I have been reading these interesting posts about the overdraft fees incurred by customers of US Bank.
As a former customer of this bank, I felt that I should put in some information. I live in Las Vegas and have dealt with three large banks that do business here. Banks make money in many ways investing, loans, etc.US Bank's method seems to be raiding the accounts of it's customers.
I, too, was a victim of US Bank's overdraft policies. The problem started when my wife deposited my paycheck on a Friday afternoon. She put it into the ATM at the branch where we did business. The next day I paid a few bills online. On Monday morning, we went to the store and bought some groceries. On Monday evening, I visited the ATM to get a small amount of cash. When the receipt came out, I could not believe it. It showed a negative balance! I couldn't imagine how this happened.
On Tuesday morning it, I went into the bank. The bank employee explained to me that, since my deposit was made on Friday after 3 PM, the entire check did not clear until Tuesday morning! Thus, I was hit with overdrafts to the tune of $287.00, of which the Bank manager reluctantly returned to me only $37.00. I walked out of the bank and have never been back!
I now have accounts with both Wells Fargo and Citibank here in Vegas. When you put a check in their ATM's after hours, most or all of the check becomes available immediately! If these two banks can do it, why can't US Bank? The answer is that, if they did, they couldn't steal their depositors' money! When you try to pull out more money than you have at a Wells Fargo ATM, the ATM warns you that you will be overdrawn and will incur a fee if you continue with the transaction. Citibank has denied a Debit Card purchase when I was overdrawn, thus saving me a fee.
US Bank Debit Cards will allow the withdrawal or purchase, then ding you for the overdraft fee. Also, they will always clear the largest withdrawal first. This way they can hit you with several fees on the smaller withdrawals, rather than pay the small ones and hit you only one time for the larger withdrawal. Thus, they have developed a handy way for the bank to make 5 or 6 overdraft fees rather than just one or two.
Some people on this site have written that these practices are indeed legal. Legal they may be, but that doesn't make them any less creepy.
So, if you can, avoid US Bank, especially if you don't keep large sums of money in your account, as their policies are especially hurtful to low income folks and people on a tight budget. Oh, and for just a small touch of irony, the paycheck in question in my story was a check drawn on US Bank! They held their own check for three whole days!
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