Our world is now quite accustomed to fine print. Every company has to cover its back by countless clauses of legalese. Sometimes, though, companies can use the fact that no one reads fine print to literally take advantage of people. Such is the case with Bank of America's debit card policy.
Last week, I messed up and bounced a check. Ooops. No one is perfect with their finances. So I was in the negative. I didn't know that I was in the negative, however. Contrary to Bank of America's assumption, I don't check my account balance on a daily basis. Even though I am enrolled in the online banking, I received no email about the overdraft. The next day, I went to the Post Office and bought a stamped envelope on my debit card for 54¢. Bank of America charged the card even though I didn't have any money. The next day I did the exact thing. A total of $1.08. Then they charged me a fee of $35 for each day. Their policy with debit cards is that Bank of America assumes you are in an emergency and will charge the sum of money, and then ding you with a $35 overdraft fee. Am I the only one that thinks this default policy is ridiculous? When I don't have any money in my bank account, my assumption is that my debit card will be declined. I'm in an emergency far less frequently than not and if I was in an emergency, I'd want to call up the Bank to allow for an exception. The fine print, though, finds ways to jack the customer and give the giant bank corporation more profits. Should Bank of America really assume that spending one dollar was worth $70 to me? Pleading with the stone-cold representative and her supervisor did me no good, so I am now resorting to my only other forum to spread the word about this crappy policy.
The representative offered to change my account settings so that my card will be declined when there are no funds and I accepted. Why can't this be the case by default? It should be. Do any other banks engage in this shady practice?
Wednesday, August 05, 2009
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7 comments:
I've had the same experience and it's frustrating. They mail you a notice and so if you don't check your account, you find out a week later. This practice is not unique to B of A. I have a friend who had a similar experience with her bank. Also, banks don't charge your account in real time. Instead, at the end of the day (or the next working day for weekend charges) they start with the highest amount down to the smallest, so that you get as many finance charges for overdrafts as possible. For example, say you have $100 in your account and you make a purchase for $5, $3, $10, $1.87, $89 (in that order), they will take the $89 first and then the others so that instead of one overdraft fee you get four. It's very frustrating when you make an honest mistake and then you get these compounded charges that can be a real financial burden. Oh, they also post debits before credits. I've deposited/transfered money to my account because I didn't want to have an overdraft, but a check or debit was cashed the same day and they overdraft me then add my deposit and charge their exorbitant fee. Banks have a lot of underhanded practices and I'm pretty sure it's widespread and common to most if not all banks.
yeah, I agree with yours truly, I think pretty much every bank in America does this. Key Bank's overdraft fees climb with each day that money isn't put back in your account.
Thankfully, Wells Fargo does at least email me the same day to tell me I'm overdrawn. Except, in the few times that that has happened all I think is, "thats nice, I have no money and they'll keep charging me until I do..." so even though they inform me, there isn't really anything I can do about it, and the longer I go in the hole, the less certainty my paycheck will cover the damage.
Switch to a credit union. One of my daughters was overdrawn. I called the credit union and explained the problem and they waived the fees. Also, they gave her overdraft protection from her savings account.
ING gives overdraft for their electric checking. It's great! takes away stress. (I can send you a referral for an account if you're interested, that way we can both get some bonus $$) ;P
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