Just when you think you're out....

[sailorzeo]

(beats head on table, HARD)

Okay. So the check came today. $120 from my savings. It was SUPPOSED to be $50 for gas and inspection for Matt's Jeep, $20 for TracFone card, $5-$10 for a pair of Keds so I can start going to the gym again, $20 for cat food and litter, and whatever was left for basic necessities like milk, eggs, etc.

Instead, Matt comes home from his one-day contract job and says, "I miscalculated." We made 2 purchases for a total of $7 that threw us into overdraft. Spent $7, racked up $70 in fees. So now that $120 is going towards fees and the overdue inspection on the Jeep. He's going to try to get one of the fees refunded, since it was on a NINETY-EIGHT CENT PURCHASE. Wachovia's been really good with their fees, usually managing to get us SOMETHING back when Matt calls. I mean, there was one time where we were $300 overdrawn, and $250 of it was fees, and they managed to refund us $70, even though it wasn't their fault at all. Maybe it's because we're nice when we call. We know it's not their fault, that it's not "OMG the bank is totally trying to rip us off!"

penprp works customer service for a major national bank, so I get to hear her horror stories. I used to work at a catalogue call center, so I have my own. Matt did sales and tech support for a national ISP. The stories he has! We know the operator is just there trying to pay bills. It's not their fault we screwed up.

But seriously, though. Is there any checking account out there that, like, doesn't charge an overdraft fee if the amount overdrafted is, say, under $10? I know there's that new Washington Mutual account out there that's supposed to be changing all the rules, but right now, I can't remember if that's one of them. But I also don't think there's a WaMu around here. Mostly Wachovia, Bank of America, and BB&T (which we actually did a big job for at OMax, and we were trying to figure out what it stood for. I liked my coworker's suggestion of "Bob's Bank and Trust").

And from now on, I don't care how much someone raves about a particular cold rememdy, if it has a cough suppressant in it, I am staying FAR away from it. Cough suppressants make me feel WORSE than I did before I took anything! Makes me light-headed and nauseated.

ETA: We got both fees back, so Jeep has gas, cats have food and litter, and I have nose spray. Tomorrow I will have shoes (around $3 on clearance at Target) and TracFone card. Jeep failed inspection; left turn signal is broken in the front. :-P So he has 30 days to get it fixed.

Comments

[alessar.livejournal.com]

Wow, that 98 cent overdraft is even more painful than the overdrafts I got on a $3 knitted hat and a $2.50 coffee.

Matt's contract job? I thought he was doing used car sales?

[sailorzeo.livejournal.com]

He stopped doing car sales, used or otherwise, around Thansgiving. He's now at OMax (not the one I'm at, but another one in the area), on their logistics team, which is pretty much stock and signage. Changed because at the dealership, he couldn't get the time to go back to school and get more certifications.
The contract job is an extension, sort of, of his schooling. Every so often, he'll get a call from the main company asking if he's interested in a single-day install or whatever job. That's what he had today, upgrading something at Dunkin Donuts, I believe. Only took an hour.
And we got both fees back, and he's going in to talk to someone soon about things we can do to cut down the fees (like opening a savings account, so they use the money from savings to cover the overdraft, and only charge $10 fee).

Overdraft protection

[(Anonymous)]

Perhaps look into overdraft protection. For about $2.00 a month (amount varies depending on how much $ you want the protection for) we can go over as much as $600 with no penalty. If something bounces as much as once in a year, it's paid for itself.

Re: Overdraft protection

[sailorzeo.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, Wachovia doesn't offer that type of overdraft protection. They have three versions: link to a savings, link to a credit line, link to a credit card. National City had the small-fee-per-month type, and back in OH, I serioulsy considered getting it.