I Hate Overdraft Whiners Too
| by Jim Wang |  Print Article
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Michael hates overdraft whiners. I hate overdraft whiners too. I basically hate it when people try to pass off blame for their own mistakes onto someone or something else, which is basically what overdraft whiners are doing. They make the mistake of spending more than they actually have and, as a result, the bank charges them for it. Sure, banks make mistakes all the time and they don’t pay you a fee for it but that’s not the point, the point is that people need to learn to be responsible for their own actions and not trying to find someone to take the fall for it.
The only reason why we even hear about this is because of how mainstream media works and it’s very much like the blogging community. When a hot news article comes out, like a rate hike by XYZ Bank, every personal finance blogger will write about it because it’s content, it’s fresh, and it’s useful knowledge. When a hot news thread comes out, say sliced off fingers in food, tainted food from China, bloggers will also pound the story from multiple directions because it’s interesting, it’s news, and it’s fun. Mainstream media is no different except that they’re bigger and with recognizable brand names. In this particular case, mainstream media has taken it upon themselves to defend the common man, woman and child against the evils of the corporations – giving a mic to overdraft whiners is one of these ways. So in a sense, mainstream media is only reinforcing this sort of irresponsible behavior because it’s good for business.
Maybe I’m ranting again because it’s late (even though this will publish in the morning, I wrote it at night) but people need to responsible for their own actions. Period.
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Jun 07, 2007 | Read more in Banking, Personal Finance
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Amen, get your stuff together and balance your checking account.
CK
Actually in the UK, there has been a big and successful campaign (especially on http://www.moneysavingexpert.com) for allegedly illegal bank charges – most commonly relating to overdrafts – to be claimed back from the banks.
Perhaps thats what your overdraft whiners are hoping for?
The fees are ridiculous. Then again, by nature, a fee is always going to be ridiculous. Fees are designed to punish, and the more outrageous, the more they punish.
Is a bank really feeling $20 worth of damage by lending me $6? No. But it’s a fee. Of course, the good news about fees is that if the consumer was not the #1 cause of being wrong, a bank will usually refund the fee.
While I agree 100% the banks don’t quite get off that easily.
Case in point:
A customer rights check and the funds can be *immediately* withdrawn. Same customer deposits check and a hold can be put on it for 10 days! Why, if a bank can immediately take money from my account can’t it immediately credit my deposits?
My gripe is that the playing field isn’t exactly level but yeah, I hate whiners too.
Uh. It’s “writes check”, not “rights check”. That’s even worse than there vs their.
c’mon now, no one called the grammar police
I have a way to level the playing field, i.e. not get boned by the banks:
never write checks, and always use cash
yes, the fees are ridiculous…too low that is. $20-$30 isn’t sufficient to deter people from overdrafting. of course, even with higher fees, people would still overdraft. companies simply don’t want to make it punitive enough to deter people, they’d rather make it painful, but not too painful, so people will continue to overdraft and the like. But, i’m in complete agreement that it is up to you, so you really have no one to whine to except yourself. you are entirely in control of late fees, overdraft fees, etc.
now some fees that aren’t in your control are “residual balance” transaction fees. It seems that even if you paid in full you still may get hit by them like i just did on two separate accounts. lucky for me, i emailed both of them to point out that both companies state on their bills that if the new balance is paid in full, there are no transaction fees. both reimbursed me…of course the credits will appear on the next month’s bills so I still have to pay them in order to avoid further fees.
that leads to the point, if you do get hit by a fee, you can always ask them to forgive you just that once.
Banks make profit with their overdraft charges. Let the people complain. It is why YOU have free checking.
It is ridiculous, people complain way too much about this issue…I worked at a bank for two summers, and the rules that have been made out and shown to customers are well-documented. Customers should know how much they have, and if they read the information about the account that they get in the first place, they know they’ll get charged the fee if they overdraft, so if they mess up, its their problem, not the bank’s.
Thank you, Jim, for siding with me on this. It’s nice to know I have some esteemed company.
Being whining about overdrafts really need to get their finances up to par. Right now, I’m living from paycheck to paycheck, but I make sure I check my account balance daily and don’t make purchases that’ll push me into the sub-$100 red zone.
You caught me on just the right day. I was hit with a $35 overdraft fee because the damn bank forces me to juggle my cash around. I have, probably like a lot of people, way more than enough assets and credit to cover my checks. However, the bank gives me 35 different places to put it depending if I need it today, tomorrow, within a year, for retirement, etc. It’s too much and errors are made.
Example: I have a savings account that earns more interest than checking. So to get the interest that the bank is providing me as an oh so valuable service I need 2 accounts: Savings and checking. I have a system where I write a check, then I do a transfer to cover. In this one case a check got missed. I have the cash, the bank knows about it, but since the bank gave me a bunch of admin work to do that occasionally gets done wrong, I am charged $35 maybe once a year. It’s BS. I don’t spend money I don’t have, the bank makes money because I didn’t just through the hoop right.