Online Banking

K

Kelly ♥

New member
Ok, this will be my best attempt to rehash this totally stupid story.

So 2 weeks ago when Chrix and I both got paid and the money put into the account, I went to check my account online. It said $777 or something quite close to that. I wrote my checks to pay some bills. The NEXT DAY I look at my balance, and it said $18. You KNOW my checks didn't arrive at their destinations and clear that quickly. Heh. So I am livid. Day after day I just watch my account go more and more into the red, and more and more Overdraft fees add up (one for each check or debit).

Eventually I got SO Frustrated I exported my account information and sent it to my mom. She couldnt make heads or tails of any of it either. So this past Monday we headed over to the branch I opened my account at. After AN HOUR AND A HALF of back and forth with the branch assistant manager I get two out of three late fees removed. We learned that the National City Bank online balance is NOT to be trusted. Here's why:

When you use your debit card and the bank is aware of the debit, it goes into pending. If the merchant does not "claim" the money within three days it goes out of pending and that amount goes back into your available balance. Then all the sudden BAM it just goes through and... I get fucked.

But that's not the end of this story! So there is this prepaid legal service that is available (I think just in Ohio and some surrounding states currently). I made my first payment with a credit card. Well, my finances got really screwed up around then and that card was no longer available for them to bill. So they sent me a bill that gave me a few options: pay for an entire year up front; charge $17 to a different credit card every month; send a check for $17 and authorize each following month to be deducted from my bank account. I chose to send in the check. So it turns out that the check was cashed, AND they deducted ANOTHER $17 from my bank account. That is actually what sent my account into overdraft to begin with. Otherwise I would have had ONE overdraft item. So if I can convince the service to return the $17 to my account, the bank will remove the remaining overdraft charge.

So tomorrow I have to take care of that. Now, I don't know if they wanted me to pay for an additional month, but I don't recall seeing such thing anywhere on the statement they sent me. I don't even MIND paying for an additional month, but if I were AWARE that this was going to happen, of course I wouldn't have paid quite so much to such and such a credit card and allowed THAT to go through. But I think I can convince them to return that money to my account, even if I turn right around and give it back to them, so I can get my overdraft removed, and I come out VICTORIOUS!
 
J used e-banking exclusively before I married him. We continued it for a while, but a chunk o' cash would always mysteriously disappear, no matter how well I tried to keep track of things, causing me to completely freak out (generally when he was on the road, too). I still can't get things to work out in an actual ledger since we didn't start until it was far too late, but now I keep track of how much goes out. It's saved me soooo many headaches. Plus, since I always start over with each one of his paychecks, we're amassing a little bit extra cash each time I start over.
 
When I used Key I never had these issues. I was just astounded that their website worked to retardedly. So yea, I have to get back into using the ledger again, and it's going to be a pain in the ass with Chrix using the debit card here and there and I have to be an absolute bitch about bringing me receipts for every stupid thing... *sigh*
 
This was one of the reasons why I never used and still refuse to use a debit card. Also, its nearly impossible to get charges reversed on a debit card, and significantly easier on a credit-card.
 
Well, ya see, it's not so much that I got into trouble with the debit card. In fact, it's the CHECKS that really fucked me up, technically. If their website wasnt to assbackwards, it never would have been a problem in the first place.
 
I only use online banking to check my balance and transfer cash between accounts.

My brother was fucked over by them, but, meh. He sued 'em and got extra cash.
 
You should use your legal service to get it straightened out. Not sue them or anything, but a nice little letter from an attorney would get them to figure things out quick.
 
Well, when you aren't awake/available when the real word is up and running (much less banking hours!!), it's pretty much what you have to deal with. Or run soely on cash money. And these days, that really doesn't work.
 
lmao. it's not like i'm little suzie housemaker over here either. money gets diverted from food and bills to buy video games. it's always about the video games...
 
The best way to avoid getting cock-punched by overdraft fees, is to treat every debit card purchase like a check. Much easier for me, as I'm the only one with a card on my account. Perhaps, that's the answer - separate accounts. Debit card transactions don't post right away, and sometimes the banks/credit unions don't even count the "pending" transactions against your balance - the I have $700+, then next day I have $18.

In the long run, the banks will say, "you spent the money, yes? It was your account, yes? How is it our problem that you didn't keep track of what you spent?" Debit cards have only added to the old naive thought that if you have checks you have money, only now it's "if Internet Banking says I have $xxxx.xx, then all transactions have cleared my account."

That said, I just got this from my bank...

"Many financial institutions received a fraud alert from Visa that many Visa cardholders accounts may have been compromised. Your card number was included in this alert. For your protection we have closed your card and issued a replacement that will arrive in 3 business days. We feel we have acted in a timely manner to prevent fraud and you will have no liability for any foreign purchases that are identified."

Information security at it's finest.
 
I wasnt thinking that all checks cleared. I check it DAILY. I just deposited 2 paychecks into my account, and I hadn't been using any checks or debit cards for a while, cause I KNEW I had no fucking money. I'm not fucking retarded. It's that the shit went from pending to just gone... and then SUDDENLY it was just deducted without warning. It was from over a WEEK ago and shit. I watch shit sit there for fuckingEVER. It's fucking shit. I track my purchases. My point is that I have done it the SAME FUCKING WAY for YEARS with NO PROBLEM. The ISSUE is that National City's online shit is retarded.
 
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