Bank Atlantic - I'm Looking For An Attorney To File A Cladd Action Lawsuit! Overdraft charges and the way items are posted are fraudulant! Miami Florida

I empathize with you. They just did it to me. Supposedly I now owe them $827.00
They crossed the line this time, I'm reporting them to the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) and I'm contacting a few other agencies as well. If all of us contact the same agencies we may get somewhere with it. Thanks for sharing your experience with us, strength in numbers! Maybe this time in Our favor.
Shame on Bank Atlantic, they are yet another embarrassment to the American way.
The majority of their business is done by continuing to Rip us off!

X-Customer from McNab Branch Ft Lauderdale, FL

I empathize with you. They just did it to me. Supposedly I now owe them $827.00
They crossed the line this time, I'm reporting them to the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) and I'm contacting a few other agencies as well. If all of us contact the same agencies we may get somewhere with it. Thanks for sharing your experience with us, strength in numbers! Maybe this time in Our favor.
Shame on Bank Atlantic, they are yet another embarrassment to the American way.
The majority of their business is done by continuing to Rip us off!

X-Customer from McNab Branch Ft Lauderdale, FL

I empathize with you. They just did it to me. Supposedly I now owe them $827.00
They crossed the line this time, I'm reporting them to the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) and I'm contacting a few other agencies as well. If all of us contact the same agencies we may get somewhere with it. Thanks for sharing your experience with us, strength in numbers! Maybe this time in Our favor.
Shame on Bank Atlantic, they are yet another embarrassment to the American way.
The majority of their business is done by continuing to Rip us off!

X-Customer from McNab Branch Ft Lauderdale, FL

Separate accounts? My wife and I have a joint account for the household bills and our own personal accounts for things like gas money, lunch, etc.

You might try this so you won't have to worry about what your husband spent. I also suggest that you open an account at a separate bank so if he does overdraft his account, your funds won't be taken under the bank's right to offset.

I know people will say "check your register" "That is really what you have available"; But when you are a husband and wife, using the same account, using the ATM card for everything (thinking - if the money is not available, the transaction will be denied) traveling, it is REALLY hard to keep up with the check register.

It is really not that hard, it just take a bit more management, but still quite manageable. The first thing to do is STOP using the Debit card for everything. Each of you then take out a set amount of cash and use those for small purchases. For big purchases if you are running close to a $0 balance, it may take some communication to make sure that the other person didn't do the same thing. Yes this takes extra time, but even if it saves 1 OD fee isn't that time well spent?

If you still insist on using the Debit card, then set up a buffer in your acccount. This will catch those times when you have spent money but didn't catch up with each other yet. It may take a few weeks to do this, but even $50-$100 would probably help quite a bit. But then you just have to remember to never go below this new "floor". If you still think you can go to $0 because the other person will not go below the floor you may end up with the same problems.

"There is no way to protect yourself!!"

There is. If you find it impossible to keep an accurate check register, then quit using your ATM card "for everything". Otherwise, you'll just keep falling into the same old trap. Instead, you and your husband should just use cash for incidental purchases.

Not being able to keep an accurate check register will put you in danger of overdrafting your account. Using the ATM card for every incidental purchase will compound this problem many times over.

As a former banker, you should well know that keeping an accurate check register is the only way to avoid overdrafting your checking account.