Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Because I Write a Money Blog That Seems Really Boring to me Sometimes

I like to brag about little happy money moments.
The financial institution we do most of our banking with is not my favorite bank in the world. It's a really big one. I often wonder if it knows that there are actual people banking at it's establishment or if it thinks it's just dealing with "accounts." We have so much stuff with them that it'd be a pain in the behind to switch so I've just stuck it out.

I got a letter in the mail the other day saying that this week we'd be seeing an "overdraft refund" for falsely charged fees. I have overdraft on my account but generally when we go into negative I deposit money into the account that very same day. I believe there are regulations against them charging you overdraft fees when your account is brought up to par the same day it went negative. However my bank is pro at kicking over some overdraft and charging the fee after I've already corrected the issue myself. I know that law suits have been brought against the bank before for false overdraft fees. A year or two ago I received a letter in the mail letting me know that I was eligible to join in the wronged customers already involved in the suit. Maybe I should have joined in but I'm not too keen on lawsuits and sewing people... wait, what am I talking about there aren't people involved in banking; just accounts. Oops, looks like I missed my money boat.

I received a $186 refund this week for overdraft fees. It's not enough for a lush family vacation but $186 is an awesome amount of money to get back for fees that I didn't actually ever owe. Woohoo!!! Just sharing a bit of sunshine in my life today.

Average daily spending for May: $17.24

7 comments:

  1. Wow! That's Great. I wish my bank would do that. The last overdraft fee I had, the money was deposited but it didn't clear until the next day. It was literally fine one day then the next I had an overdraft. I called the bank and they said that the check that I had deposited before I went into overdraft didn't clear till the day after the overdraft charge. Even though they still had the check before it happened, I still got stuck with an overdraft charge and they didn't offer to refund it. I should check more into this so I have a better defense next time. Although just preventing it from happening would probably be better.

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    1. I bet you have the same bank as me. The check issue is iffy because they probably legally can claim "it didn't clear." But I always transfer money from a different account I have with that same bank so when they overdraft me right after I just put money in the account that is as far as I know actually illegal on their part. I think the reason I just got this "refund" was because even after the lawsuit they're still breaking the law and they're trying to cover their butts this time around.

      But you're right, preventing the negative would probably be the best course of action... ours are always caused by my husband so I'm at a bit of a loss with the prevention idea.

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    1. I know! I was preparing myself for something like $12, just not to get my hopes up.

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  3. I got that letter too! Like you I'm *almost* positive I didn't opt in to the lawsuit but hey if they want to give me back money they took who am I to argue?!? I only got $33 but free money is free money! I snowflaked it to debt and smiled. Happy Wednesday!

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    1. My "extra" money is going towards bills. We are very behind after the car purchase but I'm happy to put it towards bills anyhow. Happy Wednesday to you too!

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