I switched to BB&T because my prior bank had begun to implement some of the same practices, but in a far less sinister way.
Over the past few months, I noticed overdraft fees piling up where I was certain, but was never sure, they should not be. Then I began to pay closer attention. This is what I was TOLD by their customer service people today: "We post large dollar withdrawals first because customers want us to pay their most important bills first." That would mean they do not post in the order the transactions are received, yet that IS what they claim they do. It is also clear they post withdrawals to the account before they post deposits, which is not something even my old bank did.
I racked up 350 dollars in charges over the weekend. My beginning balance on the morning of Friday, Feb 27 was $600. I made several miscellaneous ATM transactions until 4 pm on Friday, Feb 27, totaling $300. This should have left a balance of $300 (rounded for ease). I deposited my tax refund check at 4 pm on Friday, Feb 27th. It was not a personal check but one from the State Treasury in the amount of $2200. I got a receipt with the date and time stamped. Later in the weekend I made several other ATM transactions totaling approximately $1000 in payments. The first was a payment to my mortgage holder in the amount of $700.00. I used my debit card for that, knowing my deposit would cover it.
Guess what: the $700 payment posted before any of the other transactions I made earlier in the day on Feb 27. This triggered a stream of $35 overdraft fees, each, for all the small debit card charges I had made, averaging $20 to $5. All the other transactions also showed as being posted AFTER my deposit.
Is this a scheme our regulators should be looking at? I resent the government bailing out these robber barons with my tax money. They should compensate US, the victims of these crooked operators, instead of helping them help themselves to our tax dollars. I remember the days when banks would, as a matter of practice, count deposits before withdrawals and go in chronological order when posting withdrawals. With technology as it is, they have the ability to do so. I was told by a bank employee that they have the ability to do so, but those reports are not displayed to the customers on their online systems. Clearly they want to hide their misappropriation of our funds. Who gave BB&T the right to decide what gets posted first? I spend knowing what I can spend during a period of time, and I can pace myself, if the bank does not interrupt the process and skim off the top. This is predatory banking at its worst. Needless to say, this will be my LAST direct deposit going to this crooked bank.
I hate to editorialize here, but it is just this kind of out of control capitalism in the name of free market enterprise that resulted in the backlash of the early twentieth century and the rise of socialism and communism in Europe. Let us put a brake on this runaway greed and get responsible capitalism in the driver's seat before we get run over by anarchists who are waiting for the system to fail.
All this because of overdraft fees, you ask? It is just a symptom of a greater problem, my friends. Let us not minimize the impact of a windstorm of little grains of sand. It can be pretty devastating.
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