Wells Fargo and overdraft fees

[trmiv]

Well today for the first time in a long time, I managed to overdraw on my checking account (xmas time is a bitch). I know it's my fault for overdrawing on the account, I'm stupid, but I don't get how Wells Fargo overdraft fees work. They charged me the $18 overdfraft fee three times. Once was for the original item that made it go over.

I was then charged again on a $3.41 debit card purchase this morning, with the account already overdrawn (I didn't know it at the time). Why not just refuse to authorize the card if it was already overdrawn?

After that, I went to get $5 worth of gas (again, my fault for being stupid), but even though the account was overdrawn, they authorized the charge anyway, and charged me another $18 fee on top of that. Again, why not just refuse the debit card if it is overdrawn?

Anyway, I'm not overly pissed, it was my fault for letting my account get that low, I should have been more careful. But, I still don't understand how Wells Fargo works sometimes. If they know the account is overdrawn, why do they even authorize payment on things? They could simply decline the payment, then I'll take care of it. Instead, they let it go through, and threw on another $18 fee each time.

 

[Heisenberg]

Because they make $18 each time you try to use the card that way.

 

[SpazzyChicken]

Originally posted by: Heisenberg
Because they make $18 each time you try to use the card that way.

Exactly!

 

[Feanor727]

hey at least it's only $18. My Wells Fargo account is $31 every time I overdraft. I had a spat a little over a year ago where they raped me $240 in overdraft fees...

 

[IamElectro]

overdraft fees are one way banks make money.
If you knew you were over the first time why did you still use your card?
What would you have done if the card was denied and you already pumped the gas?
Read the fine print each debt that overdrafts the account = overdraft fee.

 

[GoodRevrnd]

[Rossman] Banks are evil, join a credit union! [/Rossman]


EDIT: BTW, call them and play confused and slightly annoyed. I've done that w/ BofA (both the bank and credit card services) a couple times and they often remove the charges.

 

[dullard]

Yoy probably will be able to talk them down to just one $18 fee - call them up and ask. This is one of the major reason I'll never use a debit card. CC all the way (not a penny of money in fees/interest, much more consumer protections, and tons of free stuff).

 

[trmiv]

Originally posted by: IamElectro
overdraft fees are one way banks make money.
If you knew you were over the first time why did you still use your card?
What would you have done if the card was denied and you already pumped the gas?
Read the fine print each debt that overdrafts the account = overdraft fee.

I didn't know it was overdrawn the first time. This all happened over night. I had the money when I went to bed, got up and got coffee and gas, came to work and saw the charges. If the card was denied, I would not have pumped the gas, you have to pay before you can pump.

The fees aren't the problem. What I don't get is why they kept authorizing the card if it was overdrawn. Just deny it.

 

[dvdrdiscs]

same with washington mutual except it's $22.00. i remember getting pegged with $100+ overdrawn fees. it's their stupid overdraft protection thing. maybe u can ask them to take off the protection. it's there in case you write a check so it wont bounce.

 

[Brutuskend]

They hit me for $35 for overdraft.

Why was it over drafted?

Apparently some body charged $19.95 to my account for a adult check ID. (I just found this out a few days ago)

Some scumbag is JACK'IN to MY Jackson.

I need to call the bank today and see if there's anything I can do to dispute the charges....

 

[ucdnam]

I dropped then banks a long time ago. It sucks to wait in line if you need to make a withdrawal larger than what your ATM allows. That's about the only time you have to go into a bank, but it sucks anyhow. Now that I'm with a Credit Union, the lines are way shorter and everything just works faster.

 

[trmiv]

I want to switch to credit union, it's just such a pain to do so. I would have time it right so my payments go through correctly. I have a few auto-payments that get made from my account, plus my other bills. If I didn't do it right, it could be a mess.

 

[RossMAN]

It's amazing the MILLIONS of dollars corporate banks earn each year solely based on fees.

Not monthly charges or interest earned, fees alone.

That's why I:

• 1) Always use my cc, never use my debit card.
• 2) If I write a check or use my debit card and have insufficient funds, OVERDRAFT PROTECTION kicks in. There is usually an overdraft protection fee charge (which defeats the purpose, don't you think?) of under $10. This is better than my payment being declined, the merchant assessing a returned check fee AND the bank charging me an NSF fee as well.

CU > Banks