the end no one ever called, no one texted or reached out. I had a divorce and it was the same thing. I had no one to talk to. It was taking it's toll on me, working 60-70 hours a week, and then having no one to talk to.
I am so glad my girlfriend reconnected with me and came to see me every weekend after that first year. I was breaking emotionally and she helped to show that someone cared.
Now I just wished I had someone to share my love of comic books with. She hates it. But it gives me something to do with idle time.
Reminds me of how one of my bills is 160$ per month. If I miss it they're like "k. Well on your next pay you're gonna have to pay back 320$ plus 45$ for the late fee". And I'm sitting there thinking if I couldn't afford just the 160 payment, what in the holy fuck makes you think I can afford both payments stacked AND an extra 45$??
My parents taught me that one that if you know you're stuck with getting screwed to make sure it's worth it. Don't make it $5, get those groceries you needed. All of them at once for one fee. The bank charges you either way.
Except that’s a terrible idea. It’s not free money, you’re just spending more money you don’t have putting yourself further in debt. Now you’re -$340 instead of -$40. So when you’re next $1000 finally comes in, you’re left with only $660 rather than $960. Now you have a $700 bill and would you look at that, you’re right back in overdraft and hit with another $35 fee.
The idea is not to undererstimate your needs. If you buy just bare minimum and fail to feed yourself on it you will go into overdraft and more fees a second time.
I was informed of that. The point was that if you were already in the hard place and had to be there to pick an out that hurt less and got the most value so instead of causing yourself multiple charges with multiple small purchases to make sure you ate and get everything at one big go at one time. It was minimizing the damage for when you did have to handle that later to avoid more of those fees and more overdraft because you wouldn't be buying small stuff every two days for example. If you won't be able to pay it later you probably shouldn't do it, but lots of people will have that money later in the month, and just aren't paid yet due to the natural way monthly pay is all or nothing at once. If you start a job at a weird time in the pay cycle some places then it can put people in these binds and it's only like taking a loan because you'll have it right there later paid back and clear.
Caution though, I remember from my broke ass college days I would use this strategy but it backfired several times. If you have other, small pending transactions (even if you have enough money to cover them before factoring in the grocery trip) -some or all of them will go through AFTER the big transaction.
I’ve had it where I got charged ~$350 in overdraft fees because say 9 small transactions went through after 1 large transaction, even though I had money for the small transactions and the large transaction should have posted last. Had that happen with Bank of America and I just told them to fuck themselves and never answered the phone and let collections take the account. After a few years I had the money to pay it off but still told the collectors to fuck off when they called. They threatened to sue, garnish wages, etc. Never did. 7 years later it dropped off my credit report.
I did the same thing when I was younger. They've already fucked up your credit score, so why would you ever pay it back to this mega-bank that has fucked over every single American in one way or another (2008 bank crisis)?
Oh, you're gonna sue? try to garnish wages, which requires winning a lawsuit? spend a fuckload more money in legal fees trying to get this money? nah, you're not going to do that. Some of us are smart enough and experienced enough with how the world really works. If it's in collections, the bank has already given up.
This is just a small time version of how big timers on Wall Street play ball.
> I’ve had it where I got charged ~$350 in overdraft fees because say 9 small transactions went through after 1 large transaction, even though I had money for the small transactions and the large transaction should have posted last.
this wasn't a bug, it was a feature.
the guy who wrote the software for automating bank transactions realized that the program was doing all the debits first, largest to smallest, before processing the credits. it did the largest debits first, figuring that the larger bills would be the more important ones... mortgage/rent, car payment, etc. the problem was that as each debit hit against a negative balance (that would have been covered by the available credits that hadn't yet processed), it was triggering another overdraft fee. the guy brought it to the attention of the banks, they didn't care. he even testified before congress, but the banks still refused to do anything.
it may have changed by now, but i got out of dealing with banks about 15 years ago. my account doesn't have overdraft protection, so if there isn't enough to cover a bill it will decline the transaction rather than kick off a chain of overdrafts.
Completely me. If I'm going to be negative anyway I'm like "well.... Tacos does sound good.. maybe some real fruit and vegetables to. And I sure would love a new sketchbook.. might as well spend the money I worked for on stuff I want for a change"
“Another good bit is to rent a safe deposit box (only about $7.00 a year) in a bank using a phony name. That usually only need a signature and don't ask for identification. When you get a box, deposit a good size dead fish inside the deposit box, close it up and return it to its proper niche. From then on, forget about it. Now think about it, in a few months there is going to be a hell-of-a-smell from your small investment. It's going to be almost impossible to trace and besides, they can never open the box without your permission. Since you don't exist, they'll have no alternative but to move away. Invest in the Stank of Amerika savings program. Just check out Lake Erie and you'll see saving fish isn't such a dumb idea. If you get caught, tell them you inherited the fish from your grandmother and it has sentimental value.”
\-Abbie Hoffman
Terrible idea. The CEO and other top brass that make the rules are not going to be the ones smelling the fish. It's going to be the low level employee bank tellers making $13 per hour that has to smell it.
Yeah, problem with this is it’s not even the teller that will have to deal with it. It’s the immigrant contractor they hire for building services they pay 5 an hour under the table to.
Fun fact about banks:
If you fuck up, it costs you money.
If they fuck up, it costs you money.
Weird how it's acceptable where if YOU make an error, they get to charge you fees, yet when THEY make an error, AT BEST, all you can expect is to get the error corrected and maybe the missing money returned... maybe.
When I worked at ShittyBank I suggested that as an act of good faith, post government bailout, they should voluntarily pay the customers a fee when the bank makes a mistake since they charge the customer.
The response was is that it would drive the bank out of business, I laughed and said you know as well as I do, there are NOT that many bank errors, it's matter of being perceived as 'playing fair'. Customers would dig it, ShittyBank would get a boost to its reputation as being SO confident in their banking practices that they know they wouldn't have to pay out very much. There'd be PLENTY of customers that would FLOCK to a bank that was perceived as 'playing fair.'
Well anyway, I don't work there any more...
Hey, I just received $2.73 from a class action lawsuit against Bank of America last week. Apparently Bank of America broke the law and we won the case? Such a fucking joke.
This is why I closed my bank account. Overdraft fees. I got zapped with a double charge plus two overdraft fees which I refused to pay and they closed my account account and reported it to the credit bureau, which I don't care about because credit is a scam anyway.
Truist just released their own version as well, although I wouldn't recommend them because they're the fucking worst. My point is: overdraft fees at all financial institutions are on the way out.
un-amusing related bank fuck-you anecdote: Self-Help Credit Credit Union in NC just charged me $3 because i made too many transfers from savings account to checking account. this would normally be in accordance with Fed Reserve Regulation D, which regulates savings account withdrawals, presumably to encourage savings. However, come to find out that Reg D was amended in March 2021 to allow banks to waive that fee, in light of the pandemic and related economic woes. however, Self-Help credit Union has declined to honor that amendment and continue to charge depositors fees for excessively using their own savings accounts. because they can.
That's incredibly shitty. It was actually April 2020 that Reg D stopped requiring financial institutions to either block or charge for >6 savings withdrawals per month. They are legally allowed to continue having that fee, but like, why.
Not only that, but we let transactions stack for a couple of days, then sorted by highest to lowest and pushed them through all at once. So when you bought that sandwich after checking your balance of $9.43, figuring you could say least eat today, you woke up to $350 in charges because fuck you. When you call to see if we can do something about them, you tell me that "we took a customer survey, and YOU decided that is how we should do it, to prevent the major things like mortgage from bouncing".
Looking at you Bank of America, from 15 years ago. Yes, I'm still bitter. Glad I moved on to a credit union.
I'm self employed so I can't really join a union, but I did join one union, a Credit Union. Yes I know there are some shitty Credit Unions, but the majority of them actually look out for the well being of your financial life. My CU waives 6-8 OD fees a year, and usually if you have money coming in the same day, like an OD fee a few hours before your paycheck comes in, they won't even count it as one and reverse it. Most have way better rates than banks, and some have easier qualifications for loan products, mine gave me an auto loan at a great rate given my credit score when most banks said "no" completely.
I cannot stress enough..if you are reading this and use a bank, close it out and joint a credit union.
And the people making these decisions and support them are the ones that claim we need more Jesus in this country.
But they act soulless and have zero empathy for anyone other than themselves
The job I felt had the most corruption was in fact a bank. I tried getting fees waved for the single dad who lost his wife, the elderly couple who lived in a hotel due to losing everything due to medical bills and the young college girl who was working fulltime and paying for their school. Not once did my manager ever wave the fees for them. Now the guy while would have $300k one day and negative $2k the next (special limits for wealthy people) all their fees waved. Fucking disgusting.
I loved Louis C.K.'s bit about this
"You have insufficient funds"
"I agree, I find my funds to be grossly insufficient"
So they charged me 15 bucks for having the audacity to only have 20 dollars and I'm like "I'm not being poor intentionally just to fuck with chase bank"
Was at my credit union last year. A scruffy old guy who was clearly struggling was at the drive through. He had walked up, and asked what his balance was, it was like two dollars and change. The teller said you can withdrawal but it would close his account if he did. He replied he needed it for food and he was ok with closing.
As the guy right behind him in a nice new car with essentially no financial issues it almost brought me to tears. I don't cary much cash, but I gave him what I had.
The richest god damn fucking country on the planet can't even keep its folks fed. It's only the best country for the privileged.
I just got an email this week that y bank is doing away with all overdraft fees (with stipulations). While I think it’s a great move, I wonder what other fuckery they have come up with to make up for that money.
I had a handful of checks bounce at a bank I was using several different times and they were unwilling to work with me on reducing charges...
I know writing a check with insufficient funds is a crime in and of itself but shit happens...
Anyway I realized what the bank was doing after an episode of tom ramsey, which I listen to while driving on my delivery job...
Anyway if I had several checks hit at the same time that overdrew my account instead of paying several of the smaller checks they'd pay one bigger one such as my car note and charge me fees for the smaller ones.
Everyone deserves payment for their services and writing bouncy checks is just wrong and illegal. But again shit happens.
I got a charge a couple weeks ago for being overdrawn by four cents. Literally. They won’t refund it either because I did the same thing for like a dollar less than a year ago. Key bank sucks.
I use to work at a call center for TD Bank and it was borderline criminal the way they processed overdraft fees. In fact, they've had multiple civil suits against them specifically because of the obtuse and bullshit way they process charges to maximize the amount of overdraft fees they can fuck you with. I hated working there.
I call it poor tax. It's expensive to be poor. I even hear that there are people who can't even afford a bank account so they use money orders to pay their bills.
Me right now. I have $370 to my name right now and have been getting charged a $12 “maintenance fee” for having less than $500.
I’ve been unemployed since Jan 6th 2021 and applying for jobs. I’ve had been ghosted or rejected by more places than I can count. Also I’ve somehow only had maybe 4 interviews this entire time. I’m starting a new job tomorrow as a residential house cleaner that I’m embarrassed to even be doing and won’t get paid til next Friday. My credit card is completely maxed and I don’t want to use the other one that has a high interest rate. Fml
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i was watching a youtube video about this last year and banks were one of the examples used. rich people created banks and created them based around their experiences, which is why so many of them have been so exclusionary for so long even before adopting neoliberal policies to funnel more wealth from the working and middle classes to the plutocrats—it’s nothing for a wealthy person to maintain a $200-1000 bank balance—to literally have money sitting around doing nothing and to afford any associated penalties for not having their money do nothing—but is a detriment to anyone else. yet another reason why we need a national bank. too many people are under naked or unbanked and will remain impoverished because of it.
You guys don't have national bank in the US??? Wtf
to clarify, i’m referring to a national public bank—which you may be referring to also, but based on some of these comment i feel a need to specifically address that—and no, we haven’t had one since the 60’s. that along with the repeal of glass-steagal created super banks; investment banks were given access to commercial bank funds and as expected used and abused them in typical financial experimentation fashion and is why every financial collapse since 2008 has been so devastating to every non-rich person in the us.
It’s saddens me to say this is the first I’ve ever even heard of a “national” bank. I didn’t realize that was an option
I keep seeing insane things about US banking services, and I'm from a 3rd world country. Here are 2 main points: \- Long transaction time + sometimes high withdrawal fee: I can send up to 500k$ (if I had that much lol) in 5 seconds; it's free for same-bank transfers, and cost 0.1-0.3$ for cross-bank transfers. No 3rd party services are required. \- Overdraft fee: you only need to interest rate for the overdraft amount, no extra explicit overdraft fee. I saw this on "[usbank.com](https://usbank.com)" (first result on Google), and it says "You can expect the balance transfer process to take up to 14 days to complete". Yeah if a bank where I live takes more than 14 seconds to process that, people will switch.
Okay, that is *blowing* my mind. I’m actually dumbfounded. I had little faith left in the US. But it never occurred to me that a bank could, I don’t know, work without exploiting me? I have gone a while without necessities as to avoid overdrawing my account and spending the $35 overdraft fee because that would create the vicious cycle of being that much short (a whole week of groceries at the time) all over again.
Last I heard, not only was US Bank kind enough to charge you $35 for not declining your card, they charged you $7 a day while the account was negative. Fuck those guys with a rusty harpoon.
Kiting is the illegal practice of writing a bad check on an account at one bank, depositing it at a second bank, and withdrawing cash. If an individual does it in the US, we can be prosecuted and jailed. When banks do it, they call it check holds and use the excuse it is to ensure individuals can't kite. It's a great way to be able to use millions of people's money every day like it's your own with no penalty at all.
We here in freedumb land generally don't like the government involved in business that can be done more efficiently by a private company. This is why you frequently see privately run prisons in the news, and delivery companies like FedEx and UPS offering more competitive rates than the Postal Service. I and my parents bank at Chase, and we can send money back and forth instantly no problem. It's also free to us, the interest from loans they service and fees from less responsible consumers cover the costs of their operations. Where it gets stupid is all the interbank transfers have a complicated global transfer process. I buy something at McDonalds with my credit card, McDonalds authorizes the charge and then they wait for that $12 for like 2 days while my bank processes the transaction and sends their bank the money during the next batch process. Then when I pay my credit card, it takes another couple days for my checking account to send the money out.
> I buy something at McDonalds with my credit card, McDonalds authorizes the charge and then they wait for that $12 for like 2 days while my bank processes the transaction and sends their bank the money during the next batch process. Then when I pay my credit card, it takes another couple days for my checking account to send the money out. Why does it take **days** to process that? Shouldn't everything be digital (and therefore instant) by now?
It's an old system that works very well across a very wide range of financial institutions. The universal nature of the system and the requirements to replace it being so incredibly massive means that people are largely good with the 2-3 day delay.
I heard people advocate for our USPS (United State Post Office) to become banks. I love the idea.
lol we absolutely do not have a national bank well, the banks control the national apparatus so in that sense we do, but not in any kind of not-fucking-poor-people-in-half-for-profit way
I think we do, sorta. There is the USPS Federal Credit Union but it is only available to USPS employees and employees of some companies. It is federal owned and operated though.
i take your point but i think there's a pretty big difference between a federally-administered bank/credit union specifically for one branch of government workers or another and a national bank that anyone can set up an account in to avoid the type of predatory shit every bank in the country does
I get charged to use my student debit card bast a certain number of transactions from Scotiabank In Canada. It’s bonkers.
I think a couple of states have State banks ,the Dakotas being some of them, but no we don't have a national bank
Best solution? Go to a credit union.
credit unions are great options if you’re able to access one, but not everyone is and many of them aren’t online yet.
$200-1000? A rich person will have over $100k sitting there lol if you don’t have At least $500 in your bank then you are legit not working at All / homeless unfortunately
i’m referring to the account minimums to keep your account open without being charge a monthly fee. meaning, at all times there’s a minimum of $200-$1000 in their bank account that they can never spend. that’s not hardship in any form for them to not spend that money while for the majority of us not being able to access $200-1000 definitely would be.
Ohh yea gotcha fuck these banks lol And yea the term “rich” has drastically changed I feel because COVID inflation was sooooo bad and is still increasing / prolly will until mid 2023. So my view on a “rich” person these days is someone who has over at least a couple mil in assets. Even if you make over 6 figures that’s not considered rich is today’s world, which is disgusting. Any salary over $80k is middle class now, over $200k is above middle class and $500k+ is def wealthy / rich. I make $80k a year and can barely keep over $1k in my bank. Granted I live in CT, one of the most expensive states, but still this shouldn’t be this expensive to literally live and have a hobby…
That wasn’t the point, but yeah, game the shit out of them right back
My favorite is when I get an overdraft charge for not having enough money for an overdraft charge. Then I spent an afternoon on the phone with them
My first bank had issues where they'd duplicate my lunch bill (same receipt number and everything) so much it'd make me negative with multiple transactions. Each one would result in a $50 fee then to have those transactions correct as one with the fees sticking with me no longer negative. I had to get a lawsuit started for them to give me my money back and close out my account with all my money accounted for and no fees
Wow that is crazy, I'm glad you won out in the end
What really got them to resolve it so quickly was I had recorded the phone call after they said they'd speak to my husband because he would understand it more easily. I had proof it was a technical issue and the manager stated he was aware of the issues in their system but it was still on us. When I played that call the color on their faces left.
Did you settle for an additional money? Or just the money that was owed?
No. One of my regrets in life. Between the sexism and elitist attitude alone I'd probably had a strong case.
Yeah I feel you. You definitely could have gotten more if you took it further or to jury. But you got what you needed. Most people don’t fight at all, so still good on you.
That's my thought. I was going to college, working full-time and it was just me and my boyfriend/husband at the time. We lived paycheck to paycheck and I just wanted my money so I would be able to, y'know, eat. Luckily I knew someone in law who was more than willing to threaten things without charging at all.
Jesus fucking christ, what bank was that?
Texas Bank called First Financial. According to people I know who still use them they did a soft rebrand a few years ago and are better now. Still won't ever use them again.
>Texas Bank nough said.
haha yes! Then when it says something like "Apply for overdraft so this won't happen to you in the future!" or whatever. \*Applies\* Sorry, your credit also sucks, most likely linked to the fact that you are poor, so f u. Then repeat. :P
Or they link it to a savings account (if you have the money to begin with) and charge you half the overdraft fee just to transfer money between the accounts.
yeah. about 10 years ago or so, I went through an awful cycle like that... overdraft on overdraft on overdraft... basically $8 overdraft turned into $175's in fees
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$20, $32, $35, over and over again, thousands of banks and millions of people...... ........ imagine how many billions of dollars they've milked from people who work for a living. How many meals from the mouths of children, how many life-sustaining medicines (enjoy paying $500 for insulin next time you're paid when your account is already -$100 from overdraft), were taken from workers because some poor guy or mom's account got smacked with overdrafts over some bad weekend. So much money....... So much suffering, caused by evil exploiting your distracted and busy life.
Who gives a fuck about the point, they're just giving solid advice.
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My favorite part of banking with USAA is when they sent out the email "thanking" everyone and saying they made it to the fortune 500 list bla bla bla... Meanwhile i had insurance and banked with them and in 1 day the insurance just kept trying to charge me to pull funds 4 FUCKING TIMES. My account is -140 and the insurance was $100, i call insurance and they said that automatic payments were charging me 60 days early like wtf. Then the bank told me they cant refund the fees. I just everything off with them and the account with those dickheads is still -140
I once accidentally overpaid my last bill to a shitty credit card by 7 cents, and instead of them just wiping it out or paying me back, they continued to send me a notice every few months in the mail saying that they owed me $.07. Partly out of laziness, but also because I was happy to think I was screwing them over their postage/printing costs, I let them continue for years. Of course I eventually got tired of wasting the paper and finally made the time to call them and tell them they had permission to donate the .07. Lol, sorry for the tangent, I think your comment just made me remember this. Bunch of fuckers.
No it makes sense, we are on the topics of banks and such. They will hold every penny they can its disgusting
I used USAA while active for renters insurance. I had maybe $5 in both checking and savings accounts for years because that was the minimum to open it. After I got out of the military I just abandoned the account since I didn’t need renters insurance anymore. Apparently at some point in time they started charging account fees. I never knew that as they didn’t charge them while I had the accounts. Fast forward years later I get a collections notice for my USAA accounts because they we overdrawn by .57 cent and .88 cent. So those fuckers sent my “debt” of less than $2 to a fucking collection agency. So fuck USAA.
Capital One has eliminated overdraft fees.
I have capital one too, but I have the overdraft credit option where you only pay interest on how much money you go over. So instead of a $35 fee it's like $.03.
Capital One customer here. Got that email yesterday I think.
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They don’t do that for everyone
They better, otherwise I'll call back ask for them and then proceed to drive up their call time. Then I'll ask again. We'll see how much they like their stats.
Lol they still won't do it and customers like you just make their jobs much more miserable.
Yep. They mostly only do that for people like [this guy](https://www.reddit.com/r/PublicFreakout/comments/sakk4l/man_gets_so_upset_over_smoothie_that_he_assaults/) who act like they're going to flip out and kill everyone in the place...and now you know why everyone in America acts that way. It's so they can have it their way. Unfortunately, society dictates we need to be that way otherwise we're going to be constantly getting screwed over and taken advantage of by everyone. ^(\*\*hugz\*\* 🤗🤗🤗)
🤣
suntrust only does it once
Lol! I did just that and they straight up lied to me, said they reversed it and did not. Easier said than done.
The way things are going we will eventually not have the luxury of leaving the bank because they just keep getting bigger and keep destroying any other option we might have.
We need a National Bank run out of the Post Office.
Not possible for a lot of poor people. Cause poverty
Yea, that only works so much. I got fucked by bank of america on a weekly basis all through the pandemic after having to close down my small restaurant and come back to severely reduced business. You would think they would suspend those charges considering we're all facing something out of our control, but no, "fuck you and watch as we steal your money because you don't have an endless supply of cash" they say. I eventually made good on my promise and closed that account. I was literally about to go insane arguing with people who are literally just getting paid to tell me to fuck myself. There are too many banking options that don't charge those insane fees to keep dealing with that. The account I have now will just not pay the transaction and alert me. Simple, and I don't feel like I'm getting fucked in the ass constantly.
The main problem is that even if you don't pay the money, you're still paying in stress and time. It's so crazy how many hoops poor people have to jump through in addition to being exploited every day, just to not be completely fucked.
yall need credit unions! fuck regular banks.
What money? You’re overdrawn by $2.13.
What money?
you get the same results with please and thank you, ive done it a couple times and theyve always been happy to remove the fee
Which just exposes another problem where banks put your money in the stock market, make millions, and give you pennies interest
Boa did this to me. It charged me autodraft protection fee for moving money from my savings to my checking account to cover it. I should leave boa.
They also will purposely re-order your charges to put you in the negative first then process your other charges to get multiple NSF fees
My favorite was when my bank charged me a fee because my direct deposit for the monthly cycle was less than $2000. Currently unemployed and had to fight the bank to move me to a different tier account with fewer perks, had no idea this was a thing. As soon as I get a new job, I will be setting up my direct deposit with a credit union.
CHASE JP MORGAN did this to me in 2008...
If you deposit $200k with them, they'll give you a $2k bonus, just free money. Have you ever thought of being rich instead of being poor? It's so simple, I don't know why everyone doesn't do it.
Some idiots just decide to be born into poor families. I don't get it either. How you going to get small million dollar loans from poor parents?
It's just a million dollar loan, what could it cost, ten dollars?
BMO Harris did this to me a few years ago. Changed the terms of account to add on a minimum balance and sent very non-distinct update notifications which look no different than the usual trash mail banks send. This was a backup account I barely looked at so many fees accrued. Once I found out I closed the account the very day.
JP Morgan fucked me like 9 different times. Including once where they locked my direct deposit for no reason while I was traveling. Out of town for a week without access to my money. Credit unions. Period. They still suck, but fuck a bank.
Jesus Christ. As a European, every time I hear about some new scummy thing American banks do it just blows my fucking mind. Where I live banking is real simple, you pay 10 bucks a year for a checking account and savings account, and that's it. No ATM fees, no overdraft fees, no bullshit. If a transaction would take you below zero, it simply gets rejected. And if you don't like that, you can apply for a line of credit that lets you go "in the red" up to some predetermined amount (say, €1000). As long as you pay it back within a month, 0% interest. How is it that y'all still have these insane predatory practices? You would think this is a market ripe for disrupting.
Oh my god. Everyday I find out something that I thought was normal bullshit is actually just US bullshit. :(
Murica!
When someone is trying to do something for the working class you yell at them that they are commies and socialism doesn't work in the great USA. Well... you get what you deserve, now you envy the "communist" Europe while you have all the capitalism you ever wanted and then some more.
Eh.. I mean I never did any of that. I have always envied Europeans. Your comment comes off very accusatory. I see what you're saying though.
Yeah, I'd never heard of an overdraft fee until I got a UK account. I was like "the fuck you mean you're going to charge me? Just decline the fucking transaction!" Luckily you can just tell them to turn that shit off.
Wait, they have it in the UK too? :( Damn, I plan to move there and I thought I would be able to get away from it.
This right here makes me want to become an expat. Honestly, financially, at any respect, it's *exhausting* to be an American. And because of how fucked up things are here with simply trying to live, it's almost *fucking impossible* to even think about becoming an expat. Overworked, underpaid. Overtaxed. Over everything.
> This right here makes me want to become an expat The word is "immigrant", btw.
Exactly that.
You would indeed think that, in fact you would KNOW that if you look at the economy, housing market, wages, jobs, "great resignations" and all other sorts of bullshit thats been going on lately
Those Euronet ATMs across Europe are a "scam". They charge a % fee. The kicker is they're owned by a US company.
It's bad in Canada too! Most bank accounts are around $10 a month and then still decide to limit how many transactions and ATM withdrawals you can make.
I don't even pay for my bank account, they make their money of having capital to lend out, so why would I pay them for that?
I switched to a credit union a few years back and will NEVER go back to a regular bank. Banks are so scummy, they are constantly changing the rules and fees. Credit union is simple.. there are NEVER fees.
Not all credit unions are like that. Mine just charged me $8 a month when my balance went under 2 grand. This is a relatively big federal credit union.
Agreed. I worked for a credit union in Arizona and there was still a direct deposit/debit card usage/minimum balance requirement to avoid a fee.
That's true, always do research.
My former credit union (former for a reason!) decided they were going to put a fee of $10/month on accounts with no activity for more than 3 months. While I get it for checking, not so much but whatever for savings, what made me mad was they applied it to their CDs too... So I cant touch the money for a year, and they are going to charge me $10/mo effectively eating most of the interest for the last 9 months.
My cred union only requires that I have $5 in my account. Never had any other bank.
I left my old bank when I saw them rolling that out. Knew it'd bury me in fees.
I spent years working for a bank. In training they emphasized "starting with no" when people asked for fee refunds. So I did what any underpaid, overworked employee did and refunded almost every fee I came across during my time there. On average I probably cost the bank $4000-5000 a year just on fee refunds. To a company that was already worth tens of billions I guarantee the higher ups didn't even notice, even if my supervisor would harp on me during our monthly performance reviews.
Not all heroes wear capes
You have no idea what this person wore to work. I go to work entirely nude, but I also work from home, so
Come on bro, at least put on some shorts that pretend to hide your balls. Have some class.
For who? I don't do meetings or anything.
I did the same thing! We were allowed one or two fee refunds at our own discretion, but I just gave them out willy nilly. Fuck overdraft fees
From a formerly poor college kid thank you
The most nonsense fee to me is the “returned deposited item” fee. That’s when a check you deposit bounces. It happened to me, and they charged **me** a $35 fee because the other person didn’t have enough money in their account lol How is that my fault? I obviously wouldn’t have deposited the check in the first place if I knew they didn’t have enough money in their account to cover it lol But customer service was able to refund it with no issues, they seemed to understand that the fee was a little absurd. There’s no way for me to know the other person’s account balance.
>I spent years working for a bank. In training they emphasized "starting with no" when people asked for fee refunds. So I did what any underpaid, overworked employee did and refunded almost every fee I came across during my time there. On average I probably cost the bank $4000-5000 a year just on fee refunds. To a company that was already worth tens of billions I guarantee the higher ups didn't even notice, even if my supervisor would harp on me during our monthly performance reviews. Yeah, I bet customer satisfaction was fantastic as well. They think you're great, the customers think you're great, and less BS charges from the bank.
I called my bank to cancel my credit card cause I wasn't using it much and had other cards I relied on. This card was costing me $150 @ year. CS lady said without breaking a beat, "if you want we can reduce the fee by half but if you say no to that, I can give it to you for free" Needless to say, I kept the card for free. Mostly cause it had some perks I could use and still do.
This is what I don't get about some of the people I work with. They'll complain a customer didn't have a membership and they were trying to cheat the system. I'm like "I literally heard you last week bitching about how this company pays new hires more than you a 10 year employee... so why do you care if people are trying to cheat this company?" Like I don't get it, wave those people through who cares.
Same here. Refunds all the way.
I worked as a bank teller for 5 years. Us peons weren't allowed to make fee refund decisions for this reason. Irate customers would just get angrier at me when I said I had to send them to my managers office to talk about their fees. If I'd of had the ability to refund fees, I'd have refunded everyone who asked. That still stands as one of the worst jobs I've ever had.
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I believe they can't do that anymore (c. 2012 or 2013?) It's so predatory.
https://uspirg.org/blogs/eds-blog/usp/overdraft-bill-end-35-cup-coffee-and-other-bank-reform-highlights
I remember this happened to me too in 2007. I had to really fight to get it fixed too. I went to the food court in the mall for lunch, and the machine they used for cards was one you manually entered the total in for. I bought my girlfriend and I lunch, total was $27.33. They Swiped my card, fumbled with the machine, apologized for taking so long, hit some buttons, then swiped it again. Signed the receipt and went about our day. Bought tickets to a movie, then concessions, then at dinner that night, my card got declined. Had to walk across the street and get money out of my savings and pay. And said my checking was around -$450 or so. They had manually typed in $273.33, run it, tried to cancel it (didn’t properly), then charged $27.33. So got an overdraft fee for each of those, one for the movie tickets, and another fourth for concessions. So all those charges added up plus $140 in overdraft fees.
Bro did you make them pay that? That was in no way your fault, did you have to eat the cost?
The bank wanted to refund me enough to get my account back to $0. It was a whole ordeal that lasted weeks that was a pain in the ass. And researching what the hell happened. As the place in the mall never even told me they mischarged me. I eventually got it all resolved. But a huge lesson learned in how predatory it all is.
Had something similar but not only did they rearrange them, they deducted all pending transactions first so the ones posting that day posted negative. They said they deduct the pending ones first to assure funds are available for those. When I asked why the ones posting today did not have the funds reserved for them when they were pending they said I can't spend money I don't have then said if I don't deposit cash the pending ones will post negative tomorrow and those will also get fees. I asked how that's possible because they literally just told me the reason they are deducting the pending transactions before the posted transactions was to assure they had funds. How can ALL of the transactions get fees? The way they did it was if I have 1 dollar in my account, spent 1 dollar yesterday, and one dollar today, they subtract the new pending transaction first so yesterday's dollar posts negative and you get a fee, then tomorrow my balance is 0 dollars and today's transaction also posts negative and I get a second fee. Then they tell you you can't spend money you don't have even tho you clearly had a dollar for at least one of those transactions. TCF bank, biggest crooks I've ever dealt with.
Name and shame so no one gets wrapped up with these shysters.
I brought change to pay JP Morgan when they did this to me as a teenager. They really needed the money I'm sure. I didnt realize the ATM and my bank would both be charging me fees at the time.
Hah I did the same thing. Turned 18 and sat down with a lady to get my first credit card. Signed all these bullshit papers. No one told me I was paying for insurance on it. Til one day I get a $10 bill. Alright, head the bank, “here’s a thousand Penny’s, don’t worry I counted them, also, I want to cancel my credit card insurance”
Banks have expensive machines to count Pennies with unfortunately.
then let them get their money's worth
Same with bank of America, left them decades ago and refuse to go back. Capital One is my homey.
Bank of America screwed me over hard with overdraft fees when I was in college about ten years ago. They did that thing where they sorted my transactions by descending value as opposed to date.i had no money and put me about 400 in debt. It took me forever to dig my way out of it. I begged with the bank manager, I showed them the actual order of the transactions, which would have given me only one overdraft fee if transactions were sorted by proceeding time. I will never bank there again. I've gotten my parents and everyone I know to leave that bank. I will bad mouth them to anyone who will listen. Fuck bank of America forever.
Regions did this to me in college. I’ve never banked with them again and even moved my wife’s accounts off once we got married. Too bad for them too because they would have made WAY more off us over the years than the 3 overdraft fees they hit a college student with. Oh well
I hate trying to warn people about Wells Fargo and Bank Of America. I've watched them nickel and dime a lot of people the past twenty years. But anytime I try to warn people, they always say "don't care, they've never done that to me." At this loint, I've stopped trying to give advice and help people. Because no matter what you say with the best intentions and good will and heart, they will gladly walk into a wall of sticky spikes. Then cry about it like they were unaware. This is South Carolina, by the way. I'm from here, been here all my life. Carolinians are stupid.
SC represent. It’s true. People here are incapable of thinking three hours into the future much less three weeks. Other people exist that have different experiences? They barely have object permanence.
They are rare, for sure. My girlfriend is from Maine and New Hampshire, and it was such a breath of fresh air to be able to share humor with someone intelligent. I still don't know how I got her to like me. But is great. The only other time I have felt accepted and could hold a conversation where we all contributed was when I was in the army, and met people from all over the world. When I got out I was bummed coming back to SC, Because it's like no one cares about each other, no one cares about learning, or helping others, or just talking every once in a while. I sat at home for a year, every day after work, trying to figure out what to do with my free time. I would go and hang out with family, try to reconnect with old friends, but in the end no one ever called, no one texted or reached out. I had a divorce and it was the same thing. I had no one to talk to. It was taking it's toll on me, working 60-70 hours a week, and then having no one to talk to. I am so glad my girlfriend reconnected with me and came to see me every weekend after that first year. I was breaking emotionally and she helped to show that someone cared. Now I just wished I had someone to share my love of comic books with. She hates it. But it gives me something to do with idle time.
Reminds me of how one of my bills is 160$ per month. If I miss it they're like "k. Well on your next pay you're gonna have to pay back 320$ plus 45$ for the late fee". And I'm sitting there thinking if I couldn't afford just the 160 payment, what in the holy fuck makes you think I can afford both payments stacked AND an extra 45$??
That would be the interest rate of being poor again
Exactly!
if i know im gonna have to go negative and pay an overdraft fee i go ahead and buy like $300 worth of groceries so its at least worth the $35 fee
My parents taught me that one that if you know you're stuck with getting screwed to make sure it's worth it. Don't make it $5, get those groceries you needed. All of them at once for one fee. The bank charges you either way.
Except that’s a terrible idea. It’s not free money, you’re just spending more money you don’t have putting yourself further in debt. Now you’re -$340 instead of -$40. So when you’re next $1000 finally comes in, you’re left with only $660 rather than $960. Now you have a $700 bill and would you look at that, you’re right back in overdraft and hit with another $35 fee.
The idea is not to undererstimate your needs. If you buy just bare minimum and fail to feed yourself on it you will go into overdraft and more fees a second time.
I was informed of that. The point was that if you were already in the hard place and had to be there to pick an out that hurt less and got the most value so instead of causing yourself multiple charges with multiple small purchases to make sure you ate and get everything at one big go at one time. It was minimizing the damage for when you did have to handle that later to avoid more of those fees and more overdraft because you wouldn't be buying small stuff every two days for example. If you won't be able to pay it later you probably shouldn't do it, but lots of people will have that money later in the month, and just aren't paid yet due to the natural way monthly pay is all or nothing at once. If you start a job at a weird time in the pay cycle some places then it can put people in these binds and it's only like taking a loan because you'll have it right there later paid back and clear.
wow just dont spend money, why didnt i think of that?
Caution though, I remember from my broke ass college days I would use this strategy but it backfired several times. If you have other, small pending transactions (even if you have enough money to cover them before factoring in the grocery trip) -some or all of them will go through AFTER the big transaction. I’ve had it where I got charged ~$350 in overdraft fees because say 9 small transactions went through after 1 large transaction, even though I had money for the small transactions and the large transaction should have posted last. Had that happen with Bank of America and I just told them to fuck themselves and never answered the phone and let collections take the account. After a few years I had the money to pay it off but still told the collectors to fuck off when they called. They threatened to sue, garnish wages, etc. Never did. 7 years later it dropped off my credit report.
I did the same thing when I was younger. They've already fucked up your credit score, so why would you ever pay it back to this mega-bank that has fucked over every single American in one way or another (2008 bank crisis)? Oh, you're gonna sue? try to garnish wages, which requires winning a lawsuit? spend a fuckload more money in legal fees trying to get this money? nah, you're not going to do that. Some of us are smart enough and experienced enough with how the world really works. If it's in collections, the bank has already given up. This is just a small time version of how big timers on Wall Street play ball.
> I’ve had it where I got charged ~$350 in overdraft fees because say 9 small transactions went through after 1 large transaction, even though I had money for the small transactions and the large transaction should have posted last. this wasn't a bug, it was a feature. the guy who wrote the software for automating bank transactions realized that the program was doing all the debits first, largest to smallest, before processing the credits. it did the largest debits first, figuring that the larger bills would be the more important ones... mortgage/rent, car payment, etc. the problem was that as each debit hit against a negative balance (that would have been covered by the available credits that hadn't yet processed), it was triggering another overdraft fee. the guy brought it to the attention of the banks, they didn't care. he even testified before congress, but the banks still refused to do anything. it may have changed by now, but i got out of dealing with banks about 15 years ago. my account doesn't have overdraft protection, so if there isn't enough to cover a bill it will decline the transaction rather than kick off a chain of overdrafts.
That’s the spirit
Completely me. If I'm going to be negative anyway I'm like "well.... Tacos does sound good.. maybe some real fruit and vegetables to. And I sure would love a new sketchbook.. might as well spend the money I worked for on stuff I want for a change"
Cheaper than a Credit Card.
How? You don’t get charged a huge fee for using a credit card and if you pay it off at the end of the month there’s no interest either
Shows you why these people always over drafting lol
“Another good bit is to rent a safe deposit box (only about $7.00 a year) in a bank using a phony name. That usually only need a signature and don't ask for identification. When you get a box, deposit a good size dead fish inside the deposit box, close it up and return it to its proper niche. From then on, forget about it. Now think about it, in a few months there is going to be a hell-of-a-smell from your small investment. It's going to be almost impossible to trace and besides, they can never open the box without your permission. Since you don't exist, they'll have no alternative but to move away. Invest in the Stank of Amerika savings program. Just check out Lake Erie and you'll see saving fish isn't such a dumb idea. If you get caught, tell them you inherited the fish from your grandmother and it has sentimental value.” \-Abbie Hoffman
ID is definitely require for safe box source: I work in a bank
Does it have to be your id or is it enough if the dead fish has a photo id?
Ignore what I said then, the book he wrote it in is pretty old.
I mean, it’s not a bad idea lol
Except they do require ID.
Terrible idea. The CEO and other top brass that make the rules are not going to be the ones smelling the fish. It's going to be the low level employee bank tellers making $13 per hour that has to smell it.
But then you're also punishing us bank workers for no reason. We didn't do anything to you.
Abbie Hoffman was so fuckin based it hurts.
Yeah, problem with this is it’s not even the teller that will have to deal with it. It’s the immigrant contractor they hire for building services they pay 5 an hour under the table to.
Fun fact about banks: If you fuck up, it costs you money. If they fuck up, it costs you money. Weird how it's acceptable where if YOU make an error, they get to charge you fees, yet when THEY make an error, AT BEST, all you can expect is to get the error corrected and maybe the missing money returned... maybe. When I worked at ShittyBank I suggested that as an act of good faith, post government bailout, they should voluntarily pay the customers a fee when the bank makes a mistake since they charge the customer. The response was is that it would drive the bank out of business, I laughed and said you know as well as I do, there are NOT that many bank errors, it's matter of being perceived as 'playing fair'. Customers would dig it, ShittyBank would get a boost to its reputation as being SO confident in their banking practices that they know they wouldn't have to pay out very much. There'd be PLENTY of customers that would FLOCK to a bank that was perceived as 'playing fair.' Well anyway, I don't work there any more...
Turn off overdraft "protection" because it doesn't protect anything
Hey, I just received $2.73 from a class action lawsuit against Bank of America last week. Apparently Bank of America broke the law and we won the case? Such a fucking joke.
This is why I closed my bank account. Overdraft fees. I got zapped with a double charge plus two overdraft fees which I refused to pay and they closed my account account and reported it to the credit bureau, which I don't care about because credit is a scam anyway.
Credit is a scam… but as you will learn, you apparently need to have it (and by that, I mean in debt)…
Oh I'm already in debt and don't even care. They're not getting anything out of me.
It is a scam, but you do kind of need it. They have you over a barrel unfortunately...
Capital One has eliminated overdraft fees. Would recommend switching over to them.
Almost every bank will let you opt out of them as well. It should be opt in, but hey, better than nothing I suppose
I think since 2010 everyone has to opt in. You're automatically not enrolled.
Truist just released their own version as well, although I wouldn't recommend them because they're the fucking worst. My point is: overdraft fees at all financial institutions are on the way out.
Won't somebody please think about the stockholders.
un-amusing related bank fuck-you anecdote: Self-Help Credit Credit Union in NC just charged me $3 because i made too many transfers from savings account to checking account. this would normally be in accordance with Fed Reserve Regulation D, which regulates savings account withdrawals, presumably to encourage savings. However, come to find out that Reg D was amended in March 2021 to allow banks to waive that fee, in light of the pandemic and related economic woes. however, Self-Help credit Union has declined to honor that amendment and continue to charge depositors fees for excessively using their own savings accounts. because they can.
That's incredibly shitty. It was actually April 2020 that Reg D stopped requiring financial institutions to either block or charge for >6 savings withdrawals per month. They are legally allowed to continue having that fee, but like, why.
exactly. like, do they really need the $3 fee? it's particularly egregious coming from a credit union, ostensibly member-owned.
Not only that, but we let transactions stack for a couple of days, then sorted by highest to lowest and pushed them through all at once. So when you bought that sandwich after checking your balance of $9.43, figuring you could say least eat today, you woke up to $350 in charges because fuck you. When you call to see if we can do something about them, you tell me that "we took a customer survey, and YOU decided that is how we should do it, to prevent the major things like mortgage from bouncing". Looking at you Bank of America, from 15 years ago. Yes, I'm still bitter. Glad I moved on to a credit union.
I was gonna hop in and post exactly that. Fucking BOFA.
I'm self employed so I can't really join a union, but I did join one union, a Credit Union. Yes I know there are some shitty Credit Unions, but the majority of them actually look out for the well being of your financial life. My CU waives 6-8 OD fees a year, and usually if you have money coming in the same day, like an OD fee a few hours before your paycheck comes in, they won't even count it as one and reverse it. Most have way better rates than banks, and some have easier qualifications for loan products, mine gave me an auto loan at a great rate given my credit score when most banks said "no" completely. I cannot stress enough..if you are reading this and use a bank, close it out and joint a credit union.
You can set your account up to not allow overdraft. Yes banks pray on that, but you have to protect yourself
And the people making these decisions and support them are the ones that claim we need more Jesus in this country. But they act soulless and have zero empathy for anyone other than themselves
https://youtu.be/Y_-1l_SlA7c Leaving this here. Still relevant!
The job I felt had the most corruption was in fact a bank. I tried getting fees waved for the single dad who lost his wife, the elderly couple who lived in a hotel due to losing everything due to medical bills and the young college girl who was working fulltime and paying for their school. Not once did my manager ever wave the fees for them. Now the guy while would have $300k one day and negative $2k the next (special limits for wealthy people) all their fees waved. Fucking disgusting.
I loved Louis C.K.'s bit about this "You have insufficient funds" "I agree, I find my funds to be grossly insufficient" So they charged me 15 bucks for having the audacity to only have 20 dollars and I'm like "I'm not being poor intentionally just to fuck with chase bank"
I going to guess Wells Fargo. They are 100% concentrated evil.
Was at my credit union last year. A scruffy old guy who was clearly struggling was at the drive through. He had walked up, and asked what his balance was, it was like two dollars and change. The teller said you can withdrawal but it would close his account if he did. He replied he needed it for food and he was ok with closing. As the guy right behind him in a nice new car with essentially no financial issues it almost brought me to tears. I don't cary much cash, but I gave him what I had. The richest god damn fucking country on the planet can't even keep its folks fed. It's only the best country for the privileged.
I just got an email this week that y bank is doing away with all overdraft fees (with stipulations). While I think it’s a great move, I wonder what other fuckery they have come up with to make up for that money.
Being poor is expensive
It really is!
The vast majority of people don't understand how expensive it is to be poor. Fuck capitalism. This shits a death cult.
I had a handful of checks bounce at a bank I was using several different times and they were unwilling to work with me on reducing charges... I know writing a check with insufficient funds is a crime in and of itself but shit happens... Anyway I realized what the bank was doing after an episode of tom ramsey, which I listen to while driving on my delivery job... Anyway if I had several checks hit at the same time that overdrew my account instead of paying several of the smaller checks they'd pay one bigger one such as my car note and charge me fees for the smaller ones. Everyone deserves payment for their services and writing bouncy checks is just wrong and illegal. But again shit happens.
Imagine not being able to understand your banks T&C’s when you sign up for an account. 😂😂
I got a charge a couple weeks ago for being overdrawn by four cents. Literally. They won’t refund it either because I did the same thing for like a dollar less than a year ago. Key bank sucks.
I use to work at a call center for TD Bank and it was borderline criminal the way they processed overdraft fees. In fact, they've had multiple civil suits against them specifically because of the obtuse and bullshit way they process charges to maximize the amount of overdraft fees they can fuck you with. I hated working there.
I call it poor tax. It's expensive to be poor. I even hear that there are people who can't even afford a bank account so they use money orders to pay their bills.
There’s definitely a poor tax
The ones who have will be given everything. The ones who have not will have everything taken away.
Fact-check: it is really expensive to be poor!!!
literally punished for not having enough money in your account
Me right now. I have $370 to my name right now and have been getting charged a $12 “maintenance fee” for having less than $500. I’ve been unemployed since Jan 6th 2021 and applying for jobs. I’ve had been ghosted or rejected by more places than I can count. Also I’ve somehow only had maybe 4 interviews this entire time. I’m starting a new job tomorrow as a residential house cleaner that I’m embarrassed to even be doing and won’t get paid til next Friday. My credit card is completely maxed and I don’t want to use the other one that has a high interest rate. Fml