Bank Fees

[wajobu]

I have always had a hard time with banks, from them making mistakes and then blaming me with fees to saying that I'm not who I say I am (when someone is there to vouch for me along with photo ID), etc. I can't tell you how many banks I have closed accounts in, including one where a branch manager told me..."...wait, you can't do this..." as I walked out the door with funds from three accounts and the contents of a safe deposit box (they had made a substantial error on an account balance and they wouldn't own up to the mistake...and finally when corrected, I pulled-up stakes).

I can't stand fees at banks, but I understand that some fees are necessary to punish folks who do wrong, but many fees are predatory and eventually force folks that have low balance bank accounts into negative balances and then more fees, escalating the cycle.

Our son (a poor student, literally) just had two charges put on his bank accounts for checking his balance at an out of state ATM (checking to be sure that we wasn't overdrawn before making a purchase). The two fees were actually a pretty large percentage of his available balance. This is a very large national bank that has taken Federal Bailout funds.

Yes, he could check his balance online, but no a computer wasn't available where he was. Yes, he could carry a check register with him or just plain know intuitively what his balance is, but not really all the time.

My point is, is that folks with low balance accounts need this money WAY more than the banks do, and I think that they are just preying on small account holders, waiting, and looking for more opportunities to just make easy money whilst they sit at the government trough taking our tax dollars.

BTW, I called the bank and had a discussion with the branch bank manager about building long term relationships and developing a customer base, by showing folks the way to be thrifty and avoid fees. Some of it fell on deaf ears, but I got the fees for at least today refunded to our son's account.

I swear, I think that some of these banks should just go down the tubes and maybe sooner or later the folks who run them and invent these darned fees will learn.