I, too, am a victim of US Bank's overdraft fee policy. A few months ago, I signed up for their 'Silver Senior checking account, because everything was free. Well, almost.
A paycheck I deposited on Saturday at my bank's ATM was not totally cleared until the following Tuesday morning. I made the assumption that, like most banks, the money would be available by Monday afternoon. Well, you know what they say about 'assuming'. Anyway, I paid a couple of bills and then bought a few things at the store. This caused not one or two, but four overdrafts at 35 bucks a pop. The next day, dinner at a hamburger joint and one more overdraft. Next day, I withdrew $20 for gas. That Twenty cost me another Thirty-five dollar fee. When I got my receipt from the ATM, I was stunned to see a negative balance. This is the first I knew of any of this - I figured maybe the bank made an error.
So I went into my bank on Thursday morning. The lady at the desk explained that I had a grand total of six overdrafts for $210.00 and that she could only reverse one. I tried to explain that I am a Senior working only part-time jobs, and on a limited income, but there was no changing her mind. {I guess I didn't need to buy food anyway! }
So, here's what I found out If you put a check into US Bank on Saturday, it will be only partially available on Monday and not clear fully until Tuesday morning.
If your account is insufficient, and you have several payments pending, this bank will always pay the biggest payments first. So let's say you have $100.00 in your account and four checks arrive on the same day a $90.00 check and three checks for $15.00.US Bank will pay the $90.00 check first and then ding your account for an overdraft fee on each of the smaller checks. If they paid them the other way (the small checks first) you'd only get one overdraft for the $90 check. So much for watching out for the customer!
If you get overdrafts, don't hope to get them all reversed. Maybe one or two, but not all.
Furthermore, US Bank also has a negative balance fee. This is an $8.00 a day hit that they tack on each and every day that your account is in the minus. It's interesting that this fee kicks in four calender days after you go negative. Unlike their check policy, for this fee they count weekend days and Holidays. So if you go into the red on Friday, you start paying on Tuesday!
It's obvious that these fees are designed to take money out of the customer's pocket. The bank's policies are written in the interest of their own bottom line. The customers that pay these fees are, of course, those that can least afford it. But I suppose US Bank figures that it's easier to take the depositor's money rather than risk investing like most banks do. All banking institutions are bad, but US Bank's policies are stricter and more hard-nosed than most. I would highly recommend avoiding this Bank at all costs.
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