Friday, I was checking my account balance for my checking account, and I am overdrawn: $105.94.
As I check further into the matter, $105 is overdraft fees. This morning I went to talk to the bank, because I couldn't figure out how I was getting charged three overdrafts for being 94 cents over. Literally. 94 cents. I knew one thing was over because I made a mathematical error, so I was ready to suck it up for one fee, but three!!??
So here's the deal- let's see if I can explain this so it makes sense-
I made several purchases in one day, the last three were one $84, one $25 and one $13ish. The $84 and $25 ones and then the $13 one. When I made the purchases/transactions, for the first two, the merchants pulled their money aside and "held" it. When the $13 one went through, I only had $12and change left and it went over. Ok, my fault, end of story, right?
WRONG.
The two for $84 and $25 didn't "clear" the bank, the money was only "held".
So essentially, the merchants pulled the money from my account to "hold" it and make sure they got their money, but didn't complete the transaction, they only started it. So...by the end of the day, I had one overdraft for the last transaction, and -94 cents in my account (plus the $35 fee from the bank for the overdraft).
On Friday, the two merchants for the $84 and $25 transactions decided to complete the transactions and "clear" the money. But I was overdrawn. SO those two transactions overdrafted. Even though the merchants already had pulled their money, they hadn't "cleared".
The branch manager told me that this happens to people all the time because people don't realize that merchants are essentially processing two transactions for one transaction.
BUT because I had a "courtesy credit" for an error back in May they wouldn't work with me on these. Even though they're not my fault. The bank chooses to charge me $105 for a 94 cent overage.
And this is legal??? Even Clark Howard never told me about this! (even though he does say not to use debit cards, so I can't fault him).
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2 comments:
Oh my gosh! There is NO way they can charge you overdraft charges for things that did not make your overdrafted! Because if they put those back in to reprocess, then you wouldn't have been in the hole for the first one, right? That is wrong, and I would threaten to switch banks if they do not fix it. That is NOT an overdraft, that is just theft. You should threaten to out them, go to the BBB immediately, they will help you resolve it.
Go to the manager. Go to them again and again and again. Write them a letter. Write a complaint. Call in complaints. Call the next higher branch. Make such a big pain in the butt out of yourself that they fix this. Someone has got to stop them from just flat out stealing from people. Why would you want to stay with a bank that steals? And tell them that. They are stealing, and it is wrong. Call the police, even. Maybe there is a federal bank committee that you can report them to. Do not let this drop!
Oh, and I stopped by because you cloth diaper and I have a give-away for some awesome cloth diaper laundry detergent!
*sigh* I so wish any of that would get me somewhere. I have researched it, and yes, it is totally legal, and companies do it every bloody day to thousands of people, if not more. It is completely ridiculous. I do plan to switch banks to a community bank here locally, just out of principal, but all the big banks can treat you like crap because there's so many others paying the same fees.
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