Submitted 1 month ago by andros_rex@lemmy.world to mildlyinfuriating@lemmy.world
I had $50 in venmo, which I used to purchase groceries, because my bank account is currently negative.
Instead of using the $50 in my bank account, instead, a week later the $50 came out of my bank account, not touching the Venmo balance at all.
So now I have an overdraft fee, effectively meaning I paid 1.5 times for those groceries.
I don’t have “overdraft protection,” I’ve told my bank I don’t want overdrafts to go through, but fuck me for being poor I guess.
I don’t have “overdraft protection,” I’ve told my bank I don’t want overdrafts to go through
Typically overdraft protection means it takes money from your savings, or other linked account, and transfers to your checking. When I had Bank of America they charged me $5 every time this happened.
I have an account at a credit union now, no overdraft charges, no cost when it pulls money from my savings account.
Credit unions are the way to go. Seriously if your reading this and have an account with a mega corp, go to a credit union. Start with a checking account, in time you can migrate all your other stuff over. Better deals on loans, and they’re not predators. And you have a better chance of not enriching the billionaire class while you’re at it.
Small banks are good too. I used to use a fantastic local one called First Republic where every customer had a banker they could call or email if needed. First Republic were acquired by Chase, who wanted some huge amount of money in the account (something like $200k) to get a similar level of service through Chase Private Client. I closed the account.
Why would you want it to automatically grab money from your savings? Wouldn’t you just want to transfer that yourself?
I feel like it’s an extra guardrail that if somebody tries to pull 3000$ from your bank account and you only have 500 there that it can only pull the 500 and not the additional 2500 from your savings account?
Because it keeps them rent payment from bouncing.
Some people aren’t good with money management and may forget to transfer money across, especially for scheduled things (bill payments, rent, etc)
Wells Fargo used to do that to me.
We charged you to transfer money from your savings account to your checking account.
Yeah because that robot needed to be reimbursed for their time lost moving MY money from one account to another.
I had money transferred into savings because that was the requirement to have a “free” checking account despite me not wanting to use their bullshit savings account. It finally led to me canceling it because “you transfer too often from your savings account” and they cited this stupid law that says I can only transfer from savings so many times before triggering yet another fee that goes to the bank.
Fuck all these big banks and the banking system that enables this shitty behavior.
Yeah it’s a sneaky marketing term. In the worst cases, they’ll charge you a fee and let your balance go negative. I personally would rather my account reject a payment if I don’t have the funds rather than letting it go through and charging me for it.
I feel you. It’s very expensive to be poor.
This is “not” professional financial advice for the united states. Banks are a last resort. Use credit unions. Unless there are specific services you need from a bank that your credit union does not provide, your credit union will provide the services you need with fewer fees. I have never seen a bank be better for a client unless they needed some kind of specialized reporting.
Chime is significantly better than my credit union in every way, in my experience
Yeah, get a better bank. Or better yet, a credit union
Already use a credit union 🙃
Fees that target the destitute are peak evil.
I’ve always been able to decline overdraft when opening a bank account in person. Banks argue the fee is preferable to the embarassment of having the transaction declined, but with how often credit cards flag fraud the embarrassment when it happens is practically zero.
Absolutely no one cares if your card is declined. They just wait for you to use a different card. If that cars doesn't work... Oh well. If it does work... Ok.
The "embarrassment" is completely made up.
I do this and then they keep turning overdraft back on without my permission.
Goddamn is it expensive to be poor
On capitol one 360 and first thing I did was turn off overdraft. Now if I purchase an item with my debit card for $100 but only have $99 in my account, it just rejects the transaction
I use a local bank. They’re very helpful and personable, and I don’t ever feel like they’re trying to scam me. I did have to decline the overdraft paper (it was opt-in not opt-out) and I don’t get NFC cards, but it’s totally worth it
Usually you can ask to reverse an overdraft fee as long as it’s not often. It’s humiliating but has worked for me in the past. Good luck.
My bank offers 3 overdraft fee reversals per 12 month period, they just don’t advertise it. OP, you should def call and ask
Find a bank that doesn’t charge overdraft fees. If you so happen to live in Colorado or Arizona, FirstBank is a good choice.
Not only are there no fees for anything, they even give you the option to block your card from charging more than your available balance. Card machines will literally only do a partial payment, allowing you to pay the remaining balance with another form of payment. It works everywhere and is really neat.
You might be able to contact your bank and talk to them about an the overdraft fee, I got slapped by then as a teenager and someone at a booth (was the good old days. you see) simply undid the fees.
Asking nicely one your first offense, they’ll definitely remove the fee. Being nice will get you far.
Not trying to lay blame, but doesn’t Venmo ask where you want the money to come from every time you send money?
Overdraft fees are evil. Some banks will even clear transactions to result in the most overdrafts without regard to which order the transactions took place. For example if there are two transactions, one for $100 and one for $5, and account balance of $50, they’ll purposely clear the $100 transaction first so both transactions trigger overdraft fees. They could clear the $5 first so only the $100 transaction triggers a fee, but nope.
Also, if this is your first overdraft you might have luck calling the bank and asking for forgiveness. I did that once in college and they refunded the overdraft fees.
Not trying to lay blame, but doesn’t Venmo ask where you want the money to come from every time you send money?
No, unless that shows up if you are transferring in the app. It did not ask me where the money would come from. I was using a grocery delivery service and selected Venmo as my payment option. I assumed that selecting Venmo over my bank would take it from my Venmo.
I already got my credit union to forgive a charge on an accidental 1.99 purchase. I don’t think they’ll do it again.
I have even less hours this month. I’ll probably just end up driving off a bridge. There’s no way I’m ever going to be financially solvent again.
Grocery delivery service sounds expensive… but I don’t know where you live.
overdraft fee
I’ve switched to online banking & brokerage accounts and never had to think about those again.
Some guides
Online banks have one major drawback, and that is the difficulty they typically have with getting cash into them.
Checks/Transfers/Etc? no problem.
But cash is a big PITA.
Is that not the purpose of their ATM networks? Though I never use them, I read some offer deposits that way.
I’ve always direct deposited or scanned checks. If someone needs to send me cash, it’s always through some service like Zelle, ACH, or online bill pay. I don’t like to carry cash.
Honestly, I never understood why these apps can’t just use the balance in their own system first. It’s literally sitting there. Super frustrating when banks and apps make things unnecessarily complicated.
amanneedsamaid@sopuli.xyz 1 month ago
I FEEL THIS. My bank tells me its not possible to turn it off on my checking account. Blows my fucking mind they can’t just deny a tranaction if I don’t have the money even if I ask 😭
scytale@lemmy.zip 1 month ago
The can, they just won’t because of those juicy overdraft fees.
OsrsNeedsF2P@lemmy.ml 1 month ago
Which bank do you have? Is switching to a credit union an option?
I switched to a credit union and can use all the same ATMs/send money/etc and there’s no fees/no anti-consumer nonsense
SeeMarkFly@lemmy.ml 1 month ago
It’s not designed against humans, its designed for bankers.
Pieisawesome@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 month ago
Complain to the office of the Comptroller
Bongles@lemmy.zip 1 month ago
My banks can turn it off, but what annoys me about that is the overdraft fee just becomes an insufficient funds fee (in most cases, I’ve obviously not tested most kinds of charges to see) at that point for me, fuck might as well pay what the charge was.