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I was about to say this too. There was a lot of vitriol on the comments as well, but all of them follow the frustration of being overdrawn. But I agree, if the

by eksith 13y ago

I was about to say this too. There was a lot of vitriol on the comments as well, but all of them follow the frustration of being overdrawn. But I agree, if the bank or card company doesn't take this as a genuine error and erase the record, then it's a pretty lousy institution. Maybe he could have worded it differently and shown less irreverence, but that may be a byproduct of the stress as well. It's a pretty shocking thing too and they're human after all. My current web host uses them as a registrar for some years and they've been pretty happy with DH services.

benjamincburns 13y ago
See my other comment for thoughts on the e-mail/post (sibling to yours). On the banks... "Overdraft protection" is probably the single most disingenuous thing the banks have done to low-income individuals. It's such a "squeeze 'em when they're down" tactic. I had all kinds of financial problems in college, mostly my own doing, but they were sooo complicated by this... service. Suddenly because of one mistake, 10 small transactions turns into an additional $320 expense. Three days later you get 10 little envelopes in the mail. And then the dread. "Shit, I did it again. Now what am I gonna do?" To the best of my knowledge, SunTrust wouldn't let you opt out prior to the CARD act. Or, if they did, none of their customer service reps or bank managers notified me of the possibility. Thankfully I manage my finances better now. And thankfully the CARD act makes overdraft protection opt-in (although for a lot of banks this is just another clause in the phonebook-sized account agreement you sign), and there are now a few checking accounts (ING Direct, Ally bank) that treat payment of transactions that cause overdraft like what it is - a line of credit.
- PhasmaFelis 13y ago
  My local college credit union has an optional "Overdraft Protection Loan" service. You apply for an $X loan in the usual way (so bad credit, etc. can still hurt you here), but if/when you get it, they don't give you $X cash. Instead, they attach it to your checking account. If you go over, the bank automatically moves money from the loan to your checking account in $100 increments to cover the overdraft. There's no per-use fees, and as long as you pay it back within a month, there's no interest charged. (Or very little, I'm not clear--sometimes there's an extra 40 cents or so on there.) It's really, really handy and they don't advertise it at all. I found out about it when I accidentally ran up a dozen overdraft fees and talked to an account manager about how to keep it from happening again. I'd recommend that everyone see if their bank offers something similar.

by eksith 13y ago

benjamincburns 13y ago

See my other comment for thoughts on the e-mail/post (sibling to yours). On the banks... "Overdraft protection" is probably the single most disingenuous thing the banks have done to low-income individuals. It's such a "squeeze 'em when they're down" tactic. I had all kinds of financial problems in college, mostly my own doing, but they were sooo complicated by this... service. Suddenly because of one mistake, 10 small transactions turns into an additional $320 expense. Three days later you get 10 little envelopes in the mail. And then the dread. "Shit, I did it again. Now what am I gonna do?" To the best of my knowledge, SunTrust wouldn't let you opt out prior to the CARD act. Or, if they did, none of their customer service reps or bank managers notified me of the possibility. Thankfully I manage my finances better now. And thankfully the CARD act makes overdraft protection opt-in (although for a lot of banks this is just another clause in the phonebook-sized account agreement you sign), and there are now a few checking accounts (ING Direct, Ally bank) that treat payment of transactions that cause overdraft like what it is - a line of credit.

PhasmaFelis 13y ago
My local college credit union has an optional "Overdraft Protection Loan" service. You apply for an $X loan in the usual way (so bad credit, etc. can still hurt you here), but if/when you get it, they don't give you $X cash. Instead, they attach it to your checking account. If you go over, the bank automatically moves money from the loan to your checking account in $100 increments to cover the overdraft. There's no per-use fees, and as long as you pay it back within a month, there's no interest charged. (Or very little, I'm not clear--sometimes there's an extra 40 cents or so on there.) It's really, really handy and they don't advertise it at all. I found out about it when I accidentally ran up a dozen overdraft fees and talked to an account manager about how to keep it from happening again. I'd recommend that everyone see if their bank offers something similar.