No More Overdraft Fees? Hooray!
This money's all mine now, bank!
When I got to college, my parents and I debated between giving me a credit card or a debit card. With my propensity for shopping and dining out, my parents had enough foresight to realize I’d be $20 million in debt by the end of the first semester with a credit card at my fingertips. Debit card it was. But that didn’t come without its own share of problems.
Before I discovered the wonders of online banking, I was always petrified to use my debit card when I feared my funds were nearing depletion. The curse of the overdraft fee haunted my nightmares. There’s nothing worse than overspending by 30 cents and being charged $30 for your mistake. Then being charged another $30 for the automatic withdrawal from the bank to cover the overdraft.
WTF? How do they expect you to pay off the charge of overdrawing when having no money was the very thing that put you in this place to begin with?
But all of this may be coming to end. And hopefully, on my tight budget, it will be sooner rather than later. There is proposed legislation on the table that will force banks to ask the customer whether or not they would like the “protection” of the overdraft program instead of automatically enrolling debit card users in this plan. (Basically, we will have the option of being able to withdraw more money than we have in the account [with a fee] or only use what we got [without a fee].)
I love how they think the overdraft fees they impose on me are protecting me. Protecting me from what? The humiliation of getting my card rejected when I’m trying to purchase a box of tampons? Well, they’re right. I would be embarrassed. But that’s why I always go through the self-check out aisle when I’m buying feminine products. But in all honesty, I’d rather be turned down and tampon-less than $30 in the hole. Not even the Tampax Pearl is worth that much.
So, fingers crossed on this one. Assuming all goes well with this bill, you can now purchase that 30-pack of beer/late night take-out/economy size bottle of Midol without fear…and use that extra $30 you saved from those overdrafts for something more important.
Like the perfect fall dress.
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Casey says:
Wed, 7th Oct 200910:52 am
OMG! That would be awesome! The first year I had my debit card (which I pay for) I racked up around 800 some dollars in overdraft fees. A dollar menu cheeseburger turned into a 36 dollar cheesburger, or I would do a return and then make a purchase without realizing the funds from the return weren't in there yet. The shittiest part is that more often than not I would have had the money in my temporary savings account which is linked to my checking and the bank still charged me the fee. They have since changed it and now I can overdraw as long as I get the money transferred before the end of the day, so I've gotten considerably fewer fees in the past couple years, however, Sunday I overdrew and then I made another purchase and when I got home I completely forgot to transfer the money, this would have set me back 70 dollars (2, 35 dollar fees) and the suckiest part about it was that I didn't remember I had to transfer the money until 1:30 Monday morning while I was in the middle of performing oral on my boyfriend. Talk about a mood killer. I seriously hope my bank gives me that option, and soon, it's one thing to be charged an extra 35 dollars for something that only cost a dollar, but when it starts interrupting sexy time that's where we have a problem.
B says:
Wed, 7th Oct 20095:37 pm
Seriously, is it really so hard to write down what you spend so you know whether or not you have the money to make your purchase?
Bottom line: If you don't have it, don't spend it.