Halfway Done with Car Loan #2 »
Confession: I am a Victim of Bank Fees
- Posted by JvW on December 10th, 2009 filed in Banking
The other night, while sitting on the couch, my husband was scouring eBay to find a new lamp for our living room. Choosing one turned out to be the easy part. Once he found one we both liked (for $35, score!), he logged into the Paypal account to pay for it.
Then the fun really began.
Paypal has recently increased their security to help prevent identity theft. This, of course, is a good thing. Unless, like us, you have 3 Paypal accounts (His, Hers, & His Business), all of which cannot overlap in the credit cards they use. Confusion ensues as we tried to figure out which card or bank account goes with which paypal account. We finally were able to purchase the lamp using the paypal account attached to our local savings account.
Since most of our savings is in ING accounts, I logged into our local savings account to ensure there was enough money to cover the lamp. My husband looked over my shoulder, pointed at the screen, and asked, “What’s that?”
Me: “Oh, that’s our service fee for the savings account.” ($1.00/month)
Him:”WHY are we paying a service fee? Just put the minimum balance in the account so there is no fee.”
Me: ::blank stare:: “I am such an idiot.”
I honestly thought that our bank account just had service fees. We’ve been paying the fee for months. I never thought twice about it.
After a little research & googling, I found that the minimum balance for our account is $250. Unfortunately, I couldn’t verify this on our bank’s website, so I transferred the money over and will check the next statement to make sure it’s enough.
Even us personal finance bloggers make mistakes sometimes!
January 1st, 2010 at 8:36 pm
my bank (Sun Trust) takes the charges out of my account BEFORE they inter a deposit. ~ the same day ! there ahve been many times where they charge $35. for a NSF then another $35. for another charge for being over drawn. I complain and they credit the account BUT what about all of those folks that don’t complain !!! that’s big bucks for the bank and that stinks.
January 3rd, 2010 at 2:39 pm
David - That’s ridiculous! They should always rule in favor of the customer, but, of course, that’s no way to make money. Good for you for complaining!
January 15th, 2010 at 2:18 pm
You “ain’t seen nothing yet.” Wait until the banks have to pay us back TARP funds before their coddled execs get the multi million bonuses! My story: My NEW bank (we moved to Texas) accepted a $2,000 deposit to my little checking account. The teller emphasized that the funds would not be available for five days. No problem. I just wanted to have some money locally. The next day I received a letter stating that my account had been FROZEN for ten days! The President gives me a lot of hooey about the cumbersome process of clearing a Chicago check (about 10 days). I look stunned. He holds his ground. When my statement came, THE CHECK HAD CLEARED IN ONE DAY! I went down the street and opened an account at their cometitor leaving just a little in the old a/c.
Next thing, a vendor had held my ck for 50 days, the ck bounced and I was charged $35! I stared at Mr. “Presidente” and asked, “Couldn’t you pick up a damn phone? I live ten minutes away! The vendor offered to pay the bank fee but the bank did as much bad PR as they could. Dumb. Just dumb.
January 16th, 2010 at 4:29 pm
Betz - what a horrible story! I’m glad you left that crappy bank. I think sometimes they forget that we are their customers.