I'm so fed up with our bank!! It appears(to DH and I), that we're getting ripped off!! Ok, here's our latest problem.

We checked out bank account yesterday online. We had $119 available. I checked a few minutes ago, and 4 things(all around 5-10) came through(debits). The date on those items are 11/16. Well, they charged us $120 for insuffient funds. How is that possible? Also, DH has direct deposit which goes through on Wednesday nights. I just don't understand this.

Last time DH went in, they refused to give us any of the money back. When he tried to close the account, they said we had to have a zero balance first. I can understand if you have checks that need to clear first, but we didn't. He's going again in a little bit.

Anyone have any recommendations for banks?? Looks like we'll be switching next week.

Also, does it seem like we're in the wrong??

By Eve on Thursday, November 17, 2005 - 01:52 pm:

I've had issues with my bank since Bank of America bought them. There have been werid issues with the balance as well. DH thought I was overreacting, until I started saying things didn't seem to balance right and he started looking too and couldn't figure it out. (I think we are both intelligent people!) They would put things through as different dates, when they had them pending before hand. Just really weird. As soon as the baby arrives and life calms down a bit, I think I am going to switch our checking. DH wants to keep our savings because all the ATM's at all of his offices are Bank of America.

Can you get over draft protection? I think they can hit you with all the fees, especially if they are charging for 5-10 things. Sorry, I hope you find a better bank. I'm on the lookout for one myself.

By Bemerry84 on Thursday, November 17, 2005 - 02:29 pm:

We have paychecks direct deposit every other Friday but the money is not actually in the account until 6:00 am that day. Any items coming in in Thursday night are processed before the deposit. Maybe that's what happened. I also have our car insurance drafted and they do it at 6:00 am the morning of the date not at the end of the day processing, this got me once because I assumed when they said the 18th it would be in the evening but it's actually morning. With this new check clearing system they have it's hard to float checks because they process a lot sooner that before found that out because I would mail my checks 2 days before our payday and got caught again. Now I'm onto their procedures so I make sure to have the funds. I know it's hard when you live pay to pay as a majority of us do. Check out some Credit Unions also we don't pay any fees because we have direct deposit. Good Luck.

By Imamommyx4 on Thursday, November 17, 2005 - 02:41 pm:

We too had problems with BOA and changed to a local hometown bank. Since then we don't have the problems any more. Our local bank said that they even had a hard time dealing with BOA on issues.

By Ginny~moderator on Thursday, November 17, 2005 - 04:05 pm:

The way to change banks is to open a new bank account first, and work out of the new account for a month until you have a zero balance in the old account - then close the old account.

When you open a new bank account, always start your checks at 1000, never at 0. A lot of places won't take checks from what they perceive to be a new account, going by the check number.

I never use the "automatic payment" method for any bill, just because I don't trust them to get it right every time, and if they make a mistake I will pay for it. If I have to, I'd rather do the automatic payment with a credit card account because I think the credit card companies are more responsive if there is a mistake.

By Children03 on Thursday, November 17, 2005 - 09:01 pm:

I know that Sometimes if I write a check it can take up to 7 or ten days to clear my account. If you use a debit card it will automatically debit it from your account, but it will not post to your online account until a few days later so you may not see it right away.

By Cocoabutter on Friday, November 18, 2005 - 12:24 am:

If your dh's paycheck deposit was posted on 11/16 the same as the debit items, there is no reason why they should not have applied the deposit to the balance of the account FIRST before paying the other 4 items.

However, if his check officially isn't posted until 11/17, then it is your fault for counting on funds that weren't there yet.

I use Bank One, and have never had a problem.