Charter One Bank ripoff I put in a total of $4100.00 check and cash deposits they held a check more than 5 days I was charged $400.00 in nsf fees Commerce Township commerce, michigan

This is in reply to the person who was complaining about their $5, $6. $20, and $50 checks being recorded out of order and resulting in more than one overdraft fee.

There is no getting around the fact that if you overdraw your account, the bank will screw you. EVERY BANK will screw you. It's what they do. Banks are soulless corporations that exist only to make a profit. They don't care about right and wrong, they will take as much as the letter of the law will let them. (And they will try to change the law to let them take more.) Some individual employees may have souls and try to treat you right, but some don't, and won't. You cannot expect to be treated right by someone who is doing what the corporate office tells them to do.

You can get mad, you can say they are evil scumbags, but it won't change a thing. The only way to prevent them from abusing overdraft charges is to NEVER EVER have an overdraft.

You wrote an check and didn't have the funds to cover it. Once you do that, they will take every penny they can get away with. If you write four checks on the same day, they are allowed to process them in any order. That means they might process them in the order that makes the most money for them (and screws you).

The ONLY way to protect yourself is to NEVER EVER write a bad check. That means you
must decide not to buy things when your balance is low.

One simple rule:

If you have less than $500 in the bank, don't buy ANYTHING you don't need to live.

You should pretend the first $500 in your account doesn't even exist. It is there only for extreme emergencies, such as sudden medical bills, etc.

If your "absolutely needed to live" expenses are only a few dollars less than your paycheck, you might spend months building up that $500 cushion, and get pretty damned tired of living on the bare neccessities. But in the long run it will really pay off, because you will NEVER again pay a single overdraft fee.

Those fees are designed to get you in the hole and keep you in the hole - the bank doesn't care how much you suffer, they want you working for them.

YOU have to be the one who decides to skip McDonalds and get Kraft Mac-N-Cheese or ramen noodles to save $3.50 today, and another $2.00 tomorrow, and $4 the next day. One day at a time you will save a few dollars here and there, until you have the cushion that will let you avoid writing a bad check when you need that critical prescription filled. Once you have the cushion, then you can start making nicer choices - but remember, DON'T use the $500 unless its really an emergency. One bounced check means 10 or 15 days of ramen noodles.

For those of you who call some of us idiots for not keeping a register or knowing how to balance one, here's a new revelation. In this sample register my current balance is $50 and I make the following transactions in this order (1) Wal-mart $5.00 (Balance $45.00), (2) McDonalds $6.00 (Balance $39.00), (3) Exxon $10.00 (Balance $29.00), (4) CVS Pharmacy $50 (Balance = -$21.00).

My register lets me know my balance is negative but an unforeseen medical emergency causes me to purchase mandatory prescriptions and I am willing to eat the single overdraft charge for this last transaction that overdraws my account. But when the bank posts these transactions, they change the posting order (largest to smallest), and they post the CVS transaction first, even though it occurred last.

This leaves the balance at zero and causes the other transactions to bounce. Had I made the CVS transaction first and entered it in my register and I see the zero balance, I would be a fool to go and make three more transactions, knowing that each one of them will overdraw the account and generate three overdraft fees. So quit using this double-speak crap about keeping a register!

The second part of your comment is true, banks must notify a customer of an overdraft, and Charter One Bank does. The problem is that many people do not use online banking, so we must rely on "snail mail" to notify our customers.

Occasionally we are able to foresee a potential issue and are able to contact a customer prior to a major catastrophe. Unfortunately the USPS is not known for their expedited service so by the time customers receive the notification, their account has been overdrawn for days and checks have been bouncing all over the place.

My advice is if you don't balance your checkbook to a t on a regular basis, please check your activity via web or phone so that you are aware of what is going on. In the day of check 21 (like you mentioned), debit cards, and faster processing, it is imperative that consumers are responsible and involved so that 2 weeks don't go by without interaction.

First of all, Check 21 is being implemented, at this time, by a very small number of banks. It is expensive, and somewhat tricky to do. Even if the bank where the check was deposited is doing Check 21, it doesnt make a bit of difference if the bank that receives the check isn't also doing C21.

Someday everyone will process this way, but today, not so much.

But... if the bank placed an extended hold on the deposit, they are required by law to notify the depositor that they are extending the hold, and the reason why, and when the funds will become available. If the OP was not notified, then all they need to do is calmly explain that to the branch manager, and the bank should be obligated to refund the charges. If they refuse, a report to the bank's regulators should do the trick. While they do have the right to extend a hold, they have other obligations that go along with it.

I have had 3 Charter One checking accounts. When I opened my first one, they were very clear. They said to keep my checking account at my other bank open until my direct deposit started on my new Charter One account because, as a new customer, there would be a hold on any check I deposited for the first 60 days. Not so for direct deposits, wire transfers or cash deposits, just checks.

Later, after the 60 days, I deposited a $15,000 insurance check and took the initiative to ask when the funds would be made available.

If they didn't tell you, you should've known to ask. As with anything in life, you have to manage, yes, even banks.

The rules and regulations books are not a way for the bank to rip you off, rather the book is for the customers' protection so they don't get ripped off. It is the customer's responsibility to balance their check book and to make sure that the funds are available to use prior to writing checks. If you received $400 in fees, it means that you bounced 11 checks, but in return the bank covered your negligence. In essence the bank did you a favor, and maybe next time you should be more careful.

BULL*&*&....

With Check21, checks can literally clear overnight. The banking industry wrote the new banking laws for congress and wrote them to their benefit the banking industry and not for the benefit of their customers.

If I deposit a check a noon today, it should be in my account no later than tomorrow morning.. But of course, the banks don't get to float MY money that way.

You got to love this company's response. "As it states in the account rules and regulations booklet". In other word it is perfectly ok to screw you because buried in the small print we can.

I also love the line about how they give the customer the benefit of the doubt. When does that happen and HOW? This bank is a bunch of crooks if you ask me. You deposit checks in it all the time and they clear in one day and then one day they decide to hold a check "just because the fine print lets them". You think the check clear and then get hit with a bunch of fee's. Real nice!!!

I think that check deposits just depend on the bank institution. My bank makes my checks immediately available for me to write on, but I cannot cash out more than 100 of it the first day. So if I deposit 1000.00, I can have 100-1000.00 of it written against checks and be ok...I don't have to wait 5 days for them to 'clear'. The only exception to this is if they are from out of state. I can only withdrawn 100.00 of it immediately from deposit via cash.
I would say that if your bank doesnt allow you to write against your check deposits, find a new bank. Those NSF fees ARE a rip off and are extremely high...but the banking industry lobbies congress to bump those fees up so they can "recover" their processing costs to recover the money....but we all know its to make more money....its a scam but its legal. I even decided to make it a topic of one of my economic classes' assignments last semester. Im amazed at what banks are allowed to charge these days via NSF.
The other problem with NSF fee's is that it unfairly targets people....big-surprise!.....that are in lower income brackets and whom are most likely to write bounced checks. Its tough when you live paycheck to paycheck yet this is exactly the economic bracket this NSF fees hit the hardest.

My suggestion is to actually contact your local state and county representatives and let them know how you feel.

My second suggestion is to join a differnt bank that has a better policy regarding check deposits...try a credit union.

This will be a short and to the point.

Charter One is not ripping you off because your checks are being held. This is a federal regulation call Regulation CC. This regulation deals with what is known throughout the banking industry as a float hold. All checks take 5 business days (until Check21) to clear through the Federal Reserve. At Charter One, we will make the first 100.00 available the first day after the day of deposit, the rest comes available after 5 business days if:

-You have been a Charter One customer for less than 60 days.
-If the check deposits are unusually high
-Or if you constantly have your deposits returned.

If none of these apply then GENERALLY Charter One will give the customer the benefit of the doubt and check deposits are made available the next business day. As it states in the account rules and regulations booklet distributed when you opened the account LONGER DELAYS MAY APPLY.