U.S. banks stand to collect $38.5 BILLION in overdraft fees

can anyone here give me some advice on how to open my own bank?

 

1-Rent a building.
2-Ask for deposits.
3-Offer free refrigerators for $1000+ accounts.
4-Invest money in stocks based on which ones form your family's initials.
5-Lose all money.
6-Hide in remote tropical island.

Seriously though, the banking sector in the United States is just madness. I'm not too sure about how it is now (can people still open banks on pretty much a whim and a dime?) but I think someone needs to start overhauling the sector. Free enterprise is always good, but there's a strict litmus test that should be applied when you are managing large amounts of other people's money. And that litmus test should pretty much exclude a lot of the small banks out there (in my opinion).

 

semi-related, but I heard that the banks say they would need to charge 30-40% interest on their credit card customers to break even. so they basically are making up the difference in all these nickel and diming fees.

 

You really just need to have plenty of capital.

 

I'm a living example of that also...I overdrafted my checking account to the the tune of $350 in overdraft charges...I was young, had no credit card...Forgot to deposit a paycheck, thought I had money yadda yadda yadda...I now use credit cards exclusively, pay if off promptly, have direct deposit...Lesson learned...

Btw WAMU was the bank that I had the overdraft feed with and they wudnt even budge a dollar...That was the first time I had ever overdrafted, I wuda thot they wud at least take off one overdraft fee, but no...nada...anyways I paid the fees, went across the street to Chase and set up an account there...Weird how a few yrs from then Chase wud takeover WAMU...

 

Perhaps when you wrote "Wud you take off my overdraft fee?" they had no idea what you were talking about.

 

lol...I hear ya...Just seems easier to do that now then actually write it out...Its still the interwebs after all....

What might also give u a kick is that I'll be going to law school and I've aced ever english class I've ever taken...Its just that the internet seems to bring out the worst of it...but what does that matter....

 

So, you think it's absurdly unreasonable to expect the bank (who you are paying, for the privilege of keeping your money) to inform you how much of your money you actually have? When it basically is 0 marginal cost for them to do so?

Sounds crazy, but I feel that if you give somebody your money and pay them to keep it, they should be able to tell you how much of it they have.

Do you encourage them to curse you out at the teller window too? Because that's the way REAL MEN who are RESPONSIBLE go to the bank, at least that's what I read.

 

My bank (Wells Fargo) does. At any point I can go online and see what is available and what deposits are pending. I can call and get the same information and I can go to an ATM and get it as well.

Of course, I have to be responsible enough to know which checks I have outstanding and subtract that from the available balance.

 

Making the magical ass look like a twit is trivially simple (he does just fine on his own, frankly), but highly enjoyable to witness regardless.