Returned check charges....WOW!

[Pat Whatley]

I gladly take checks because I rarely get one returned thanks to overdraft protection. I got one back from the bank today and it made me think about what that cost the person who wrote it.

Lady bought a yard sign making fun of her sister for turning 40. The yard sign was $38.50 total.

Check returned, bank charged $35
Check returned again, bank charged $35
Fee to merchant $35

Her total cost on the yard sign is $143.50.

 

[signmeup]

Automatic withdrawls are even worse. The company will attempt to withdraw funds everyday until you get your bank statement and notice it. The bank charges $25 for every failed attempt. So does the company you signed up for the auto withdrawl.

 

[cdiesel]

My ex used to do this all the time. She'd use her debit card for everything, and frequently overdraw her account (we had separate accounts, largely because of this!). She'd go to Circle K and buy a coffee for $1.50 and it'd end up costing her almost $40. I never could quite get through to her how much it was actually costing her, but I remember seeing her bank statements saying that her monthly bank fees were $250+!

 

[Gino]

A friend of mine has a shop about 35 miles away and he got hit on a check..... $40.00 on his end, but he wrote two checks on that one and both of his bounced because he's working so close. He got hit with another $80.00 for his pair. He's out $120 because the first lady said she'll pay it, but not for a week or two. She doesn't have the funds for her original check, let alone the bounced fees.

Its goofy all over.

 

[TheSnowman]

My bank pays them as long as I'm depositing X amount of money at least every other month. It has saved my butt a couple times when massive auto withdraws came out and I wasn't expecting it. Before they offered this, I can remember this happening twice, and it was just outrageous what it cost for that mistake.

 

[PressPrintGraphics]

Common thing for me, posted a sign on the wall and on my workers stating our policy on returned checks. It's ridiculous, but..they should be more careful with their spending habits.

 

[petesign]

The worst thing about it is, banks don't process checks in the order they were received, they go daily on charges that aren't automatically deducted. Starting with the largest amount, going to the smallest - that way if one big one comes out and you have a bunch of smaller ones you wrote before - it will snowball into a huge amount. Nice, isn't it?

 

[CheapVehicleWrap]

YEP! banks suck!

 

[Pat Whatley]

Following a train of thought I looked up the figures over lunch. Apparently debit cards and automatic overdraft protection have become a banks biggest friend.

In 2004 overdraft fees nationwide were $10.3 billion dollars. In 2009 the fees were all the way up to $17.5 billion.....MORE THAN THE $15.8 BILLION THAT WAS OVERDRAFTED.

 

[Gino]

Here's another part to that.....

How many banks in your area charge anywhere fro $5, $7 or $10 dollars to cash a check if you cash a customer's check at their bank and you're not a member ??

It's a penalty to cash your customer's check at their own bank.

 

[CheapVehicleWrap]

Here's another part to that.....

How many banks in your area charge anywhere fro $5, $7 or $10 dollars to cash a check if you cash a customer's check at their bank and you're not a member ??

It's a penalty to cash your customer's check at their own bank.

Or, take your fingerprint.

 

[SignManiac]

Banks are making more money than ever now. They're taking it in, but not lending it out. Just got a notice that my bank is now going to start charging $10.00 a month if you don't have a $1k minimum, it's been free all along.

One of my credit card companies just chopped my limit in half from $35k to $17k. I have a zero balance on it and a credit score of 800.

I hate banks now along with everything else. I'd like to hang my insurance agents from a tree. Every week its something new lately.

 

[Gino]

Or, take your fingerprint.

That's a given !!

I had a rather new customer buy quite a few signs about two months ago. She wanted it broken down because there were just a bunch of accounts paying for this project. It totaled about $800 or $900 and there were 7 different checks written for the entire project. This particular bank charges $10 per check. I lost $70 just for accetpting multiple checks. Talk about being pissed. I lost about 8% of my money on one transaction.

I told the bank teller I was going to put a sign up in my shop stating checks from X X X X bank will have a $20.00 fee attached to them. The teller said, well that's not right..... you're stealing from those people and making a profit. I looked at her and said, what's the difference ?? You're stealing from me and calling it a non-member cashing fee. I'm using the same technique and now suddenly, you don't like it. Very interesting........:ROFLMAO:

 

[Bigdawg]

Wouldn't you just deposit the checks in your business account and not pay the fee? They only charge when you cash it at their bank... and most banks won't even cash a check made out to a business in the lobby.

I bank at a credit union now because my bank starting charging $5 for cashing checks

 

[Kemble]

Following a train of thought I looked up the figures over lunch. Apparently debit cards and automatic overdraft protection have become a banks biggest friend.

In 2004 overdraft fees nationwide were $10.3 billion dollars. In 2009 the fees were all the way up to $17.5 billion.....MORE THAN THE $15.8 BILLION THAT WAS OVERDRAFTED.

And yet they were the first ones with their hands open when looking to the government for bail out money.

 

[Gino]

I do that when someone is relatively new or not good at writing checks. I go directly to their bank and I know immediately if the funds are there or not without being penalized for their shortcomings.... except, they now have put this fee thing into effect. Not all banks mind you do this. Just certain ones.

For those seven, I didn't know until then it was per check and not considered a once and done thing per window transaction. I think that made sense.