Banks

This might seem a little too personal, But I need this story shared! I am sending it to newspapers, banks and friends. I am tired of being ripped of by those who I trust to help me get ahead financially -

this is my story:

My husband and I have been married for 13 years. We have experienced feast and famine, ups and downs, struggles and triumphs – especially with finances. My husband had his first experience with a difficult layoff in 2001 after 9/11 put the company he worked for out of commission. He struggled to find work in our region that would pay enough to provide for a family and after going through several jobs, he decided to work for himself as a graphic designer. I pitched in and worked from home to help pay the bills and keep food on the table. We have had some really great years and we have experienced leaned years.

Lately with the economic downturn, our life has been what has become normal to us – tough as usual. But we get by. There are times we are overdrawn and need to pay bills a little late, but we always pay, get our accounts positive and we have not been on welfare to assist us.

I have never changed banks since I was 16 years old. I was with Great Western that was purchased by Washington Mutual and is now taken over by Chase. I have made no major changes to my accounts and have been banking as I normally have over the past 20 years.
I did decide to open accounts in other banks and tried Zions Bank out as well since after I moved there was no WAMU (Chase) in my little town.

I have been used to being overdrawn, paying a fee of $25-$29 for a paid item when I was NSF. But recently after opening an account at Zion and Chase taking over Wamu, I am now charged between $2.50 - $5.00 PER DAY when overdrawn! (this is at both banks)

This may not sound like it’s that big of a deal and you may be thinking, well woman, get your account in order and quit being overdrawn. Great idea!

Here’s a story about how the bank fights small time clients with that idea. About 6 months ago it was an extra lean time for my family. My husband was waiting for a client to pay him so we could pay our bills. Our joint checking we use for household expenses was at zero. SO, I used my very small personal checking to go buy milk and diapers and food about $40 worth BUT I was about $3 off on my checking account balance. I was unaware of this for a couple of weeks. I went in to make a small deposit from some of my odd and end jobs and found I was now overdrawn -$99. My deposit I was hoping would give me $60 in the bank left me at a negative -$39 and I would not have a deposit for at least another week. I also could not get the things I needed for my little family. I came in a week later to make a $100 deposit and now only had $26 instead of the money I needed to pay a few small bills. I made a decision that even though I did not have the money in there, I needed to pay a phone bill of $70 in order to make phone calls to make more money. This made me go negative again to -$44 and the OD fee made me -$73. It would be a couple more weeks until I would be able to make another meager deposit. So 2 weeks later I was now negative - $143. I was getting in deeper and deeper and this continued with Zions bank. This was supposed to be my emergency money for when times were tough I could go get diapers, food or whatever we needed while my husband was waiting for clients to pay him. I did not work a full-time job, just a small hobby business for emergencies. But my banks fees were leading to deeper and deeper financial strain on this small account.

That story was with Zions Bank. 6 months ago
But then, my relationship with WAMU changed as they became Chase. My bank I had been with since I was 16 started doing the same thing and worse!

I have an account for retreats that is only for paying for those retreats. I also have an account that is for my customer orders. I do not mix the money. I had a rough time with business and had some cancellations and refunds I needed to give for a retreat that left me with a SMALL negative balance that I knew I could bring to a positive within a couple of weeks as I collected client payments for the next retreat.
I went to make a deposit in my account BUT my bank had brought it to a positive and closed it for me. The money they used to bring it to a positive was from my customer orders account – this was money people paid me to purchase their supplies – it was GONE! what money do I use to place their orders?

Here what happened – the refunds caused me to be overdrawn $100 plus the OD fee of $35 gave me a balance of a negative -$135 plus the $5/day fee for being overdrawn for 20 days brought me to a negative balance of -$235
I really had no idea I was charged $35 for the OD (that amount had gone up with the changing of the bank nameO and I had no idea I had paid $5/day in this bank I thought I had been with since I was 16. apparently things REALLY change when another bank buys the bank I used to be with. I was banking as usual. Chase decided to take my customer’s money for orders and dump it into my other account and close it out without giving me warning.

Yeah, I am done with those 2 banks. I am now going to be Putting my money under my mattress. why not? There is no interest in these “free” checking accounts. In fact these free checking accounts have cost me over $1000 over the past year.

I wonder who these fees harm? does it harm The guy that makes more than enough money to provide for his family and then some? The guy with the stable job that pays every 2 weeks and has enough money for a trip to Disneyland every year can't understand my problem. Or does it harm more the people that have been laid off, had cut backs effect them, projects diminish, etc…. and are just trying to squeeze by. I feel like I borrowed money from “Vinnie the loan shark” and now my head is in a vice and I can’t get out of his hold. Except it’s not Vinnie, it’s my bank squeezing me beyond dry.

I don’t get it. I mean I know that banks make a lot of their money off of OD fees and the like, But sheeze! This is ridiculous! We are looking at a tough economy with people just trying to get by and the banks are not helping. How does someone barely paying their bills get by when a bank punishes them a daily Overdrawn fee when they fall behind? How can they hope to get ahead? Banks are taking advantage of the poor and struggling and making it worse. It’s time something changed. What are we able to do as consumers to change this. It’s time for a revolt. I am closing my accounts. The bank has made thousands of dollars off my overdraft fees over the past few years. In times of Success, I had kept my savings with them and they made money off the money I kept in CD’s and money market accounts. Now, because they choose to punish and strangle someone who is trying to make it and they are making it nearly impossible to get by in times of difficulty - they will make zero from me in fees from here on out!
Tomorrow I am going to start cashing my checks instead of depositing them. Tomorrow, I buy money orders instead of having a checking account. I use cash when possible, send money orders when checks are needed, and not using a debit card at all anymore. I’ve done it years ago, before debit cards – remember those days? we can go back.
Banks are relying on us strugglers to make them the most amount of money – let’s stop!

Refuse to pay daily OD fees – demand that they be illegal or refuse to banks that charge them. Close your accounts at these kinds of banks!

The only way to get ahead when your job isn’t paying you enough and your bank is raking you over – is to get out of your thieving cheating bank.

I laughed when I walked into Zions Bank the other day and saw this sign “We haven’t forgotten who makes us successful…” ( in reference to the client of course). I laughed because I indeed did contribute to their success. My free checking account has paid them over $1000 this past year. Times that by how many more people are in my shoes – OH yeah we are contributing to their financial gain and they don’t forget by charging us daily when we are down. Thanks, but No thanks! I need a bank like that like I need another hole in my head.