U.S. banks to make $38 billion from overdraft fees
 

is this include the fee they charge for bouncing a check?

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/US-ban...sset=&cc ode=

(Reuters) - Banks in the United States are poised to make $38.5 billion in customer overdraft fees this year, the Financial Times said, citing research by Moebs Services.

A large portion of the revenue is likely to come from the most financially stretched consumers, according to the paper.

It said the research showed that many banks have increased charges on overdrafts and credit cards in order to boost profits.

The median bank overdraft fee rose this year by one dollar to $26, the paper said, citing the Moebs data.

"Banks are returning to a fee-driven model and overdraft fees are the mother lode," Mike Moebs, the company's founder was quoted by the paper as saying.

Overdraft fees accounted for more than 75 percent of service fees charged on customer deposits, the paper cited Moebs as saying.

Last year the U.S. Federal Reserve approved credit card rules to curb "unfair" practices such as surprise fees and interest rate hikes, and new mortgage lending rules are expected this summer. It is also mulling rules to give bank customers the chance to opt out of overdraft schemes that can involve fees.

Back when I was even more of a broke loser than I am now, BoA overdraft fees were the bane of my fucking existence. :(

True this - banks are evill.

Note to self - invest in Cash Advance

Fucking sad... If they did business the way they should they would not be killing people like that.

All it takes not to "overdraft" is the ability to add and subtract and the belief that one shouldn't write a check in excess of the amount of money in one's bank account.

These people should count themselves lucky they are only getting a fee and not having their accounts closed.

I believe these fees also include debit card transaction. They should just deny the transactions at the point of sale instead of allowing them to go through and then hitting their clients with fees for each debit. I saw a news segment where a lady was hit with a $20 fee + for a $0.75 pack of gum transaction. It doesn't excuse people from not knowing whats in their account but its poor way to do business on the banks part.

what i have seen is the smart way they withhold a deposit or wire transfer that is supposed to hit the same day you program an electronic payment and then say well the money did not make it on time the transaction posted at 9:59:35 and the wire came in at 9:59:47 you have to pay sooooooorrrry.

the rest i agree people should not overdraft period.

bank are just evil

The banks are fucking evil. They rape us every chance they get.....

No kidding.
I do not believe it for a minute. There is much more to this story. For instance, most places have a minimum purchase that must be made in order to pay with a credit card. It costs money to accept payments by cc.

Who the hell pays for a $.75 transaction with a credit card anyway?

No one forces you to use them. :2 cents:

I'm talking about debit cards not credit cards; completely different form of payment.

About 9 years ago when exited the Marine Corps (and online banking wasn't really around yet) I was stretched thin and they were the bane of my existence as well. My favorite is the fact that they take all transactions ordered amount descending...

They SAY it's so you don't bounce a rent check... but really let's say you went $20 over and the last 5 charges were packs of cigarettes and drinks at the local corner store they get to nail you with 5 overage charges rather than 1... pretty lame.

When times are tough and you're stretching yourself that thin... it definitely sucks.

Nope you are wrong, its not that easy all the time. Trust me when I first started my business things were so tight it was scary. Lets say you have a few transactions coming out and need to make one more unexpected but very important purchase, maybe you car broke down and you need a rental for a week. Its all good though because lets say you have a check that should be coming in two days, well guess what that check doesn't come and now you just got $156 in NSF charges for 4 transactions.

paypal fees, American express merchant fees, Discover merchant fees are all under $1 for me.

this girl i dated a while ago would get hit with at least a dozen over draft fees a month.

she didn't make a lot of money so her account was always pretty close to $0 but I couldn't understand why she would not be more careful and save herself $300+ bucks a month.

:2 cents: idiots

It is a smart way to do business and now that we know it we should avoid it...

Does anyone wonder how it is that they can be $100/us citizen. I never pay them so someone has to $200 to cover me etc.

Ok, say you go get gas...The gas station only puts a $1 pending charge on your card to make sure its' valid most of the time but does not actually put the full amount through until later - Guessing they do it in bulk. I have this issue constantly with BofA because I'll get gas, and it wont show up on my account or be taken out until days later. Same goes with restaurants and bars with the tips. They put the original amount through and don't actually charge the full amount including tip for a few days, throwing you off.

So where's your answer to this, Mr Perfect?

apply for overdraft protection. that way if you goof up once in a while you are covered.

buy stuff with credit cards, then pay few bills once a month from a checking account... it's 10x easier and makes it very hard to overdraft... :2 cents:

No its not. Its as shortsighted as writing loans/mortgages to customers knowing they can't afford them. You might make some money right know but you'll end up losing even more in the future.

It is actually against the law to have a limit on what you can spend with a credit/debit card. Shops do that because it is not worth it to them to accept a card for say .75 cents.

I once got charged $39 from B of A for an overdraft fee because all my bills went out and my check was supposed to go in the same day. I was short .25 cents. My check went in on Saturday, it was direct deposit for $11,000.

I called the bank and asked why I got charged $39 for overdraft of .25 cents? They said they would remove it right away. I have been a customer of theirs for years and getting direct deposit for years but they still had no answer why someone that was overdraft by a quarter gets charged $39...

crazy shit

banks have been strangling the life out of society of a long time now.

YOU have to simply deduct the amount of the purchase from your account ledger so you know what your real balance is. If you spent $50 on gas be sure to deduct it from your balance not the $1 pre-auth.

Even if your account shows an extra $50 in it. You know its gone because you made the purchase and documented it.

I just paid for coffee this morning at the gas station with my debit card. It was $.67

The only place I've been to in years that had a minimum to use a card is the Head Shop up the street.

Wells Fargo is pretty bad with over draft in my opinion.... not sure how other banks work, but to me this is a straight up scam.

I use my debit card as my main source of payment usually... so I had around 10 charges pending that hadn't posted yet. All were covered and funds available. Well a big payment came through to Amex that I thought had came through already so it put me negative. After that 8 or so of my pending debit transactions posted, and I was hit with overdrafts for each of these even though at the time of purchase I had $ in the account to cover it.

To me that's fucked up but not much you can do. They ended up giving me back half of the fees and I signed up for overdraft protection which just draws from my savings if I go negative.

Some gas stations put an $80 pre-auth lock on your funds!!!

Those will fuck you royally if your balance is low. Til this day, I always go inside and pay with my credit card at gas stations so they just run the exact amount I want to put in. If you do it at the pump it runs a pre-authorization for a large amount in case you fill up. :2 cents:

...and the pre auth amount will always differ station to station.

they still charge you a fee per transaction...

banks are masters at making profits from thin air :mad:

The banks will ON PURPOSE withhold multiple small transactions for a big transaction just so they can time it right to process their multiple overdraft fees.
Its brillant. But really does suck for the tight consumers. And should be outlawed.

Im shocked it has been allowed to go on for so long. The systems really are designed to withold transactions and time them just right to go through to process so you get charged more overdraft fees!

Example:

300.00 balance to start day

- 10am 30.00 purchase
- 11am 30.00 purchase
- noon 12.00 purchase
- 1pm 30.00 purchase
- Next day 200.00 purchase

In theory you should only get one overdraft.
But the system is set up that they will process that large 200.00 transaction FIRST. and hve the 4 small transactions "pending" only to process them at the perfect time so you get FIVE OVER DRAFTS.

This is how the system works.

For going just 2.00 over the limit you can incur up to 30.00 X 5 = 150.00 in fines.
All because the system is setup to process things in this order.

Believe it. Both Visa and Master Card stipulate that you cannot set a minimum purchase amount for transactions. Many stores will be unaware of this and try to go around it, but just file a complaint about them (through your own bank) and their merchant account will be in jeopardy.

Visa has this rule on their own website:

http://usa.visa.com/about_visa/ask_v....html#anchor_4

Last week I fought my bank over $400 in overdraft fees and won. I have two accounts and one had the money I wanted from the ATM and the other didn't. The ATM cards from for the two accounts look similar enough. I am not denying I made a mistake. I took the money out of the wrong account. I had until 8 PM to notice it and correct it, I logged in for something else at 8:03 and noticed it. They had already closed for the day. The account with only $18 left in available balance (actual balance was much higher) had 10 pending transactions posting and racked up 10 overdraft fees at $40 a pop.

I had to take it all the way to the Vice President of Communications and the executive assistant to the CEO but I got my money back.

One thing that may have helped me was email after email from my branch manager of her lying to me about things she said she did but never did. They all got forwarded to the people that matter.

The branch manager and her regional VP refused to give me anything back. That was changed to giving me everything but about $100 back. Ultimately, I pushed harder and got every penny back.

Mistakes happen. I made one. They make mistakes, too...they made one two weeks prior...they always double post shit to my account(s). I wish I could charge them $400 for a mistake.

This industry is complaining about banks and there hidden fees is priceless:1orglaugh.
I do agree though that you have to always watch your account and make sure you are not overdrawn.

Times are extremly hard for a lot of people now, so make sure whatever accounts you have, they are not overdrawn. Also you have to make sure you don't have unathorized
transactions coming out of your account.

There are a lot of shady business pratices going on with the banks. Just protect yourself
by watching your account/s on a daily basis.

People that spend money they do not have deserve whatever happens to them.

Seriously...WTF is wrong with you...

maybe they'll make enough $$ with overdraft fees to pay back their bailout money they owe as an overdraft to the government (ie us)