My husband and I were living on a very tight income due to our last child being born. We also did not manage our money very well. As a result we have accumulated over 2500.00 in just overdraft fee's which contributed to our decision to file bankruptcy. Our bank charged us 37.50 for each overdraft. Sometimes we would have a few dollars in our savings and they would enable the overdraft protection and charge a 10 dollar fee even if there was not enough money to cover the charge so not only did they get the 37.50 but they would also get the extra 10 dollars too. Over about two years I estimate we have paid about 3500.00 in overdraft fees and we still owe 2 banks 2500.00 in overdraft fees which we will file in bankruptcy. I have learned that the banks process larger transactions first knowing you do not have the money for the largers ones and process small transactions last to maximize the fee's they charge you no matter which charge was made first. They manipulate the order of transactions to get as much money as they can before a law is past agianst these practices. They call it "free checking" The sad part is if you don't pay the fee's the bank will black ball you so you cant get another checking account. The upside is that we have learned the banks game to extort money from working family's and found out the overdraft fee's supplement the money banks are losing on free checking so they absolutely want you to overdraw your account. Today we use cash as much as we can and when the cash is gone, it's gone and the bank can't charge us for that. The banks are out to suck every penny they can from you until you are old and can't work anymore so you end up eating cat food out of your studio apartment. Sadly this is the reality for some people.
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