*RANT* Banks are ripoffs

[korgul]

I have a checking account with a local bank for over a 2 years now. Well since getting laid off I did not have direct deposit going in it and the balance went to $0. I would cash my unemployment checks and then give the cash to my wife to deposit into her account to pay bills.

Yesterday I went to cash the checks and they said I couldn't because I had a $0 balance. I asked the teller if I made a deposit into the account could I then cash them. SHe says yes so I tell her to put a dollar ($1) into the account. She told me I had to have atleast $10 in the account ot cover fees. ( I am how getting really pi$$ed) I sid to her " you mean to tell me that I have to put $10 into my account to cash checks and then you are going to end up taking it for fees." she looked at me and said Yes.

This is the biggest ripoff. I need to pay them money to cash my check. They make money by having the money there, They make money by charging for outragous stuff. They are a bunch of ripoffs.

[/rant]

Needless to say I will be changing my bank today and closing the other one out. Gonna get my $10 back

I feel a little better now that I got that off of my chest. Thanks for listening

korgul

[Wizzard~Of~Ozz]

I had A problem with my old bank deliberately bouncing checks, they cashed one 6 hours after it was cashed (I didn't have a chance to throw in the 20$ extra to cover it as they were "closed" )at a completely different bank, later wrote a check to the same person who cashed it (at the same bank they did last time) and it took 8 days, And that was when my balance went down for bank fee's, and money went in 3 hours later, That sucked, so I switched banks, haven't had a single problem with this bank, I get cash back from bank machines (on deposits) up to 1000$ (haven't asked for more) and thier policies are much better. So I say go somewhere else, check it first tho They usually hit accounts if they are inactive for any amount of time (usually 5 months) with service fees.

Try Citizens. I have a free checking account with them

[korgul]

I just opened an account at Waypoint. It is the totaly free checking. No min. balance, 50 free checks, debit/visa card, $1.00 debit/visa card per month fee. If I take my old checks in they will give me $10.
The only draw back is if I want to cash a check I have to have atleast that amount in there or deposit it and then take it out the next day. No biggy

Feeling pretty good about this back right now.
Plus as an added bonus I got a free gift for opening the account. WooHooo I like free stuff, even if it will be used by the wife. (plastic containers 40 piece by rubbermaid)

[LarrySamDavid25]

They'll all rip you off. It's how they thrive.

Example: overdrew an account using my Visa check card. Money was supposed to be there, but my "direct deposit" was a week late getting in since someone in payroll was to lazy to finish the week's paychecks. Well, cought 3 hits one morning, noticed them on my online banking. First called employer to ask where the heck was my paycheck: "overlooked" was the answer. Then went to bank with cash to cover overdrafts SAME DAY, and was still hit with $20/ea fee. FirstStar. "It doesn't matter if it's a penny for one second, the fee is twenty dollars per occurance".

So that was like 2000% interest for a few hours worth the loan . And would the fees have been removed, it was less than $10 total overdraft. I also like how the biggest one magically hit first, despite it being the last charge of the group (two days later). It put me over by $.02!!!! So that made a balance of -$20.02...That caused the next two charges to pop. Before I made a cash deposit, the balance was almost -$70. If the big one had hit last like it had been charged, I would have had only one overdraft fee.

Though since then, they turned into USBank, and things have gotten much better. No monthly fees at all for "Checking that pays" which comes with a free Visa Check Card, and up to %1 cash back (got $38 back last year, and used it for about $8000, so more like .5%)

And then there was Commerce, who caused two checks to completely bounce by throwing in a service fee on my "free" checking account. Nowhere was it mentioned, and they admitted it was a mistake. But they did NOT do anything other than remove that single fee, and kept the bounce charges, and I had to track down the checks to get them settled (and no, those checks would not have bounced otherwise). I believe they still believe I still owe them.

And FirstBank put a charge off on my credit for paying off a vehicle loan 6 months early (in cash). They also charged me to count a barrell full of change, not sure if that's normal as that's the only time I've done it that way.

I love banks, don't you!?

[swamp-fox]

Yeah they kill the poor people who don't have a few thousand exta dollars in savings. I remember between my girlfriend and I the banks probably made few hundred a year off of us. We were so short on money all the time they would hold deposits (it seems) and send the checks through when they knew we were down on money(then it seems they would deposit our paychecks and take out their fees first) and hit us up for more money that we didn't have then, some more would bounce. Endless cycle. I am happy to say I haven't bounced a check in many years though. And I would recommend credit union. They seem a little nicer.

Swamp

[M_Six]

The bank we joined here only had unlimited free checking if you maintained a $1000 balance. So we gave them $1k and waited for our checks. We finally get the checks and come to find out our balance is over $40 less than it was. We call the bank and find out that they charged us $25 bucks for the checks (outrageous). That dropped our balance below $1000, so they charged us an $8 fee. The day they charged us the "below balance limit" fee was the last day of the month, so the next day our account got hit for another $8 because it was below the balance limit on the first day of the month. So this bank ripped us off for $41 dollars in the first month we had an account there.

Needless to say we now bank elsewhere. Free checking, free checks, and no fee for going under $1000. What really gets me is that the first bank's motto is something like "Where the customer comes first". What a joke.

[Gomer]

I think credit unions are the way to go.

[Mr. Goodbytes]

When I remember all the crap I've gone through with two different banks I've been with, I think of the ending to Fight Club, and I just dream.