I think I've bounced one check in my life, not even sure it was even one, and that was long ago when my account balance was heavily scrutinized to make sure I had enough in it for crackers and chocolate milk for lunch and hotdogs and chips for dinner (ah, school days...). But I vaguely remember overdraft was a minor charge back then, a slap on the wrist. Shameful, but not financially damaging unless, of course, you didn't go back and pay the merchant for your bounced check purchase, in which case the law might have been in your face.
Then somewhere along the way of creative banking 101, in the electronic age where you'd think it wouldn't cost so much, bounced check fees grew, and grew and grew. Now you can expect a whopping, no, make that often two (one for the merchant's bank, one for yours) whopping charges for overdrawing one's account by as little as pennies.
Did I say one or two whopping charges? If only...
Ring, ring.... Drrrbdbdddbd, Drrrbdbdbdbd... (no ringtones on my land line, imagine a phone ringing...)
"Hello Adam, how's life?" I ask my late-20's-something son.
"Oh, not too bad, except for that money thing we talked about a while ago..."
Ah, the money thing. My son dropped a hint a few weeks ago that he was struggling to make ends-meet. I've always told him that if worse comes to worser(psic), that I can loan him cash to get through tough times. And I have several times in the past, though I take the opportunity on each occasion to question him on budgeting and to harass him for having bought a new car with a 7 fucking year 13+% interest rate loan (Thanks Chrysler Finance, rot in hell); against my strenuous advice not to. He's been lectured plenty about the cost of having children as well, and daughter number 3 is the last (allegedly).
"So tell me, how did you get so behind this time?," I ask.
"Uh, I got behind on my gas payments, so now I have to pay them a deposit. And I bounced a check for 185$ for the air conditioner repair and they charged me almost 200$ -- They kept trying to deposit the check and I got charged 5 times until I put a stop payment on the check. And my overdraft insurance didn't help because I didn't have enough in my savings account."
"They what?! How much?" I sputtered.
"39$, I think. And they charged me 5 times 'cause they kept trying to deposit it. So that didn't help my budget..."
To make a long conversation short, I told my son that that was complete and utter bullshit and I would tell the bank to "Fuck themselves sideways" and call the state's attorney general to complain. Yeah, I know it's probably legal, but what in god's name is going on here?
Once upon a time we paid hidden costs for "irresponsible" fellow bank members because we all got the same interest rates, all had the same bank services. Now, with extensively diversified services, those least likely to be able to afford overdraft charges and higher interest rates are forced to pay them while those of us who don't even really need credit and are unlikely to have bank balance issues are pampered, in a manner of speaking.
I'm not trying to say that there should be no consequence for mismanaging one's bank account, but charging unconscionable fees that are not justified on the backs of those who can't afford them is, well, Bank Robbery.