Comments on: Debit Cards Causing Overdraft Fees

By: Debby

Debby — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 18:39:35 +0000

In my experience these courtesy overdrafts are just a way fir thw banks to get your money. I have a son who is in college. I requested numerous times that his account not allow overdrafts and his debit card be declined in case the purchase is more than he has in his account, this works for a few months and thwn all of a sudden it stops working I call thwm and ask them why and I get we are not sure Please I did not fall off the turnip truck yesterday its funny I asked for the sa,e thing on my account and my card will not work. Manupulation you bet seen it and am going through it right now, today it is misleading and a way fro the banks to generate income as a form of theft.

By: Wes

Wes — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 21:19:09 +0000

I call BS. The technology is there to deny charges when there isn’t money in the account. This is just plain stealing.

By: John

John — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 04:11:44 +0000

I can’t see how anyone in banking could honestly put the blame on the customer. If you polled the man on the street most people believe that a debit card won’t let you make a purchase if the money isn’t there. They believe this because the average checking account is older than this practice which only became standard in the last five years. Some banks generate a third of their revenue from fees rather than doing what the are supposed to be doing, loaning at interest and benefiting the community. They adopted these practices openly as revenue streams and after receiving complaints concocted a survey showing people wanted the biggest thing to clear first. Which is an irrelevancy when you have “courtesy coverage” anyway. Nobody would rather be charged a $35 fee buying a $.70 stick of gum at 7-11 than face embarrassment. I have two checking accounts at different banks and have wrote them both letters thanking them for denying a transaction and thus alerting me I had to go check my account. I chose them because they practice honest banking.
Banks that do withdrawal ordering to increase fee’s and predate uncleared debits days later to charge “potential overdraft fee’s” when your account never had a negative balance use software that decides whether or not to manipulate or charge the account based on your likelihood of you paying the fees. If you watch your statement a pending charge from a restaurant will clear several days later unless by predating it they can charge you a fee. Two customers could make the same transactions with only one receiving fee’s if the profile of the other deemed them likely to complain and get it waived or to abandon the account. 5% of checking customers account for 68% of overdraft fees if you are one of them then you need to keep better track of your spending, but you also need to complain to the bank knowing that you are their best customer, get as many waived as you can close your account and then find an honest bank.

BTW This new legislation will not change the terms of your existing account. You will need to get a new one, or at least go talk to your bank after it passes to protect yourself from overdrafts.

By: clay wright

clay wright — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 17:13:13 +0000

Missing the point:

When I signed up for a BoA debit card it would ONLY retrieve funds that were available. Thus one ‘insufficient funds’ notice would send me to move some $ around or cut spending. I signed on for ‘e-mail alerts’ on my credit card, but this was not a problem or an option with my debit.

By changing this without fully educating the clients, BoA is not only changing the way these cards should be used, but also giving the consumer NO WARNING that charges are being accrued till their ’snail mail’ letters go out. So you miss payment by a day and you can lose enough $ that your balance will be negative for the rest of the month! Should this happen while on vacation .. and I’ve got 700$ in ‘overdraft fees’ despite holding a BoA credit card and having plenty of $ in another account!

For those that recently obtained a debit card – then they may have been told of this ’service’ – hefty fines to avoid embarassment – but I don’t believe that any person alive wants or expects to be charged 35$ extra and receive NO indication that this has been done. Especially when they take the biggest charge of the day first – generating MORE fees for themselves regardless of the order you spent it.

For those that read the debit card info and were educated BEFORE this change – the banks have done a bait and switch that no amount of ‘fine print warnings’ on a spam-filled account statement can compensate for and should not only STOP but also be held liable with plenty of punitive damages.
C

By: Mike Erskine

Mike Erskine — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 18:49:17 +0000

It’s not so much the overdraft thing that bothers me it is the forecasting of a debit card purchase that has not cleared and already being accounted to my checking. If it hasn’t actually cleared what ever process then, it should be charged to my account when it clears not before. What really bothers me is when I get double billed for overdraft fees because of this. Without the prediction transaction 1234 should clear…uh oh in two days a charge will be accredited to my account that will cause both to bounce?

By: It’s a Labor Day Carnival of Debt Reduction | Mighty Bargain Hunter

It’s a Labor Day Carnival of Debt Reduction | Mighty Bargain Hunter — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 05:01:14 +0000

[...] that using a debit card is a cure-all for debt problems? Master Your Card warns about extra fees that crop up with the use of debit [...]

By: Archena

Archena — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 00:44:31 +0000

It’s not so much that I disagree in principle – I’m perfectly willing to cut the banks some slack – but my personal experience has been very different. I found out about overdrafts the hard way years ago – and I had read the disclosure. I am a compulsive contract/disclosure reader. Yes, it’s there but it’s not usually clear in the disclosures I’ve read.

I’ve had multiple accounts in various banks over the years and only one ever explained/encouraged overdraft protection tied to a savings account. A few encouraged it without the savings account when it was opt in – but I usually have to ask if it requires an opt out.

I do agree that consumers have to bear responsibility for their decisions but banks/credit unions don’t always do a very good job explaining the ins and outs of their various accounts/features/policies. With an ever growing blizzard of account types and features only very savvy or extremely meticulous consumers can reasonably navigate the mess.

Banks/credit unions do have a responsibility to make their terms clear enough that the majority of consumers can easily grasp what those terms are and imply – and that is something banks/credit unions don’t usually do very well in my experience. Maybe it isn’t some ulterior way of making more money off the hapless consumer but it is still a failing of the system.

This is my opinion based on my experience – obviously differing from the experience of the author. Your mileage may vary.

By: Rike

Rike — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 04:08:03 +0000

I have two debit cards and both of them came in the mail after I had opened my checking accounts. They came in a separate envelope, with no literature or rules explaining how a debit card works. I don’t use them.
From what I’m reading in these blogs, 90% of the people must think that a debit card gives them free access to money they don’t have, similar to the idea that if they have 1000 checks, they won’t run out of money until the last check is written.
No wonder this country is in bad shape! It looks like our Government got their debit cards in the mail, without explanation on how they work!

By: My Debit Card Thoughts

My Debit Card Thoughts — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 03:40:03 +0000

I know some people who actually depend on the overdraft protection to get through to payday. It’s like a trap for them, they use it and I have one friend who actually had to get a second job for a while to get caught up and get out of that trap. He actually was using that overdraft for well over a year until I set him down and showed him exactly how much money he’d wasted over the year. We are talking over $3,000

By: My Debit Card Thoughts

My Debit Card Thoughts — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 03:38:14 +0000