Class Action lawsuits against the banks

[cleanslate01]

Any insight here? I was talking to my father-in-law who is a COO at a Credit Union and he was mentioning how all this reform is gonna hurt their bottom line. Sorry, no sympathy from me here. But then he said he wouldn't be surprised to hear about class action lawsuits against the banks for things like overdraft fees, and the reordering of checks. Now this last bit was interesting to me because our bank has "reordered" checks posted for payment. One day we are fine and then the next day we are overdrawn with multiple NSF fees because of it. Wouldn't it be nice to get some of that cash back?!?! I heard Chase is stopping this practice in the new year voluntarily. Since these banks aren't going to do anything out of the kindness of their hearts, I thinking there might be some truth to what father-in-law was saying.

[DavidSolomon]

Inside Bank info

I used to work for a large financial institution so I can answer your questions. Yes there will be a lot class action lawsuits and they are already starting. It is difficult for customers to understand the overdraft fees and they rack up so quickly that over a weekend you can wipe out your next paycheck. Even if the bank puts a note on your account to decline the card if you are in a negative balance it doesn't always work. Gas Stations are the LARGEST culprit. When you pump gas and use your card as credit the station only authorizes $1 typically. Which means that you could go out and spend the other $49 (If you pumped $50) and then would incur overdraft fees on all of them when the gas purchase hits. The only fair institution is ING Direct. They won't approve someones account without an overdraft line of credit and as long as you dont max out the overdraft line you will never have overdraft fees. They call it electric orange.

[BigJohn]

As for reordering checks, I make my own.

[momisery]

I do work in banking and some of the practices are taking debits first instead of using the deposit first. This could result in an overdraft, even though the bank has the money. One of the policies that drives me nuts is that they waive the stop pay fees, overdraft fees, continious over draft fees, check fees, you name it for the wealthy. The reason given is that they have money in our bank and we make a ton of money off of them. I would think getting the best rates and service would be good enough? Just think of what it must be like to have a team of bankers working for you instead of being on the 800 number hold line, that in itself should be worth it. The wealthy can afford the best to balance their books for them, yet they call me to waive fees because they were out of town on vacation and didn't have the time. Totally crazy. Little people are crushed by these practices.