The bank can simply decline the transaction. Instead they charge $35 per occurrence, just ridiculous.
This may seem like something that should be easy to avoid, but when I was broke I got hit with these all the time. Also, my bank used to re-order my transactions at the end of the day so the largest posted first, ensuring maximum fees. It’s just mega scummy exploitation of poor people.
They’ve made it an art of ordering checks so that the fees are multiplied. I think there was some reform on this.
As noted they used to cut people off, now they just don’t the $30 or have a loan account as backup (with very high interest rate).
There is no reason with today’s technology for many transactions take days to register.
Philosophically you are 100% correct. In practice the game is rigged for maximum detriment to the account holder.
I know he’s canceled and should be but was still funny
I used to keep just over the minimum in my checking account. Once deposited a check in the morning and then that night paid a bill online. The bill got processed before the check so overnight my account dipped below the minimum for about 3 minutes and I was charged $25. No notice, no warning. Had I not checked my account statement the next day it easily would have been missed. Just complete predatory bullshit.
if you’re using an actual bank and not a credit union you’re a fish
When you’re poor and making $8 an hour or fucking $64 per day, you’re always so stressed out and beaten down you aren’t going to spend your free time finding a credit union.
Imagine working a full time job for less than $20,000 per year. This country is truly a disgrace.
I got super lucky my parents signed me into a credit union when I was 18. They happily took off the week hold on my weird colorful checks from like the Jamaican islands and all kinds of other places known for strange banking practices I believe? from ultimate bet lolol. Those checks looked so fucking fake. But they put it into my account and let it ride for the week they took to verify it.
Also when I had my wallet stolen and had like 2500 taken out of my account via random purchases they snap refunded while investigated.
But thats luck/privileged. If that hadn’t of happened I highly doubt I would have gotten into one until I was old enough and making decent money already
I remember my very first check from Pokerroom a loooooong time ago literally didn’t have an address for the bank - it just said like “Corner of Main Street and 15th” or something like that. I couldn’t believe the check cleared.
Are we talking pokerroom .com that was Mac friendly?
My senior year roommate made like $250k on party poker. He hired an accountant who told him to pay state taxes on it all, in Maryland, where he was from. The rate was punitive, he paid like $30k in state taxes on top of a hefty federal bill. Can’t imagine many early 2000s dorm room grinders paid their taxes.
That’s the one! This was sometime in the neighborhood of 2003 IIRC.
Calculate what $35 dollar interest is on a 10 day $10 loan.
It’s like ten bajillion percent, which is absolutely illegal but banks spend money on politicians and they become fees.
As Riverman stated it’s trivially easy for them to just decline it.
Every bank has a standard forgiveness policy where they will repeal a couple fees say every twelve months.
It used to exist for a very different purpose. Now ig is customer bankings biggest profit center.
A huge majority of bank accounts are funded with direct deposit. Banks all have different limits on how much overdrafting they will allow. $100/$500/$1000. After what ever arbitrary cap is reached they start declining transactions and keep
Charging NSF fees.
What percent is $35 interest on a $0 loan for 0 seconds?
Some banks do not let you overdraft with your debit card, others do so no problem.
The bottom line is it is all arbitrary and designed to just make them money, not to teach their customers how to be more financially responsible.
If they get you on 1-2 a month and it’s always replenished with a direct deposit you are getting a gold plated toaster. It is almost entirely predatory and almost always impacts those who can least afford it.
I realize I am omitting personal responsibility here. I entirely get that. However there are zero reasons this can’t be handled with a transactional informed consent mechanism.
You know how payday loans are the worst things in the world and absolutely nobody should ever get one? Well this is worse. But people make mistakes or get desperate.
I have had multiple horrible banks Instant refund reported fraud charges while they investigate.
Not knocking your experience just sharing mine that some of the worst banks I have ever used did that.
huh, all my friends report different experiences over the years so I thought it was super uncommon.
I once had an overdraft fee because I transferred in the wrong direction by mistake between two accounts. I called, explained the mistake, and they refunded the fee. YMMV I guess.
When we consolidated our credit card and bank account both w PNC and autopay and the first month we got dinged for a late payment. On the phone we basically got told to piss off. Out local branch guy cleaned it up.
Yup, and I think like 5 or 6 banks have been hit with class actions and pretty large fines for doing exactly that (reordering transactions) When we were poor, about 20% of our monthly income went to paying overdraft and paycheck advance fees. It’s pretty sad when on a Thursday night , you have to decide whether eating is worth possibly getting hit with another overdraft charge or not. Wondering if you can pull together enough coins around the house to get your kids a couple of burritos from Taco Bell so they have something to eat that night.
And we were poor, yes, but we were also middle class. We made fine enough money but were so far in debt from getting through ages 21-25 that a majority of our monthly pay went to debt alone.
Its vicious and disgusting, and these banks worth untold billions just keep drinking it up like a milkshake with a straw. They are the dude from There Will Be Blood. The second money hits your account they drink your milkshake. They drink it alllll up
Shit for a long time they did both. Not only did they decline the charge, they hit you with the fee as well for having the gall to even ATTEMPT to spend money you didnt have. Fucking gross.
First tourney I ever won was on Pokerroom. I was working the night shift at a local radio station which essentially came down to “If anything fucks up, press this button to go to next thing in line” so essentially “do nothing for 8 hours, answer phone calls and if someone requests a song say ‘I’ll see what I can do’” So with nothing to do and a ten dollar NDB, I loaded up a 10 dollar multi and ended up winning 2 grand. That was in 2004 at the height of the boom. I wasnt even good at poker, and the people on PokerRoom were hideously bad.
Would you be interested in a thread where you and others describe your experience and the impact of poverty in more detail?
Not whether/what we should do about poverty or anything like that. Just where we can all explore the experience of poverty in all the ways we have experienced and observed it manifest.
The stories ITT are insightful and enlightening. Just wondering if they are expansive enough now to separate from Bailout/Stimulus discussion.