After a morning’s worth of hassle over my bank charging me more than $250 in fees even though I had the money in my checking account to cover charges, I have decided I am going to pursue a story on whether the fees have gotten out of hand.
The short version of my own debacle is as follows. Like my car insurance company suggests, I set my payment up on an automatic draft. I know that the payment is due on the 19th of each month, so I took $200 out of my other checking account (at another bank, because I am seriously getting outdone with my old bank, which I have been doing business with since I was a teenager) to cover the cost. When I deposited this money, the teller said I would not be charged any fees since I got the money in before 2 p.m. and the fees had yet to be charged.
But even though I got my money in early on Tuesday, it still wasn’t good enough. My bank still saw it fit to charge me the $32 fee on the insurance payment. And to make matters worse, it withdrew the insurance check first, which meant each transaction I made in the past two days were also in the negative.
Contrary to what some may believe, a reporter at a small newspaper does not get rich. So as a person with limited means, I really need the $266 they charged me, whereas the bank (one of the largest in the area) probably can live without my money.
I want to know your horror stories. What do you think about banks and fees? Do you trust your banker?
For some background, I found a couple stories for you to peruse:
