I finally figured out how to avoid those irritating fees. I cut up all my credit cards and will never use them again. Works every time.
The article is about how everyone pays the credit card price for gas now.
As opposed to when there was also a “cash” price.
I had a debit card for 3 years, that worked fine- when I ran out of money it would stop working... I DID NOT apply for an overdraft privilege, because it worked fine this way and let me know when I was out of money...
The bank, without my permission, changed the overdraft allowance to $1500.
The next week I went to McD’s, A local market, etc. etc and made several purchases less than $20 (and McD’s was only $5)
They hit me with a $35 DOLLAR OVERDRAFT PENALY FOR EACH OF TEN TRANSACTIONS. The total spent was $120, and the fees were $450.
And this happened for over TWO WEEKS until I got my next bill, charging an additional overdraft charge EVERY 5 DAYS “until my account balance was brought to $0”
I was FURIOUS and called them to explain I WOULD NOT be paying any fees and to cancel the account! I asked them how was I supposed to know the balance was below 0 for 5 days until I get a new bill- I travel for work and was not even home for 2 weeks.
The told me they could not cancel the account with a negative balance, and I told them I would NOT be paying the charges incurred when they arbitrarily changed my account setup.
Through shear stupid bad luck a vendor credited me for a refund and they applied it to me credit card (the same account) and I never got that money back...
I closed every account except for one visa card and I am nearly back to doing every thing by cash.