BoA loses class action lawsuit over O/D fees

[Lorax]

I would have had the same reaction until I began doing research on just how many customer service issues amongst large banks, and corporations in general go unresolved.

Most of these firms operate with impunity since they are so large and have so many customers, they can afford a certain amount of dissatisfaction. In fact, when it comes to banks, the passbook savings account holder represents the smallest depositor block to most of these institutions, as they are geared toward assisting large corporations or other businesses as their preferred customer.

The attitude you get with large banks is how worthless you are as a customer to them, since they cater to the needs of corporate clients whose deposits, loans and other "financial products" pump up the bottom line, whereas the individual depositors represent an annoyance that they tolerate due to government regulations mandating them to do so.

My three accounts amounted to little more than 300k when I withdrew them from BofA, and they made a half-hearted attempt to keep me, by promising to "do better" with their customer service. At that point, having already closed the accounts, I got up to leave, and left the bank with a wad of gum stuck to my backside.

I laughed about it...later, and realized I had made the right decision. If they can't clean the gum off the seats at BofA, then they need a cleaning service more than they need my business.

[Detroitej72]

Irresponsibility on the part of the borrower is the problem. Rotating payments, spending beyond available means, etc. If the individual wouldn't do those things, then all of this would be irrelevant. My practice has been to use credit cards as a convenience and pay in full each month [[therefore not spending more than I can pay out month to month). No interest, no cancellations, no damage to credit ratings...etc. Blaming it on the lender is a misplacement of said blame and a dead end as far as resolving your problem.

So how do you defend Chase charging non customers a fee to cash their unemployment checks?

I closed my Comerica account awhile ago because they were going to charge me a monthly fee because I didn't have direct deposit. I explained to them that my employer refused to offer it, and they basically told me oh well. Comerica is hardly the only bank that charges these fees.

I had a smiler problem as the ones mentioned above. Huntington Bank cashed three checks I wrote in reverse order and I was 80 cents overdrawn. They then proceeded to rack up a $25 fee for being overdrawn, as well as $7 each day I was over my limit which I didn't know about until after four days, when I finally got a letter in the mail.

That left me paying $53 for an overdraft of 80 cents. I told the teller those were loan shark rates, and she gave me a number to call in the corporate office. I explained the situation, and she was adamant that I must pay or else it would go to collections. I got a bit steamed, and told her I was closing my account, and she finally agreed to remove the per day fee. I ended paying the $25 overdraft fee and called it a day.

How anyone can defend these actions used by banks is beyond me, if Guido or Ray Ray on the corner were caught using this system, they would be sent to prison. When the suits in their ivory towers do it, their seen by conservatives as being good capitalists.

[Lorax]

So how do you defend Chase charging non customers a fee to cash their unemployment checks?

I closed my Comerica account awhile ago because they were going to charge me a monthly fee because I didn't have direct deposit. I explained to them that my employer refused to offer it, and they basically told me oh well. Comerica is hardly the only bank that charges these fees.

I had a smiler problem as the ones mentioned above. Huntington Bank cashed three checks I wrote in reverse order and I was 80 cents overdrawn. They then proceeded to rack up a $25 fee for being overdrawn, as well as $7 each day I was over my limit which I didn't know about until after four days, when I finally got a letter in the mail.

That left me paying $53 for an overdraft of 80 cents. I told the teller those were loan shark rates, and she gave me a number to call in the corporate office. I explained the situation, and she was adamant that I must pay or else it would go to collections. I got a bit steamed, and told her I was closing my account, and she finally agreed to remove the per day fee. I ended paying the $25 overdraft fee and called it a day.

How anyone can defend these actions used by banks is beyond me, if Guido or Ray Ray on the corner were caught using this system, they would be sent to prison. When the suits in their ivory towers do it, their seen by conservatives as being good capitalists.

The woods are full of stories like these, and much worse.

People need to withdraw from the system, stop borrowing, stop using credit cards, and force the system to bend to the will of the people who use it, or face bankruptcy.

Unlike Batts who blames the individual in all cases, the corporations are like little governments, accountable to no one, and immune from prosecution. They can afford to be bad business people, since there is little consequence in doing so. No regulation worthy of the name, cavalier attitudes toward their customers, and a general disdain for anything but corporate deposits and lending, which is the focus of all banks, not the individual.

Obama should have let the banks go belly-up. This was a mistake. Nationalization of the banks with new boards, would send a clear message that this rape of the public trust won't happen again.

[Jimaz]

I told the teller those were loan shark rates

No kidding. I saw this coming in 1980 when the usury laws were effectively revoked by the Depository Institutions Deregulation and Monetary Control Act which

Allowed institutions to charge any interest rates they chose.

I recall at the time thinking it unconscionable that anyone would be so bold as to erase the very defining distinction between loan sharks and legitimate lenders without so much as an attempt to whitewash the change. It was blatantly obvious that corruption was afoot. Since then I've avoided debt like the plague. My current usurer-defined "credit score" might suck but I'm doing okay and have the peace of mind of not having done business with the corporate equivalent of Guido The Arm Twister.

I picture these bozos overconfidently pleading in court: "Your Honor, I'm not a banker. I'm a legitimate businessman."

[Gistok]

You want to encourage outsourcing investments BigB?

While that is the effect of corporate and individual taxation, the result you describe is not considered desirable by anyone.

Neither is the fact that millions of Information Technology jobs have been outsoruced to India et al... and yet the software that is produced there comes back to the USA is untaxed at every level...

But that's OK... the folks who are making the big bucks in this scenario [[stockholders) don't mind making up the difference...

[Jimaz]

And I hope everyone is watching how little interest Chase is now paying on savings and checking accounts. It's merely percents of a percent! Remember when it was a customary 5¼ percent? The same thing happened after the Savings&Loan fiasco. Today crooks evade prosecution by simply wearing suits. It's so much easier than robbing banks or <gasp> being honest.

[Lorax]

And I hope everyone is watching how little interest Chase is now paying on savings and checking accounts. It's merely percents of a percent! Remember when it was a customary 5¼ percent? The same thing happened after the Savings&Loan fiasco. Today crooks evade prosecution by simply wearing suits. It's so much easier than robbing banks or <gasp> being honest.

How true. Amen!

[ccbatson]

Gistok, do you see the self evident solution to this problem in your comment? Eliminate corporate taxes to diminish the incentive to outsource.

[ejames01]

If corporations don't pay taxes, who is going to pay for the infrastructure that they need to conduct business?

Gistok, do you see the self evident solution to this problem in your comment? Eliminate corporate taxes to diminish the incentive to outsource.

[Detroitej72]

If corporations don't pay taxes, who is going to pay for the infrastructure that they need to conduct business?

Us little people, the [[shrinking) middle class who support the majority of the tax burdens.

[ccbatson]

First, shrink government down to its' proper size [[and cost). Already, you have eliminated your individual tax concerns. Then establish a voluntary tax placed on the contractual utilization of said limited government services [[law, defense) for those partaking in said services...the rest of what is yours, remains yours.