Highway Robbery

For those of you stateside or those that have credit cards based out of US Banks, how close do you look at your statements? For those with US based bank accounts, how closely do you review your statements? In the past 3 months, I have been charged fees of $20.00, $20.00, $39.00, $39.00, $3.78, $15.00, $2.54, $39.00, $5.46, $50.00, $25.00, and $25.00 through no fault of my own. These charges have been assessed onto my accounts that have been open for many, many years. What gives? They say the accounts that prevent these service fees were not linked or the payment was received after 5:00 pm.

In the case of my bank, in order to for them to waive fees you must maintain minimum monthly balances. They said I was assessed the fees for the past few months because the accounts were unlinked. I was like let’s get this right, these accounts in the past 3 years have not changed….the direct deposit is the same, the withdrawal methods the same, the type of account the same…but all of a sudden I did something to cause the fees to begin being assessed. Give me a break! A 10 minute phone call and they credited me back the fees. “Oops”, was all I got. What if I haven’t noticed? A few days work goes to Chase for no reason. Then my other bank, on my loan, for the past year there has been no service fee…all of a sudden this year they charge me one. I didn’t notice for the first 2 months of the year as I just shred the envelope without even opening it! But I “accidentally” opened the March statement and there was a balance of $100.00, for a loan service fee and late fees. They refuse to help over the phone and I was unable to make it to the branch in person until a few days ago. “Oops” was all I got there as well. And to make it worse, they charged me $25.00 late fee for each January and February. If I didn’t open the envelope, then I would have paid $350.00 extra this year without even realizing it.

Now on to the credit cards….. I pay all my bills online either through electronic transfer or online bill pay. But if I forget until the day before or the day they are due, then even though I pay the minimum amount due, they don’t process it until after 5:00pm. By that time they have already assessed a late fee because it wasn’t received by 5:00pm on the due date. I mean for a few hours they are charging me $39.00 or $15.00 late fee as well as finance charges. This is pure highway robbery! I try to fight the charges usually or make a note to remind myself to pay earlier. Worse case I yell and *(#&$ and threaten to take my business elsewhere. In the past they relented, but they don’t care anymore…they are making so much money off late fees, finance charges, service fees, loan refinancing on their old customers that they don’t need new ones.

So if you are like me and don’t always have time to read every line of your statement, let this serve as a warning to start. We are getting fleeced by these banks….and if you don’t catch it, you’re giving them free money and if you do, well all you’ll get is an “oops”. I hate banks!