For one thing, http://www.livejournal.com/users/napoleonherself/684410.html . Mecha was told at the time, in so many words, that there were charges to his account that were still in "memo" form, that could not be in any way traced until they "hard posted"... and that that might happen that night. Or that week. Or never.
Now we're learning that "overdraft protection" means that every time you go over, you get charged 30 bucks. The other day I looked at my account online, saw I had five bucks left, and decided to use most of it at Cold Stone. Then, a few days later, a $30 charge made WEEKS BEFORE finally "hard posted" -- showing that, in fact, I DIDN'T have those five bucks. I had negative 25. So? Overdraft. Bing. $30 charge.
Mecha's got a $30 charge on his account, too. They're basically milking all they can out of us before we close our accounts in disgust (which we cannot do in town since mecha was told that if he came back the cops would be called!).
Then it sounds like you didn't keep your own records of your account... big mistake if you're making charges. Unless there's a $30 deposit somewhere that hasn't cleared yet, in which case I believe you do have a serious case in your favor.
Ah. This is why you don't spend yourself down to that level. You need to keep track of the charges you make, and if charges show up that you didn't make, you alert the bank immediately and they're required by law to investigate the charges and make that money available to you during the course of their investigation. If someone is using your account information to steal money from your account, they change the numbers for you and you're not responsible for more than a deductible of that money. Meanwhile, those "memo charges" do sound like a ripoff and you need to open an account somewhere else. I don't believe the bank can call the police on you while you have an account there, unless they can prove that you were trying to rob the place. (If they don't want your business, that's their option, but they would have to close your account in that case.) First, if those charges aren't correct, dispute them, and start funneling your money into another bank. Once everything settles and the bank stops trying to get money out of you, close those accounts and never look back.
Interesting story, though... I may have to express interest in opening an account there and ask them about "memo charges".
We've already got a Union Planters account and money is going into it now instead of BankOne, but still, the old accounts are open and can't be closed till we get up to Indy tomorrow.
And I dunno, when they claim to have real-time tracking of my expenditures, I kind of assume that they won't take weeks to add a charge, and so I don't have to carry around something to scribble down every little charge in... of course, I've learned better in the past, but I'm not very smart, so it evens out.
At one point mecha actually got robbed to the tune of four grand -- someone haxx0red the BankOne site, as I recall, and stole money from many people, including him -- and BankOne didn't let him have his money back for ages. They are truly jerks.
Oh well. At least they haven't added a brand-new $150 charge to my account, then, when questioned, claimed that someone at the Uptown Cafe added themselves a $150 tip onto our legitimate dinner expense... never MIND that the $150 charge was SEPARATE FROM the dinner charge... maybe they'll add a $50 "tip" to my Cold Stone purchase earlier this week. It would be just like them. (to clarify, the $150 thing is part of what happened with mecha's account a few weeks ago. calling them on their lies is what got him banned.)
I was actually wondering about these "memo charges" and had a glimmer of an idea... is it possible that they're referring to charges that the merchants haven't sent up to the bank yet? It seemed rather odd that the owner of a comic book store, a business not usually associated with so much resource that they can afford to ignore profits for long periods of time, would sit on a $30 charge, but I've seen cases where certain businesses will send the charges to the bank a few days later, or at least that's when they show up on the statement.
Good news on the new accounts, though. I still have to get around to retrieving the $400 or so sitting in old accounts that I've just been too lazy to close. Saved my butt once, and there's not enough money there to do it again anyway.
Nah, the memo thing means that it's hit BankOne internally, but it hasn't yet been put anywhere the customer could see it -- online, monthly statements, et cetera. We have some printouts that the manager of the one branch made, showing these charges, which are invisible absolutely everywhere else. So, like, you look at one of the things you have access to, and it tells you you had say $200, spent $50, and now have $50 left. The missing $100 was taken -- but it won't say how or when until the memo hard-posts. And that happens whenever it happens, which means not at all if it's convenient for someone.
At least they haven't added a brand-new $150 charge to my account, then, when questioned, claimed that someone at the Uptown Cafe added themselves a $150 tip onto our legitimate dinner expense... never MIND that the $150 charge was SEPARATE FROM the dinner charge...
OO da hell?! >< oohhh..my account would have been closed right then and there! Bastages! Then I would have called the business and raised hell as well..
We have overdraft privliages on our account..and the reason I like them doing that is so that when I have to (or accidentally) overdraft..I don't have to chase down a hot check. The bank pays the check and charges me $22 for it.
I've never in my life heard of something being "memo posted" oO It either is posted on your account..or it isn't.
They're basically milking all they can out of us before we close our accounts in disgust (which we cannot do in town since mecha was told that if he came back the cops would be called!).
WTF x2! OO WHY?! Because he raised hell at them over his account? That's pretty shitty in itself...yhea..new bank is definitely what you guys need.
Yep, got ourselves a nice new account open now, and as soon as we get up to Indianapolis tomorrow we can get the old ones closed and wash our hands of evilbank...
no subject
Date: 2004-09-30 07:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-09-30 09:11 pm (UTC)Now we're learning that "overdraft protection" means that every time you go over, you get charged 30 bucks. The other day I looked at my account online, saw I had five bucks left, and decided to use most of it at Cold Stone. Then, a few days later, a $30 charge made WEEKS BEFORE finally "hard posted" -- showing that, in fact, I DIDN'T have those five bucks. I had negative 25. So? Overdraft. Bing. $30 charge.
Mecha's got a $30 charge on his account, too. They're basically milking all they can out of us before we close our accounts in disgust (which we cannot do in town since mecha was told that if he came back the cops would be called!).
no subject
Date: 2004-09-30 09:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-10-01 04:11 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-10-01 04:09 am (UTC)Interesting story, though... I may have to express interest in opening an account there and ask them about "memo charges".
no subject
Date: 2004-10-01 08:46 am (UTC)And I dunno, when they claim to have real-time tracking of my expenditures, I kind of assume that they won't take weeks to add a charge, and so I don't have to carry around something to scribble down every little charge in... of course, I've learned better in the past, but I'm not very smart, so it evens out.
At one point mecha actually got robbed to the tune of four grand -- someone haxx0red the BankOne site, as I recall, and stole money from many people, including him -- and BankOne didn't let him have his money back for ages. They are truly jerks.
Oh well. At least they haven't added a brand-new $150 charge to my account, then, when questioned, claimed that someone at the Uptown Cafe added themselves a $150 tip onto our legitimate dinner expense... never MIND that the $150 charge was SEPARATE FROM the dinner charge... maybe they'll add a $50 "tip" to my Cold Stone purchase earlier this week. It would be just like them. (to clarify, the $150 thing is part of what happened with mecha's account a few weeks ago. calling them on their lies is what got him banned.)
no subject
Date: 2004-10-01 09:51 am (UTC)Good news on the new accounts, though. I still have to get around to retrieving the $400 or so sitting in old accounts that I've just been too lazy to close. Saved my butt once, and there's not enough money there to do it again anyway.
no subject
Date: 2004-10-01 11:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-10-01 10:02 am (UTC)OO da hell?! >< oohhh..my account would have been closed right then and there! Bastages! Then I would have called the business and raised hell as well..
We have overdraft privliages on our account..and the reason I like them doing that is so that when I have to (or accidentally) overdraft..I don't have to chase down a hot check. The bank pays the check and charges me $22 for it.
I've never in my life heard of something being "memo posted" oO It either is posted on your account..or it isn't.
They're basically milking all they can out of us before we close our accounts in disgust (which we cannot do in town since mecha was told that if he came back the cops would be called!).
WTF x2! OO WHY?! Because he raised hell at them over his account? That's pretty shitty in itself...yhea..new bank is definitely what you guys need.
no subject
Date: 2004-10-01 10:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-11-20 10:17 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-11-20 02:21 pm (UTC)