Wells Fargo Ripped me off with their OVERDRAFT FEES!!!! Nationwide Nationwide

First and foremost, banks are a business. Second, you can't blame anyone but yourself for going overdraft. Unless there was some sort of error made by the bank (such as a deposit going into the wrong account) overdraft fees are solely your responsibility, I would also like to state that rare is an instance where an overdraft is the fault of the bank.

Banks allow customers to go overdraft as a courtesy, not an incovienience. What if you were trying to buy gas, pay for a hotel, taxi, or some other pertinent emergency and the bank declined your card? You're the same person that would complain about your card being declined. I work in a call center and deal with people like you constantly. You can blame the bank all you want when it comes them allowing you to go overdraw, but in the end *you* were the one that used you card, not the bank. Just pay the fees and next time consider an overdraft protection option to prevent this in the future, with Wells or whatever other bank you switch to because you think Wells Fargo is the only national bank that nails people with overdraft fees when they "have better things to do than balance my check book."

""Don't listen to all that nonsense I know exactly how you feel, these people that are writing in telling you to keep records of your transactions are ridiculous.""

*Hold that thought!

""Yes in some ways we have to keep record of our spending""

Whew. I was getting worried. You do seem to know how banks operate:

""Hey lets charge people a high fee when they spend a dollar over, cause I mean that would totally give us more money! ""

Yup! The took it even further than that. Over spend ONE PENNY and the fees will hit.

""O and let's make it so that there is no limit to the amount of times we can charge them.""

Yup! There is no limit to how many times they will let you overdraw an account - unless you don't pay the fees. Then they will extend to you another courtesy - they'll close the account for you. (saving you the hassle of going to the bank to close it!)

Which leads me right back to the first comment. KNOWING ALL THIS, it becomes even more obvious that a prudent bank customer would, you know, ""keep records of your transactions""

""My suggest to you would be to skip those jerks and find yourself a credit union bank, you'll find credit unions to be alot more helpful, and a lot less out to get you.""

That is true for the most part, because credit union members share a part-ownership of the credit union. However, even with that relationship, a credit union will not long put up with repetitive overdrawing of an account without a substantial penalty to the account holder.

I know exactly how you feel, these people that are writing in telling you to keep records of your transactions are ridiculous. Yes in some ways we have to keep record of our spending, but it doesn't give any right to these Money Digging Snake Like BANKS who flat out rob us. It is total RObbery and how some one can not identify that is beyond me! Okay charge me once for a purchase and then deny the rest! That's just common courtesy to me. I heard once some one tell me the bank has done me a FAVOR! You may as well send me out on the street with my belongings tied to stick! 600.00 in over draft fees! COME ON! can no one see that these Banks are out of control with their charges? I mean I can tell you exactly what they were thinking when they made the decision to have high overdraft fees. GETTING RICH! It probably went along the lines of...."Hey lets charge people a high fee when they spend a dollar over, cause I mean that would totally give us more money! O and let's make it so that there is no limit to the amount of times we can charge them. O and when they call to complain, we'll give them some lame option like opening a line of credit, and then we'll tell them they are not approved for that." Don't get me wrong here, I am not against making a profit but I am against taking advantage of people who usually can't afford to pay that kind of money anyways. My suggest to you would be to skip those jerks and find yourself a credit union bank, you'll find credit unions to be alot more helpful, and a lot less out to get you.

ok all banks are going to make money on OD fees! The best way to avoid them is to balance your checkbook!! I dont agree with banks charging as much as they do but hey its the corporate world! The corporations are designed to make money off the average consumer! They take advantage of us and quite frankly if they found any other way to make the money they would. In todays age it is quite hard to do daily bussiness with out having a checking account that being said, make sure you balance your checkbook!, to avoid fees!

Posted about this before. This reminds me of one of my old girlfriends. She figured as long as she had checks, she had money. She'd get her paycheck and deposit it. Then she'd commence to writing checks like there's no tomorrow. The sad part was, the one time I sat down and balanced her checkbook right after she's made her deposit, she didn't have any money. It had all been used up on NSF and returned check fees from merchants. Her whole paycheck was gone, went to fees. She couldn't understand that concept. I love that "Obviously something got screwed up". But it's the BANK'S fault for not declining her purchases. Not her's for making the purchases without money in her account. Then we'd read the sad tale about how she didn't have money to eat or gas to get to work or money to get starbucks. It was a vicious circle alright. She'd start the month with a little money in her account and start writting checks ALL OVER AGAIN. CUT THE FRICKKIN' CARD UP! You'd be $600 richer. Posted last week about how CR reported that the average debit card user that uses their card more then 20 times a year and overdrafts their account PAYS over $200+ in fees per year. You beat that by $400 IN TWO WEEKS.

1. Keep a register so you know what is in your account
2. talk with your bank and see if they can place a code on your account so that your card will be declined if you try to spend more than your available balance
3. Cut your card up and work with just checks and money. If you do this make sure you also follow rule #1.

Don't be surprised if you don't receive any more fees back. You've received $302 of the $600 back. I'd be stunned if they gave you any more. Best of luck to you, but whatever bank/credit union you end up at, please remember and follow the rules to help prevent the fees.

You are right they should have declined your card. My bank declines my card if I dont have the money in there. It also automatically takes from my savings account too. Thats why I left M and T. That was actually a news report here in Md. How banks are charging out rageous fees with overdrafts and everything. And they are making money off of it. Just like credit cards they decline when you dont have the money in there. It is the same for a check card. If the money is not there why would they approve it? Oh yeah to make more money off of the customers

But I guess you still should know how much money you have in your account. Maybe one fee ok but several?!

Lori,

You are missing the obvious here and then blaming the bank for your own inept accounting practices.

It appears that you are not keeping a checkbook register at all. It is my guess that you are using the ATM for determining your available balance.


FYI.. Using your debit card is ONLY treated as a debit transaction when you input your PIN#. If you use your debit card without the input of your PIN# it is treated like a CREDIT transaction, and may take several days or even weeks to actually post to your account, depending on how frequent the merchant uploads batch transactions.

No rip off here.

If you proceed to make a charge without having enough money in the bank, you are giving the bank the authority to overdraft your account. It is you who should know that you don't have enough money to cover the transaction. Knowing your finances, and making the charge anyway, gives the bank your approval to let the charge go through, let your account go negative and incur the fees. I don't know why people don't get this.

If you don't know you are ready to overdraft, that is your fault.

What happened to the good old days when we had to balance a checkbook? You could write checks without enough money in your account but they would get returned unpaid AND you'd get the fees. Good rule of thumb, if you don't have enough extra money in your account so that you don't have to check your balance, you are going to want to keep your stuff written down somewhere. The fees are going to follow you which ever bank you choose unless you do something different. Take this at face value, no one likes overdraft fees.

Since apparently you don't know how to balance a checkbook, they allowed the charges to go through. If not, then the poor merchant you wrote a hot check to would have had to run it through again and again, until you came to yoru senses and made your check balance positive positive. Obviously some will charge you or this inconvenience. But then you have the nerve and audacity to complain. Boo-h*o Grow up!

Lori,

You quipped, 'Obviously something got screwed up with my account but instead of calling attention to it by declining my debit card transactions, they just kept approving them.'

Perhaps they made the error of mistaking you for a fully-functioning adult who is capable of mastering that daunting everyday task of balancing a checkbook (sarcasm intended). I read your complaint and I immediately wondered the following: Exactly how close is Plymouth to St. Olaf - and is your family in some way related to Rose Nylund?

Is it your position that they should shoulder the responsibility of cutting off your spending activities when you lose control?

The bank was 1000% more accommodating than I would have been, as evidenced by your subsequent admission that, 'I then called another customer service number and talked to a phone banker and explained my situation. She said that it is not the banks responsibility to know if there is money in the account or not. She put me on hold for several minutes before waiving $200 worth of fees.' Frankly, when people who fail to take responsibility for their errors cry for a refund of fees, I believe that there should be a federal law allowing banks to double the fees on the spot so that you shut up and stop trying to wrongly play the victim.

YOU overdrafted your account during moments of irresponsibility. As a COURTESY, they credit $200 of charges YOU are responsible for...and you have the unmitigated gall to start this thread claiming Wells Fargo ripped YOU off?

I do not usually say this because I believe that banks are greedy, blood-sucking parasites (What do you expect? They ARE in the business of making money...alternative = Credit Union...hint, hint...). However, in this case it seems as though you GROSSLY mismanaged your account and they tried to meet you part of the way to make you happy. In true crybaby fashion, you have indicated that their COURTESY is not good enough for you. That is tantamount to a welfare recipient compaining because they do not receive enough assistance (i.e. MY tax money) to buy name-brand cigarettes like Marlboro and have to settle for Basic.

My suggestion for you, should ROR decide to publish this (sometimes they do, sometimes they do not when rebuttals are this scathing), is to live life sans a checking account unless you are prepared to graduate from the adolescent maturity and responsibility level to that of a responsible adult. It is not someone else's job to manage YOUR finances. That responsibility is YOURS. The bank is under no obligation to act in any other manner save the Terms and Conditions that you agreed to. Either abide by them, find a Credit Union (hint, hint again) that conducts business in a manner conducive to your wishes, or assign yourself 'cash only' status to save yourself this type of loss of money.