This story is just way too sad...
 

I know this single young mother that has a new born baby who ask me to borrow some money because the other day Union Bank pretty much robbed her blind and she did not no what else to do. Here is part of the myspace message she sent me. She said it was cool I posted this as long as I did not mention whom it was from. I have my bank with North Island and have my business account with Union Bank so I know first hand what this girl is talking about. Credit Unions are such good banks and Im about to switch my business account to one. Big banks like Union bank are just out to rip off their customers.

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It was friday and I only had $20.15 in my account and I had just deposited my paycheck. I had to buy diapers for my baby so I spent $21.70 on the diapers, I also got some food real quick for $5.45. I realized I forgot the baby formula so I went and spent another $15.27. Now my account was negative $22.27. My rent was also due that day but I knew that would not be a problem because it would not come out until Monday or Tuesday morning. Later that day I took my daughter to the beach and really needed some gas so I got just $10 in gas. Now my account was negative $32.27, not the end of the world.

Monday morning comes along and I look at my bank online and I freaked out. Friday night I also had an Ebay fee come out for $2.00 and a foreign transaction fee of .20 cents from union bank whatever the hell that is. My account should have been negative only $34.47 but I got 6 NSF charges which the bank charged me $180 for so now my account was negative $214.47

Well Tuesday my rent came out and I was short $40 so the bank tried to process it twice and charged me another $60. Now the bank fees are up to $240. Then wednesday I needed more baby formula so I took out $20 out of the ATM which it let me do even though my account was negative and I got another $30 fee. My rent check was then returned and I got a $30 return check fee. Wednesday I also had 3 other small debits for a total of $35.27, one was a check for $15.00 which they tried to process twice but then took it out anyways so I got another $120 in charges then the next day that $15 check was returned and I got another $30 returned check fee so now the fees are at $420.00. My land lord also came to me and said I owe an extra $50 now because my check bounced and was late. Now Im in the hole by $470.00 and I only have half my rent.

So for my $109.89 that I so called borrowed from my bank since I did not have the money in there they made a $420 profit. I feel like I was just robbed.
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Get a bank account at a credit union. Lets boycott union bank, bank of america and wells fargo!!!!! pass this message on PLEASE!!!!!!!!! Maybe we can make a difference so these big banks stop ripping people like this poor young mother off, this is just bullshit.

$420 profit on $109.89? damn.

Last week my girlfriend had the same thing happen to her... kind of. She made a payment on a credit card, the bank paid the wrong amount, put her under and she ended up with six charges for not having money. Which she did not know about and the bank was at fault for.

It looks like your friend knew that she didn't have any money left in the account... why did she keep charging? That seems kind of silly to do.

If only she had overdraft protection it never would of happened.

She had no idea she would get this screwed over.

Totally fucked up..damn big banks are thieves

Yea I'm actually going to cancel my account with Union bank this week and switch over to North Island Credit union, not sure why I did not do this along time ago, I have always had problems with them.

Unfortunately most (tho not all) banks are predatory, including card companies wtfent. They stopped being real banks years ago and switched to being loan sharks to improve their shareholder reports.

From personal experience, know of bank managers who resigned when banks stopped acting as banks and adopted policies where staff are more interested in selling financial services and the bank found a new source of revenue in penalties. Similarly, if they think you have a biggish project in the wind, the first thing a bank manager will do is attempt to arrange meetings with bank directors to try and present an option to get a cut of the deal - tho, I never asked for loans or their "help", just needed competitent banking facilities. They are predatory and worth keeping at arms length.

It's ironic that an organization calls itself a "credit union" when they are really loan sharks.

Commerce Bank-no over draft everrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

I feel sorry for her, but why was she overdrawing her account intentionally? Not smart.

What exactly did she think was going to happen? Overdraft charges are nothing new, and I am more than sure they were pointed out to her in the terms when she opened her bank account.

My other question is why isn't she on WIC and why isn't she breastfeeding (hello, it's FREE and better for the baby than formula anyway)? I just don't get some people.

Here is a chunk of wisdom for younger people, primarily, but also for anyone:

Banks can and do the following, legally:

You fuck up, simple as that. You make ten charges to your debit card for $10.00 each on the day when you have exactly $100.00 in the account.

THEN you make one more charge for $100.00.

So, you would think, those FIRST ten debits, totalling your $100 bucks would clear and you would be overdrafted for the final $100 bucks.

Guess again spanky.

They will clear the $100.00 charge and bounce the other TEN to make more money. It is legal, and it happens all the time. Happened to a good friend of mine a few weeks back.

She went to the bank and was told: "Read your agreement. We reserve the right to process your charges however we want, and there's nothing you can do about it."

It WAS legal. She was fucked. THEN they offered to remove the charges if she signed up for a bank credit card and overdraft protection scheme for 18% interest.

Snakes, all of them.

Thankyou. I worked for a large bank here in Charlotte, North Carolina. The NSF fees are kinda steep and can seem harsh, but listen to her message. She knew she didn't have the money in the bank but she continued to spend. The bank didn't know it was on baby formula or whipes/diapers and even if they did it wouldn't matter. She was running around like a 15 year old with a debit card just sliding away and expecting not to be penalized for it. You get a fee from your bank for each transaction you make when you are in the negative. Look how many purchases she made. Each one = an NSF fee. The bank didn't rob her. They simply charged her for spending their own money to pay for her items. She did not have the money in her account so they had to pull it out of their own and cover for her irresponsibility. NSF fees are steep, and I don't agree with the amount, but if you only got charged $5 per NSF imagine how many people would run around spending $ they didn't have. Then they realize how they fucked up so the just refuse to go back to the bank and make a deposit and the bank gets owned. We were a small bank compared to BOA and Wachovia but we still sent out over $30k in NSF notices daily.

There is a summary of her stupidity.

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hell bank love to rip ppl off, i fuckin hate tht shit
i hope tht girl gets everything stranged out tho

4 years ago they probably would have waived the fees. Not now...greedy fucks. They might tho.

I have a hard time feeling sympathy. She did not "borrow" the money from the bank, she stole it. It's open game at that point.