Charged 140 for 4 bucks in insufficient funds
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So, I mentioned earlier that I had been approved for SSI (at the hearing level) and I actually received my first payment of 514 on the 31st of December, direct deposit.
You wouldnt believe what a difference that can make. I quickly got my car registered and inspected and ready to drive again. Paid for a few incidentals – and should have had about 152 left.
I checked my balance at an ATM earlier.. 12 dollars. Confused as heck, I called my bank. It’s a savings and loan type bank that my whole family has used for years – my great grandfather was one of its founders.
I myself have banked there for over a decade – though over the last several months had a 0 balance.
Anyhow, I asked if they could give me a list of my (few) debit card transactions since the 31st. They listed a few… and then “Oh wait, here are seven bounced checks, each with a 20 dollar fee”. I explained that I had never even had checks.
So the manager (real ice queen) comes on and tells me that PayPal attempted to electronically charge my card 4.08, seven times since June. Each time there was a 20 dollar “insufficient funds” charge of 20.
I was shocked. I dont recall seeing that in my statements and no one -ever-contacted me to warn me about it. Apparently nothing I can do – but I am changing my bank.
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January 8, 2019 at 3:24 PM #9879
He takes most of it out in cash when it gets there, and pays his insurance and gives me rent in cash. Since I sell stuff on ebay, I have a PayPal linked to my checking account, but I am VERY careful and consider that PayPal is part of my checking account at my credit union. I use PayPal if I pay for something that might try and set up recurring charges, since it is extremely easy to stop that in PayPal, but very difficult to stop in a checking account. Magazine subscription, stuff like that. I don’t think I have ever had PalPal try and take money when my checking account was not able to cover it, though – I am going to call my credit union and ask if that will generate the $35 fee. If yours is $20, that is actually pretty low – but then the whole inflated overdrawn fee is pretty low. You should check what recurring charge is coming out of PayPal, though. Yikes! I have Netflix and my son’s WOW coming out of Paypal, so I can cancel at any time if I need to. Like when I am totally broke.
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January 8, 2019 at 3:25 PM #9880
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January 8, 2019 at 3:44 PM #9893
Scamming the powerless is a proven revenue generator, and they won’t readily abandon it.
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January 8, 2019 at 3:54 PM #9900
states if you complete a fraud affidavit at the bank they will at least waive their fees. You should also contact Pay Pal and tell them the transactions were fraudulent. They’ll probably refund any money they actually took. Of course, if they didn’t take anything from your account, they won’t.
It is better to vote for what you want and not get it than to vote for what you don't want and get it.--Eugene Debs
Show me a man that gets rich by being a politician, and I'll show you a crook.--Harry Truman
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January 8, 2019 at 4:25 PM #9916
Banks are blood sucking leaches.
Like ohio barbarian said, contest this. There is SO much of this crap happening over the past 5-10 years. My wife and I talk often about the latest scan we heard about…lots of phone scams, lots of $5 or $10 ‘errors’ on bills. Taking advantage of boomers, some of who have a hard time wading thru pages of fine-print disclaimers. GRRRRR.
$5 here, $5 there a thousand times over and the bank or the online retailer of the electric company is looking at real money.
Get it back!!
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January 8, 2019 at 9:25 PM #10042
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January 8, 2019 at 9:30 PM #10044
if you can’t pay cash, use checks sparingly and keep good records.
the option may not be around for much longer, but as long as it is….
pay pal and all the rest nickel & dime people to death. starting with the fee for just transferring the funds in the first place. add their bad record keeping, lack of warning, and lack of easy contact with the business and whatever else you got, + the fact that they’re all run by tech oligarchs.
nice racket if you can get it.
I’ve used a credit union for decades and even they are getting pretty banky. they used to be pretty good. the whole world appears to be going toward the leech/vampire model of capitalism.
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January 8, 2019 at 10:10 PM #10064
I mean, besides losing the money…
I called them three times, once before being awarded SSI, twice after. I asked, in very clear English “I need to know if my account is in arrears, any overdrafts?” They told me, each time (last one in mid december), “Your account has a zero dollar balance, but a direct deposit will go through”
Of the people I spoke with, including the manager that I spoke with twice today – no one mentioned “Hey! We’ve got some insufficient fund charges here Dave! 140!”. Not a word.
Now it’s probably legal because I DID have a zero balance, but.. all they had to do, was call me at any time in the last half year and say, “We need a deposit for a reoccurring charge” and I could have found some way to deal with it.
Too late now, but… I dont know, it seems especially vicious to me. They know who I am, my face, my phone number, they deal with my whole family – it’s a small town.
Pisses me off. I dont remember seeing the charge on my billing statements – but the charge from PayPal was some reoccurring thing I did sign up for. Had 20 bucks at the time, signed up – and promptly forgot about it. So that part is my fault.
But how on earth do they (the bank) justify a 140 dollar fee for a 4.08 charge? Damn thieves.
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January 8, 2019 at 11:08 PM #10087
It sucks. Stop that recurring charge right away. 20$ overdraft fee is pretty low though, may want to stay at that bank.
PowerToThePeople! Bernie or Bust 2020!
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January 9, 2019 at 1:16 AM #10126
1. The worst credit union is better than the best bank.
2. Keep a paypal balance, think of it as a separate checking account.
3. Avoid recurring payments, and/or use a separate account for recurring payments only.
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January 9, 2019 at 1:47 AM #10129
cancel your paypal account, your bank account and your card(s) then you can reopen them. They will have different numbers. that should be enough. Make sure to explain that someone, probably several someones, have been buying stuff with your accounts. And do it NOW – this will only continue unti you do.
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January 9, 2019 at 8:38 AM #10174
You can tell the bank not to allow any transaction there is no money for, most will allow overdrafts up to a certain amount unless you opt out. It won’t matter how many times paypal or anyone bangs on your account…. no overdraft charges.
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January 9, 2019 at 3:26 PM #10328
At my current bank — I believe the minimum investment for it is 250. That will basically just sit there until/unless you overdraft.
There are better options online now. Banks with no monthly fees or overdraft fees.
It would be one thing if the bank had paid one red cent for the “insufficient funds” charge. They denied it – and still hit me with 140. As far as I’m concerned, that is theft. The reason I have never used checks or credit cards and have only used my debit card – is that i was worried about precisely this sort of thing.
Never again. They can shove overdraft protection. I’ll go with a bank where there are no overdraft fees instead.
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January 9, 2019 at 10:56 AM #10224
…when a single overdraft cascaded into 4 overdrafts totalling $140, (and almost got my auto insurance cancelled for non-payment).
What was especially frustrating was that the initial overdraft was a BANK ERROR- the entire thing was their fault.
After attempting unsuccessfully to resolve the matter by phone, I closed the account and found a new bank.
I never attempted to resolve the problem in person, as I had become so outraged that I feared any face-to-face interaction would end with my arrest. It was better for my blood pressure to simply walk away and remain unjailed.
It does seem very odd that they didn’t tell you about your overdrafts when you specifically asked- you might want to discuss that with a manager (and mention that you’re considering taking your business elsewhere).
It’s always possible that you could get some of those fees refunded- it’s been known to happen. Assuming, of course, that you have more self control than I. I rather suspect you do.
And BTW: congrats on finally getting your SSI.
If you give a man enough rope, it will be six inches too short. This is not the nature of rope- it is the nature of man.
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January 9, 2019 at 4:27 PM #10358
Based on your description someone has gotten your account number or your card number (a device that can steal your card number from out of your pocket costs like $30)
The average American conducts a couple dozen card transactions a month – most do not even check their bank statements, as long as the balance sounds reasonable – they wouldn’t even notice say 0ne $20 charge in a list of 15 $5 – $150 transactions.
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January 9, 2019 at 4:40 PM #10368
The bank mis-entered our $1290 mortgage check as $9210. Of course, it bounced. It took us months to get all the overdraft charges refunded. This was US Bank. When they began charging $3 to speak with a human teller, we found a credit union. We have only used credit unions since then. They sometimes do things that annoy us, but the banks are far worse.
I try to avoid PayPal, and I only use them if there’s no other way. I don’t see the benefit of involving them as a third party to my transactions.
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January 11, 2019 at 8:44 AM #11061
They just hit me again. The day this happened originally, I closed my PayPal account after removing all of my billing information. I figured that way, PayPal couldn’t get me again. My dad put 20 in my account to hold me over until my first SSI back pay check comes.
Bank just took it with another 20 dollar insufficient fund charge. I’ve been on the phone with SSA, but no one seems able to tell me when the back pay will arrive. This is getting ridiculous. Checked my balance this morning and it’s like 3 dollars.
It should be illegal for them to seize SSI funds this way. Been trying for a few days to get ahold of my lawyer and ask his help in either expediting backpay or challenging the bank on this if I can.
Nothing. No point in calling them myself, spoke with the manager (not a nice lady) twice already. No waiving anything – and they dont care if I close my account.
Going to try to convince my family to move to another bank. Maybe they will care then.
I’ll be alright eventually, but my girlfriend is going to have to pay for my gas just to get home. I’m so angry at this point, I want to call that manager again to yell at her.
20 bucks probably seems like nothing to someone who works at a bank, but…
Ugh. This should not be legal.
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