tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11666785.post8867001083825549164..comments2023-10-19T10:37:16.162-04:00Comments on Randy Barnett: Debit cards and overdraft feesRandyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16477949304113673930noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11666785.post-70855446558698871002010-06-14T17:19:58.994-04:002010-06-14T17:19:58.994-04:00David,
First, thank you for your comment on thi...David,<br /> First, thank you for your comment on this old item. I hope the moderation didn't hold it up too long.<br /><br />Others, I checked David's link and it appears to be legitimate. I offer no comment on it's accuracy, but it looks good, although it is mostly UK driven.Randyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16477949304113673930noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11666785.post-44358660401732128272009-09-25T16:12:26.009-04:002009-09-25T16:12:26.009-04:00Anon, it took me a little bit to understand what y...Anon, it took me a little bit to understand what you meant about a metal debit card. I'm assuming you also have some folding debit cards?Randyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16477949304113673930noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11666785.post-78876796248699479062009-09-24T13:34:23.013-04:002009-09-24T13:34:23.013-04:00i use a metal debit card, its a lot harder to over...i use a metal debit card, its a lot harder to overdraft than those plastic ones.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11666785.post-21496162574330512912009-09-18T21:20:17.604-04:002009-09-18T21:20:17.604-04:00Katie, the envelope system is good. You still need...Katie, the envelope system is good. You still need to exercise discipline not to "borrow" from another envelope. I'm glad it works for you.<br /><br />Glenn, a good idea to write down everything you do. Unfortunately, a lot of folks don't have that discipline. When I was a teenager, my balance got down to 43 cents one time, but I knew that I had 43 cents. There was no doubt in my mind. And I stopped writing checks until I put more in there.<br /><br />Edge, Yes, you can negotiate away charges. But I'm told from some reliable sources, you can only do that once. Be careful.<br /><br />Tipper, the dangers of two people using the same account. Glad you can access online to watch the account..Randyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16477949304113673930noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11666785.post-17235887281542190892009-09-18T20:17:41.682-04:002009-09-18T20:17:41.682-04:00Good tips. I don't use a debit card-but my hus...Good tips. I don't use a debit card-but my husband does-and he doesn't always remember to tell me about every charge-so I keep track online-so our checking account isn't surprised : )Tipperhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11714281090985487356noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11666785.post-14485517813575800122009-09-17T07:15:59.107-04:002009-09-17T07:15:59.107-04:00It still comes down to knowing what you actually h...It still comes down to knowing what you actually have in your bank, and not even getting close to zeroing it out. I have never in my life - even at my poorest moments living payday to payday by the skin of my teeth - have overdrawn. It is simply being responsible for what you have or haven't got in the bank!Glenn E. Chatfieldhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04117405535707961903noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11666785.post-14032877077552284972009-09-17T02:40:16.739-04:002009-09-17T02:40:16.739-04:00Having run into this situation myself a time or tw...Having run into this situation myself a time or two, I have the "sweep" situation setup just in case. But I've also learned that you can argue with the bank on these things and you can get some of your money back. The premise is the following:<br /><br />You start the day with $100 in your account. You write a check to someone, and buy gas for your car, and now you really only have $20 in the account. But, since the check to your friend hasn't cleared yet, the bank says you have $75 in the account. This is called "floating", and where most folks get in trouble. They go spend up to that $75, the check clears, and bammo - they are overdrawn.<br /><br />What happened to me was a little different. Let's say I have $100 in my account, and I go make $70 in purchases on my debit/check card. Depending on where you make them, they either come directly out of the account or they don't. But the bank still puts the money "on hold". So then the bank says you only have $30 dollars to spend even though your ATM machine says $60. Here's where it gets confusing. That same night, a check I wrote three weeks ago finally clears, and now the bank says I am overdrawn by $20. But, my account still has $10 in it. The problem is, the bank has already subtracted the amount "on hold" from the $10 to tell me I'm overdrawn. But in my case, I have the bank "sweep" my savings to prevent the overdraft fee of $25. Which is good. But, for this service, I am charged $10. Not great, but at least it is better than $25. So what does my bank do? They sweep $30 from my savings into my checking. Why $30? Because 10 is to cover the overage, 10 is the overdraft sweep fee, and then they add an additional 10 because you can't keep a zero balance. So what's my actual balance now? Well, according to the bank, it's +10. But if I go out to the the bank website on-line, it says $40 - how can that be???? Wait, it gets better. The next day, another new debit clears for $12. Bammo - I get hit with another sweep overdraft fee and they move $30 more into my checking (12 for the money due + 10 for the fee + they round up to the next 10), leaving me 8 dollars in the account. But at the same time, none of the holds cleared, so the website says $38. So now, on consecutive days, I have been hit with sweep overdraft fees of 10 dollars and 10 dollars. Well, this set me off, and I called the bank on this one. The first guy I talked to wouldn't listen to common sense. I said to him, look - you are charging me an overdraft sweeps fee for money you did not even take out of my account. If you didn't take it out of my account, then I wouldn't have been overdrawn again. I said - look, I'll buy the first $10 fee because I see your math and how you got my balance below zero. But look, if your'e not going to take the money out of my account, you can't very well charge me the 2nd overdraft fee because the money was there to cover the second check (the $12 check in my example). You can't hit me on both days. You can only have one overdraft, because you didn't take the money out of the account. I finally got a second lady on the phone and explained the same thing, and she agreed with me. So the moral of this story is this - if you can do simple math, and explain to the bank what their own website says you have in the account, they are going to be hard pressed to hit you for overdraft fees on consecutive days if they don't take the money out of your account which is causing you to be overdrawn. Stand up for your rights as a consumer!<br /><br />Now, I only got $10 back, and it cost me a good bit of time on the phone (maybe an hour), but I felt so good when I got done because I had "beaten" the bank with their own rules.<br /><br />And my wife can verify this too, because she was in the next room listening to me tak to the bank person, and thinking, they don't know who they're dealing with....."The Edge"https://www.blogger.com/profile/04274513346347987429noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11666785.post-26876746526557886682009-09-15T20:37:47.233-04:002009-09-15T20:37:47.233-04:00I was just going to say that it is much easier if ...I was just going to say that it is much easier if you just keep track of how much you have in the bank and don't write or debit for more than you have. DUH!Glenn E. Chatfieldhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04117405535707961903noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11666785.post-24056274426676114592009-09-15T18:48:47.490-04:002009-09-15T18:48:47.490-04:00These are all things that I would agree help, but ...These are all things that I would agree help, but at the same time, if you are irresponsible enough to make these mistakes over and over, you are irresponsible enough to not pay any attention to the alerts and so forth. So I would add in there that this is good for everyone, but for people who are overdraft pron, they should start using the envelope system until they get proper check book ediquite! The envelope system works really well for me, however you have to know how much cash to carry with you everyday so you don't make 20 trips back to the house!Katie Penningtonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16555252813737873003noreply@blogger.com