my bank overdraft fee gripe

[KellyHabersham]

*although more of a gripe with the way Chase apparently processes transactions......not disputing one of the overdraft fees, but with one, I don't think it should have been charged*

Anyhow, I had ordered matching sandals for my daughter and I on Wet Seal's website, paid vial Paypal, and that transaction showed up in my account yesterday morning as "pending". My understanding has been this meant the money had already been debited from my account, so the amount of "available funds" I had at the time was correct. (and I had enough to cover this Paypal transaction)

However, a check which I had written/mailed off last week was apparently processed later that day, and this put my account in the negative. I can understand why I got an overdraft fee for this, but I also got an overdraft fee for the Wet Seal/Paypal transaction, when I definitely had enough money at the time.

[HYHYBT]

Sounds like they put the check through first. That overdrew your account, which then no longer had enough to cover the other charge either. At least in this case it probably wasn't deliberate; for a while, banks were intentionally rearranging each day's transactions into the order that would generate the most overdrafts. (By, say, putting the largest outlay first, then the smaller ones, then the deposit that had actually come in first at the end.)

[mikoyan29]

If I recall, one of the laws passed in recent years said that they had to process deposits first and then all the withdrawls.

[s_stabeler]

All I know is that my bank either process deposits first, or hold off charging overdraft fees until they have processed both.

[HYHYBT]

My deposits usually go through instantly. I've got stuck waiting to get out of the bank's drive-thru, pulled up my account on the phone, and the money was there.

[Barracuda]

Chase did used to enjoy screwing people on overdrafts. I finally ended up leaving them because of it, simply told them I was closing my account and to piss off when they demanded $163 in overdrafts for charges I didn't even approve (my account got levied because of debts and they tacked on $163 in fees besides emptying my account.) I ended up with a different bank that puts $1 every time you use your debit into a savings that automatically gets drawn on if you overdraft your checking (and the transaction just won't go through if both accounts are empty.) Much better, sounder arrangement. And I can transfer the money from the overdraft protection back to checkings any time if I need to with no fees. Still haven't paid Chase and I never will if I have anything to say about it.

[KellyHabersham]

Part of the problem is that Chase recently seems to have changed their "Account Alerts" system......had it set to where I'd get automated voicemails when a check went through, or when my account was overdrawn, a and that really helped keep a tab on things.

Anyhow, I'd called Chase the day I'd posted this to ask about one of the fees, and the phone rep took them off immediately.....very cool of him, and I'd not even asked for this! (for the future thoug, I definitely plan to keep track of my account balance)