Citizens Bank.... not your typical LEGALIZED LOANSHARKING, rip off bank...

u guys are missing the point
by vr14213 Posted Thu August 20, 2009 @ 6:36 PM


everyone is missing a major point.

how much does it "cost" the bank to "cover" charges (overdraws -
payment to vendors etc....) PER ITEM

vs


the fee that is asessed to consumers PER ITEM.

AND

Proportionally who is more affected the rich or poor?
Is this a tactic that may prey on the poor and uneducated?


As a former banker - we loved ripping off customers and joked about
it
daily.

According to all the comments this is what the writer should be
listening to and learning from.

!st: Make sure you have the funds in your bank account.
2nd: Don't commit an illegal act by knowingly write a check you don't
have sufficient funds for.
3rd: Don't blame the bank for stupidly overdrawing your own account by
intentionally commiting an illegal act.
4th: Don't admit on the internet that you knowingly commited an
illegal act and expect people to feel sorry for you when commiting
that act goes very wrong. As it could've been much worse.
5th: Read your disclosures that you recieved when you opened the
account. If you threw them away b/c they didn't mean anything call the
bank and request them to send you a copy.
6th: Be thankful the items were paid. If they hadnn't been you
would've not only recieved 228.00 from the bank but also all the fees
from the companies that Overdrew the account.

Hopefully this was a lesson learned. No matter what bank you are with
if you use funds that are not yours you are going to get a fee for it.
And yes the fees are high. That is to discourage you from Overdrawing.

You wrote a check that you did not have enough money in your account
to cover. This is no one's fault but your own.

Come by and take a look!
http://planetfeedback.typepad.com/mommage/2007/06/teaching-childr.html

"One large check that posted to soon created the overdraft in
question. Reverse at least five of the six fees and I'll consider the
matter to be settled; getting rid of all six would be much more in
order....

Every year, the amount of these fees goes up, now at $38. STOP
LOAN-SHARKING and STEALING!!"

LoL! "reverse at least five or six of the fees..."
So...cheque issues is not new to you then? Maybe use cash, or get
thee to a credit counselling class, asap before you end up in jail for
cheque kiting.

use cash! problem solved!

HAHAHAHAHA...wow, now I've heard everything. You commit check kiting
and the bank should pay you the fees it assesses for unauthorized use
of their own funds (if you overdraw your account, where the hell does
the money come from pal?). What a loser argument, and if Citizens
Bank hears me, please do not give into this customer and save the
refunds for actual reasons and not simply whiney excuses.

Jacqueline,

The problem here is not Citizens, it's writing checks you can't pay
for. You should be thankful they paid the items you no longer had
enough funds for - they could have refused them, causing you more
expense from wherever you made the other transactions.

I'll bet you didn't know that writing checks you don't have the money
available to cover is illegal, even if you ask the recipient to hold
it.

I don't see you writing any letters like this to the person who cashed
your check early and demanding they cover these fees.

As for your ridiculous claim that the bank is practicing "legalized
loansharking" and accusing the bank of stealing from you, if you don't
like paying the fees, don't write checks you don't have the money
for.

STOP MANAGING YOUR MONEY IRRESPONSIBLY AND THEN BLAMING THE
CONSEQUENCES ON THE BANK!!

they take the biggest check first then work their way down. supposedly
so important checks get paid first, like rent. sometimes this means it
goes negative with a few small checks outstandign which causes
multiple fees to be charged. call the branch your account is at, talk
tot he manager, and see if he can help you. I have had this happen
before, and they took off half the fees. better than nothing.

She could have taken those $228 to a local community college and take
a single day course on personal finances or something similar and
still have some cash left over.

It sounds like I agree with everyone else.

I think its kind of dumb to write a check that cant be cashed.

Is it just me, or is the sentence "reverse at least five of the six
fees and I'll consider the matter to be settled" seem kind of funny.
I mean what's the alternative? would this writer go to another bank
to write bad checks to?

"Earlier this week, somebody cashed a check they had been asked to
hold, and this created an overdraft in my account." There it is -
right in the beginning of your letter. And I knew what would follow.
An attempt to evade responsibility.

How would you know the overdraft fee goes up each year? Are you in a
habit of overdrafts? I haven't the slightest idea what my bank's
policy is - I don't bounce checks.

I haven't written down a single check amount in 25 years of checking.
I keep it in my head. I suggest you pay more attention, and possibly
keep a written record. It doesn't sound like your current method is
working.

This is getting to be a pretty unfair practice by banks. The checks
you cash take forever to clear but the checks you write clear
immediately. People are pretty dependant on banks and they use that
against you.
You can have $100 in your bank and write 3 checks for $20 and 1 for
$40.01 that hit the same day. Even though the first 3 should be
covered and only 1 check caused the over draft, they set it up so you
get hit with about $125 or so in "Over draft fees" for being $0.01
over your limit. $125 for being over $0.01 is criminial in my opinion.
I can't believe anyone supports this way of thinking. Getting hit with
a fee is understandable but this goes overboard.
That's like getting charged with a felony and getting jail time for
going 1 mph over the speed limit. Actually that's more oil companies
raising the prices 40% because they shut down a pipeline that in Rhode
Island.
I am waiting for the day they charge $1 for a teller fee on every
transaction and then charge your account $1 a week if you don't have
any teller transactions during the week.

Unless the branch manager of your bank is named "Knuckles", I doubt
they are loansharking.

Jacqueline H.,
Chalk this one up as a learning experience all be it a costly one.
BillR.

I ALWAYS subtract each check from the total balance in my checking
account the second I write the check, instea of waiting to see when it
clears. That way, I always know EXACTLY what is in my account to
use.

Citizens Bank did nothing wrong. My mother-in-law does the same thing
you do all the time with her bank (which is M&T) - and they end up
covering the checks, but charging her the overdraft fee. The bank
actually did the OP a favor by covering the checks, or else, rather
than the overdraft fee due to the bank, he could have faced $20-$40
per bounced check to whoever he wrote the checks to PLUS the
possibility of legal action for writing the bad checks in the first
place!

While I see no point to the language and tone of the letter, I do see
your point in not wanting to accept responsibility. It's embarrassing
to make a mistake, expecially when it costs you, but this should be a
lesson. Don't make any checks that your account can't pay. It's by far
the easiest way to avoid six 38 buck overdraft fees.

I "LOVE" the mention of "the poorest among us". Jacqueline, the
poorest among us don't have the luxury of a checking account. The
poorest among us don't know if, when, or where their next meal will
come from. It's insulting to everyone to even consider mentioning the
less fortunate to bolster your argument. Accusing a financial
institution of stealing and loansharking is really over the top!!

The use of "loansharking" in this letter is hilarious. Are they going
to start removing fingers if you dont pay the NSF fees back?

As much as it kills me to have to defend Citizen's Bank, the OP did
say that the bank paid all of her transactions, but charged an
overdraft fee for each one. This leads me to believe that Citizen's
has some type of "Courtesy Pay" program in place, where they will pay
overdrafts up to $500, but you ARE charged a fee for each one.

I know that post-dating a check is illegal in Florida, but even if it
had a future date on it, banks are permitted to cash them if
presented.

I'm afraid this is not the bank's fault. If you want to be angry at
someone, be angry at the person who cashed a check after telling you
they would not.

Stop writing checks when you don't have the money in the bank to cover
them. Problem solved.

I suppose the person/business who had your check thought, "Wow, I
better get money while I can." I don't blame him/her/it.

Way to go.......

Just admitted to committing a felony, right here on the internet.

Citizens Bank broke no laws, nor did they do anything unethical. You,
on the other hand.........

Here is a novel idea: don't write checks that you cannot cover. And
accept responsibility for your mistakes.

Why are you blaming the bank? You apparently did not have sufficient
funds in your account to cover the amount on the check. I know me
personally if I have a large check waiting to go through my account I
either make sure not to spend any money until it clears through or I
set a certain amount aside so that I have a couple dollars in case of
an emergency. Don't blame the bank for your inability to keep a
balanced check book.

Yet another one. *shakes head*

I'm not sure about your school, but I was taught all about checkbooks
in Grade 8 Home Ec. Rule Number One: Don't write checks for money you
don't have.

Actually, yes, because something's legal, they do have the right to do
it. That's sort of what "legal" means. I haven't even taken Law yet.

Go back to high school. You might learn something.

Since you have the checking account, I'm assuming your old enough to
know that you shoulnd't write a check without knowing you have the
funds in your account. You can't blame CBM for your mistake. Instead
of them "stealing" maybe you should get a brain and use it next time
you think of doing this again.

You wrote the check without the money in your account so how is this
the bank's fault?

This is called cold check writing and it is illegal. You wrote a
check for money that you didn't have and asked someone to hold it.
They are not required to hold a check and someone that didn't know
about the arrangements probably sent the check through. When you
write a check you should have the money available, whether they
present it now, after the agree to hold it, or even a year later.
this is not the fault of the bank, nor is it loansharking.

Another person who does not take any responsbility for themselves.
You wrote a check for money you did not have and asked someone not to
cash it until a certain date. Too bad for you but they did. How is
this the bank's fault? They paid the debits presented to them and, by
your own fault, you did not have enough money to cover them.

You evidently wrote a bad check which I believe is a felony. When you
opened the account, you were notified of what fees would be and
evidently agreed to them by opening the account.

You are the only one in the wrong here.

Why in the world would you write a check if you knew you didn't have
enough money in your account to cover it, along with any other
transactions you had made? The bank did nothig wrong. The bank had no
idea that you wrote a check that was supposed to be held for any
period of time before it was cashed. All the bank knows is that you
wrote a check and made several other transactions, and since you
didn't have the money to cover it, they rightfully charged you
overdraft fees.