Banking Fail

[niteshad]

Apparently, my tax returns and my rent debit crossed in my checking account in precisely the opposite way I had hoped for, both hit it today, but the returns somehow won't post until Monday, since their transaction occurred after 3pm. Now, through stupid bank policies, my account is officially overdrafted, even though it would have more than

Comments

[wesmills]

In a continuing effort to drive you mad, reality has another answer: The corporations have their business processes "properly engineer[ed]." For them.

"Fee income is extremely important to bank profitability," [Greg McBride, a senior analyst for Bankrate.com] said. ... A Bank of America employee, who asked not to be identified because he was not authorized to speak officially about fees, said bank software regulates whether an employee can erase an overdraft charge and grant a rebate to a customer who complains about the charge.

Under the Check 21 Act, debits made through checks that are converted to electronic format can clear your account within minutes, depending on your bank and how the merchant presents the charge. On the other hand, virtually every bank--and all large banks--in the United States have a "policy" of both holding deposits made after an arbitrarily-early cut-off time (2PM at my bank) and, my personal favorite, reordering transactions from largest to smallest to generate the maximum number of overdraft fees

[xarmor]

I hope that gets resolved. I recommend getting the name and contact info of the teller/ representative you were speaking (so you can contact the same teller again and not have to repeat the story) with in case it does not get cleared up Monday.