Won´t you be my friend.... --Mr. Rogers

Bank stunts like this are why I love my credit union.

If you don´t bounce any checks, never will be a problem. And many banks charge a fee for falling below a minimum, maybe $750/month. That´s just an encouragement to be responsible.

How would you like it if you were getting regular money (or services) from somebody, but you weren´t sure it would be there. Like your electricity might not work next month because the utility didn´t have enough fuel in the generators?

In the old days you weren´t considered overdawn until the close of business on the day of overdraft and you hadn´t covered with a deposit.

When our bank changed to National City they started pulling stuff like this. An auto-debit may have posted at 1AM overdrawing the acct and and an auto deposit would post at 3AM. They would still charge the acct $39.

Then they started to pull the stuff written in the story. An overdraft that overall, could be as small a few dollars could cost hundreds at $39 a pop, simply by paying the largest first and each fee made deficet even larger.

I rarely ovedraw but got hit really bad once. National City did lose a class action suit and we received the money back.

Now NC is PNC and as long a deposit is made anytime before the close of business NO overdraft fees are charged at all. I also monitor my accounts daily just to be sure.

FTA: "This fancy footwork allowed Wells Fargo to quadruple its revenue from overdraft fees, from $22 to $88, according to an analysis by the Pew Charitable Trusts."

Not a recent development; banks have been stacking withdrawals for at least a decade. Not content with paying depositors 0% on savings, then adding minimum deposit levels paid at 0%, adding fees for simple withdrawals and deposits, ATM fees, and the like, atop the countless taxpayer dollars received via TARP, they take every chance to nail customers. Worst of all, they all seem to do it, with rare exceptions.

A progressive like Teddy Roosevelt would have dissolved these banks; today´s progressives give them even more power.

"A high-to-low posting order has the advantage of ensuring that the most important payments (e.g., mortgage payments) ... are paid first," the Financial Services Roundtable, a banking industry trade group, said in a comment letter to the federal government last year.

What a load of bovine excrement. How do they know the largest check is the most important? And who gives them the right to decide this anyway? These huge banks just give me the willies. I´ll stick with my local credit union, thank you.

When our daughter was in college, I opened up joint account at the same bank that I´d had my account for years (National City). When she bounced a check, they would immediately,i.e. electronically, withdraw the amount from my account and then charge her $34 for each bounced check. I went in and explained to them that they could not have it both ways. I was told that ´that is just the way they do it´. Both accounts were closed that day and I moved my business to a local bank.

rhid is a BIG scam banks a nothing but common criminals

As Gomer Pyle, would have said "SUPRISE! SUPRISE! As one poster has pointed out. This is not something new; it has victimized the unsuspecting for a lot of years now. It could be equated to the IED of the Banking world.

The only defense is to move ones accounts, and never think that will be an easy matter, and without Credit recriminations. You will be very surprised as to what happens with that act. Like just changing Insurance Companies... sounds real good, you´ll be punished, and pay for that little move, as well. "ITS Just Policy!" YEAH! RIGHT!

Wells Fargo has always been known as a ´bandit bank´ - doing stuff like this - nickel&diminig fees, limited availability on deposits of cashiers checks - that is why they have consistently been so profitable for over 30 years.

Although it not a bank´s business to be a money tree for its depositors and any business has a right to charge for services rendered, how unfortunate is it that the same folks who are most likely to overdraw their accounts are the people who can least afford to pay a $30+ fee. There are laws prohibiting lenders from charging exorbitant interest on loans yet a bank can cover a check that overdrafts an account by a dollar; a deposit may be made the next day to put the account back into the black; and the customer is charged $35 for a $1 loan for one day. What the annual interest rate on that loan?

Overnight interest rates are set by the Federal Reserve Bank (Fed Funds Rate) not by commercial banks.

Something that irks me is that if you deposit a check into your checking account, they put a ´hold´ on that money for several days until the check clears. So, if you get down to the point where you are dipping below the value of that check, they will treat it as a bounce, even if the check is good.

I get around this by depositing the check into my savings account, going to the ATM and transferring the same amount over to the checking account.

i stopped doing business with Wells Fargo years ago because of the high handed business practices with my money. they really should change their logo from the stagecoach to the highwayman.

small local banks or credit unions are much more responsive to individuals than the megabanks.

We banked with Wachovia for 30 years and were not happy to see Wells Fargo take over.

A local bank that I had been with for years was bought by one of the major national banks, but I decided to give them a chance, until this happened to me. I thought my account was fine, all balanced and such, but a debit had been missed somewhere and I didn´t realize it yet since I hadn´t received that months statement. So there I was, devoting, writing checks and inevitably one bounced. Unfortunately, the overdraft notice came from Ohio (I live in Vermont) and took four days to get to my mail box. Meanwhile, I was using my account based on my assumed balance and the bank was racking up overdraft after overdraft after overdraft. The final tally ended up being close to $350 just in overdraft fees which I loudly protested due to the length of time they took to notify me of my error. I settled my account and closed it that day. The person who closed it for me had the nerve to look surprised that I was not staying with their fine financial institution!!

The bank I am with now is based in my town and any mail or correspondence has a local postmark. And they don´t nickel and dime me to death on fees either, another PITA for another day.