I can't express how livid I am

The BBQ Pit
1

I’m really so upset I could puke. I just want to go home and poke forks in my eye or scratch the skin off my face.

I fucking overdrew from my checking account. Again. This has to be the around the 20th time I’ve done this since its creation a few years ago. And, of course, I never take the time to do something smart like switch banks, get overdraft protection, or keep track of expenditures, so I get hit up with a charge of $29 for each purchase made in the red. And I’ve made about five so far. Wheeeee!

Why am I so goddam fucking stupid? Why do I exist? I really just hate myself so much. I just don’t know what to do. I suppose I can afford the stupid fucking charges, but I can’t stomach the idea of just WASTING $150 because I’m so stupid.

I’m just sitting here squirming and I want to kick in the computer and it’s going to be on my mind all fucking day and I hate the bank and I hate myself and I hope the world blows up. :mad:

2

Damn, you suck.

Hope that helped.

3

Well, dear, it would be a shame if we all died beause you overdrew your checking account. If it’s any help, I did the same thing myself in my younger years. Overdrew my account, that is, not blew up the world.

No need to hate yourself for being slightly addle-pated from time to time; happens to the best of us.

4

Do you balance your checkbook every month? EVERY month? I used to bounce checks because I wouldn’t take the time to balance. You have to discipline yourself. Really.

5

I haven’t been overdrawn in 15 years because I BALANCE MY CHECKBOOK EVERY MONTH.

6

This method really helped me when I was having similar problems. Add up your paychecks for a month. Subtract off fixed bills (phone, electricity, rent, etc). Subtract off a bit of savings/fudge factor. Divide the result by four. Take out that much money in cash each week. Pay cash for everything (groceries, gas, etc). If you run out of cash, quit buying things for that week.

It keeps you from having to do the math for each little purchase you make.

-lv

7

Don’t go overdrawn then.

Or arrange an overdraft facility that allows you a bit of an overdraft without getting whacked with charges.

8

No point in beating yourself up over something you have already done and can’t fix.

Another suggestion - Try online banking. I never balance my account because I look at my online banking everyday to see the balance. I tend to use my debit card and online bill pay because the results hit my online account balance as oustanding items the very next day.

9

I have the same problem.
Since I gave up hope I feel much better.
Its only money.

I once considered getting married just so I could someone else keep up with my bank account tell me how much freaking money I have.

Its a scam I tell ya ~

They are stealing from us. And they know they can cause we idiots.

I go in the red every month EVERY MONTH.

And I never really spend more than I make.

Explain that ~

10

What bank do you use? Sounds like BankOne. I was in a similar position a few years ago, when I was bussing tables. Most of my pay was in cash, and I only got a check once a month, so I ended up using cash only and mailing in money orders for bills. Can’t go wrong there!! (I didn’t have a “check card” at the time.) My advice:
GET THEE TO A CREDIT UNION!!!

They don’t charge nearly as much for overdraft (or anything else, for that matter), especially if you have a savings account that they can pull funds from. Ours only charges 5 if they have to transfer from savings to checking for us. Ours also has free on-line banking - with bill pay (BankOne charges extra for bill-pay). But even BankOne let you check your balance on-line and transfer funds for free. Learn - hell, MEMORIZE - you bank’s 800 number, so you can check you balance any time day or night.

As for the rest of your rant, stop beating yourself up over it, and GO DO IT!!!

Also, it sounds as though you have a little more going on in your head that being upset with an overdraft. I would suggest talking to someone (professional or not) to figure out where this is coming from. Hell, you can do that here on the boards. We have lots of members who have suffered / do suffer from clinical depression (me included), and you sound like you fit the bill. If you’re lucky, your doctor will be willing to give you some sample medication (if necessary) to see if that helps. I’ve been getting samples for over a year now (great way to save money, in my book).

11

Every month? I balance my book every week due to the miracle of online banking.

12

I used to have this problem (now I regularly balance my checkbook). I hated balancing the check book so I came up with a method similar to LordVor’s. Everytime I deposited money I would round the amount down to the nearest 20 or 50. So if I deposited $386.00 I would record it as $350.00. I never bounced a check and it was always nice at the end of the year finding that I had several hundred more than I thought.

It’s easier just to balance the checkbook though.

13

Shoot, when Airman was overseas, I was doing it every day to make sure that everything that was coming in or going out was correct, and to make sure that there was enough for me to live on, and enough for him, as well.

Robin

14

In light of the fact that you (by your own admission) do this often, I don’t know if it would work for you, but you might call the bank to see if they’ll waive some of those fees.

A couple of weeks ago, I switched my bill payment system from Yahoo! to the one offered by my own bank, because going through my own bank made it free!

Well.

Turns out the bank’s system works a little differently from Yahoo’s. I can tell Yahoo Bill Pay today to pay a bill for me on, say, the 20th, and the money will come out of my account on the 20th. So I might not have a DIME today, but as long as I’ve got money in the bank on the 20th, I’m golden. If I tell my bank’s bill payment system today to pay a bill on the 20th, the money will come out of my account TODAY.

Can you see where this is going?

So imagine my surprise when I, a week in advance, set all of my bills up to pay on June 2nd (knowing that my paycheck would be in the bank by May 30), then had my ATM card declined the next day for a purchase. I checked my account online (knowing that I had some money in there, certainly enough for the purchase) and discovered that I was $126 in the red.

Some of the bills did get paid (like I said, I had a little bit of money in there), but most of them did not, and for every one that didn’t (as well as for the attempted ATM card purchase which alerted me to the whole fiasco), I got charged 15 bucks.

Dude, I called the bank practically in tears. Yes, I’m sure that somewhere in some fine print I was alerted that the day I clicked “Pay” was the day that my account would be debited, but I was able to convince them that I’d honestly had no clue about that, and they refunded all of those $15 charges.

Then again, I think my cause was aided by the fact that I don’t have a history of bouncing checks. Still, it can’t hurt to try . . .

Oh, and what Kalhoun said.

15

Don’t beat yourself up.

Just be patient and thrifty for a few months, and build up a safe “buffer zone” of a few hundred dollars.

Then you can go back to being relatively slack without having to worry about it dropping below the zero mark.

16

I hate to say it, but if you’re in the habit of overdrawing your account, they’re liikely not going to waive the fees. If it’s a once in a while thing, and you’re a long time customer, they’ll usually do it as a courtesy. I’ve screwed up and sent my credit card payment late once every year or two, but since I charge a fair amount and I alway pay on time (and pay the thing off, which actually works against them since they don’t make interest off me, but they do make money off every thing I charge), I’ve always been able to get them to waive both the interest charge and the late fee with a simple phone call.

I’ve bounced checks exactly twice in 20 years, and after the second time I stopped into my bank to add overdraft protection. It took about 10 minutes. Since I generally have enough in my savings to cover any shortage, I took that option which is free, as opposed the the one that cost about $15 or $20 a year. Since then, I’ve haven’t needed it anyway, but it’s there if I do.

17

At my bank, personal checking is free with a minimum balance of $200. I plunked the extra $200 in there, then wrote it out of my check register and forgot about it. It’s a nice little cushion. Once in a very great while my math gets screwed up and I dip into the minimum; then the fee is something like $9 plus 50 cents per check (and I mostly use my debit card; checks for mailed bills only). I balance my checkbook religiously, to the penny, every month (always remembering to adjust for that $200 that I pretend I don’t have). Eventually we did the same for Mr. S’s checking account (we have all separate accounts, no joint ones). There’s an extra $400 we can use in an absolute pinch. (Plus the $500 minimum in my business checking, same arrangement . . .)

18

I have had the same checking account for 20 years and never bounced a check. ( I am very nervous and anal about money) I am the bitch in the checkout lane that won’t move until I write down the amount of the bill and subtract it in my checkbook.
I appreciate your patience.:stuck_out_tongue:

19

I blew up the world once. It didn’t make me feel any better though.

Sorry about your misfortune. But remember, it’s only money. Easy come, easy go.

20

I hate how the overdraft notices come by snail mail. When I find the first one in the mail box, I run up the driveway, into the house, grab the phone, and use the telephone access thingamajiggee to immediately transfer money from savings to checking, no matter what hour of day or night it is.

Then I watch the overdraft notices roll in for three days–cause, see the overdraft happens, and the bank puts the notice in the mail, which then takes two to three days to get to me. And god help me if I’m lazy and don’t pick up the mail every single day.

I have my account set up to automagically transfer money in from savings to cover overdrafts, but there’s a small fee attatched to every pea-pickin’ one.

I really oughta see if my credit union offers email notification.