Okay, so that post sucked. See, I told you: trying too hard.
Today I am seething over the recent treatment by our small town bank, Fifth Third. In two days, this crack bank charged my account $700.00 in overdraft fees. While my account was overdrawn (due to an accounting mistake at home) and certainly entitled to be charged a penalty, I ask you: does $700.00 seem reasonable for a two day period?
The reasons I was charged $700.00 is because Fifth Third uses predatory practices:
1. Rather than deny my debit card purchase at the store (I had no idea I was overdrawn), the bank approved it as a “courtesy” and then charged me $33.00 in fees. This means the $1.00 bottle of water I bought for my daughters’ basketball game cost me $34.00. This happened seven times on the first day, costing me $264 in fees and still, I had no idea my account was overdrawn.
2. The next day, the bank credited my overdraft fees ($264.00) first, before anything else, causing all subsequent purchases to go into “courtesy” overdraft protection, i.e. bounce. Again, purchases were made before I knew my account was overdrawn. The order in which the bank processed my account, starting with their own fees first, cost me $330.00 in fees. Had the bank credited their own fees last, I would have only bounced once.
3. The overdraft fees did not show up online, so I was unable to determine how much money I needed to deposit in order to rectify my balance, even though business from the previous day had closed. When I went into the bank to determine exactly what was going on, I got two separate answers from customer “service” reps. The manager was unable to meet with me even though I saw him standing and chatting with another employee in his fleece coat with his coffee cup in hand. [Side note: When I finally did approach him, he said (in his outside voice, in front of other customers), “Yeah, are you here about YOUR OVERDRAFT FEES? There’s nothing I can do about YOUR OVERDRAFT FEES. YOUR OVERDRAFT FEES are out of my hands.” Then he went right back to chatting up his employee.
These fees along with the daily overdraft fees – this all happened over a weekend — totalled $687.00. Also worth knowing: I have been a customer for ten years and have excellent credit.
Okay, so what next? Aside from yelling at the manager’s supervisor until I was shaking, causing eczema to burn my face in two places, and aside from causing myself a pounding headache for two (now going on three) days, I am not done. I’ve done research and found out that Fifth Third is being sued in a class action suit for their overdraft practices. I’ve also learned that bills have been proposed in both the Senate and House that would force banks to reform these predatory practices.
I guess I’ll start with a letter to the local paper. I will tell everyone I know: DO NOT BANK WITH FIFTH THIRD. I will rant on my Facebook account. I don’t know, what else? Suggestions are welcome.









