Government Consumer Watchdog Takes Aim at Bank Overdraft Fees

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My account went from 10 or 15 in overdraft at US bank to over a thousand dollars and I am on ssdi and can never pay this kind of fee I dont care who wants it it is way to much

steven Robert garcia of CA 12:16AM May 07, 2013

****** urgent **** urgent ***** urgent ****
WHO IS ADDRESSING THIS URGENT MATTER????
THE BANKS ARE GETTING AWAY WITH STEALING..!!!
**note, i do not have NSF fees but feel sorry for the people that do **
SERIOUSLY, WHY WOULD THE BANKS LET ANYONE BORROW MONEY AND MAKE 5%-6% WHEN THEY CAN MAKE 700%-800% ON NSF FEES?
WHO IS STOPPING THIS MADDNESS???
IF YOU ARE ONE OF THE FURTUNE ONES THAT DOESN'T HAVE NSF FEES AND ARE THININK, JUST KEEP YOUR ACCOUNT IN BALANCE, THINK AGAIN.... IT AFFECTS YOU ALSO... YOU ARE ONE OF THE GREAT CREDIT, STABLE JOB, GREAT HOME VALUE THAT NEEDS MONEY TO INVEST, OR START A BUSINESS OR FOR ANY REASON... THE BANK DOESN'T WANT YOUR BUSINESS AND MAKE 5%-6%, THEY WANT BIGGER BUSINESS..... NSF FEES
AGAIN, WHO IS STOPPING THESE BANKS?

BANK OF AMERICA UNHAPPY CUST. of CO 3:56PM January 30, 2013

WHAT WE NEED TO DO IS WITHDRAW OUR MONEY FROM THE BANK AND LET THEM FIND MONEY ELSEWHERE TO FUND THEIR ACTIVITIES..
THE BANKING SYSTEM HAS DETERIORATED AND LOST THE VERY REASON IT STARTED.
PLEASE DO NOTE THAT IT IS NOT JUST THE NSF FEES THAT HAVE BROKEN THE SYSTEM, IT IS OTHER FEES SUCH AS DEBIT REVERSALS, CASH FLOW FROM BANKS.
EXAMPLE 1
YOU GET A HOLD ON YOUR CHECK, THE BANK ACTUALLY GET THE MONEY THE VERY SAME DAY WITHIN HOURS, THEY PLAY WITH YOUR MONEY FOR 3 DAYS, IT DOESN'T SOUND LIKE MUCH BUT IF YOU HAVE 20 MILLION CUSTOMERS AT 200.00 [PER CUSTOMER, THAT ADDS TO MILLIONS.
WHY WOULD THE BANK WANT TO MAKE 4%-5% LOANS WHEN THEY CAN CHARGE MUCH MUCH MORE THAN A LOAN SHARK...... AT 35.00 NSF ON A 5.00 DOLLAR CHECK, ALMOST 800%.
SO GETTING LOAN MONEY FROM THE BANKS?? REALLY?/!!
TAKE YOUR MONEY FROM THE BANK AND LETS SEE WHAT HAPPENS.

UNHAPPY BANKING CUSTOMER of IA 3:47PM January 30, 2013

that's exactly what' happening to me with TD Bank, they continue to munipulate transactions to charge an overdraft. They then charge a & 70 dollar overdraft and not a $35 draft. They will take out an overdraft fee before you have an overdraft therefore causing you to have more overdrafts on $2 or even .50 cents. When clearly the money was there prior to the fee.

missie of NJ 11:52AM January 26, 2013

The current BofA practice of allowing *any* merchant to debit a checking account without hindrance is IME the cause of some major hits with regard to fees. The bank has even allowed debits from my account by Netflix that came with a totally different name attached - and never questioned them.
Recently I had three merchants suddenly resurrect subscriptions that had been canceled the year before (and we had had no product or communication during that time).
The bank has a rule that direct debits attract a $35 fee if the account is in the red, and at the time the account had gone into the red because my UI was delayed by one day. Each of the debits attracted $35 in fees immediately (same day - no waiting period), taking the account even further into the red.
I wasn't about to pour money into a hole of the bank's own making, so I used another account to deposit the UI and work with it.
The bank's attitude was: get the merchants to reverse their debits, and we'll reverse the fees. So I did that - but no fee reversal. So I waited a few days, because merchants indicated that the time to reverse the amounts was entirely in the bank's hands. The mechants initiated the reversals immediately, to their credit (but never explained why the subscriptions were suddenly resurrected).
When I called the bank five days later (after yet another set of fees), I was told "you should have called us to ask us to reverse the fees" and they refused to take responsibility for the extra fees incurred. It's now my responsibility to remind them to undo their unreasonable and unfair actions?
The result: so far I've persuaded them to reverse $70 in fees, but there's still another $175 in fees that they say they can do nothing about.
Today, American Greetings just took a second annual subscription fee from the account (they legitimately took one annual payment last month), and I'm sure that if that unchecked and unquestioned deduction causes the account to overdraw, there'll be another $35 fee hitting me between the eyes.
Years ago no-one could take money from your bank account without the bank checking with you first (unless it was a direct debit authorised in writing). What happened to that policy? Is it part of the new business model - make billions in unwarranted and unreasonable fees?
And how is the $35 fee justified? The modern bank is nowhere near as labor-intensive as it used to be so the claim that it's costing them time and money to process such transactions frankly doesn't wash - or shouldn't.
CFPB site here I come...

Peter of CA 7:32PM March 11, 2012

Here's some info for the CFPB's fact-finding: Checking account at BestBank (not even close to what I call them), under parent bank: Guarentee Bank (guarenteed to rip you off!), had an NSF of $58.14 over account balance. This generated a $35.00 nsf fee making the account a negative $93.14. This negative balance has morphed into a negative balance of over $400.00 in less than a month's time due to a DAILY nsf fee being charged of $28.00 for every day the account is in a negative status, as of Friday I was told 11 days, their letter received states a max. of 14. CSRs over the phone would not close the account orally, stating that it had to be in writing. An in-person contact with a representative at branch would not close the account due to it being in the red. Guess that's how they plan on getting their max of 14 days. Oh, need I forget their letter so graciously offers a "Fresh Start Repayment Plan" that is customized to fit my budget and get this, interest free! My budget is ZERO. My husband has been out of work for over 4 years and due to injuries incurred on my job of over 25 years, I haven't been back to work since Feb. 2011. Do you think that just maybe there might be something drastically wrong here? Predatory doesn't seem near enough a description of this bank's practices.

Karen Theiss of GA 5:09AM March 11, 2012

It's about time somebody stopped the banks from processing largest to smallest transactions. Having worked for a bank in data processing years ago, I know back then we processed smallest to largest transactions. This process has cost me hundreds of dollars over the last 5 years. Many of my credit problems would not have happened if the processing order were reversed. Additionally, not only do you get a fee from the bank, but generally you have to pay and additional fee to the company processing the check. This almost doubles the fees you are paying.

Donald W Pourciau of LA 12:40AM March 05, 2012

One of my pet peeves about overdraft fees is that sometimes the fee for an overdraft is over 350% for a mere $0.10 overdraft. Most of my overdrafts are debits that are less than the $35.00 fee being charged for them. I feel an overdraft fee needs to be tied to the amount of the overdraft. Perhaps a fee no more than 100% of the value of the item causing such an overdraft.
When I was with Bank of America I would sometimes have as much as $200.00 being debited from my account for overdraft fees. Now that I am with Wells Fargo the situation is much improved, especially since they credit an account with all deposits before they deduct the debits.
One other thing I dislike is where a deposit (even if cash) is made at a teller after 2pm is not credited until the next day, yet if I were to make that same deposit at their ATM it would be credited to my account that same day. I Almost incurred $105.00 in overdraft fees because of that rule. Since the teller did not inform me that my deposit would have to wait for the next business day, the bank agreed to credit back the overdraft fees they had charged the day of the deposit. Needless to say I was not able to make any purchases until I got this refund accomplished and could pay for my medications from the druggist.

Robert Dufur of FL 5:45PM February 22, 2012