• treadful@lemmy.zip
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    7 days ago

    I remember when I was living with my head barely above poverty in my 20s. All the banks had $30 overdraft fees (probably equivalent of $50 with inflation) that would be charged for every offense.

    So if you weren’t paying perfect attention to your accounts balance and or got hit by an unexpected charge you were completely fucked. Then when my paycheck lands, I’m already $30-90 under the water for no reason. And then I’m that far below for that entire week making it far more likely I’d get hit with that charge again by the end of this week.

    The bank even refused to even turn overdraft off and just refuse charges. I spent many periods of months or years paying my bank like $200/mo for no reason other than I couldn’t get out from under these charges.

    Fuck banks.

    • eric5949@lemmy.world
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      7 days ago

      The first time I overdrafted my account years ago wells fargo hit me with a cascading $35 fee. $35 because I overdrafted, $35 because I didn’t have that $35, $35 because I didn’t have that $35, etc. All said and done it cost me like $150-$200.

    • FringeTheory999@lemmy.world
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      7 days ago

      And back then the banks would re-order your transactions to maximize fees. So if you had 180 bucks in your account and you had pending transactions that were 3, 6, 10, 15, 5, and 165, the would change the processing order to 165, 15, 10, 6, 5, 3. That way instead of one overdraft fee you be charged four overdraft fees.

    • NauticalNoodle@lemmy.ml
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      7 days ago

      I know your pain. Around ~2008 I made a check deposit and later that day checked my balance at the atm to see that I had a positive balance that I had printed off. That evening and the following day I proceeded to do 7 or more transactions. The following day after that I got notified that I was being hit with multiple overdraft fees. Logically I went to the bank the next day around 4pm, thinking they would work with me since I had documentation from their ATM saying I had a positive balance. They said they couldnt do anything for me locally and had to contact the branch I opened my account with. We contacted that branch but because they were one timezone over they said they couldn’t help me until the next day as they were closing and “oh, yeah several more overdraft charges are about too hit the account.” The next day I contact them and they proceed to tell me they can only reverse one charge and I had also accrued a late fee because I hadn’t payed any of the overdraft fees off yet.

      When everything was said and done I had paid over $450 in fees. Contacting my bank to see if they’d work with me only saved me $2.00 because the late fee was that much lower than another overdraft fee.

      In 2009-2011 sometime I got contacted by a law firm as that bank was facing a class-action lawsuit for intentionally prioritizing debits over credits but I had since thrown away my documentation so I didn’t join. -To this day it blows my mind that a bank can telll a client that they have a specific positive balance and yet can still rip them off under the guise of “overdraft protection

      They call it “protection” because it’s fuckin’ racketeering by any other standard!

    • skuzz@discuss.tchncs.de
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      7 days ago

      Had a friend back in similar age area, they went one evening, “I’m going to the ATM to take out $20 so I have money for tomorrow before the overdraft I’m already going to get breaks my debit card.”

      I also had similar overdraft hell story when I was multi-overdrafted rent was entering past due and was on the verge of being homeless waiting for my next paycheck to stay afloat, drove home from work with the engine misfiring nearly dead out of fuel. Went home and scraped a “rare” (like an old quarter or penny, nothing fancy, one of those odd things family gives you) coin jar for enough money to buy a couple gallons of gas and food for my pet.

      Wouldn’t wish that dogshit on anyone, it is literally criminal greed that can destroy a person in under a week.

      • treadful@lemmy.zip
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        7 days ago

        I did that too. Make sure you withdraw the max you can if you know the overdraft is gonna hit. Then you at least have some cash until payday.

        Dark days…

      • disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world
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        7 days ago

        Have you not been watching the videos of the floor, confirmation hearings, or investigations? The majority of them have finally started to use their voice. I’m hoping this continues.

        Regardless, people need to actually vote in the goddamn primaries and midterms if they want change. An average of ~20% voter turnout in primaries and midterms is exactly why things remain the same.

    • TheMadChatter@lemmy.ca
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      7 days ago

      We need disruption, we get fucking ping pong paddles and pink shirts instead. The Dems are a joke

  • Apricot@lemm.ee
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    7 days ago

    Republicans despise working-class Americans, it couldn’t be more obvious.

    • sik0fewl@lemmy.ca
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      7 days ago

      Americans voted to screw over working-class Americans, don’t fucking try to kid yourselves.

      Super convenient to pass the buck even when you get what you voted for.

      Edit: Sorry, disgruntled Canadian here. But I did mean what I said.

  • PattyMcB@lemmy.world
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    7 days ago

    Don’t they already fuck us over? They get bail-outs and we get bankruptcy for medical bills…

    • COASTER1921@lemmy.ml
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      6 days ago

      Ya at least you can opt out of overdraft entirely unlike the banks using your money for irresponsible ‘investments’. I have no idea why anyone has overdrafting active on their accounts beyond it simply being the default option, even for a $5 fee it’s a total scam.