Tbf, overdrafting is spending money you dont have. If you overdraft and the bank lets you spend money you dont have, do you think theyre just gonna do you a solid there? They let you spend money you didnt actually have. Thats a service, like credit, and one that tends to come at a cost even though some banks dont charge for it.
To call a bank charging for an offered service “robbing you” is pretty ridiculous. There are banks that dont charge a fee. Bank with them. There are banks that wont let you overdraft at all. Bank with them. No one is robbing anyone by covering for them when they spend money they dont have. They told you what it costs to do so. You still did it. Thats not remotely similar to ripping people off in any way
You can have the money and still be charged overdraft fees.
Consider multiple accounts under one number, all set up to transfer money between them for free and with no limits. But once you spend from an account without enough funds allocated, then that money transfer will cost money, usually $30-40.
Real life application: When a medical biller uses the wrong card on file they can rack you up some hefty charges before you know it, and the bank usually only forgives one fee, not the eleven extra ones the biller triggered by making separate, itemized charges.
All the bank was doing was moving the money from a savings account with the same number, and then charging a fee for that. And only a bank can charge and collect in one action.
I dismantled the automatic transfer system that had been set up since it was just a fee scam. Now payments just fail if I haven’t allocated the money to the debit account.
But it’s still a scam, even if you consider benevolent credit extensions. Extending this credit is not costing them $30-40 per transaction. Walmart can just write off thefts of under $20, for tangental context.
For one, Ive literally starved before rather than overdraft my card. It was good motivation to never allow myself to be in that position again.
For two, the vast majority of people that regularly overdraft their card every two weeks (as in the people making these banks the majority of this money) earn plenty of money and make shit financial decisions that they dont need to make. They arent starving. In the last few years I have known several people that overdraft their card before every payday by hundreds of dollars just so they can buy shit that is nothing close to a necessity.
But yeah keep pretending that every overdrafter is a starving mother of 12 and that no bank account holder could ever do anything that should earn them a penalty
Keep pretending these people don’t exist. But I understand, you had to harden yourself in order to survive and it has killed your empathy. Along the lines you have “learned” what capitalism has teached us since we are children: everyone is responsible for their own luck AND misery. Don’t worry though, its gonna be the downfall of that “great” nation.
Do you realize how incredibly easy it is to overdraft? Most people don’t want to overdraft, they would rather have the card decline. But banks don’t make easy money that way, so you have to opt out of automatic overdraft. If regulators made it so that transactions must be automatically declined if there aren’t sufficient funds and someone needs to opt in to being able to overdraft, overdraft fees would go way down.
My bank had an overdraft loan thing, where you could qualify ahead of time for a $1,000 loan, and pay 16% interest annually if you overdrafted by less than that. That worked out to about $13 for a month, and it would protect you from getting hit with another overdraft right away. They ended that program (but you can back your checking account with your savings account now).
Lots of other banks will reorder your transactions in a day to maximize the number of overdraft fees you pay, even if you set alerts for it, so you get a text as soon as the first one happens.
Most banks are not trying to provide a useful service to you with overdraft protection. (It is still better than the way it used to work)
everyone i know who suffered overdraft fees was an idiot with their money. they spend everything they made, often before their paycheck even came.
but they will argue with you for hours how it isn’t their fault rather than… spend hours budgeting or managing their money better.
and people on lemmy argue with you the banks conspire and force people to buy clothes/food/vacations they don’t need, but really really wanted.
my favorite line was always ‘i have a right live a little’. yeah Janice… excep twhen I ‘live a little’ a buy a $5 coffee or a $50 dinner once in a while, not a $5000 trip to Iceland… and we both make the same salary… and please tell me more how ‘privileged’ i am because I’m not blowing $5000 on 5 day trip, when you only have $2000 in your bank account…
it’s an idiot tax on those who can’t do math and those who can’t live without instant gratification.
Tbf, overdrafting is spending money you dont have. If you overdraft and the bank lets you spend money you dont have, do you think theyre just gonna do you a solid there? They let you spend money you didnt actually have. Thats a service, like credit, and one that tends to come at a cost even though some banks dont charge for it.
To call a bank charging for an offered service “robbing you” is pretty ridiculous. There are banks that dont charge a fee. Bank with them. There are banks that wont let you overdraft at all. Bank with them. No one is robbing anyone by covering for them when they spend money they dont have. They told you what it costs to do so. You still did it. Thats not remotely similar to ripping people off in any way
You can have the money and still be charged overdraft fees.
Consider multiple accounts under one number, all set up to transfer money between them for free and with no limits. But once you spend from an account without enough funds allocated, then that money transfer will cost money, usually $30-40.
Real life application: When a medical biller uses the wrong card on file they can rack you up some hefty charges before you know it, and the bank usually only forgives one fee, not the eleven extra ones the biller triggered by making separate, itemized charges.
All the bank was doing was moving the money from a savings account with the same number, and then charging a fee for that. And only a bank can charge and collect in one action.
I dismantled the automatic transfer system that had been set up since it was just a fee scam. Now payments just fail if I haven’t allocated the money to the debit account.
But it’s still a scam, even if you consider benevolent credit extensions. Extending this credit is not costing them $30-40 per transaction. Walmart can just write off thefts of under $20, for tangental context.
“You don’t have any money but still need to eat? Skill issue.”
For one, Ive literally starved before rather than overdraft my card. It was good motivation to never allow myself to be in that position again.
For two, the vast majority of people that regularly overdraft their card every two weeks (as in the people making these banks the majority of this money) earn plenty of money and make shit financial decisions that they dont need to make. They arent starving. In the last few years I have known several people that overdraft their card before every payday by hundreds of dollars just so they can buy shit that is nothing close to a necessity.
But yeah keep pretending that every overdrafter is a starving mother of 12 and that no bank account holder could ever do anything that should earn them a penalty
Keep pretending these people don’t exist. But I understand, you had to harden yourself in order to survive and it has killed your empathy. Along the lines you have “learned” what capitalism has teached us since we are children: everyone is responsible for their own luck AND misery. Don’t worry though, its gonna be the downfall of that “great” nation.
Why would a bank let us spend money that isn’t ours to spend to begin with? Sounds like banks suck
Do you realize how incredibly easy it is to overdraft? Most people don’t want to overdraft, they would rather have the card decline. But banks don’t make easy money that way, so you have to opt out of automatic overdraft. If regulators made it so that transactions must be automatically declined if there aren’t sufficient funds and someone needs to opt in to being able to overdraft, overdraft fees would go way down.
My bank had an overdraft loan thing, where you could qualify ahead of time for a $1,000 loan, and pay 16% interest annually if you overdrafted by less than that. That worked out to about $13 for a month, and it would protect you from getting hit with another overdraft right away. They ended that program (but you can back your checking account with your savings account now).
Lots of other banks will reorder your transactions in a day to maximize the number of overdraft fees you pay, even if you set alerts for it, so you get a text as soon as the first one happens.
Most banks are not trying to provide a useful service to you with overdraft protection. (It is still better than the way it used to work)
tbf - no. fuck overdraft fees. just deny the transaction. there. done.
everyone i know who suffered overdraft fees was an idiot with their money. they spend everything they made, often before their paycheck even came.
but they will argue with you for hours how it isn’t their fault rather than… spend hours budgeting or managing their money better.
and people on lemmy argue with you the banks conspire and force people to buy clothes/food/vacations they don’t need, but really really wanted.
my favorite line was always ‘i have a right live a little’. yeah Janice… excep twhen I ‘live a little’ a buy a $5 coffee or a $50 dinner once in a while, not a $5000 trip to Iceland… and we both make the same salary… and please tell me more how ‘privileged’ i am because I’m not blowing $5000 on 5 day trip, when you only have $2000 in your bank account…
it’s an idiot tax on those who can’t do math and those who can’t live without instant gratification.