[NMEwithin]

I can check my account balance on my cell phone. Therefore, I never overspend with my debit card. People get whacked with overdraft charges because they are too stupid or irresponsible to keep track of their finances..

[griswold3]

People get whacked with overdraft charges because they are too stupid or irresponsible to keep track of their finances.. It's heartless people like you that give fiscal conservatives a bad name! Like these folks should have to do math or anything??!!

[cynwoody]

I can check my account balance on my cell phone.

It's even easier for the bank to check your balance and decline the charge. It's supposed to be a financial service, not a financial rape.

I use my AX card for everything. I only use my debit cards for ATM business.

[AZConcervative]

Careful. Banks will credit a deposited check and it shows on-line as available, then in three days they find out the funds for that check are no good and they go back and charge you fees for being “overdrawn” even though on-line it showed you had an available balance.

[Petronski]

I can check my account balance on my cell phone. Therefore, I never overspend with my debit card. People get whacked with overdraft charges because they are too stupid or irresponsible to keep track of their finances..

Some banks report pending balance v. available balance. Other banks will clear a deposit then jerk it back to pending. I've seen it. It's not as simple as you make it sound, and people are being exploited despite keeping track of their balances.

The banks' behavior in many of these cases is dishonest.

[murron]

My son was given a debit card when he opened up a new account when he first joined the Marines. He was 18 at the time. He was under the assumption that the debit card would act like a credit card, and if you tried to spend over your limit, the card would be rejected. He was in for a rude awakening when he had several $35 O.D. fees when the bank didn’t stop him from going over his limit, as he thought they would. Fortunately, my husband called his bank and raised hell and the bank reluctantly reversed most of the O.D.s. It was an eye-opener for my son and us as well.

[Aggie Mama]

You obviously do just fine with your finances. There are those of us, however, that have had issues with banks posting deposits late. This has happened several times with our B of Am accounts. Luckily, it took a simple discussion with the bank mgr. to reverse the charges.

Those of us that run small businesses have to deal with things like late payments from customers—that can really eat into cash flow. Which in turn, affects our payments. It’s happening more and more, and is pretty indicative the the economy is not “on the mend”.

[Still Thinking]

I can check my account balance on my cell phone. Therefore, I never overspend with my debit card. People get whacked with overdraft charges because they are too stupid or irresponsible to keep track of their finances.

If that were the whole story you'd be right. But intentionally posting the transactions in the order likely to generate the most fees is bad faith on the part of the bank. They either take an agnostic approach and post them in the order of occurrence or do so in the order that will generate the FEWEST overdrafts. You pay them a fee every month after all, they're working for you.

[Dixie Yooper]

Debit cards work through Visa or MasterCard. They do not have instant access to your checking account. Sometimes it can take several minutes for the transaction to complete from the retailer through Visa or MasterCard then to your bank. By then you could be out of the store and long gone only to find out your transaction bounced if you didn't have overdraft protection. In that case, the fees would be much, much worse, from not only your bank, but also Visa or MasterCard and maybe even the retailer's bank.