Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with overdraft

How do I get my bank to refund my overdrafts?

AngryTypingGuy — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 17:32:28 -0800

How do I get my bank to refund my overdrafts? I had a family emergency I had to attend to that required me to leave home and fly to another state. I spent my whole time at a hospital and bought nothing else but food. About a week later, a day before I left, I got the chance to sit down and check my online banking. I discovered four $35 overdraft fees ($140 total). The weird thing was that while I was actively using my card everyday for that last week, none of the charges appeared until five days later. This was a little unusual considering that in the past charges usually went through within a couple of days. I immediately transferred money into my account. Since it was midnight there was nothing else for me to do but wait until tomorrow to call them.

The next day I called my bank and explained the situation - that I was in the middle of a family emergency. At first he said there wasn't anything he could do to help me but eventually he offered to refund two of the four overdraft fees. Even so, I continued to ask him to refund all of the overdrafts, but without any luck.

A day later, when I arrived back home, I noticed two additional overdraft fees practically canceling the refund that I had received earlier. I guess that was just a shrewd way of getting me off the phone.

It's been a week now. I've been busy resituating myself but I'm still looking to get refunded for all of my overdrafts. Is this possible? I thought I had a pretty good explanation but it still didn't seem to get through to them.

Thanks for your help.

What can we do about all these overdraft fees, which we think are unjustifiable?

GrooveStix — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 17:51:07 -0800

My girlfriend received $506 in fees for overdrafting about $40 from Bank of America. Is there anything we can do about this? Here's her question, since she doesn't have an AskMefi account:

Hey Everyone, I urgently need guidance on how to deal with some outrageous banking fees.

I have a checking account with Bank of America. My card has a credit card function on it, which I used last week in order to purchase food. Meanwhile, I had not realized that the bank hadn't processed several of my other past charges - they decided to process all the charges at once, over-drafting me by $40 and slamming me with 5 $35 overdraft fees. Apparently (I just learned this tonight from a cold-voiced manager at a Customer Service center) it's the fault of the merchants, since they gave me a receipt, meaning the charges would be consider debit - NOT credit, even though each of the 9 charges were specified as credit. When I called on the 22nd, I learned that if I didn't pay what was originally $216 in fees, the total balance I owed would jump with 6 more incoming overdraft fees. Being a struggling college student, I couldn't just pay it all off and move on; the total balance is now $506 and are about to jump again. All of my attempts to escalate the problem via phone have failed, despite my threats to use legal and public action. I am also awaiting replies from emails I sent to CEO Ken Lewis, as well as several other executives - I am sending more emails tonight.

Is there anything else I can do? I really need help soon! I have a paycheck coming in next week that auto-deposits and, if I don't have a solution before next Friday, I will have MORE overdraft fees (as explained to me by a service rep) and I won't be able to cover a payment to my University, which was a strict agreement.

Please let me know what can be done. Thank you so much!!!

COURTESY PAY FEE: $25

Squid Voltaire — Wed, 12 Apr 2006 15:16:08 -0800

What are your strategies for avoiding overdraft fees? Another month, another $75 in over draft fees. Here's my situation:
I earn enough money to pay all my bills and eat out a bit--it's the most comfortable I've been (financially) in four years. I do not earn enough to have any buffer between paychecks, however. I try to avoid cash and pay for as much as I can with a debit card, via the web if at all possible. Every month it seems that I have miscalculated yet again and the overdraft pile-on ensues. At my previous bank, I was able to get a credit card, and they were nice enough to apply excess charges to that instead, but this bank (actually a credit union) has nothing like that.

Two months ago I began taking meticulous notes in my pocketpc, detailing every transaction. The problem is that
a) many transactions (such as personal checks) don't show up in my bank account for weeks and
b) a few transactions (my automatic payment for my gas bill) only show up on the bank statement and, thus, don't get entered into my personal accounting.
This makes it really difficult to balance my books on a daily (nay, hourly) basis, which is what I would really like to do.

My partner had the same problem, and just switched to an entirely cash-based lifestyle. I really like paying for things online, however.

Someone else suggested telling the bank to start refusing excess charges, but that seems a little foolhardy.

Quick note: I know that there are plenty of ways that I could save money (stop eating out, for one) but that's not really my question. I'm just looking for useful systems that you have all set up so that you know _accurately_ how much cash you have at any given point.

Running from the bank.

Anonymous — Thu, 23 Feb 2006 14:06:48 -0800

I went $26 over on my bank account and the bank has charged me $110 in fees. If I pay them the $26 + say $20 extra then flee the country would there be any serious repercussions? I'm about to leave the USA to return back home and I have no plans to live in the USA in the forseeable future. I do not have a social security number and the only thing the bank has is a copy of my passport details.

In terms of ethics I am justifing this action because of the exhorbitant fees that are not in relation to the about I'm overdrawn. I think paying back the money I owe plus a little bit more is more than reasonable. The bank will not be out of pocket - it will have made a small profit.

Would I be comitting fraud?

iamcrispy — Mon, 25 Jul 2005 08:46:48 -0800

I'm thinking about starting a new student bank account in the UK as well as my current one. But I need some advice. I already have a student account with RBS, however my local branch is over an hour away, and I like to sort things out in person, so this makes things a bit of a pain. So, I'm thinking of starting a new student account with Natwest.

The problem is that I have an overdraft with RBS (now into unauthorised territory), and I don't know whether to declare that as my main bank account, especially considering Natwest is now part of RBS.

Would Natwest be willing to transfer the overdraft over to the new account (the overdraft is larger and will null the unauthorised overdraft)?

Also, in the application form it vaguely mentions that you must agree to this being your only student account, would I be able to get away with having both?