In 2020 banks charged $30,000,000,000 in fees. That’s 30 BILLION dollars! By comparison all Hollywood movies make about $11 billion total!
So, for every dollar Americans spent on going to the movies, they spent three on account fees, over draft fees etc.
Banks answer to their share holders. Share holders like money, so banks charge fees.
Bank is a four-letter word.
Do something about the problem. Take away their ability to steal money from people that don’t have it.
Switch to a credit union. Lower or zero fees. Credit unions answer to their members, I.e. account holders.
I have a good friend with severe ADHD. She was in big trouble because of this and about to get evicted and lose her car because of dumb decisions. I took over her finances completely to get her out of the hole. She was racking up more than $500 of overdraft fees per month, had taken out a usurious car title loan, and had a ridiculous amount of credit card debt. It's been 20 years, and to this day she is not allowed to have a credit card. We have tried to set up her life so this doesn't happen again, but the banks keep trying to do her a favor by "allowing" her to overdraw her account, despite instructions not to do so. Life is hell for those with executive dysfunction, and the banks take full advantage of their weakness.
The final nail in the coffin for me was when Bank of America not only charged an overdraft fee for each insufficient charge, they arranged the order highest to lowest coming out that day to maximize the potential fees.
My credit union will also charge a fee for an overdraft. One penny if I can get money in that day to cover it, and they give me a warning so I can do just that.
One time my bank did this to me. So I went to the bank and closed my account. The manager asked why. I told him obviously I can't afford to have a bank account. I can still see the look on his face.
And another thing were Europeans are better. Paying "fines" for overdrawing your banking account are illegal as are "fines" for failed withdrawals. We had them in the past for a while but the courts smashed that scheme to pieces. On the other hand, often banks do not even allow overdrawing. You hit Zero? End of the Line. Good Customers often get a credit up to some thousand Euro. I have specifically asked to limit my credit frame to €100. Because even while I don't pay a fine for "overdrawing" I still pay absurde interest rates for overcharging - around 0,03% per day = 12,5% per year.
Then there is another thing, two of the five largest banks for end users in Germany are "cooperative banks" which means they are not allowed to make a profit. They are practically owned by their customers. They aren't exactly "the banks with the best interest rates" but overall a lot more relaxed than the competitors. On the other hand... they don't accept every customer. Mostly small businesses and farmers.
Also all banks are forced to cooperate a lot more than US banks which is why credit cards and their often absurd costs are mostly unknown around here.
Edit, I just checked if my bank also offers to refill my daily account from my other accounts if it reaches Zero... in fact it DOES. For Free.
This scenario is kind of happening to me right now. "Hello, we see that you couldn't afford to make your full phone payment last week and paid half to keep your service active. We will not send the regular reminder text that we usually send a day before. You forgot to pay the rest of your bill. Enjoy paying full price, plus a "reactivation fee".
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What I've gathered from the comments here, simply equates to:
Banks are for people with more money than sense, or people wealthy enough to have significant investments and passive income.
If that's not you, go for a credit union, who will be more compassionate to people who may be struggling financially and/or living paycheque to paycheque.
I use a bank because I'm fairly dumb, and also, the bank made it easy for me, with appropriate documentation to create/manage/access my father's funds when he became unable to do it himself. The credit union he used was nearly impossible to work with, and once they found out we had been logging into his online banking to pay his bills because he couldn't remember to do it, they locked out his online access citing that "only the cardholder is allowed to use the online banking system". To get it unlocked we had to take my father, who was going senile and either already had, or would shortly have a confirmed Alzheimer's diagnosis, down to the bank to have it unlocked. Through the entire process, he didn't understand what was happening, but he was able to sign the paperwork, so the bank accepted that; what's ridiculous about the encounter is that the documentation I had, which was power of attorney for assets, was scoffed at, despite being a legal document, signed, dated, with witnesses. They tossed that out without much more than a glance. So once we got the account unlocked, I started a new account at a new bank in his name as a trust account (for him, administrated by me, his legal power of attorney), and we promptly moved all his bills, and all his money to it.
We maintained that account because we couldn't close it. The reason? If you guessed "only the account holder can do that" then you win. We left about $10 in the account and ignored it for several years until my father passed away, we then did the rounds to the banks with the death certificate, closing all the accounts... Unfortunately, he had a handwritten will which they also rejected, so after about 8-10 months of working with a lawyer to get the will certified by the court and have the court appoint my brother as executor, we were finally able to resolve all the banking mayhem that plagued us for the better part of a decade as my father lost his mind. He spent the last few years of his life getting some of the best care available, and about a year after he died, my SO changed jobs (she works in long term care) to that same facility and can confirm, it's one of the best she's ever worked at. It's comforting to know that despite us being put through the ringer by the banks for no good reason, at least he got the care he needed and deserved in the end.
I still miss him and his weird unhelpful advice. I hope he rests in peace.
Funny fact: As an US citizen it is INCREDIBLE HARD to open a foreign banking account. My local German bank simply rejects ALL US customers except when they want to invest a million or more. Because the paper work is HORRIBLE. I on the other hand can easily open a banking account in Finland, Spain, Great Britain or Greece. With some limitations even in Canada, Japan and Mexiko. For an US citizen: End Boss Level. Some even have fantastic service and interest rates.
You have repeat customers for life until you piss them off.
I had a US Bank account for 15 years from when I was in college. They set up shop on college campuses to target kids who might not have the best habits.
One day I was transferring money to a friend and hit an extra zero. I muscle memory tapped through the confirmations and immediately realized my mistake.
Couldn't cancel or stop it in any way.
I called the bank the next day. I asked for forgiveness. The rep transparently told me that since I admitted it was my mistake and not the fault of the app that he couldn't forgive the overdraft fee. After a half hour of escalations they told me "as a one time courtesy" they would credit the fee.
I was pretty pissed off with how much resistance I got over a mistake that happened for the first time in over 15 years.
Alliant Credit Union is online only. They pay interest on checking and savings accounts. They automatically withdraw from savings to avoid overdrafts, but I think their fee policy is a lot more lax if not nonexistent. They have access to two huge ATM networks and a lot of them accept cash deposits. They cover up to something like $20 or $40 in out of network ATM fees (I've never used this) so my understanding is if you only use ATMs a few times a month then they're all free. Great customer service over the phone too.
Been with them for 5 years and have been way happier than US Bank. Regret not switching sooner. Don't do mortgages or credit with them though, every org has their strengths and weaknesses.
Bigger picture, I'm most frustrated at how shitty the banking industry is, or perhaps finance in general, and how unregulated it is, causing folks to have such wildly different experiences with places like US Bank and Alliant Credit Union without even knowing their options just because they didn't do research. It should be regulated enough that the difference in outcome isn't so drastic
Conservative thinking: You should have complied with the bank then there wouldn’t be a problem
During college I had a local bank account mainly used just to buy stuff I needed during those two years I lived in a small ass college town.
Right before graduating my account was low since I wasn't adding more cash to that bank. A subscription I thought I canceled ended up charging me $35 more than I had in my bank account. The bank workers told me on the phone not to worry about it since I have overdraft protection and I can just cancel the purchase later with no charge.
They lied and I ended up getting charged an extra $35 for going over my balance. Still fucking hate that bank for making me deal with this during finals. Once the subscription was cancelled I still was in the negative because of the overdraft charges I was told wouldn't be used on me.
Kind of glad my bank doesn't let me overdraw
They will remove the fee if you go in there in person and raise hell. I've done it many times.
