Comments on: Debit Cards’ Hidden Fees

Banks Earn Billions Off Overdrafts From Debit Cards Due To Unannounced Charges

[michellem99-2009]

Okay people, You can see to bal your check book.You whine. I have never had the problems. I khow what is in the back in my account. We call to be sure, then write checks,be sure they are recorded.Fine. The bank fees are recorded. It is better to have a few dollrs more for bank fee. You never ever spent that money set a side for bank fees. It is the bank's money. Than I know how much I have to use debit card on. Every debit is recrded. I do not go over. I go to store and they give my a recept and I have a place to keep them. So when I go to the next I know what is what is there minus what I just bought. So when it shows 5 dollars that is written then the debit card it put away until next month. I am 52. lEGALLY BLIND TOO.

[jlwesley]

what is really bad, they will charge an overdraft fee on every check or charge on that day even if you have funds to cover all but one of the items.

I had 2200 dollars worth of checks hit one day, total of 11 checks and 2 debit card charges, the account was overdrawn after all checks and debits, 12 dollars. they charged me an overdraft fee of 34 dollars for 13 transactions, the really bad part, I was overdrawn only because of uncollected funds, I will never understand why a check drawn on my account is debited instantly, but any that I deposit end up on hold for 3 to 5 days, the banks are sticking it to us and we aren't even getting a kiss.

[truth-teller-2009]

If you didn't sleep through high school, you might remeber how the mathematically-true (EFFECTIVE) annual percentage rate (APR) is calculated: ((i+1)^(365/d))-1 ... pretty simple. When the Truth-In-Lending Act (TILA) was passed in 1968 there was no ubiquitous calculator that could calculate compounding. Congress adopted the NOMINAL APR, simple interest rate ... the rate for a period times the number of periods in a year as: i*365/d. In your example of a $25 charge on $5 for 5 days that simple interest (also called the Actuarial APR, also U S Rule APR)is 25/5*100*365/5, which is 36,500%. Hold onto your pants, the mathematically-true (EFFECTIVE) APR is calculated: (((25/5*) 1)^365/5)-1, which equals 6.383 X 10^56. Wouldn't you like to get that on you IRA? The TILA should be changed to include all fees and should used the EFFECTIVE APR.

[emmac6]

Yes, people need to keep track of their money--but banks are also to blame by their unfair deposit practices.

I and people I know have had banks put their deposit checks on hold because they were "checks from a college university", checks that "were too large", checks that were "personal checks", checks that were "out of state", and sometimes they will hold a check up to 10 days if you have an overdraft, which gives them several days to have you incur additional overdraft fees.

Someone I know was depositing a check from a well known insurance company and they put the check on hold--despite the fact she had been a bank customer for ten years w/o ever incurring an overdraft. The amount was over 10,000 but she only wanted 1000 to be available to cover her mortgage. They put the check on hold for 10 days. In this day of electronic funds the bank knows if that check is good or not in minutes.

[paulam01-2009]

I work in a supermarket with a bank that has a branch within the supermarket. One of my friends has a partner with a disability and needed to have a bank account for direct deposit. The bank encouraged my friend to also have her funds direct deposited; assuring her that she didn't need money....just a debit card.
A $.35 mistake in her checking account was responsible for more than $300 in bank overdraft charges. And it wasn't like she was buying big ticket items. After the "overdraw" she spent $2.00 for a coffee at Starbucks. When she arrived at work she bought a coffee. She bought lunch. She bought another bottle of Coke. She bought some things to take home for dinner. She bought another coffee at Starbucks on the way home from work; and purchased a transit pass for the next month....to be able to ride the bus to work.....and not once was her debit card declined. None of these purchases was more than $20, but she was charged $35 for every purchase as a bounced check fee. Mistakes happen, why weren't the charges declined?

[mufuart]

I think that bank practice equates to theft. If I don't have sufficient funds, then the transaction should show up as NOT APPROVED, without exception, unless one has an OPT-IN overdraft agreement with the bank to allow it; not OPT-OUT that consumers are NOW faced with. It's infuriating.

Forget all the social ***!

Just decline the purchase if there isn't money in the account to cover it.

So *** simple - duh!

[kevsan1]

You can be as responsible as you want with your money and then get socked by some fee. You can even have an overdraft line of credit and expect it to be there, but the bank suddenly decides you're a risk and without any warning shuts down access to that line and doesn't notify you of their action until a week later. Meanwhile, checks bounce and you get overdraft fees. Meanwhile, you call to complain and they act all cocky. They are plain and simple greedy and worse. That happened to me. They should be prohibited from some of their more draconian practices, especially since they are raking in billions like the oil companies. Another practice they should be prohibited from doing... having three different centers call and try to collect if you're late and none "seem" to know what the other is up to, with all trying to get more than what's due. I've seen it all. Sorry, newster1, a little more compassion is in order on your part in this matter.

[tburzio]

If you are overdrawn by spending $25, use cash!

[nothappyatall]

"%u201CI was at the supermarket, spent $25, went over my account balance $5,%u201D Tee explained.

Without telling her she was overdrawn, her bank covered the $5, but charged her $25 for that loan."

SORRY, but it is up to YOU to keep track of your money not the bank to tell you that you are overdrawn the instant you are! It can take several days to a week to get snail-mailed the notice and if you are already overdrawn enough to get a bounced check charge then any checks you write after that will also carry that fee.

Keep better track of your money and don't whine when you are careless and screw up- we've all done it, you've done it, I've done it, the fees are outrageous but again it's YOUR money and up to you to learn how to manage it and have overdraft protection or hooked up to a savings acct with $100 in it.

[dakotaclark]

Hmmm...

It is no secret that banks harvest dollars at every opportunity.

It is particularly annoying to save the deposits for last, in the hopes of causing overdrafts.

The overdraft fees are outageous.

There should be state and federal laws that try to protect consumers, by setting limits on what banks can charge is such circumstances.

[itgranny]

And they always count your checks before your deposits. Over the weekend, I took money from savings and put into checking online and then went shopping. They counted the checks and debit card purchases before they counted the deposit thus i got charged.

I've heard of folks hiding their money at their houses instead of using banks, i can't say as they're totally crazy. In some cases, with the banks laying awake nights thinking up ways to nail their customers, its safer!

[cantshutup]

*all your funds in the bank that is...buy $20 worth of gas and have $50 bucks?...they'll hold the $50 till the transaction goes through...

[cantshutup]

yeah, they forgot to mention that if you use your debit card to purchase gas, that the gas station will put a hold on your funds till the transaction goes through...that doesn't happen say if you use it at wal-mart because wal-mart wants your money right then and they have a system that does that...take the time to go to an ATM and get cash otherwise you'll have the same problem...