Did you knoe that banks are using your money and their accounting practices to steal your hard earned money. They do this by manipulating the way items are paid when they are presented for payment. First some basic banking did you knows.
1. A bank is not required to maintain a dollar on account to cover every dollar that you have on deposit. According to Federal regualtions a bank only has to keep a minimum amount of your money on hand to cover any demand you may make for your funds. Normally this is less than $. 20 for each dollar deposited.
2.in most cases all items such as checks, ATM transactions and Point of Sale transactions are are all considered "presented for payment" at the same time regardless of the time they were actually received by the bank. This "time" is usually midnight of the day the item is recieved.
3. You cannot issue a "stop payment" on a Point of Sale transaction. The funds are automatically "deducted" from your account event though the tranaction may not be "presented for payment" for several days.
4. If you make a deposit by using your Bank debit card and are entitled to a refund afterwards it may tke days to weeks for your refund to be credited to your account.
5. Here is the real kicker. Banks are now charging awywher from $25.00 to $40.00 for return item "processing fee". However the banks have a way of gouging you and enriching themelves by manipulating the way presented items are paid. For instance:
For the sake of argument at the end of the month you have made a $20.00 error in your balance and your checkbook shows a balance of $40.00. You write 5 checks against your mistaken balance of $40.00 of $20.00, $5.00, $5.00, $5.00 and $5.00. You would think that the bank would pay the four (4) $5.00 checks and return the $20.00 as unpaid, not necessarily. Some banks pay the largest item first, in this case the $20.00 check
causing 4 items to be returned and generating 4 return item fees instead of one. This practice may also result in return check charged being assessed against you by the merchants who presented the checks for payment. The $20.00 mistake by you has been turned into for instance to a debit of your account for 4 return item "processing fees" of $120.00 (4X$30.00) and mechant charges of an additional $100.00 (4X$25.00) for a total of $220.00 in "fees".
So instead of one check returned and one fee generated, the bank has an additional income of $90.00. Multiply this thousands of time or millions of times for the large national banks and you see how they are taking care of their interests over yours.
These business practices go againist the basic concept of a fiduciary obligaion of a bank. This basically meand that the bank has to act in your best interest whne dealing with the money you have entrusted with it. IT IS NOT THEIR MONEY BUT YOURS! The law requires them to act in your best interest not their best interest. Take your money somewhere else? Try to see if your money is treated differently anywhere else.
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