Comments on: The continuing fight against overdraft fees

By: womanofoz

womanofoz — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 23:53:10 +0000

“Financial Drivers License” which tests for understanding of how to manage your money.

By: ARJTurgot2

ARJTurgot2 — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 20:59:57 +0000

“At my bank you can get a zero cost checking account and earn a 3% yeild on balances between $2,500 and $25,000″

Um, I’d reality check that. That was then, this is now. You’re probably getting 0.3% now, and if not, these guys are doing some very interesting cost transfers.

My local humungo credit union is paying 0.6% on Money Markets 50K and up, and beating their competitors by at least 0.1% in pretty much all cases.

Anyone paying as much as you claim has got to be getting huge cost subsidies from somewhere.

By: garthwalker

garthwalker — Sun, 28 Nov 2010 22:16:32 +0000

CapitalOne also called me and encouraged me to Opt in to their credit card overlimit fees. The script used by the rep was extremely misleading, and I almost fell for it – I remember saying to her “I don’t understand why you’re calling – why would anyone NOT opt in?” and she replied “We’re required by federal law….” and that got my attention a little more, and I had her repeat the same script slowly, sentence by sentence, and it became clear what she was actually doing. I was so angry I almost canceled that credit card, but that would have hurt my credit score as it is my oldest open account.

By: TFF

TFF — Sat, 27 Nov 2010 08:44:12 +0000

I used to have credit cards with Chase and Citibank. Both lost me when they started haranguing me on every login to their website. (Guess that is the point — I wasn’t profitable enough for them.)

Why the outrage, though? If people don’t like overdraft fees, they can find a bank willing to work with them to limit the cost. If they don’t care, why should we do the legwork to protect them?

Too few people patronize the community banks these days.

By: walt9316

walt9316 — Sat, 27 Nov 2010 06:17:37 +0000

I’m betting west-coasting has found his home in the Republican Party.

By: Setty

Setty — Sat, 27 Nov 2010 04:38:19 +0000

Nanny state my ass. Chase “encouraged” me to opt in to their excessive fees every time I logged onto their website, warning me that if I didn’t, I would lose their automatic credit protection. They made it sound very alarming, and I as a reasonably sophisticated consumer almost fell for it until I read the small print, which was indeed very small.

I’m not surprised people opted into this scam. I am glad that I avoided their trap. For what it’s worth, I hated their overdraft fees so much that I had requested more than once that they not let me overdraw my account — simply deny the transaction and not charge me. They always told me they would look into it.

By: west-coasting

west-coasting — Fri, 26 Nov 2010 22:00:21 +0000

Felix as poster child for the nanny state run amok. The whole liberal argument for this ‘reform’ was making sure the consumer understood the fee. Now, they do. They opted in. It was clear as day. Now step aside and let them overdraft! We’re all adults here; you’re happy to let this person go and drink a liter of vodka, but not overdraft his card for 30 bucks?

I overdrafted tons of times in college, and over time, I changed my behavior. I don’t blame Citibank or anyone else. And neither should these people.

I don’t get it.

By: dWj

dWj — Fri, 26 Nov 2010 20:19:09 +0000

Make banks send lists of customers who frequently pay overdraft fees to local credit unions and non-profit credit advisory services.

By: y2kurtus

y2kurtus — Fri, 26 Nov 2010 18:06:45 +0000

“Most banking customers are relatively unharmed by overdraft fees…”

You’re right that most customers are unharmed but you could easliy and accuratly go much much farther here Felix.

Most customers (80-90%)banking relationship is heavily subsidized by the top and bottom 5-10% of all bank customers.

At my bank you can get a zero cost checking account and earn a 3% yeild on balances between $2,500 and $25,000. There are some “relationship” caviats in the fine print of course… you need to be enrolled in internet banking with no paper statements (free but saves us money.) You need to use your debit card at least 15 times/ month (like all banks we lover interchange income.) You need to have a direct deposit into your account monthly… this means we pretty much need to be your primary bank because if your payroll or Social security comes here than we’ve pretty much got you as a customer.

The bottom line through is none of those things make up for the 3% that we are paying on those middle balances and the cost of serving you as a customer. The money banks make comes primarily from the high end customers… but also from the financially suicidal ones who incure overdraft charges also.

The the responsible middle class and lower class swim for free. It’s a huge benifit to that huge subset of consumers.

Hope everyone had a great holiday!

By: skeptonomist

skeptonomist — Fri, 26 Nov 2010 17:42:51 +0000

Why would anyone be astonished at the willingness of people to sign up for overdrafting in view of the rates on credit-card balances? There is basically no evidence that interest rates or fees strongly influence consumer behavior. Limitations because of interest rates come from lenders’ judgement of credit risk – or did back when mortgage lenders considered credit risk.