Yesteday i had 25 dollars in the second checking and 8 on the now 310 overdrawn account. I had purchased gas this morning for 25 dollars on the account that had 25 dollars in it which would normally bring it to a Zero dollar balance until i get payed today.

Well the bank took it upon itself to somehow make overdraft protection be available between my two checking accounts so the 25 dollars was taken to pay a portion of the 300 dollars which over drew my account, thus bringing that account to zero and my gas purchase today making my account over drawn there as well.. lol.. gotta love the way it works huh?

I never agreed or placed overdraft protection between those two accounts, and as a matter of fact, i didnt even know that was possible. I was told it could only work between a checking and a savings, not two checking.

Congratulations Bank of america, i hope your billions of dollars in overdraft fee revenue is worth messing people’s lives. Some of us poor folk are trying to get out of the rat race, thanks for making it easy.

I get payed on a weekly basis, i am pretty financially educated for my age and am pretty good at managing money although my current account balance may say otherwise. I set aside enough money for gas and bills every week. The last month i had an unexpected issue and had to dish out extra cash. I have been negative ever since.

Bank of America has manipulated my transactions by every way stated in previous Replies. I have had to pay fees almost on a weekly basis and it has gotten so bad that i feel as though i am working to pay the bank. It all started with one extra transaction that made me over drawn 500 immediately. My money is on a tight budget after all is spent and invested i have almost nothing left. Even a single over draft fee sends me in a down hill slope that usually ends up in 300 to 500 dollars in overdraft fees. Fees that then recreate more fees.

I have had to stop investing money in my mutual funds and even had to stop payment on my life insurance just to pay weekly overdraft fees. I’m going to give you the last example of how the bank overdrew my account:

I had made several transactions this week for food and gas and my current balance last night was $8. I get payed tonight at midnight another 450. I had just gotten on the positive side of the account after paying 100 in overdraft fees last week. Today a transaction from 2 weeks ago for 300 finally shows up on bank of america (i guess that commercial where they are in the cofee shop charging and looking up to see if it shows on the website is complete Bullcrap), naturally as you all can expect the transaction were re structured so that the 300 dollars went through bringing my balance negative and the balance that was +8 is now negative 310. SIX transactions will now be charged 35 dollars, most of which are less than 10 dollars. So last night everything was positive… today conveniently enough i am over drawn 310 and expecting an additional charge of 210 in overdraft fees bringing the grand total to 520.

This is going to take me yet another week just to bring me close to being positive, but still negative. Leaving no money for food or gas for the week. If i set aside money for food and gas it will leave my account negative which will then allow my bills that i have to pay create more fees. Or i can choose no to pay the bill this week and pray nothing gets cut off light cable or light or water. Everytime i get back to a positive state a transaction manages to put me back at negative, and instead of charging me once which i can then pay off and get back to positive, the bank rearranges my pending transactions to create 500 dollars more negative. Most of my transactions are left pending for 3 to 5 days and then ALWAYS post on thursday, just before my check comes in to take care of it.

It gets worse… the few times i have managed to pay everything back to positive even after the bank tried to screw me i am still charged the overdraft from pending transactions, which makes no sense at all… since its “pending” no money has gone anywhere…

And as if that wasnt enough.. some of my bills go through, make my account negative, then they redeposit the money making it positive again to be charged on a later day but the bank still charges me 35 dollars.

This has been going on for 2 months now, i have lost so much time and money because of this. Not only lost money by paying fees but lost money that i could be investing and the such. I am angry and frustrated… if i could just catch a break one week i could stay positive permanently, but every week the bank manages to shaft me since my balances stay relatively low. I have adjusted my spending so many times and the bank just adjustes the way they post my transactions. That is how i managed to find this site, just by googling out of shear frustration. I am unable to get ahead because i make so little and have to do so much with my money. I’m always trying to make a dollar out of 10 cents and the banks profit every week.

I have spoken to the bank as many of you have and i have just received run arrounds and give Bullcrap reason as all of you have.

I apologize again for the block of text. Best of luck to you all.

Sincerely stuck in the rat race,
– JcT

Ps: due to the horrid economy i was ALMOST layed off last friday. I can’t imagine what i would do with these fees and bills if i lose my job, i pray none of you lose your jobs. god bless.

Pss: Why do people raise prises to make up for loss revenue? That makes matters worse for everyone, lower prices so people spend and make up for loss profit later on. Raising prices will just make people not want to buy, people are so damn selfish and greddy now a days.. ARGGHH!!

M Petrus

Holds: When you swipe your debit card the money instantly goes on hold. This money leaves your available money and is out of your account for 24 to 48 business hours depending on your bank. The money is not actually paid out to the merchant but just held where you can’t spend it until the merchant collects it. In this time frame typically the merchant collects the funds and everything is fine. However, some merchants are horrible at collecting in a timely manner so the money goes back into your account after the 24 hours and you seem to have more money than you actually do. You spend money based on your available balance and then that merchant collects, ooops! Overdrafts!

No bank I have ever seen will show you when a hold appears or falls off your account so you can take into account for the merchants that do not collect in the first 2 days. The merchant in most states has up to 60 days to collect.

Also, here is a fun fact. If you go to a hotel they place a LARGE sum of money on hold, as do travel agencies, auto-rental agencies and airlines that stays on hold till you actually finish business with them then the vastly overestimated hold is released and the actual amount spent at these companies appears in its place. However if you do not know about the extra hundreds of dollars on hold in your account any other transaction that goes through will create overdraft fees. The massive amounts of money held for hotels and travel agencies are “Unavailable” so the trip to McDonald’s you make on vacation costs you an extra 35$ in overdraft fees.

Posting Largest to smallest items:
Most banks will wait until the end of the business day putting every charge on hold and collecting all the checks then post the largest items to your account first so that the maximum funds can be removed then once the large sums are gone the smaller ones create more overdraft fees where as if they posted smallest to largest they might get 1 overdraft fee a day they can get 6 by posting largest to smallest.

FYI: Most banks had a limit to the number of times you can overdraw your account in one day, usually around 250-300$ worth for individual accounts. As of this year most banks are removing that limit. I recommend anyone having recurring overdraft issues call their bank and ask them how much they can be charged in one days fees and then ask them about overdraft protection. Trust me, its better you have it. Its still the bank charging you fees for something that costs them nothing, but its better than the financial rape they perform on a daily basis to people who don’t have it.