Not asking me too… I am simply asking for them to deny the transaction when there isn't enough money in the account. Isn't too hard to do but you know they don't give you that option at the bank.

Oh and they call it a "courtesy" getting butt raped isn't a courtesy and frankly I don't want their courtesy. I want them to deny the transaction.

Even the most fiscally responsible people are bound to suffer an account overdraw at some point in time, I've seen it happen. And fact of the matter is, it's an unethical practice padding the bottom line of the suffering banks of America…but as my opening line reveals, I think you knew that already. You're obviously one adherring to a belief that those with a fiscal mind less organized and advanced than your own or possibly even those whose bank account is less engourged than yours, should be punished for their irresponsibility, lazyiness, foolishness, and the list goes on.

But here's the bottom line: It would cost the banks NOTHING to shut down a card, just like even the big bad credit card companies don't seem to have trouble doing. That point aside, even under the pretext that overdrawing were the single-most flagrant display of irresponsibility in society for which offenders should be held fully accountable for, does this open the door for exponentially worse corporate theft of the already quite obviously endangered funds of their customers? Last time I checked, I never asked my bank for a loan, I asked them to dispense exactly what I earned and handed over to them, when I needed it.

1) Do nothing if possible.
2) Follow everyone else.
3) Blame everyone else.
4) Complain when things go wrong.
5) Be bitter.
6) Shirk and deny responsibility.

Good job, idiots……

Sometimes the truth’s a bi%#h.

Sounds about right.

He’s calling you a whiner, and he’s being NICE about it, IMO.

Jay

Luck had nothing to do with the fees you were charged.

Both of us acted in accordance with the check register.

And by having two people operating out of the same account, and not communicating with each other, it meant your Register was wrong. Not the bank’s problem.

…which due to the pay-big-items-first obvious screwjob then caused a vicious cycle of more fees leading to more returned checks…

A screwjob which could have been avoided by you. Stop blaming the bank.

If I asked you to hold $50 for me and then asked you to pay my $60 phone bill you’d tell me to bug off.

I’m not a bank. This means I don’t have all a bank’s resources to recoup the $10 you want to borrow (for as close to free as is possible, apparently) in the example.

Logic dictates the items would be processed in order of date/time, as they would if I had made the transactions in person.

Logic also dictates that banks wouldn’t loan money to homebuyers who from Moment One were clearly incapable of repaying the loan. Yet they did it anyway, and in droves. I think we can safely say that logic does not reign supreme in the finance world. Which means caveat emptor.

You are also exposing your ignorance when you state that the ATM fees go towards maintenance. If every bank customer avoided ATMs and headed straight for the lobby for every transaction, you would see those fees disappear. Banks need customers to use the ATM.

So maintaining an ATM terminal/network is free to the issuing bank?

And since banks “need” customers to use the ATMs, is that “need” not reciprocated by those customers who need 24hr access to cash?

While I agree handouts have become expected and bad money management originates most of this nation’s economic woes (starting with our govt), for you to completely dismiss the ruthless tactics of credit card companies and banks fine-printing their customers to death shows a remarkable lack of insight and class.

I’m not completely dismissing the banks at all. Are their tactics “ruthless?” Perhaps. But you aren’t going to change them, and neither am I. All we can do is:

1) Realize that ultimately we are responsible for what happens with our money; and

2) Vote with our feet.

Which, thankfully, we are perfectly free to do.

Thanks for taking the time to leave a well-written comment on your way out. I have much more respect for you and your argument than most of the others presented above.