I’m sorry but… who doesn’t know what an overdraft is? Is the first commenter 12?
overdraft fees are just another way to punish people for being poor or tight on money.
So, just in case someone doesn’t actually know, your typical overdraft fee works like this - if you have 25 dollars in your account, spend 26 dollars, the bank will process that amount but then charge you a fee of (typically) 35 dollars.
They’re also prone to doing really shady things like, if in the above situation you put in a deposit of 26 dollars to try and cover the amount, they will process the debit before the credit and you’ll still wind up in the hole.
So this isn’t a situation where people are spending 30 billion dollars they didn’t have. It’s a situation where people who literally don’t have the money to spare are being used as a source of profit.
I have worked in banking for years. The commentator above me is correct. The first commentator is an asshole.
Additionally, let’s say your boss is a jackass who constantly bounces checks including your paycheck! And you deposit your paycheck in your bank account without , say, going out of your way to cash it at a check cashing place and paying fees to do so then depositing the cash in your bank account, and your paycheck bounces? Because of bullshit your boss is pulling? YOU get fined. YOU. Even though it’s not your fault. And that fine, which can be $25-50 dollars, can be enough to push your account into overdraft territory! And here’s the best part. If you don’t scrape up the money to pay off the fines, you can start accruing MORE fines! Isn’t that great? Ha haaaa, so much fun!
Also: let’s consider that banks loan money to each other interest free AND get government subsidies, but that it’s virtually impossible for Random Person Off The Street to get a savings account at 2% or more interest while also being advised by innumerable financial advice columns about how fucking great compound interest is and how all they have to do is open a savings account to 5/10/15/some other imaginary percent and they’ll be rolling in the dough come retirement age. Meanwhile, banks are also charge 15+% on credit cards and mortgages and loans.
Banks will also do this super great thing where they rearrange your charges to hit you with more fees than you might have otherwise been hit with. Since they usually charge $35 per transaction in the red, they have an interest in seeing your account hit as many charges while negative as possible. Say you have $100 in your bank account, and you spend $60, $20, $15, and $50 IN THAT ORDER. By the end of the next business day, the charges will be rearranged so that instead of a single overdraft fee from going $45 over on one charge, they hit you with 3 overdraft fees for going over the same amount. Once for the $50 which put you $10 under, then again for the $20 and the $15. The end result is that now, rather than being $80 down, like you should have been, you’re $150 down ($10 + $35, $45 + $20, $65 + $35, $100 + $15, $115 + $35 = $150). So nearly double what the original hit would be.
I don’t htink it’s overdraft but another bit of BS that banks pull is when you don’t have over 300 in your savings, they will charge you every week, causing your savings to get smaller and smaller. And the fees count as withdraws which my bank only allows 6 per month and when I go over, even more money is taken from me.
Me:
*gets on bus* omg, everyone is watching me and judging me and they're going to laugh at me when the bus starts and I'm not sitting down. Don't put your ticket in the wrong way or else everyone will judge you and laugh at you.
Me:
*goes to pay for shopping* omg, what if i don't have enough money? *counts money 20 times* What if i look stupid or say the wrong thing? Am i even standing in the right spot? What if someone wants to get past and i'm in the way?
Me:
*says hi to someone online* omg, they aren't replying. holy shit, why am i so annoying? What if they tell their friends how annoying i am? Why am i like this...holy shit.
Me:
*meets someone new* What if they don't like me, or don't want to be around me? I shouldn't have met them. They're probably criticizing me right now. Why am i the way i am?
