High Bank Overdraft Fees

It is ridiculous. They charge so much for an account that already has no money in it. When you are on a tight budget, you just might have things not clear at the right time. Not intentionally writing bad checks or overdrawing, just bad timing. SO, then you are behind even further because of the overdraft fees. I swear to you once, I was overdrawn by $1.50. Yep, ONE DOLLAR AND FIFTY CENTS. They charged me $30. It was ridiculous. I got them to refund half of it because I had never overdrawn the account before and they knew it was a ridiculous fee for that small an amount of an overdraft. Then, they tried to convince me to open a savings account with automatic overdraft protection. Ummm, if I had any money for savings, I wouldn't be overdrawn. Geez.

I think the worst thing is when you are a dollar off on a check. They charge you the overdraft fee. Then all your other stuff that would have gone through doesn't got through because of the fee and then they charge you fees for all of them. My teenage brother got charged an overdraft fee on his savings account because the teller screwed up and gave him $20 that he didn't have in his account then they had the nerve to charge him a $20 fee. Even though it was the tellers mistake they wouldn't reverse the fee.

I agree with you wholeheartedly, what i get peeved about is when the bank takes their fees out, then a direct debit that comes out every week is rejected because the bank has taken it in fees then they have the hide to charge you $30 as a dishonour fee when they took the money in the first place! and you would think that with all the fees and the like they take, they could give us a better interest rate on our savings accounts!

It's not even just overdraft fees! My bank was charging me "Uncollectable Funds Charges" and I never knew it. I live paycheck-to-paycheck, and days before each paycheck, I can get down to $1-3 in the account. What happened was, my son's school was doing a fundraiser. Some of the people that bought from him, accidently wrote the check out to my name. I deposited those checks into my account, and wrote one check to the school against that depost. It was only for $102. The bank didn't tell me they were going to put a hold on my deposit. They never put a hold on my deposits before, and I would have never thought they would. The school cashes the check and it hit my account 6 days later. The hold was still on the deposit I made and resulted in this $25 fee. I was never sent a note that this happened. A few weeks later, I deposited another check for $300. Still unaware of this "new" hold procedure, I wrote out several checks over the next few days against my balance. Yep, 4-6 days later, those checks and debits hit my account while the hold was still on. It resulted in 8 $25 charges, now my account is down $225 from these fees that I do not know are occuring. Now, other checks are going through that I thought I had $225 still left in my account but was gone to these fees. (confused yet?--I sure was) Now I have $25 NSF fees on my account as well, about 13 of them! And they were for stupid amounts...$12 here, $2 there. I was even using my bank debit card, and the debits were going through. Little did I know that the $2 box of knee highs I bought were really costing me $27! I called the bank when I discovered I had $200 in my account when I was expecting $800! They "don't send the notifications out when we get charged fees, because the bank has grown too large too fast." "We think our customers are responsible enought to check their accounts online every day." Why do I have to check my account every day when I keep an accurate register?? This is insane! They ended up refunding $200 worth of the fees. This was not my fault! Even the guy I spoke with from the bank agreed that a hold should not have been put on my deposits, given the small amount of the deposits. Still, I have to deal with the $400 worth of fees that would not have been on there if it weren't for these holds in the first place! Ugh! Just before the holidays too! Nice, huh? Sorry for the long post, this topic struck a nerve with me too!

Record-high bank fees are making it harder for consumers to stay financially afloat. ... were hit with $926 in overdraft fees between July 2004 and last July ...

Yes, high overdraft fees suck and I have been known to get them every now and then. There is one solution to it though, don't over withdraw your account. I think banks have such high overdraft fees to teach people a financial lesson. If they didn't have the high fees, everyone would just keep on doing it over and over again because there wouldn't be a consequence.

It stinks. But so many people keep doing it over and over. Hey, the bank is pretty smart! I bet they make millions off people who can't balance a checkbook. Get a savings acct and keep money in it. That way if your check bounces you are covered. It was free at my bank. I was only over once, because a payroll check bounced..totally unexpected.

I think the high overdraft fees are warranted. I am taking a guess at the reason that overdraft fees are so high (remember, I am only guessing)...The reason probably has to do with the number of checks that people bounce. I would guess that as the number of checks coming through the bank with insufficient funds increased, so did the overdraft fees. It might only cost the bank a couple of dollars to process the checks, but think about it this way. If you bounce a check and it only costs you $2 - $3 dollars, will you be likely to do it again? On the other hand, if the bounced check costs you $30, would you be likely to do it again? About the low interest rates...as long as rates are low for us to borrow money, they will be even lower in terms of saving. Banks cannot pay out the same rate that they lend at...to do so would be the end of the bank. They also need to have enough of a difference so that they can meet operating expenses/pay salaries.

hmmm it makes us to disgust about the bank..

Oh I whole heartedly agree! I closed all my checking and savings accounts at our local bank and credit union. First they both started charging quarterly just for having an account...yes savings too...this came after they once again lowered the interest rates for the third time...then they miscredited my deposit to an account that wasn't even mine! I wrote my checks for my monthly bills and every single one bounced! The bank charged me $40.00 per check the credit union charged $35.00 plus each business that received a check added a fee of $25.00 up per check. It took me six months to get the deposit credited to my account but they (both bank and credit union) refused to refund the NSF charges that occurred because of their error! Not to mention that it put me behind on all my debts and even added to them. I thought it was bad when my checks were stolen and I was charged for the NSF fees from those, with no correction, but this last go was the last straw. Money orders, cashiers checks work just fine. They may not be as convienent, but they sure don't cost me nearly as much as a bank screw up!

Some banks are even charging over $30.00, its a major rip off by the banking industry. If they are going charge such as a ridiculous amount, they should at least pay the check.

Banks are starting to treat their customers with absolute contempt. They have been charging £30-40 in this country for years for a payment refused due to insufficient funds - they don't make the payment, and they charge that amount for the paper and stamp! My bank won't give me a current account, as you have to have £2000 going in per month (after taxes that is, as we're taxed on our earnings at source) before you're eligable, I'm not allowed to pay cheques into my account at the cashier's desk anymore, I have to use the machines, as my account type has just had this "privilege" withdrawn, and they take 10 working days to clear a cheque into my account (it's sitting in their account earning them interest in the meantime!). It's disgraceful, but they're all doing that nowadays, and as soon as the controlling bodies clamp down on one thing, they set about ripping us off another way! Don't talk to me about banks - they don't call them "merchant bankers" for nothing!!

i don't want to even get started on overdraft fees. i got jacked on acouple paychecks and all my auto payments came out of my account. i am still over $500 in the hole.

I think it's ridiculous to charge a fee and then keep charging for every check that bounces. At least charge the fees once the account is in good standing. Or charge a little more than what it costs the bank to process them. I used to think that it was the customer's fault for getting overdrafts. However, now I think it could happen as a result of the new technological "advances" where things could go wrong through no fault of the customer.

The banks charge these high overdraft fees to get people to stop bouncing their checks. If people paid more attention to their bank accounts then there would be less of a problem to bouncing checks. The banks send statements each month plus most banks give you online access to see how much money you have so there is really no excuse to bounce a check. In some cases, people do it accidentally and then there are some who do it on purpose.

I don't see a problem with it. If you watch your finances, you don't have to worry about it.

it is wrong thing i think so

I guess you don't realize that when you write a check for more money than you have it's called Kiting and that's illegal. You are actually attempting to steal the banks money when you do this. Be thankful you aren't going to jail. My suggestion - live within your means not over it. OK, that said, I do know that sometimes people make mistakes (adding checks instead of subtracting them in the book) and things like that happen. If you have a good relationship with your bank they will usually reverse the fee once. Sorry, you aren't getting ripped off, the bank discloses it's fees to you (whether you read them or not is your own issue). If you don't like the fees they charge, change banks. If you can, join a credit union, they are much better with rates and usually have lower fees - they also work harder to keep you happy. What I hate is when someone writes ME a bad check and I am charged a fee because THEIR check bounced. Now, that's not MY fault, but I do understand that some people knowingly do this and yes, one bad apple does spoil the whole bunch.

I agree with you they are completely unnecessary. There are some credit unions here where I am from that charge you a fee of $120.00 the first time you overdraft, and then $30.00 each additional overdraft until sufficent funds are placed back into the account. Now that is really over doing it.

I think they are crap, say that you go over by 2 cents! THEY CHARGE YOU $25 FOR 2 CENT OVERDRAFT! This actually happened to me.. Every month I write off my balance $5-$20 just to protect myself from overdrafts!