Overdrawn

[DrFaroohk]

So occasionally I forget how much money is in my account, and I'll swipe my card and BOOM 30 dollar overdraft fee.

Except, of course, when its an emergency, and I don't give a crap how much is in my account because I need whatever it is RIGHT NOW and I am willing to pay the 30 dollar overdraft fee...

Nope! DECLINED!


Why is that? Is there some rule or something I'm missing out on, maybe time or day, or just the merchant itself?

[Boozy]

Ask your bank. There will be a limit to how much you're able to withdraw on overdraft without having an overdraft line of credit previously arranged. That's how it was when I worked at one of the Canadian banks. US bank policies might be a bit different, but I suspect not much.

And if you find yourself consistently overdrawing your account, I'd recommend setting up such a line of credit and saving yourself those fees. Just check the interest rates and policies. If they start charging you interest immediately, and you consistently pay back the money borrowed with your very next paycheck, you would save yourself even more using a credit card that offers you a grace period for payment. Just be disciplined and pay it back ASAP.

If you're borrowing because you're just losing track of what you've spent, you can solve that problem by setting a budget and tracking everything carefully. But there's not much you can do about those emergency expenses. If you need to borrow to feed yourself and your family, then that's what you need to do. Just do a bit of research into your borrowing options. A $30 overdraft fee for a loan that could be much smaller than that is absurd. Again, ask your bank, because they might have some suggestions.

[DrFaroohk]

To clarify, not sure if this makes a difference, but I was referring to a Visa Check Card instead of a credit card, even though I call them credit cards. I DO know that using it as Debit will immediately access your bank and with Credit it has to go through something else, but even then...sometimes Credit will be declined, and sometimes it'll just go through.

[katie kaboom]

sometimes Credit will be declined, and sometimes it'll just go through.

That's the problem I had with the banks. There were times when a credit or debit card should have been declined and it wasn't. They put it through so they can hit you with all kinds of fees.

Practices like that need to be outlawed as far as i'm concerned.

[DrFaroohk]

Yeah, I really try to avoid using the banks when I can. One thing I learned is that the bank has the right to cash your checks in any order they want, regardless of when they were dated or when they came in. If you had 1000 dollars in your account, and you write 1100 dollars in checks, they can cash them in the order that will get them the most overdraft fees. That's like...practically a scam.

[katie kaboom]

If you had 1000 dollars in your account, and you write 1100 dollars in checks, they can cash them in the order that will get them the most overdraft fees. That's like...practically a scam.

There's a class action lawsuit against Bank of America for just that reason.

[DrFaroohk]

My bank did that to me like three years ago, and they threatened me with legal action if I didn't pay the overdraft fees. I closed the account and am still waiting for that good old legal action...

[Cats]

My best friend had two checking accounts, one linked with her mom, and one with her son's father when they were together. After she threw him out and tried to separate all the joint stuff from him, I was with her when she tried to open her own checking account at the bank (same one as the account with her mom, the one with douchebag was a different bank), and she couldn't...because she owned like $700 in fees and crap to the other bank due to her boyfriend screwing her over! How the hell can a bank get away with ALLOWING that much to be occured to be paid back? It was a checking account, not a line of credit! I don't know if she ever got it sorted out, but she still has the joint account with her mom in good standing.

Though I kind of understand the reason why overdraft fees are in place, I find them sort of counter productive in a certain point of view. "Hey! You have no money in your account to spend! Let's make you pay $30 for that which you don't have, otherwise, we wouldn't be having this issue in the first place!" Obviously I know that's not how it REALLY works out, but you see what I mean by that?

My family and I are part of a credit union, and we have overdraft protection, so fortunately I've never had this problem. I've been saving money since I first started working, plus I didn't go to college and still mooch of my parents, so I've never run into an issue with not having a check deposit on time (I have so much excess money in my account I often just wait to deposit like 3 checks at once). Yeah, I know I'm lucky like that.

[Boozy]

To clarify, not sure if this makes a difference, but I was referring to a Visa Check Card instead of a credit card, even though I call them credit cards. I DO know that using it as Debit will immediately access your bank and with Credit it has to go through something else, but even then...sometimes Credit will be declined, and sometimes it'll just go through.

Okay, I see. Check cards aren't common in Canada. We have debit cards and we have credit cards, but Visa check cards are pretty rare. I'm not familiar with how they work.

[DrFaroohk]

They work pretty much like a credit OR debit card, you get to choose at the point of sale. If you choose credit, I think the computer connects to Visa's network, then goes and finds your bank. If you choose debit, you enter your pin, and it dials directly to your bank. Main difference I've seen is that credit takes up to 3 days for your account to show it, and debit is instant.

[Dreamstalker]

If you had 1000 dollars in your account, and you write 1100 dollars in checks, they can cash them in the order that will get them the most overdraft fees. That's like...practically a scam.

I got bit with something similar last year... I have automatic overdraft protection, my account can go $800 into the red (fees count, which sucks) before checks start being declined. I had two checks out, and thought I had crafted it so that the rent would clear completely, leaving the smaller one to go into overdraft. I could handle the $100 in the red that the small check would have triggered, and knew that was going to happen.

Had my rent been submitted first (which logically should have happened, as the small check was being mailed across the country where rent was only going to the next town) everything would have been fine.

Nope. Small check was submitted first (which meant my landlord had to have been holding onto my rent for two weeks), and that made it so when my rent was presented it bounced completely as that was over my overdraft protection.

I was Not Happy.

[Cats]

Since we're on the topic of banks, I was kind of PO'd yesterday at mine. I went to activate my new debit card, and all the information was right, except my phone number. I explained why it might be incorrect, as I thought I had changed it from my home phone to my cell, and maybe I in fact, had not. Since they can only try once per call (security reasons, most likely), she told me to just try again later. Okay, fair enough.

I went online to my account, and sure enough, my phone number listed was indeed my cell, changed over a year ago. Okay, I figured maybe that was just my contact info only, and the base account information that I maybe had to change "in person" was listed still as the old.

Now, since the bank itself is located at my dads work, I had to have him go down to the branch to figure it out (he is the master owner of the family account we have, so he can do anything on my account [and yes, he's honest and does not touch my account without my permission]. Since the building is secure, you actually need to be with an employee to get in, so it works out in our favor to have it set up this way). Sure enough, the phone number I had given was indeed in the account information. WTF?

The only think I could think of was maybe my number was misheard, but I always make sure to speak these things clearly and slow enough, and they never had any other issue with all the other numbers I said previously in the call. But even if that was the case, if they're not 100% sure what I had said, why not ask me to repeat it?


And of course, there was the last time I activated my now-old card. I keep the old one until I know the new one works for sure, and the very first time I used it, it was declined. Um, okay, try the old one, maybe new one isn't 100% active and running yet, since it hadn't been a full buisness day. Declined too. WTF here?

Well, I had my dad look into it that day when he went to work, and it turns out that by sheer coincidence, that morning the bank systems went down for about 10 minutes, right at the time I was trying to use my card! Obviously, since the store couldn't contact the bank, it was declined by default. That wasn't anyones fault and just was Murphy pulling one over on me, but still, that was just horrible luck and an easy way to give someone a scare about their bank account!

[DrFaroohk]

(which meant my landlord had to have been holding onto my rent for two weeks)

Oooooh I hate people who do that. I've bounced many checks before simply because the person decided to wait a year before cashing them. "Balance your checkbook!" people say. If they'd cash their checks in a timely fashion I wouldn't have to! There's no reason you can't go to the bank at least twice a week and cash a friggin check.

[tabbyblack13]

These overdraft fees are outrageous. They can charge $30 for going $3 into the red. Every time you charge after you go into the red there is another $30 tacked on. No warnings, no declining of the card.

I've been offered overdraft protection that I have to pay for. If I keep a list of checks that are due and watch my online account carefully I don't need overdraft protection. I also have an issues with my bank trying to link my saving and checking. I have to argue with them not to do it. I know it will prevent me from overdrawing. Its done to keep thieves from stealing all of my money if they get a hold of my check card.

[DrFaroohk]

Reminds me of about 10 years ago, I closed an account at a bank, except I didn't actually close it, I just took all the money out, not thinking anything else of it.

End of the month came, and I didn't have the minimum balance in the account, so a 5 dollar service fee hit me. Not enough money for it, so a 30 dollar overdraft fee as well. It basically snowballed like that into like 1200 dollars. No way I'm paying that...lol....