Are banks inherently crooked?

[Harold Mansfield]

I went to open another bank account today. I opted this time from a Credit Union hoping to avoid the almost criminal actions that banks take regarding fees.

My big issue is overdrafts.
From time to time I may be off by a few dollars, especially when it comes to automatic payments. I have noticed that today's banks purposely allow small overdrafts in order to charge you both overdraft and negative balance fees.

I have gone round and round about this with them and demanded that they not process any transactions over the amount available in the account.

For instance, if you have $19.75 in your account and an automatic payment of $20 hit it...they will allow the charge and then charge you $35 for the overdraft (of .25 cents) and then $8 negative balance fee (cost varies).

I'd rather the charge be denied, because I'll be alerted, and let me either add money to the account, or pay that charge with a different card.

They won't do that.

I purposely avoided attaching another account to my checking because of this:
Once, after complaining about them creating fees, I added my savings account to my checking account to cover those occasional problems.
So in their infinite wisdom, Bank of America still charged an overdraft fee, which they proceeded to take from my now attached savings account. Instead of $2, they took $35!

This is ridiculous!
Their other solution is to pay for overdraft protection. But I don't want any overdrafts so why do I need to pay you for protection?
Why can't you just deny any transaction that doesn't have the proper funding?

They are purposely creating fees. Why do I have to be stern to ask them NOT to loan me any money?
They have no problem loaning me $2 that I didn't ask for so that they can charge me $35, but I couldn't get a business loan to save my life.

Do not approve any transactions that are over the balance.
What is with these people?
They're crooks.

This doesn't happen often, but once s enough to really piss you off.
The fees are out of control.

[KristineS]

Banks do seem to have quite the racket. I deal with a small town bank that only has branches in my town, and they seem to be better than most, but even this bank is starting to come up with new ways to generate fees. It is seriously annoying.

[Spider]

Some while ago banks were on a "Free banking" kick - ie. no service fees, although overdraft, return check, and such were still charged for. There was a great reduction in the number of different fees and charges. NOW accounts paid interest on the balance of checking accounts. They seem to be returning to nickel-and-dime tactics - a fee for everything. No more NOW accounts. Chase has just notified me that my accounts will no longer be "Free" and list a whole slew of future charges, including the re-introduction of a $15 per month service fee. On a $4,000 average daily balance, that is approaching 5% annual interest that I am to pay them for the pleasure of letting them use my money! (plus the interest I am losing by not having in an interest-bearing account.)

If there was any doubt that banking is legalized thievery, I would have thought the recent debacle when the banks nearly tore down the whole edifice if the world's economic structure, would have put those doubts to rest.

But there's not much point in fretting over it. You cannot live in the present world economic structure without dropping your pants and bending over at intervals. And when the banks are done with you, you'd better be ready to bend over for the insurance companies.

Or become a hermit in the mountains somewhere!

[Harold Mansfield]

AND..they are smug about it. During one of my many complaints about them purposely creating fees to charge people, when normally no fee would exist..a bank manager smuggly told me that if I kept enough money in my account I wouldn't have to worry about it.
My response to him was, "I didn't ask you to cover any overdrafts so why should I pay you a fee for something that you are not supposed to do?".
..and the beat goes on.

[billbenson]

I bank with Chase who plays the same sort of games. I have problems because my wife is always overdrafting her account. One thing though. If her account goes negative and I put money in it by transfer from another chase account their is no penalty. I try to remember to look at it before I go to bed to be sure its not negative or move money. It doesn't matter if it goes negative before I move the money. It seems to work after banking hours as well, just not after midnight. Chase told me they did this ,but other banks do it in the order of the transaction.

[Harold Mansfield]

I can say that the Credit Union has been a pleasant experience so far and they actually gave me the option of denying any charge without enough funds to cover it, so that no overdrafts will ever occur.
They also explained that automatic billing comes out no matter what. (I didn't know that). So if you have automatic billing set up on that account and you don't have the funds to cover it, the bank is obliged to approve the charge no matter what and that's how a lot of people get stuck.

They are also completely cashless, which I really like. All banking is done online or an ATM. I had another account that was like that a while back but at the time it wasn't that convenient.

[AaronConway]

Banks are nothing but crooks...dirty, rotten, disgusting thieves. We recently dumped our bank and decided to try a small credit union. So far, so good but if they start with their crazy fees I'll switch to cash and USPS money orders.

PS: I HATE BANKS! :mad:

[jamesray50]

My dad who is in his late 80's hates banks. He has checking accounts at two different banks, his pension is direct deposited into one of his accounts. My mom would write checks for their bills and then my dad would withdraw the balance of the money and keep the cash at their apartment. Of course I was mortified when I found out they were doing this. The neighborhood they lived in was not as nice as it was when they moved in 30 years ago. After they moved in with me this summer, I got POA and have changed things a little bit. I got a debit card for both accounts. One of the banks my dad says does not have a very good rating so he wants to spend all the money in that account rather than his cash on hand. So that's what we do. We are trying to deplete the balance in one bank and he withdraws the cash in the other bank after I have paid the monthly bills.

[Harold Mansfield]

It's pretty common for people who grew up in the 20's and 30's or children of those that were around during that time to mistrust banks. They had good reason then, and they definitely have it now.
My Great grandfather and my Grandfather didn't trust banks and they too hid large sums of cash around the house.

[Spider]

As I keep saying, there are two sides to every coin. While you may be against and distrusting of banks, question why that is. From this thread, it seems we dont like what seem to be excessive fees and questionable application of those fees. But those fees add to a bank's profit.

As we are rather forced to use banks if we are to be part of the economy, no matter where you live (unless it is a wilderness cabin and you hunt your own food), then you want YOUR bank to be profitable, don't you? Who would risk their money with an unprofitable bank?! You want your bank to be profitable but you don't want to contribute too much to those profits.

So - think! Who owns these profits? To whom do the profits belong? Answer: the shareholders. Sure the bankers pay themselves huge salaries and bonuses, but there is sitill lots of profit left over and that is paid to the shareholders in dividends and share price appreciation. Therefore, the madder you are about the profits the banks make, the more you should be investing your savings in the banking companies.

At close of business for 2010,

Citibank was selling for $4.73 per share - no yield, no Price/earnings
Bank of America was selling for $13.34 - Yield: 0.30%
Goldman Sachs was selling for $168.16 - Yield: 0.83% - P/E Ratio: 9.58
Chase (JPMorgan Chase) was selling for $42.42 - Yield: 0.47% - P/E Ratio: 11.80
... and of course there are hundreds of other banks in which to invest.

Of those above, most or all are majority owned by the government (the people) but the government will be selling their shares soon and it is pretty certain that they will make a profit for the taxpayer on the baleout. But it is clear (to me, anyway) that the value of these stocks is much higher than their current pices.

So, I'm not getting upset at the banks, I'm buying some of them and being on the receiving end of those fee increases as well as on the paying end.

You can do that, too. Don't get mad, get even!

[daveb]

well i would believe so. they are built on the capitalistic ( or even pure capitalistic) principle - to create money out of nothing. they dont really care that joe loses his job or make a loss in their investments. They are only concerned with making money from others' money as an organization