Screw the banks

[Larry of the Lawn]

My bank (TD bank) treats deposits I make on a Saturday, during hours they are open, as if it happened on a Monday. They have no problem debiting the account for purchases I make with my card regardless of the day or whether or not they are open.  

Then there's the algorithm they use for overdrafts which let's small purchases 'pend' for 3-5 days in case a larger one comes along that would push the acct into the red, in which case they process them all immediately to get multiple overdrafts instead of just one.  

Then there are the other banks that charge you $5-8 to cash a check drawn on that bank for non-account holders.

 

Just a bunch of predatory regressive shit that mostly affects people who are already stuggling.  The Saturday stuff really chaps my ass because most people get paid on Fridays, which banks goddamn well know and they just hose you on it. Not surprised that an industry that gets so many market protections preys on the small consumer.  

Fuck these fucking fucks.

[Jace, Extat]

4 minutes ago, larrytheimp said:

My bank (TD bank) treats deposits I make on a Saturday, during hours they are open, as if it happened on a Monday. They have no problem debiting the account for purchases I make with my card regardless of the day or whether or not they are open.  

Then there's the algorithm they use for overdrafts which let's small purchases 'pend' for 3-5 days in case a larger one comes along that would push the acct into the red, in which case they process them all immediately to get multiple overdrafts instead of just one.  

Then there are the other banks that charge you $5-8 to cash a check drawn on that bank for non-account holders.

 

Just a bunch of predatory regressive shit that mostly affects people who are already stuggling.  The Saturday stuff really chaps my ass because most people get paid on Fridays, which banks goddamn well know and they just hose you on it. Not surprised that an industry that gets so many market protections preys on the small consumer.  

Fuck these fucking fucks.

Word. My bank charges me if I don't have enough money in both savings and checking.

[Larry of the Lawn]

2 minutes ago, Pony Empress Jace said:

Word. My bank charges me if I don't have enough money in both savings and checking.

Oh yeah, it's not like this one is even an interest bearing account, I pay $10 a month for my business one and 7$ for the personal one.  May they all get gonorrhea everytime someone gets an overdraft fee.

[Larry of the Lawn]

Where are our lawmakers on this shit?  Consumer protection?

[Yukle]

Pretty sure the USA Congress just repealed the tiny fractions of consumer protection put in place to prevent another GFC.

[Jace, Extat]

4 minutes ago, Yukle said:

Pretty sure the USA Congress just repealed the tiny fractions of consumer protection put in place to prevent another GFC.

Yep, here's all the Dems who voted to do so.

https://splinternews.com/here-are-the-democrats-who-just-voted-to-sell-you-out-t-1823554660

[Yukle]

2 minutes ago, Pony Empress Jace said:

Yep, here's all the Dems who voted to do so.

https://splinternews.com/here-are-the-democrats-who-just-voted-to-sell-you-out-t-1823554660

Sen. Jon Tester in that photo looks like he literally just finished eating a child before that photo was taken. He couldn't look more evil if he tried. 

[DanteGabriel]

35 minutes ago, larrytheimp said:

My bank (TD bank) treats deposits I make on a Saturday, during hours they are open, as if it happened on a Monday. They have no problem debiting the account for purchases I make with my card regardless of the day or whether or not they are open.  

Then there's the algorithm they use for overdrafts which let's small purchases 'pend' for 3-5 days in case a larger one comes along that would push the acct into the red, in which case they process them all immediately to get multiple overdrafts instead of just one.  

 

Yup. My bank does this shit too. I think I got extra-fucked one holiday weekend when I had to spend up a storm, someone cashed a couple of checks of mine they'd been sitting on, and they carefully racked my transactions for maximum damage. Largest charges go through first, regardless of when they were made, so since the checks came in on Monday, and were larger, they took higher precedence over the handful of smaller transactions I'd made with my debit card. It was so outrageous the local branch manager actually called HQ on my behalf because he thought it was fucked up.

And don't get me started at the persistent rash of false accounts scandals Wells Fargo has perpetrated. In a sane world, their executives would be hanging from lamp posts in financial districts as a warning to the other greedheads.

Where are our lawmakers on this? Selling us out, of course. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is being subverted and dismantled by Trump's new appointee, who has the moral sense of a weasel on meth. Even Democrats like Schumer are in their pocket. The best I can do is divert my business as much as I can to smaller, local businesses. My home loan is with a local credit union, who recently emailed me to find out why I hadn't cashed a refund check for overpayment of property taxes.

[Altherion]

I have direct deposit on Fridays and when I look at the account on days when I'm paid, it always says that the payment is pending. The account history shows previous payments on Fridays, but I'm never sure if the money is really there or not.

In general, the consumer-facing aspects of banks are like Lawful Evil critters: they will try to screw you over at every turn, but as long as you fully understand their rules and are capable of playing by said rules, they can be useful. And yes, they definitely prey on the struggling and also on those who simply don't understand how finance works. For example, I just checked the interest rate Chase offers and it is still between 0.01% and 0.04% depending on whether you have "a relationship" with them. I'm guessing they're trying to confuse people who can't tell the difference between 4% and 0.04% because the latter means that you get $4 annually for every $10K that you deposit with them. Given today's interest rates at other banks, this is nearly two orders of magnitude too low.

[Jace, Extat]

Why don't you do humanity a favor and go make your legos stand at attention during the anthem while people who don't champion the oppressors bitch about their aggrieved lives.

[Yukle]

Australia has a Royal Commission going on into banks at the moment. Serious law after serious law has been broken, essentially all of the executive of every bank is a criminal many times over.

For all of this, though, I expect precisely nothing to happen. No prison time, no fines (except to the companies, the people themselves will get off) and certainly no changes.

[Spring Bass]

No credit unions there? 

[DireWolfSpirit]

My local bank where I have my payroll deposit, just instituted a monthly fee for paper statements, which I find irritating because I dont do online banking and have no intention to start online banking. Perhaps even more irritating, this bank eliminated their drive thru and replaced it with a e-teller that is of no more service to me than a atm. You cant get a roll of quarters from the e-teller, you cant get a cashiers check or a money order from it either, its just a stupid atm with a different name. We already had damn atm's available to us, but on Saturday you could use the drive thru till noon and do transactions like I described above. Not now, on saturdays we now have just another atm with a new name.

So the bank has cut service and increased fees at the same time, Ive asked other people around town and ive yet to meet one person that is happy with this banks recent actions, they very obviously didnt reach out to any of their customers to ask if any of us favored eliminating the drive thru for another stupid ass atm that cant even give me the combination of bills I favor. Screw this bank as well.

[oberonus]

Go to a credit union then.

 

Most banks when you do a check deposit will make the funds available the next business day. Saturdays aren't considered a business day, they are considered as Monday. So when you deposit it on Saturday that check won't post until Tuesday. Most credit unions on the other hand however when taking a check deposit will make funds available the same day it's deposited (including Saturday) so when you make the deposit funds are available like cash (unless it's a larger check they place on hold)

All banks and crediy unions have to give you the option if you want to allow debit card overdraft to happen. Opt out of it and you won't have as much of an overdraft issue that you are having. This won't stop you from overdrafting with checks but it will prevent the issue of someone holding checks for a few weeks, you making debit card purchases,  and then overdrafting on those purchase when they finally decide to cash the checks. Or use cashier checks or use bill pay (the equivalent of a cashier's check) to avoid your account going negative.

 

Stop using your debit card for purchases if you have a habit of overdrafting your account. Use a credit card instead. You won't get over drafts that way and even if you aren't able to pay it off in full if you're a habitual overdrafter, the interest you pay on your credit card will be less than your overdraft fees.

 

 

Why are you paying fees on your account? Most banks have ways of keeping your checking account free (have a direct deposit or a certain balance or a certain amount of purchases on your debit card a month) if you can't do any of those then start looking at what I said earlier, a credit union, a lot of them have complely free accounts or super easy ways to get free accounts.

I work in banking for 9 years and most people who complain about Bank fees/overdrafts have no one to blame but themselves. "Oh woe is me I'm getting hit with OD fee after OD it's not fair waaaaaa" . You want to know why you're getting hit with fees? Because you have piss poor money management skills that's why. I see people who say they're broke and can't afford these  fees. when I look at their accounts they're just going to Starbucks or some other waste of money blowing their cash on unnecessary stuff.

 

I sometimes feel bad for the auto pay OD that happens but shit, you set up the auto pay, you know what date it's going to happen, it happens the same time every month, know how much money to have in your account. And if you can't do that don't set up the auto pay

[Larry of the Lawn]

2 hours ago, oberonus said:

Go to a credit union then.

 

Most banks when you do a check deposit will make the funds available the next business day. Saturdays aren't considered a business day, they are considered as Monday. So when you deposit it on Saturday that check won't post until Tuesday. Most credit unions on the other hand however when taking a check deposit will make funds available the same day it's deposited (including Saturday) so when you make the deposit funds are available like cash (unless it's a larger check they place on hold)

All banks and crediy unions have to give you the option if you want to allow debit card overdraft to happen. Opt out of it and you won't have as much of an overdraft issue that you are having. This won't stop you from overdrafting with checks but it will prevent the issue of someone holding checks for a few weeks, you making debit card purchases,  and then overdrafting on those purchase when they finally decide to cash the checks. Or use cashier checks or use bill pay (the equivalent of a cashier's check) to avoid your account going negative.

 

Stop using your debit card for purchases if you have a habit of overdrafting your account. Use a credit card instead. You won't get over drafts that way and even if you aren't able to pay it off in full if you're a habitual overdrafter, the interest you pay on your credit card will be less than your overdraft fees.

 

 

Why are you paying fees on your account? Most banks have ways of keeping your checking account free (have a direct deposit or a certain balance or a certain amount of purchases on your debit card a month) if you can't do any of those then start looking at what I said earlier, a credit union, a lot of them have complely free accounts or super easy ways to get free accounts.

I work in banking for 9 years and most people who complain about Bank fees/overdrafts have no one to blame but themselves. "Oh woe is me I'm getting hit with OD fee after OD it's not fair waaaaaa" . You want to know why you're getting hit with fees? Because you have piss poor money management skills that's why. I see people who say they're broke and can't afford these  fees. when I look at their accounts they're just going to Starbucks or some other waste of money blowing their cash on unnecessary stuff.

 

I sometimes feel bad for the auto pay OD that happens but shit, you set up the auto pay, you know what date it's going to happen, it happens the same time every month, know how much money to have in your account. And if you can't do that don't set up the auto pay

I'm self-employed so direct deposit isn't a thing.  Nearest credit union I could have an account at is about a forty minute drive.  I use this bank because it's all over my area.  To waive the monthky fee I need to maintain a balance of $1500 or more, which happens maybe two months of the year.  

You have piss poor ethics.  So at what level of the caste system am I allowed to buy a coffee on the go?  Just because you work in a predatory and shitty industry doesn't mean that their shitty policies are ok. 

[Knight of City of Bayonne]

Advice from the State of New Jersey Department of Banking & Insurance, the state regulator. 

http://www.state.nj.us/dobi/division_consumers/finance/consumeralert_servicecharge.htm

[S John]

Not being wealthy is expensive and it's is a major fixture of our system.  There are many, many examples of it aside from bank account shenanigans.  If you can walk into a car dealership with cash not only will you avoid paying interest over 5 years or so, but you'll be able to negotiate a better overall price as well.  Same with buying a house.  Makes sense on some level, the wealthy get a better deal because it's surer bet, but it still sucks for those of us who will pay more for the same car or house than a wealthy person would despite being less able to afford it.  

[Jace, Extat]

1 hour ago, larrytheimp said:

I'm self-employed so direct deposit isn't a thing.  Nearest credit union I could have an account at is about a forty minute drive.  I use this bank because it's all over my area.  To waive the monthky fee I need to maintain a balance of $1500 or more, which happens maybe two months of the year.  

You have piss poor ethics.  So at what level of the caste system am I allowed to buy a coffee on the go?  Just because you work in a predatory and shitty industry doesn't mean that their shitty policies are ok. 

Silly little pleb, that money is for the bank. Not you.

[Rhom]

I've never paid a bank fee for having an account.  Of course, I've always banked with community banks and never with their larger cousins.  Community banks are struggling in most parts of the country however due to the regulations necessary to rein in the larger banks.  Hard for the smaller bank to keep up.

And while Oberonus may have been inelegant in their approach... they aren't wrong.  You can't get hit with an overdraft fee if you are using your account responsibly.  Its why debit cards are dangerous.  When writing checks and keeping track of my actual checkbook, I always knew how much was in my account without needing a bank statement.  Instead, we use plastic and it erases many of the natural safeguards we build in.  It won't matter what order your charges hit your account if you are spending less than you make.

At some point, personal responsibility really does need to play a role.  Kentucky is making a lot of mistakes in education these days, but one thing the legislature got right this year is now requiring a class in personal finance as a graduation requirement.  Too many in our society don't understand the basics of managing a household or small business account.

[Rhom]

3 minutes ago, S John said:

Not being wealthy is expensive and it's is a major fixture of our system.  There are many, many examples of it aside from bank account shenanigans.  If you can walk into a car dealership with cash not only will you avoid paying interest over 5 years or so, but you'll be able to negotiate a better overall price as well.  Same with buying a house.  Makes sense on some level, the wealthy get a better deal because it's surer bet, but it still sucks for those of us who will pay more for the same car or house than a wealthy person would despite being less able to afford it.  

Funny thing is... when I bought my Jeep last year, it was more difficult paying outright than financing.  When negotiating price, the salesman said "Look, I'm already going to have to explain to my manager why I'm selling it this cheap."  I responded "Tell him the guy walked in with a check to pay in full."  He said, "Well that's actually worse for me, because if we were financing we'd be getting the interest too."

I haven't had a car loan in over a decade.  Its not because I do exceptionally well, but its because every month I set aside the amount of money that would otherwise be a car payment and I never buy brand new.  Seriously.  For most of us, our cars are the second biggest investment we own.  Why would you buy something that loses thousands in value the second you leave the store????  The problem for many people is not that they aren't wealthy, its that they try to live like they are.

Make a budget.  Spend less than you earn.