I don’t understand the American financial system. I know that, for some reason, U.S. banks don’t let you overdraw your checking account, but isn’t the purpose of credit cards to give you credit?
Oh c’mon. If you ask a business about their policies, they should be able to give you a truthful answer. Presumably the telephone correspondent is an adult as well.
I’ve read articles about this nonsense: telephone correspondent gives misinformation and bank reaps overdraft fees. It’s disgraceful. I mean how many people call up a bank to ask, "Hey, I just deposited a check. When does it start earning interest? [sup]1[/sup] What they typically want to know is when they have access to the funds. Oh, and when they ask, “When has my check cleared?”, that’s a code for “When will it be safe from bouncing?” Sheesh.
I for one sympathize with your rant, but to be fair there are lots of people working at banks who are just trying to earn a living. And linking borrowers with lenders is an important and honest endeavor.
Oh! We thought you wanted to know when you were earning interest! Never mind that it’s a checking account.
[sup]1[/sup] Well, actually me for one.
AFAIK, this hasn’t been the case for years at certain banks, at least for out of state checks. I made a project of this years ago: I had to write a letter to their regulator before I got a straight answer. Apparently they can collect funds interest free for several days. IIRC, it was a change in policy related to the Fed’s attempts to manage float better.
Bullshit. I have never, ever had a problem putting money on my account and then using it. Once it deposits, it’s there.
Also, I love the rationalization: It’s okay to lie, since every adult knows how it works. But, as you admit in the top of your post, most adults DON’T know how it works. You refuted your own fucking post, all so you could call the OP a child.
BTW, my sister works at a bank, too. Accounts get money the next day, by policy. So you don’t even have the expertise to be lording over everyone else. How sad.
Oh, he was using his ATM (automated teller machine) card - aka a “debit card” - not a credit card. Debit cards draw directly from your checking account, not a line of credit.
Taking advantage of a “credit” card would have worked in this situation. Even if you don’t like maintaining a balance, it’s good to have one for emergencies.
(Based on a ti[p in an old Hardy Boys book I read 40 years ago, I also keep a $20.00 hidden in the car in case my wallet disappears on a road trip and I need just enough gas to get home.)
I feel your pain. We had a slightly different issue ourselves last weekend - my husband went to Stoke on Trent, our nearest city, and bought a comic from a comic shop, a lottery ticket, and then went to pay for his parking only to have his card declined.
Apparently fraudsters like magazines, lottery tickets, and paying for their parking, because these incredible purchases triggered our bank’s fraud detection system and they put our entire account on hold.
Cue a desperate phone call to the bank and they eventually decided we weren’t fraudsters and let us have our account back.
We didn’t win the lottery. 
So, you threatened to take your $0 balance elsewhere in the future? And that didn’t sway them at all?
You can deposit a check for say, $1,000 into an empty account and then immediately withdraw $1,000? This is difficult to believe.
I maintain a balance in my account, and my credit union puts a hold on a portion of the balance of paper checks that are deposited—for example, written from my wife’s account from a different bank. They don’t freeze the entire amount, and it typically only takes a business day or two for the hold to be removed (not five). But there is a delay before the “available balance” equals the “balance.” (This of course is not the case with direct deposits.)
Call when this isn’t happening and ask what profile is attached to your debit card. I had a couple of issues a long time ago with making large debit purchases (New PC’s! Woohoo!) and the annoyance of not being able to do it via debit due to the $1000 daily spending limit.
After chatting with the bank and them reviewing my history they agreed to move me to the next profile. Apparently there isn’t much granularity however because I can now spend $99,000/day if I chose to and somehow rob another bank to deposit that money into my account.
Also associated with the profile are the amounts of deposits that are immediately preapproved for withdrawl. If I deposit anything into an ABM I’m immediately cleared to use it up to $10,000/day. We have to be careful to use my card though as we never bothered to have my husbands upgraded so if he deposits the same item into the same account it’s held for 10 days.
I was stranded at the pump by BofA once. They are the most aggressive group of account-freezing assholes I have ever heard of. They froze my account, without warning, because I’d made what they deemed a “suspicious purchase.” I’m don’t even remember what it was anymore, but I’d purchased a completely ordinary item online. I purchase many ordinary items online, so I’m not sure what raised their hackles about that one.
The old man was a BofA customer, and his account was routinely frozen every time we went to Vegas, which we did a lot. Hell, two impulsive people living in Los Angeles = frequent Vegas trips, and they never seemed to figure out that people go to Vegas, and when they do, they tend to spend a lot of money. And I mean every single time this happened, so we started placing bets on when we’d no longer have access to plastic money.
So anyway, the aggressive account-freezing assholes got me again when I was attempting to fill up before going to a job interview. Here I am, trapped because they’ve held my money hostage, and have to hold for what seems like an eternity, before I can go anywhere. Fortunately, I’m super-paranoid about being late for interviews, and had given myself a ridiculous time window. I made it on time, no thanks to BofA.
Cunts.
You need to set it up in advance but it can be done IF they want to do it for you. I keep my chequing account fairly low and having to move money there 10 days before I need it would be challenging. Since I have other accounts with the bank they’ve decided I’m worth the risk of maintaining that profile.
It doesn’t mean if I deposit a bad cheque they won’t come back to me when it bounces and take the money out along with their usual insane service fees, but as long as I manage to not do that this works out for both of us.
Especially for a payroll check. We once bounced a check in “the pay bills- deposit paycheck dance” and the bank reversed the charges and covered the bounced check when they saw it was a payroll check in the same amount that every payroll check had been for the past year.
Yikes. Switch banks and get a direct deposit.
Jamie, you need a credit card for emergencies.
My bank doesn’t put a hold on payroll checks. My check is deposited Thursday night at midnight. The money is available to me immediately.
Bnaks are not there for us. When it comes time to take money out of our accounts, it takes a second. When it comes time to giving us money, however, they hem and haw and it takes days and days. Banks rule us and we have to bend over and ask nicely.
Everyone should have a credit card. I realize some people have such screwed up credit that no one will give them one or they have to pay some ridiculous user fee for a minimal limit, but as soon as a real card is available it should be acquired and used. I really don’t understand why anyone who has access to a decent credit card would make a purchase with debit over credit when there is so much added risk when using a debit card.
Yeah, I don’t think you understand how your own account works. If you’ve got $1000 in your account, you can go deposit a $200 check, and immediately withdraw $200. At that point, your current balance will be $1000, but your available balance will be $800. You don’t notice the hold because you’ve got the money you wanted.
However, let’s say you have $1000 in your account, and you go deposit a $5000 check to bring your current balance up to $6000. Will the bank allow you to immediately withdraw $5500? No, because your available balance is still only $1000 for a few more days.
I suspect you, BigT, generally keep enough money in your account and withdraw small enough amounts that you’ve never noticed how the funds from each check create a hold. Either that or you’re lying just to be contentious.
I didn’t say most adults don’t know how it works. I said I’m surprised at how many don’t. Grown-ups should know this stuff, and most do (with you and the OP being obvious exceptions).
I’ll freely admit I’ve never used nor worked for a credit union, so I suppose they may have different policies than banks or S&Ls. But I have to suspect most will have the somewhat standard hold policy for checks.
Man, I feel for the OP, since it sounds like a sucky situation all around…but WTF? How can you have zero money in your account and wallet?!? You basically had zero money and no credit card?
The last time I was that broke was my first year in uni. Methinks someone needs to take a refresher in adult money management skills
Secondly - why the hell would anyone NOT have direct deposit? Why would companies even offer it as a ‘choice’?
And don’t even get me going on the stupid ‘paid every two weeks’ thing…
My wife and I have a Citizens checking account, which we started a little over 18 months ago when we moved to the Chicago area from Atlanta. Because of some preexisting arrangements we’re not motivated to change, paychecks go into our credit union account in GA, and for grocery/incidental money I make weekly deposits into the Citizens account via personal check. Citizens never puts more than a 1 day hold on those deposits before they become “available balance.”
jamie, what I’d recommend is that rather than changing to a different bank where you’ll experience almost identical policies -and where you don’t have a history they can review- you go into your local branch and speak with the branch manager. With a consistent 12 year history of regular deposits from the same institution (assuming you don’t have a history of overdrafts), they shouldn’t have a problem changing your profile to reduce the hold on your deposits.
It would certainly be better for you to set up direct deposit of your paycheck, and to opt in on that “overdraft hustle” you disdained before, but just taking the time to speak to a bank representative in person may make a big difference for you.
I do all my banking, business and personal, with a very small local bank. On occasions where my checking balance was inadequate, they have transferred the necessary amount from my business account without any charge or pre-existing agreement.
I can indeed do exactly that. Talk to your bank.
Or maybe it’s just a Canadian thing in which case 
Go Canada!*
- I was going to say Go us but the potential for misunderstanding was too great.