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 Excessive Fees
Posted Tue June 16, 2009 11:33 pm, by Hunter F. written to Washington Mutual
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I received 7 over draft fees today totally $210.00 for nearly $57 dollars worth of purchases.
I felt like this was a little excessive while I understand the penalty for being over drawn, I feel like 35.00 per transaction is a little excessive, and I wanted to speak with someone about it because I'm a full time student, and I was laid off about 3 months ago, and that $210.00 is not a lot of money in the grand scheme of things, but as a college student with little money, it makes a huge difference.
I definitely have money that's going into the account, I do not expect to have a negative balance. In the morning I will have a direct deposit from my student loans, and I have no other pending transactions.
Part of the reason I feel like Washington Mutual should reduce or eliminate the fees for these overdrafts is because I feel that the company had a slight contribution towards my accounting error. Since the merger of Washington Mutual and Chase bank, I've had to make my purchases differently. I prefer to use nothing but debit so I can keep live tabs on my account balance. It has never failed me in the past. Recently Chase sent me a new debit card, and you cannot use it to purchase gasoline as a debit transaction. By using it as credit, I did not have an accurate view of my account balance because the transaction hadn't posted yet, and when it finally did, it caused every transaction after to be rejected. Other than the gasoline there were 6 other transactions with fees assessed, price range from $2.95-$10.00, most of them under $5.00.
I contacted Washington Mutual in person, was referred to their customer service number, and when he was not concerned about this, I sent an email to online customer service in hopes of being able to effectively communicate my situation. I received what as obviously a pre-written communication that kindly told me that I was out of luck.
I will be going to Washington Mutual tomorrow to settle my debt and close my account.
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by Donno Posted Wed June 17, 2009 @ 3:05 PM
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In my experience, the online balance for my checking account
freuqently does not accurately reflect my true up to the minute
balance.
I understand the excuse you are using to try to get out of the
overdraft fees, but the bottom line is you need to track your debits
the old fashioned way - pencil and paper.
What I do, to be on the safe side, is assume any and all debits
(checks, purchases) are already taken out of my account immeidately,
and any credits are not deposited until I look and see they have
posted.
To avoid what happened to you, I use a credit card. For everything,
even a $.50 bag of M&M's. That way I can shop without fear of my
account going negative. At the end of the month it is what it is, and
I pay the bill. I would be terrified to use my debit card for all my
purchases. I would have so much more math to do to track my balance.
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by BirmanCat Posted Wed June 17, 2009 @ 1:06 PM
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I think you will better understand this situation if you re-read the
terms of your account with Washington Mutual, the terms you agreed to
when you opened the account.
The bottom line is that you failed to keep track of your spending and
spent more than you had in the account, thus the overdraft fees.
Old-fashioned or not, a paper register is an excellent method of
tracking spending. When you issue a check or use a debit/credit card,
immediately subtract that amount from your account balance. That is
your "real-time" balance, not the amount you have in the bank before
all your outstanding checks and debits have been posted by the bank.
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I don't see how the bank "had a slight contribution towards [your]
accounting error." This was all you. You learned an expensive
lesson, but a lesson that could have been much more expensive had you
learned it later.
You can't rely on online balances. You must keep a record yourself of
what you have going into and coming out of your account. Don't spend
money that isn't already in there.
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by SusanB Posted Wed June 17, 2009 @ 12:35 AM
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It sounds like you are using on-line banking to keep track of your
account since debits are subtracted immediately and credit
transactions can take more time. I would suggest that no matter what
bank you are using that you maintain a paper check register to record
your debits and deposits. It may seem like an old fashioned method
but it is the one that works best.
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by Nate! Posted Tue June 16, 2009 @ 11:39 PM
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Complete opposite of the Region's letter that came through here a few
minutes ago!
You should see if the new bank you switch to after closing your
account at WaMu offers overdraft protection. Overdraft protection will
transfer $100 in most cases from savings to checking for a very low
fee. I have this set up, and it has helped in a few instances.
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