I recently incurred seven overdraft fees totaling $231 dollars because I was unaware that Wells Fargo allows you to continue using your debit/credit card even when you've run out of money in your account.
The whole reason I got a debit checking account was so that I wouldn't have to use checks and therefore would not have to be so strict with my check registry. I just check my online account info every couple days. I don't qualify for overdraft protection, but my protection is that if my account gets too low, I will know it because my card will be declined.
Well, I wasn't paying attention and my account got too low, but instead of telling me that I didn't have the money, the bank continued to let me keep on charging and, at the same time, charging me $33 dollars for every transaction.
Admittedly, I am to blame because I was not paying attention to how fast my money ran out, but as a customer I demand to be treated better than this!
They claim this service is a courtesy to customers who every now and then run into an emergency and need a quick loan. Let's be honest here, it's not a COURTESY, it's a way to TAKE ADVANTAGE of unsuspecting customers. Two of my transactions were under $3 and for each one I was charged $33 dollars. If that was a $3 loan I just paid 1300% interest.
Instead of allowing us to overdraw our accounts in an emergency, maybe they can give us a small loan with a reasonable interest instead of making a 166% profit like they did off of my overdraft fees.
Ok, so I don't keep my registry totally up to date. So what! Who does? I thought a debit account would protect me from going negative by declining my card when I ran out of money. Of course, they disclose all of this information somewhere but it isn't advertised. If it was, I would never have signed up with Wells Fargo.
By the way, this doesn't happen very often that my account gets so low. I can't remember the last time my card was denied because I didn't have enough money.
The issue here is, does the bank deserve to take so much of your money for a simple accounting mistake?
Worse yet, do they deserve to prey on vulnerable people who do have desperate emergencies and willingly overdraw their account? What about people who have children to support, or don't have a person to get a $200 loan from. The charges would keep racking up. Things would keep bouncing, sending them further and further into debt. It could bury some people.
And it does all the time, because poor people are the riskier customers. If a bank can't get money from them in investments, interest, etc. They'll steal it any way they can and it's perfectly legal.
At Wells Fargo, you aren't a customer, you're a potential risk that can make them millions of dollars in overdraft fees. We need to stop accepting this ridiculous punishment for being "bad with money" and start demanding better service from our banks.
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