Bank Overdraft Scam: Who Says Bankers Aren’t Creative?
Bank Overdraft Scam: Creative Banking Fee Report From A Reader
I had no plans of making an overdraft related post today, but one of my readers left a comment on my Overdraft Fees Ripoff article that really boggled my mind. To the point that instead of approving it as a mere comment (where it would be at the bottom of the page, with a lot less visibility) I decided to make a full-fledged post out of it.
Just as a little background information, the aforementioned “overdraft fees ripoff” article focused on the posting order of transactions, markedly the “biggest check first” principle that generates more overdraft fees (thus more revenue for the banks) than simply posting the transactions as they come. For more details, just refer to that post.
Here’s what Scott has to say on the subject:
This sort of thing has become common place amongst big banks and I personally find it extremely unfortunate. Here is what I feel is the number one problem with this. Many of you will not like this, but it’s true…People with no money…You know…the ones who don’t have enough to keep their account from being overdrawn…Those people do not matter in the eyes of big business. People who are not wealthy are looked on as immature children that need to be punished for not having enough money. Big banks don’t care what you think…what are you going to do…take them to court with your negative bank account?
A massive class action suit MIGHT get their attention, but they would just weigh out the millions a upon millions that make each DAY on overdraft fees and call it the price of doing business.
Unfortunately for me…I am one of these no account clowns who works from pay check to pay check…even more so now with the price of driving to work. In previous years…I had a Bank of America account. I got so fed up with their “creative accounting” that I closed the account (they could not possible care less of course) and I moved my account to Wells Fargo. At that time (quite a number of years ago). Wells Fargo was not pulling the overdraft scams. Well…they may have been, but it was not quite at the level that Bank of America was. I liked Wells Fargo because of this.
Why I liked Wells Fargo is really quite simple…and here it is…IF there is enough money in my account when a check I wrote arrives… then the check clears, and I am minus the amount of money I wrote the check for…Seems reasonable right?
Well…let me tell you their new tactic. I had exactly 502 dollars in my Wells Fargo account on the 14th. That very same day, I wrote a close friend of mine a check for 1000 dollars. Well…any fool would tell you that is not going to fly…but wait. I tell my friend not to deposit the check until the next day (the 15th)…because there is not 1000 dollars in the account and will not be until the 15th. He says “no problem”. My friend did not make it to the bank until the 18th (four days later)…So my account had 1,502 dollars in it since the 15th. Everything should go right through correct?
Sure…it went right through, but I notice that I am 35 dollars lighter than I should be. I go online to find out why…and I see that they have taken out 35 dollars on an overdraft fee. For what you ask? Well…when I wrote the check…I dated it for the day I wrote it (the 14th). When Wells Fargo got my check on the 18th, they seen that it was written on the 14th, checked to see what my account balance was on the 14th, discovered that I did not have that much in there on the 14th…So charged me an overdraft fee of 35 dollars.
The money was in there three days before the check was deposited. This is a new tactic. I have been doing things like this for years and years. I don’t over draw my account…I never do…This is their way of making people over draw that really never did. Very crafty.I decided to move to a small(ish) credit union. This of course will make ZERO difference to Wells Fargo…I am not trying to “teach them a lesson”…I just have no extra money…so I cannot afford them to steal even the measly 35 bucks from me. I went through all this with my new credit union…and they knew ALL about practices at big banks.
Do you know that Bank of America actually hires people to be online and discredit people’s testimony in forums JUST LIKE THIS ONE?
Yeah, that’s correct…There is a section of people who do nothing but damage control all day long on the internet. There are getting to be such a massive amount of complaints, that they are having trouble keeping up lately. I do not know if Wells Fargo has the same damage control group…but I assure you…if Bank of America has it, Wells will be soon to follow. This is nothing other than organized crime on a HUGE level. So huge that it’s legal.
So with that, I will end this. Good luck to all of you that have had your hard earned money stolen (and I really mean that)…My only advice is to find a smaller company (credit union) that value you as a customer (for now at least). There will be some draw backs to having a small credit union…but most of them won’t blatantly steal from you.
I suppose this post will test the water to see is There is a Wells Fargo damage control group on the net. I will not come back here to read responses, so there will be no defense of my statement by me. You as the reader of this will be able to determine a damage control post as opposed to a legitimate post. Good luck and my heart goes out to you all who are in the same boat.
At this point, I don’t know what to say. Personally, I haven’t been hit such a creative overdraft fee, so I’m leaving this one to my readers to answer. Comments anyone?
