Ninwa (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} ninwa) wrote,@ 2008-10-12 11:29:00 |
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Giant Bank Hating Rant
I am so sick and tired of feeling like I can never trust my money with banks. I don't just mean in the large scheme investment type way, but instead in a much more local "fuck you really it really hurts" way. Convenient bank errors and misleading information is so abundant that it's almost as if they are trying to promote bad accounting.
A time-line:
Wednesday the 8th: I make two purchases, gas for $20 and food for $8.23.
Thursday the 9th: I make two purchases, a $1 deli sandwich and a $2 slice of pizza, separate debits, same facility, within the same hour.
Friday the 10th: I deposit $152 cash. It prints a receipt: "Available Balance:" $212. I then make a bill payment of $130.
Remaining available balance? $82 right? Haha. No, that would be sane.
Remaining balance the next day: ($49) that is, negative $49.
What? Let's examine what happened here.
The four purchases I made, at separate times are being overdrafted.
The banks logic, "those posted against a negative balance after you made the 130 dollar payment, because your deposit wont be available until the next day."
My logic: When you make a debit, that money is put on "hold." This is an imaginary space that is supposed to insure to the merchant that you don't fuck them over. Basically, it is to stop you from buying a $1000 item against a $1000 bank account, and then rushing to the ATM and withdrawing $1000. Even though the purchase hasn't cleared, it puts that money on hold so you can't otherwise access it. With that said, those four purchases should have been on hold, and they were put on hold against a positive balance. That is, when I made those purchases, my balance, remaining after them, was still positive.
Evidence to this fact is that they did what is called a 'keep the change' transfer. Every debit is rounded up (the 8.20 one to 9.00) and the difference is put into my savings account. This can only happen if your balance is positive.
So that said, it's evident that they were held initially against a positive balance.
Come Friday, I make my deposit (who's receipt is incredibly misleading. available balance, and by available we don't mean you ACTUALLY have it available, what the fuck.) Friday, when I make the purchase, my account goes negative, and somehow, MIRACULOUSLY, all four fucking charges clear on the same night. Now maybe it's a coincidence, or maybe it was planned, or maybe it's common for banks to clear all transactions friday night. Whatever the case is, that does NOT excuse them for dipping into my HELD funds to try and put money on hold for this new purchase. Instead, my account should have overdrafted once for the $130 purchase. I should have had a balance of ($70) for the night, until my $152 deposit cleared the next morning. This would put me at a positive balance of $82, minus one (deserved perhaps) overdraft fee of $33, leaving a positive balance of $49.
And as if all of that weren't enough bullshit to fertilize every rice paddy in Asia, not knowing anything was wrong, on the 11th I made a purchase of almost $6, WHICH SHOULD HAVE NEVER BEEN AUTHORIZED. Why are they authorizing debit holds against a negative balance?
This whole thing is a total brainfuck.
Who the hell designed these systems anyway? Why is it my fault that you can't account for money that you have sitting in your ATM's. Why should I even use a bank? I never spent money I didn't earn or technically own, and I am being assfucked on a shitstring of technicalities.
UPDATE: I spoke with the branch manager today and got all of the fees reversed. Why was it that easy?
I am so sick and tired of feeling like I can never trust my money with banks. I don't just mean in the large scheme investment type way, but instead in a much more local "fuck you really it really hurts" way. Convenient bank errors and misleading information is so abundant that it's almost as if they are trying to promote bad accounting.
A time-line:
Wednesday the 8th: I make two purchases, gas for $20 and food for $8.23.
Thursday the 9th: I make two purchases, a $1 deli sandwich and a $2 slice of pizza, separate debits, same facility, within the same hour.
Friday the 10th: I deposit $152 cash. It prints a receipt: "Available Balance:" $212. I then make a bill payment of $130.
Remaining available balance? $82 right? Haha. No, that would be sane.
Remaining balance the next day: ($49) that is, negative $49.
What? Let's examine what happened here.
The four purchases I made, at separate times are being overdrafted.
The banks logic, "those posted against a negative balance after you made the 130 dollar payment, because your deposit wont be available until the next day."
My logic: When you make a debit, that money is put on "hold." This is an imaginary space that is supposed to insure to the merchant that you don't fuck them over. Basically, it is to stop you from buying a $1000 item against a $1000 bank account, and then rushing to the ATM and withdrawing $1000. Even though the purchase hasn't cleared, it puts that money on hold so you can't otherwise access it. With that said, those four purchases should have been on hold, and they were put on hold against a positive balance. That is, when I made those purchases, my balance, remaining after them, was still positive.
Evidence to this fact is that they did what is called a 'keep the change' transfer. Every debit is rounded up (the 8.20 one to 9.00) and the difference is put into my savings account. This can only happen if your balance is positive.
So that said, it's evident that they were held initially against a positive balance.
Come Friday, I make my deposit (who's receipt is incredibly misleading. available balance, and by available we don't mean you ACTUALLY have it available, what the fuck.) Friday, when I make the purchase, my account goes negative, and somehow, MIRACULOUSLY, all four fucking charges clear on the same night. Now maybe it's a coincidence, or maybe it was planned, or maybe it's common for banks to clear all transactions friday night. Whatever the case is, that does NOT excuse them for dipping into my HELD funds to try and put money on hold for this new purchase. Instead, my account should have overdrafted once for the $130 purchase. I should have had a balance of ($70) for the night, until my $152 deposit cleared the next morning. This would put me at a positive balance of $82, minus one (deserved perhaps) overdraft fee of $33, leaving a positive balance of $49.
And as if all of that weren't enough bullshit to fertilize every rice paddy in Asia, not knowing anything was wrong, on the 11th I made a purchase of almost $6, WHICH SHOULD HAVE NEVER BEEN AUTHORIZED. Why are they authorizing debit holds against a negative balance?
This whole thing is a total brainfuck.
Who the hell designed these systems anyway? Why is it my fault that you can't account for money that you have sitting in your ATM's. Why should I even use a bank? I never spent money I didn't earn or technically own, and I am being assfucked on a shitstring of technicalities.
UPDATE: I spoke with the branch manager today and got all of the fees reversed. Why was it that easy?
