fractalnavel

it's institutional robbery.  good 'ol USBank.

i used an atm a couple weeks back - an in network atm - and took out $100, figured if the account was low, it would tell me on the screen, and then i could adjust the amount, or whatever.  well, it gave me my $100.  so i figured i had the funds, and went on my way.  now, isn't that how atm's have worked for years ?

meanwhile...

it turns out i didn't have enough funds to cover it (i try to keep cash in savings where it can get a higher rate of return).  but instead of denying me the cash at the atm:

does this look attention grabbing to you?

looks like i'm not the only one: ->

• it computed a negative balance in my account
• it charged me $30 for an overdraft fee (making a negative account, er, negativer)
• it sent a postcard notice that had sales info on the outside (“get our home equity loans, etc.“)  if this wasn't tax season, i would have assumed it was junkmail and tossed it.  as it was, i held onto it, figuring it could be low priority 1099 stuff.
• in the card (as i just discovered) it says that after 4 business days of a negative balance, it would begin charging a negative balance fee of $7 a day - !

and that's it.  as i got around to paying bills - which i do only once a month, i noticed a negative balance (before i read the card).  i was like, why hadn't anyone told me about this ?  usually flags and whistles and paratroopers and dogs and cats and everything starts to hit the fan.

not anymore.

why alert the customers ?  why not pull money from savings to cover the “overdraft” ? why not prevent such transactions in the first place ? nah - let's keep quiet about it and keep charging the poor suckers. is the assumption that people open _every_ piece of mail they receive, as they receive it ?  in today's junkmail laden world ?  hardly.  i'm sure they are well aware that a good proportion of these “alerts“ are buried in a pile of mail, and sometimes i bet people aren't made aware of the situation until the next statement cycle - and then one has to assume those are examined in detail.

i don't care what it says in fine print anywhere.  that's bullshit.  oh - and did you hear recently where banks were starting to charge people for checking their account balances at an atm ?  so you better remember your balance at all times - otherwise it's gonna cost ya.

what crap.

is this common to all banks now ?  in any case, USBank is about to lose my business, and i encourage you to make it lose yours as well.