FUCK A BANK!!!! Share your stories

[Gas One]

wow thatd be suspicious... lol did you have to prove an alibi or get interviewed?

i think if i robbed the bank or was an accomplice i wouldnt come back to work.....ever

bank robbings happen, its just part of working at a bank

 

[Simpaticone1]

I love the bank...... Im happy every deposit I make !

They always get hit up banks here w/ the freeway near, they also never get caught .

 

[GHP]

don't use debt and that wont happen to you

 

[EVERgREENRIDER]

Man Bank of America always be fuckin me over when I use my card. I just dropped my acoount because of it. I had over $100 on day didnt buy shit an the next they claim Im overdrafted by $440. WHAT THE FUCK!!!!!

 

[rmillerpacers31]

Or you just look at your statment online and it shows your real time balance and your available balance (show all deposits pending along with all pending transactions, and applies it to your real time balance)

 

[niguardian]

im broke as fuck, my bank stories are few and far in between :hurt:

 

[TONY206]

interesting. so what if you had 40$ in your account, and you bought 20$ of gas with a debit. they charge you 100$, bringing you to -60$? then what? charge the 20$, leaving you -80$? in which case theyd then charge an overdraft fee, bringing you to -114?$ then what do they do, do they give you the 100 back leaving you at -14$? please tell me they dont do that...

Yup, that will happen.

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.co...osedAtTheGasPumpByYourDebitCard.aspx?page=all

Hosed at the gas pump -- by your debit card

You may have topped off with just $20 worth of unleaded, but the debit-card transaction could freeze as much as $75 in your account, sometimes for days.
By Christopher Solomon

If you ever use your debit card to pay at the pump, watch out: Did you know that every time you top off the tank, a chunk of your checking account can be blocked -- sometimes for days, with the potential to cause you all sorts of financial headaches and bounced checks?

That's what happened to Jessica Hathaway, a state employee from Allentown, Pa. Earlier this year Hathaway stopped during her commute to fill up her car at Rauch's Mini Mart. She bought $22.29 worth of gas using her debit card.

The next day Hathaway balanced her checkbook using her bank's telephone service -- and something didn't add up. The bank said that she'd made two purchases the previous morning: one for the $22.29 and one for $75.

Trouble is, she'd only bought the gas.

Finally Hathaway called the service station, and an attendant explained to her what few people know.

How your money gets frozen
If you use your debit card at a pump that does not require a PIN, your bank regularly will block out an amount -- often $50 or $75 -- on your card.

That amount doesn't "un-block" as you drive away. Instead, the hold remains up to 72 hours, until the station does a "batch" transaction that lets the bank know the actual amount, according to the U.S. Public Interest Research Group.

While the length of the hold is up to your bank, the amount of the hold is up to your gasoline retailer.

Each big oil company has a different policy: Shell says it preauthorizes just $1 for gas purchases, for example. Chevron says it has a $1 hold that ensures a card is active. British Petroleum preauthorizes $75 when customers use debit or credit cards, said spokeswoman Sarah Howell. The same policy applies at its Amoco and Arco stations, Howell said. Hess asks for $75 as well.

The reasoning behind this policy is that oil companies don't know how much gas you're about to pump -- only PIN-based debit transactions are processed immediately -- and so they earmark a certain amount of your money. "We want to make sure that we're protected, that we get payment for the gasoline," says BP's Howell.

This general idea isn't new. Credit-card companies have done it for a long time. (Think of when you rent a hotel room or a car, and the attendant runs your card upon your arrival to ensure you can pay for it.) It's less of an issue with credit-card owners, however, because you're usually told that it's happening and you're probably not flirting with your credit limits.

If a company puts a chunk of dough in your checking account off-limits without your knowledge, however, it can cause real migraines.
Consumer advocates say beware
Banks give conflicting accounts about what this means to you, the consumer.

Bank of America says that users of its debit cards won't experience bounced checks if debit-card blocks disappear on the same day as they're put in place. A spokeswoman for Wells Fargo agreed.

But the Wells Fargo spokeswoman, Linadria Porter, conceded things can get a little stickier if the block sticks for more than a day. "There is the possibility that you could bounce a check," she says. If a customer calls and points out what happened, "most of the time we will give them back those fees," says Porter -- but not always, she adds.

Consumer advocates say when in doubt, fear the worst.

"If there's a block on your account and you have checks come in against your block, you could suffer bounced-check fees," says Edmund Mierzwinski, consumer program director for the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, who says his and other consumer groups have received complaints.

It's also unclear how off-limits your money is in other ways.

"Is the money technically unavailable? Yes," says Chet Bridger, a spokesman for Buffalo, N.Y.-based M&T Bank, Hathaway's bank. In other words, if Hathaway had gone to an ATM, she might not have been able to withdraw the cash, Bridger says.

The problem wouldn't be so nettlesome if the blocks disappeared within even a few hours. But the $75 hold that appeared on Hathaway's account on a Friday morning didn't disappear until the following Tuesday -- five days later.

"I was just fortunate that I realized it, because if I had gone grocery shopping that weekend I would have been in the negative on my account," she says. She thinks of the penalty fees she might have racked up. "And who would have paid then?" she muses. "Shell?"

"What really burned me up is not so much the financial aspect, but they didn't ask permission," she adds. "I wasn't informed."
Changing the policy?
Hathaway has complained to the Pennsylvania Department of Banking and to the Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office, and to the mini-mart owner. To no avail, she says.

In fact, the policy doesn't show much sign of changing soon, despite some legal support for consumers. In 2002, California Attorney General Bill Lockyer issued an opinion that said that gas stations need to tell customers about the debit-hold policy.

"If the hold extends beyond the time of purchase and covers an amount greater than the amount of purchase, then the hold has to be disclosed to the consumer," says a spokesman, Tom Dresslar, summarizing the opinion.

Even so, Dresslar said his office was not actively pursuing any action against oil companies, and that he was not aware of any barrage of complaints by consumers.
How to protect yourself
How can you protect yourself at the filling station? Station owners and consumer advocates offer this advice:

* If you must use a debit card, pay inside where you can use your PIN number; PIN-based transactions are registered immediately.

* If you pay at the pump, use a credit card.

* Oil companies' proprietary charge cards often don't have any kind of block feature on them, but not always. Chevron, for example, briefly blocks out $18.

* Good old cash is still good -- and many gas stations, tired of paying high credit-card fees, now give a discount of up to a dime a gallon for cash. Look for such deals.

Of course, as gas prices soar, more people find themselves not carrying the $50 or $60 in cash a fill-up now requires. The National Association of Convenience Stores estimates that 80% of gasoline transactions as of October 2005 involve plastic, up from just 54% in 2004.

 

[NiNe2FiVe]

I hate my bank, Wells Fargo, since probably the day after I signed up with them in 05'. My last job didnt have direct deposit so I brought in my check everytime, and usually there was a girl I went to High School with she'd take my check, regardless of the line, and go take care of the deposit for me, it was a sweet deal. But one day she wasnt there, and the fuckin beast of cow-woman helped me, and after sitting there for 10 minutes waited for a simple deposit she says:

Fat cow bitch: "Did you want to sign up for the Visa credit line you are approved for?"
925: "No, thank you. Just the deposit."
Fat cow bitch: "Are you sure, its no problem?"
925: "I'm sure, maybe another time, but not right now."
Fat cow bitch: "Oh...well I actually put it through, so the card is going to show up at your house, so dont activate it and throw it away..."
925: "Fantastic, thank you for giving me a chore...so I dont have to do anything else? Just cut it up?"
Fat cow bitch: "Thats right, I dont think the credit line has been activated."
925: "Tssss"

So a week or so later I get a letter from Wells Fargo, the credit card is in it, I call and speak with Fat cow bitch, she confirms just toss the card, no problem. Cut that shit up, that weekend I took my GF at the time to Six Flags, which turned out to cost more then I thought at the time, whatever Ill just overdraft a little. What I didnt know is I was going to go over say 40 bucks, that 40 get applied to my new "credit overdraft protection" I wasnt supposed to have, so now I owe 40 dollars on a credit card I should have, and dont even know about, so I go on about my life and a few months go by, I get my account statements in the mail, everything looks normal, didnt hear shit about the Visa line. Until one day I log onto the bank website and see this fat fuckin disclaimer thing, in RED BOLD LETTERS, that I need to pay my now 3 month overdue Visa bill, which at this point was around 400 dollars. So I got $40 over, my bad, they charge me $35 overdraft fee, understandable, so $75 dollars plus some type of finance charge I didnt really understand, so $27 more, and that on top of not paying it for almost 4 months, plus whatever other bullshit they stuck on there, came up to a hair over $400. Called them up, told them what happened, said there wasnt shit they could do for me, so basically I got raped for the full amount, and whatever hit my credit took from it. So fuck wells fargo, fuck their employees, and fuck yo couch.

 

[STS]

well thats stupidity on your part. where do you think the money u owed went to? that they forgot about it?

and the fat cow that applied for your credit cards needs more information then just to go ahead and put the application in.
1) your consent 2) your mothers maiden name 3) your monthly income.

"So I got $40 over, my bad, they charge me $35 overdraft fee, "
when it pulls from your credit card it charges you $10 overdraft fee. If you didnt have that overdraft protection then it would be $35.

 

[NiNe2FiVe]

well thats stupidity on your part. where do you think the money u owed went to? that they forgot about it?

and the fat cow that applied for your credit cards needs more information then just to go ahead and put the application in.
1) your consent 2) your mothers maiden name 3) your monthly income.

"So I got $40 over, my bad, they charge me $35 overdraft fee, "
when it pulls from your credit card it charges you $10 overdraft fee. If you didnt have that overdraft protection then it would be $35.

I know it was partly stupidity on my part. I thought the initial 40 dollars overdrafted was just that, overdraft, I would have been -40, the when I got payed in a couple days it would have been recouped.

The fat bitch didnt ask me a thing about my monthly income, or maiden names, and she didnt have my consent, thats what started my frustration and why she is a bitch. As far as the info they need they had it in the computer anyway and she applied it to whatever she did on her computer.

If you have a pattern of overdraft with wells fargo they charge different levels of overdraft fees, since I had a pattern I was at level 2 which is $35 regardless of where it is coming from, as it was explained to me at the time, which was 5 years ago.

Im not retarded I asked everything of the person when I called to complain. They werent willing to help with anything, and would take no responibility to the carelessness of their fat bitch employee. I got no help from Wells Fargo on this problem, and there are millions of other instances with them that cause frustration, which is why I say fuck wells fargo.

 

[CHAPO GUZMAN]

cash >> debit card.. even though i use my debit card alot.. mostly to withdrawl though or small charges (less than $10)

 

[NiNe2FiVe]

Thats the best thing that helped me was having a specific amount of cash to spend over a period of time, when I worked soley off my debit card I wouldnt pay close enough attention to what I was spending on what.

 

[TONY206]

cash >> debit card.. even though i use my debit card alot.. mostly to withdrawl though or small charges (less than $10)

credit card>cash/debit/checks

 

[jr916]

fuck a bank...i cash all my checks at wal-mart (a dollar on every hundred) and walk around wit a fat knot in my pocket...

 

[PhantomOfFunk]

credit cards are a huge scam, i only use them when they are the only means of payment.

 

[CHAPO GUZMAN]

credit card>cash/debit/checks

how so? credit cards have interest rates.. debit cards dont.. and checks are for old people.. unless you pay rent with them.

i got 3 credit cards.. i just finished paying one.. had my first one when i was 18. Have a credit score of 720 at 21.. not bad i guess.

 

[TONY206]

credit cards are a huge scam, i only use them when they are the only means of payment.

They're only a scam for idiots and irresponsible people. They're extremely useful and beneficial for anyone with half a brain. I have saved so much money with credit cards. Even got refunded $300+ for an item I never received and notified them a year after I paid.

 

[Heat Myser]

It's a fucking debit card. If you wanna spend money you don't have get a credit card.

I used to have problems with overdrafts back in the day, but now I just don't spend more money than I have and I've been cool. I also have my checking account tied to a savings account so if something doesn't happen I don't get dinged with any fees, it just comes out of my savings.

 

[TONY206]

how so? credit cards have interest rates.. debit cards dont.. and checks are for old people.. unless you pay rent with them.

i got 3 credit cards.. i just finished paying one.. had my first one when i was 18. Have a credit score of 720 at 21.. not bad i guess.

Interest only if you don't pay them off. Never put more on a credit than you can pay out in a month. If you make $3000 in a month, but get partial amounts at various times during the month, you can make your $1000 TV purchase for example without having the cash available knowing that you will have it available when your bill comes.

Not to mention the record of you buying that TV (or whatever you bought), extended warranties, cash back (I get 1% on everything at least, more on gas), the emergency funds if you don't have cash, etc.

 

[PhantomOfFunk]

They're only a scam for idiots and irresponsible people. They're extremely useful and beneficial for anyone with half a brain. I have saved so much money with credit cards. Even got refunded $300+ for an item I never received and notified them a year after I paid.

There are other ways to build credit

I've never been in debt with a credit card, I just think they're stupid especially if you are young

If you want the best credit scores, use your credit cards sparingly and NEVER max them out...