The Banking Industry will fine you for not having money

 

Monthly maintenance fees, convenience fees, check cashing fees, teller deposit fees, overdraft fees, extended overdraft fees. Telephone fees, fee fees fees!

I just cashed a large check at the bank it was drawn from, and they charged me $7.50. I asked a simple question about the fee: “what is the fee for?”, and the teller could not answer it but said “I will ask my manager to answer you’. Manager comes and proceeds to give me a paragraph on “how it depends on how the account is set up”, blah blah blah. I politely let her know that she did not answer my simple question, but never mind. She moves on with no shame and does not care. Surely you can simply tell me what a fee is for?

The reason I had to go to that bank to cash the check is because my own bank wanted to put a five day hold on the money and would not divide up the check into my 2 different accounts like I asked until the hold was up. The hold by the day did not include Saturday and Sunday so really it was a seven-day hold. I have been an account holder with them for almost 20 years…

Banks need to do better; the nickel and diming really does hurt people who are living paycheck to paycheck, and it does not provide better customer service in any way. Banks need to stop acting like they are doing you a favor by charging you a monthly fee in order to use the money you own, and before anyone shout out “credit unions!”, just know I have an account at credit union as well and I fail to see the difference in policies; yes, I get more free ATM access but that is about it.

No, I do not have a solution, this was more of an observational rant, so thanks for listening.

Dr Flavius Akerele III

The ETeam