I’m in the habit of balancing my account online every night. Last night I balanced it and realized that the automatic withdrawal (which I’d forgotten) for my car payment had made me overdrawn, and they’d charged me a $6 fee. Drat it.
I immediately transferred money from my savings account to cover the problem.
Tonight, I balanced it and discovered that the transfer had not yet been processed, and they’d charged me a $60 overdraft fee.
I was to blame, but I did fix the problem as soon as I became aware of it. Did the bank do me wrong here, or will I have to just suck it up and pay the sixty bucks?
Is there any point in going to the bank tomorrow to try to get this changed?
I just went through something similar tonight. Call your bank, hope for a sympathetic customer service person, be really nice and apologetic and maybe they’ll forgive you just this once.
Technically, no, you don’t have grounds to complain. However, there is a lot of competition between a lot of banks, and so many will go to lengths to keep the customer happy. Your best bet, as Cbawlmer says, is to call up, be polite and as pleasant as possible. Tell them you know you screwed up, but are hoping they might, just this once, forgive the overdraft fee. Don’t call up sounding all pissed because they hadn’t transferred the funds yet, or sounding all indignant about things. This will not make anyone want to help you! Be sugar and sunshine, and you might get your way.
Don’t start off by admitting fault and thus destroy any chance of leverage.
Start with requesting an explanation of the sequence of events (in what order did the money leave and then enter the account) and also a timeframe on when transfers are supposed to be credited to the account. It is possible that the bank processed the transactions in the wrong order or that they delayed making the funds available in your checking account. If it turns out the bank screwed up, ask that the mistake be fixed. If you actually were at fault, then start negotiating on the fee. Don’t hesitate to ask for a supervisor if the CS person won’t negotiate.
60 freakin’ dollars for an overdraft? :mad: I can’t believe you didn’t pit them for this! Good luck trying to get it reversed. You’ll basically be asking them to cut you a break on a highly profitable banking scam. If they do it for you this one time, count yourself very lucky and start looking for a new financial institution because I guarantee they won’t be so willing to do it the second time. Talk about your predatory lending practices. Highway robbery is what this is. And the Feds let them get away with it.
Sorry, but this thread hit a nerve in me as we went through several banks that clear drafts in order of the largest regardless of when they were written/arrived at the bank. That practice can turn one $28 overdraft into six totalling $168 in one fell swoop. After we learned that our state was one that hasn’t passed legislation prohibiting this, we switched to a credit union that has been more than fair and understanding.
I hate banks and I only wish this were in the pit so I could really tell ya how much I despise them.
Seriously, though, I wish you the best of luck. Don’t forget to remind them how long you’ve been a good customer (assuming you have) and you don’t make a habit of this (assuming you don’t). It was simply an unfortunate human error. Oh, and take an aspirin before you call. You might need it.
