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The $36 soda: Overdrafting in America

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Re: The $36 soda: Overdrafting in America

#91

Post by johngalt »

pyre wrote: post #47
hugh3 wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, let's face it -- it's not like banks actually make money any other way out of checking accounts. Any bank account with less than... I dunno, $50K in it... is probably costing the bank far more than it's worth. The bank ain't a charity.

There are more honorable ways to make money than to label something as 'free' and then attempt to incorporate as many hidden fees as possible.

True which is precisely why banks used to charge a small monthly fee to have an account. Then one bank offered "free checking" and all the rest had to follow suit or lose all their DDAs. There are evil banks out there, and customers flock to them.

Frankly if you were looking for dishonorable behavior there is much worse going on at banks. For instance its widely known that a certain bank will report its current customers to chexsystems for the slightest infraction (a few overdrafts, or a returned deposit). Effectively this makes the customer unable to open an account at a competitor. So they remain stuck with bank of scam-erica.

Re: The $36 soda: Overdrafting in America

#92

Post by anaccountiguess »

Qz wrote: post #17

I was discussing this with my friend the other day and she's convinced that if she didn't have overdraft 'protection' there are still certain merchants who run debit cards as credit cards which then incur an overdraft fee anyway. Has anyone heard of this? I'm looking for some evidence I can use to get her to cancel the overdraft nonsense before she gets further in debt.

i had something like this happen with Netflix. my account at TCF Bank was low and the transaction was denied. then, apparently, Netflix tried the transaction again and succeeded, which overdrafted my account. i asked the bank what the difference between the transactions was and they just shrugged. it's possible your friend's explanation is accurate

Re: The $36 soda: Overdrafting in America

#93

Post by alanh »

hop wrote: post #86

Made 2hrs after of walking out of a Wells Fargo. http://fuckwellsfargo.com

Guess: The reason you censored the logo but not the domain is because you don’t really have the appropriate typeface & just pasted the “F” from “Fargo”?

Idea: You could attempt to construct U, C, and K: U = top of L + bottom of O; C = mirror the top half of G; K = maybe the legs of A + the left of R? If you want me to give it a shot, ping me. Update My attempt, just for fun. Result: http://cl.ly/273o3w1z2d2B3y2A0e1y (I first did this sort of font-less logo-hacking in MS Paint, maybe 14 years ago; then 5 yrs ago in Photoshop: http://cl.ly/0p0k2H3x2V0y3s0r2v25; now, in Acorn.)

Re: The $36 soda: Overdrafting in America

#94

Post by cturner »

nknight wrote: post #50
hugh3 wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, let's face it -- it's not like banks actually make money any other way out of checking accounts. Any bank account with less than... I dunno, $50K in it... is probably costing the bank far more than it's worth. The bank ain't a charity.

Yeah, tell me, how much are those electrons costing the bank, again? Unless they're also giving you free checks, that's pretty much the cost. A human being will rarely look at anything. Everything is handled by automated computer systems.

In some countries regulation will state that the bank needs to send a physical account summary to people every so often (month? quarter?) which has a mail cost to it.

Re: The $36 soda: Overdrafting in America

#95

Post by [deleted] »

Retric wrote: post #61
gtCameron wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honest question, since I haven't done it in 10 years, but what is the big hassle in switching banks? Shouldn't it be as easy as signing up for a new account and taking a cashiers check out of the old one and closing it. I'm curious to know what other hurdles they put in place to keep you locked in.

Banks don't close accounts. So you can have a reoccurring charge on a canceled debit card show up on a canceled bank account get charged for it get an over draft, have a negative balance which you get charged for every day. Then once the balance is negative enough they sell your 'debt' to a third party debt collector. PS: The first half of this happened to me costing me close to 300$ in 2 weeks and it's only me doubl…

[deleted]

Re: The $36 soda: Overdrafting in America

#96

Post by hop »

alanh wrote: post #93
hop wrote: post #86

Made 2hrs after of walking out of a Wells Fargo. http://fuckwellsfargo.com

Guess: The reason you censored the logo but not the domain is because you don’t really have the appropriate typeface & just pasted the “F” from “Fargo”? Idea: You could attempt to construct U, C, and K: U = top of L + bottom of O; C = mirror the top half of G; K = maybe the legs of A + the left of R? If you want me to give it a shot, ping me. Update My attempt, just for fun. Result: http://cl.ly/273o3w1z2d2B3y2A0e1y…

Thanks. I just googled for the font and came up with Clarendon, but it doesn't look exact. Anything you want to do I'll post. Really not interested in the domain anymore, so if anyone wants it...

Re: The $36 soda: Overdrafting in America

#97

Post by majorlazer »

Qz wrote: post #17

I was discussing this with my friend the other day and she's convinced that if she didn't have overdraft 'protection' there are still certain merchants who run debit cards as credit cards which then incur an overdraft fee anyway. Has anyone heard of this? I'm looking for some evidence I can use to get her to cancel the overdraft nonsense before she gets further in debt.

Yep. Example would be having your account tied to your PayPal. It will remove regardless if you have the overdraft protection or not.

Re: The $36 soda: Overdrafting in America

#98

Post by adrianN »

cturner wrote: post #94
nknight wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, tell me, how much are those electrons costing the bank, again? Unless they're also giving you free checks, that's pretty much the cost. A human being will rarely look at anything. Everything is handled by automated computer systems.

In some countries regulation will state that the bank needs to send a physical account summary to people every so often (month? quarter?) which has a mail cost to it.

My bank charges me for that.

Re: The $36 soda: Overdrafting in America

#99

Post by bermanoid »

ck2 wrote: post #83

STOP USING COMMERCIAL BANKS. Sorry for the caps but it cannot be stressed enough. There is no good reason not to use a credit union - almost everyone in the USA can find one and qualify and since they are member owned they won't do nonsense like this and don't need regulation to force them to do what is morally right.

I'm curious here: what are the benefits of using a credit union over a bank? What are the drawbacks?

Right now I keep 95% of my money in investment accounts (I use Interactive Brokers these days, they have reasonable fees for trades and zero bullshit, which puts them two steps ahead of any normal bank that I know of), and push the remaining stuff to a throwaway checking account @BoA as needed to cover recurring payments, bills, etc. I don't have any sort of credit whatsoever, I've always preferred to pay up-front (and yes, this has been a problem, as I've gotten older I've realized that some things, like car rentals, are exceptionally difficult to deal with without a credit card, and getting a credit card is actually somewhat difficult if you skipped it for the first part of your life, and they really don't care how much money you have if you have no credit history...).

Trust me, I'd love nothing more than to know that I was contributing absolutely zero to the consumer banks. But I've never really looked into alternatives; the main reason I use consumer banks is for convenience, like being able to set up bill payments, have a debit card, deposit checks at an ATM, etc. Can credit unions cover those use cases? And can someone like me, who's over 30 but has never borrowed money before, get into one?

Re: The $36 soda: Overdrafting in America

#100

Post by Natsu »

bermanoid wrote: post #99
ck2 wrote: post #83

STOP USING COMMERCIAL BANKS. Sorry for the caps but it cannot be stressed enough. There is no good reason not to use a credit union - almost everyone in the USA can find one and qualify and since they are member owned they won't do nonsense like this and don't need regulation to force them to do what is morally right.

I'm curious here: what are the benefits of using a credit union over a bank? What are the drawbacks? Right now I keep 95% of my money in investment accounts (I use Interactive Brokers these days, they have reasonable fees for trades and zero bullshit, which puts them two steps ahead of any normal bank that I know of), and push the remaining stuff to a throwaway checking account @BoA as needed to cover recurring payme…

The main advantage is that credit unions are member-owned and therefore run to benefit the members, not some investors. This keeps them from having an interest in screwing you via weird fees and whatnot. The main disadvantage I've seen is that smaller ones have less leverage and so you pay more ATM fees to other banks.

I've been in the no credit card boat, so I know exactly what you mean. I got mine by having a car loan I don't really need that my brother cosigned to create a credit history. You may also be able to get a loan from your broker. Mine keeps telling me how big a loan I'm approved for, though I've never tried it.

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