55
2
|
Posted by sailirish7 Promoted 704 days 9 hours ago 3372 views
editorial
Informative / Informative General
|
0 comments
|
|
I wrote this at work when I had a moment. If people find it helpful, I'll be happy to do a series on this.
I’m writing this for a couple of reasons, mostly because I’m apparently the only one who actually reads the terms and conditions for everything I sign. I am a supervisor in the call center for one of the largest US savings banks. As much as I hate my job, I do like getting paid so I can’t name them here. My purpose is to give you guys some information that you can use, as well as prevent some angry calls that I get DAILY.
As most of you are probably painfully aware, banking is a regulated industry. This means that we can’t make shit up as we go along just to get money out of you in fees and related charges. I’m going to start by explaining some of the most common ones that people complain about and the reasons behind them.
Excess activity fees:
Some of you might have seen this on the monthly statement you get for your savings account. This fee is actually completely unrelated to bank policy and is a direct result of the US “Truth in savings act” of 1991 (http://www.fdic.gov/regulations/laws/rules/6500-3400.html) More specifically “Regulation D” which states that “under the terms of the deposit contract, or by practice of the depository institution, the depositor is permitted or authorized to make no more than six transfers and withdrawals per month” (statement cycle) This basically means that if you make more than 6, your ass is going to get charged for it.
Overdraft/Non-Sufficient Funds charges:
I would hope that anyone reading this knows how these work. Basically, if you spend money you don’t have we may/may not pay it but will always charge you. More on how to get out of these in a bit.
Service Charges:
Most accounts these days don’t have this unless they offer some sort of free service with them that you would normally pay for. These are charged for the privilege of having an account with that institution.
Item Copy fees:
This is exactly what it sounds like. No one is going to copy something and mail it to you for free.
Avoiding most of these are pretty easy if you know what your bank charges and how it they post things to your account. Unfortunately there are sometimes where you make an error in your accounting or get charged something by mistake. This next section will address how to get out of these.
Overdraft charges are pretty easy as long as you have a good history with your bank. One thing in particular you want to avoid is a long and boring story about what was going on that day that made you forget to keep enough money in your account. The best way to approach this is to call in and ask to speak directly with a supervisor and say exactly this “I screwed up and added wrong, I’ve been a good customer with you guys for a long time. Would you please remove this charge?” This is another situation where you get more flies with honey than with vinegar. As someone who takes these calls all day everyday, I couldn’t give less of a shit what happened to you that day. If your mad and start getting ugly with me or cursing, your not gettin’ shit. Excess activity fees are not refundable, so you’re basically screwed if you get one. Service charges are only reversible if the bank made an error, so don’t count on that getting reversed. Item copy fees you should know about beforehand, so unless you weren’t told about it, you’re not getting that back either.
I am hoping to write a few more of these about how most banks work and how to deal with them more efficiently in your daily grind. A couple more topics I have though of would be Fraud prevention and making the most of your investments. If anyone has something else they would like to understand better, let me know and I’ll write about it I I’m familiar with it. I only work in retail banking, so I’m not so familiar with Loan servicing and mortgages.
Related Links:How I Felt Coming to Shoutwire With no Adblock How to Play 'Dueling Ninjas' on Guitar How Shoutwire Can Easily Stop Spam. How to Grow Weed in A Closet With $100 “Killing Babies – A How To” – A Reprise