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What You Should Know About Those Debit Card Overdraft Fees

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I know that there are times that I would rather use my credit card to make a purchase but my conscience tells me to use money that I have, not spend money that I don’t have. For the most part I listen to my conscience. I have like most people experienced a few overdraft fees in my life time because of it. You would think that, just like a credit card if you don’t have the funds, the card would be declined. All the banks use that card to their utmost advantage by letting you spend money that isn’t there. They happily cover what you don’t have and then charge you those large overdraft fees.

Unfortunately for the bank customers this is a very common practice all across the U.S. That may change in California soon due to some recent class-action lawsuits. This is what normally happens. You have a set amount of funds available in your bank account, you then use your card multiple times throughout the day and spend more than what you have. Instead of the bank issuing one overdraft fee for the overall money they will now charge you an overdraft fee of ALL the purchases you made that put your bank account into a negative dollar situation. The real question here is, does this make any sense? You OBVIOUSLY didn’t have the money in the first place but the bank has the nerve to charge you MORE MONEY (that you don’t have) to make the situation even worth.

Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and Citibank are the three banks that are under suit in California. Citibank states that the law suit is without merit. All the banks spend vast amounts of money on advertising campaigns designed to draw us into their bank as a “Valued Customer”. If we are, as they tell us a “Valued Customer” then why did they allow us to spend more than we had available. It would seem to me that the cost to their profits is the real reason why they seem unwilling to do anything about this situation.

Debit Cards are a great way to stop us from over spending and budgeting all we now need is for the banks to do what is RIGHT for us. Lets hope the law suit in California forces the banks to rethink this policy.

2 Responses to “What You Should Know About Those Debit Card Overdraft Fees”

1. skinnyguh! Says:
   November 19th, 2008 at 6:51 pm

   overdraft fee on a debit card?
   ima freshman college student that was issued a higher one debit card through which i could receive my scholarship money. i ran out of money on it a month ago, and decided i was through with it until a friend told me that it was possibly to actually overdraft on it. so i kept trying to log in my account on the internet but it wouldnt work, i also had my password reset but i never received email confirmations. i finally called today and got throught to someone who told me my account had been on lock because i had not faxed a picture i.d. of myself to them. this i never knew of that i had to do. and for this reason i have an overdraft fee of $80 dollars. i cant even think of what i spent to have such a large over draft fee. i told them i didnt know i had to send in identification, and now that my account is locked, i knew nothing of my increasing overdraft fee. what should i do???i dont want to have to pay anymore than i already owe

2. src50 Says:
   November 19th, 2008 at 11:53 pm

   Don’t listen to “friends.” Find out the facts before you do things like that.
   References :

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