Any transactions made between Friday evening at 8:01 PM and Monday evening at 7:59 PM are bunched together and posted -- in sequential order -- on Monday night. Debit card swipes (referred to as PIN transactions) are debited and posted at the moment they happen. Even on weekends.
Last year the British government took a huge step in forcing banks to behave by enacting laws that require charges be applied to your account in the order in which you make them. In the example cited well above you would have received only a single overdraft fee, the one you planned for, and not for the $12 Kids Meal or the .99 stick of gum you put on your debit card. In fact, in certain circumstances the British law works even on past charges and banks have returned near $600 million to customers with valid complaints.
Here in the US, Congress, if you can believe it, had to step in to start correcting the unethical behavior banks have been practicing for far too long. For one, Congress has put some controls on the way banks charge overdraft fees which requires your permission but as far as I know they're not requiring banks to change the order in which they apply charges to your account. Some banks have made a switch to handle smaller charges first but they are still not applying them in the most logical way: the way they were made, sequentially.
Banks and the banking industry are united in their sentiment that ultimately it's the job of customers to handle their money better and that fees would never be applied if customers simply understood the bank's rules. While that seems fair on the surface, banks are also free to change the rules as they see fit without your foreknowledge and they do so as frequently as they can get away with it. And if someone in Congress gets uppity, they just buy them and continue on their merry way.
For example, just a few months ago I noticed the meager balance of my savings account had decreased by $5. I called the bank to find out that yeah, they started charging fees on those accounts if they didn't have at least one direct transfer a month into them. Didn't I read the notification? Now that account sits in the negative for which, I am sure, there will be a fee high enough to feed half of Uganda.
Fighting BackBoth Bank of America and Chase are the two worst offenders of these unethical practices and my advice is the following: unless a genuine Democracy arises from the ashes of this current system and the banking industry is regulated as they should be, pull your money from Bank of America and/or Chase and find someone else, someone who doesn't work behind the scenes to find craftier ways of immorally and unethically separating you from your money.
If you have ever had a run-in with Bank of America and you've been tricked or victimized by them, here are some email addresses that might tickle your fancy:
ken.d.Email address removed, colleen.Email address removed, britney.w.Email address removed, nicole.Email address removed, joe.Email address removed, keith.Email address removed, michael.Email address removed, liam.e.Email address removed, brian.t.Email address removed, amy.Email address removed, steele.Email address removed, liam.e.Email address removed, bradford.r.Email address removed, michelle.Email address removed, maryellen.Email address removed
I can assure you that Bank of America is on a lot of people's minds these days and it's not in good way either. Here are just a few examples:
Washington homeowners file class action against Bank of America
Allegation: BofA took federal money, intentionally failed to meet its obligations
Bank America Loves You Too Much To Ever Let You (And Your Checking Account) Go
Bank Of America Misplaced Divorce Decree, Handed Over All My Money To Ex
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