Author Archive

What the heck are Overdraft Fees & “NSF” on my bank statement?

October 21st, 2009. By Kristine B

There’s no shortage of financial news in the headlines lately, but the thing that might impact you the most is news about bank overdraft fees. So, that’s what we’re covering today in Pleading Ignorance. 

So, What Is an Overdraft Fee? 

Let’s back up first and answer what Overdraft Protection is. Banks either include or offer Overdraft Protection on their checking accounts to let you buy something with a check—or on your debit card—even if you don’t have enough money in your account to cover the transaction.

Ain’t that sweet? 

So let’s say you’re at the cash register trying to buy a coffee and a muffin for $4.00 with your debit card. But, you only have $3.50 in your account. Without overdraft protection, the bank would decline the transaction and you would probably suffer some momentary embarrassment. With overdraft protection, the transaction goes through and you can carry on with your life without any embarrassment about “Insufficient Funds.” (Oh, that “NSF”–that’s what it stands for: Insufficient Funds.)

Sounds good, right? Except that the $0.50 cents the bank has covered you for isn’t free. And the bank might not have told you that you were given Overdraft Protection and would be charged for it.

And guess what—the fee the bank charges you for covering that $0.50 cents is…drum roll please…an Overdraft Fee.

The thing about Overdraft Protection is that banks charge fees for overdraft transactions—the transactions that require more cash than you’ve got on hand—and those fees are high. Up to $35 per overdraft transaction (gulp). So, that $4.00 coffee and muffin suddenly becomes Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Overdraft fees, Pleading Ignorance
Posted in Emerging Issues, Financial, Pleading Ignorance | No Comments »

Overtime Pay Part 2: Revenge of the Administrative Assistants

October 18th, 2009. By Kristine B

Okay, so it may sound like a really bad, B movie. But the truth of the matter is that a lot of people are not getting their overtime pay because they have the words “managerial,” “administrative,” or “executive” in their job title. But those titles alone don’t make a person exempt from overtime. So for Pleading Ignorance this week, we’re looking at the ins and outs of exemption from overtime pay. 

To refresh your memory, last week we looked at the three questions that you must answer “Yes” to in order to be considered exempt from overtime pay—meaning if you answer ALL 3 questions with a “yes”, you are not entitled to overtime pay.

The first question is pretty straightforward… 

1. Do you make at least $23,600 per year (or $455 per week)? 

If “No,” then you are eligible for overtime pay and you needn’t go further. But, if you answer “Yes,” then move on to the next question… 

2. Are you paid salary? 

To be exempt from overtime pay, you MUST be on salary. Employees who are paid an hourly rate are eligible for overtime pay. Fair enough. However, just because you are paid salary doesn’t mean you don’t qualify to get the extra bucks if you work extra hours. Remember, you must have answered “Yes” to all three questions, not just the one about the salary.

The first two questions are pretty no-brainer—but the third question is where things get screwy because it can appear to have a lot of gray areas. But in reality, it’s pretty straightforward as well…

3. Are your main job duties administrative, professional or executive? Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Exempt, Overtime Pay, Pleading Ignorance
Posted in Emerging Issues, Pleading Ignorance | No Comments »

Overtime Pay: How do I Know if my Employer Owes me Money?

October 5th, 2009. By Kristine B

Yeah, it sounds like a bad Whitney Houston flashback…”How will I know if he…” Whoa there—back on topic. Overtime pay? Good question. So that’s the focus of this week’s Pleading Ignorance.

If you’ve opened a newspaper lately—or looked at virtually any news website including our own recent post on 61 companies with OT pay issues—you’ll know one of the major issues in US courts right now is Overtime Pay—or more aptly, missing overtime pay from a lot of folks’ paychecks. What you might not have known is that overtime laws in the US are not as clear-cut as many people think. In fact, if you’re not getting overtime pay there’s still a chance you should be. How’s that? Read on…

Overtime in a Nutshell

Basically, overtime occurs when a person works more than a set amount of time either daily (over 8 hours in a day), or weekly (over 40 hours in a week). Overtime is regulated by the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and by state laws. When both the state and the FLSA cover overtime, employers must go with whichever one holds the employer to the highest standards—essentially meaning whichever one provides the most pay to the employee (that’s good news for the employee).

When an employee works more than 8 hours in a day or 40 hours in a week—and let’s be honest, who hasn’t worked that much at some point—the employee is supposed to get 1.5 times her regular wage (that’s the “time and a half” everyone’s always talking about).

So, let’s say an employee makes $10 an hour and works 44 hours in a week. The employee should be paid $10 for the first 40 hours and $15 for the additional 4 hours.

Seems straightforward, no? But it’s not, because not everyone is eligible for overtime pay and that is where things can get kind of tricky, to put it mildly.  Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: FLSA, Overtime, Overtime Pay, Pleading Ignorance
Posted in Employment, Pleading Ignorance | 168 Comments »

Can Anyone trust SunTrust?

September 23rd, 2009. By Kristine B

Maybe it’s just me, but it kind of seems like no one who’s put their trust in SunTrust can actually trust that they are being taken care of by SunTrust. Ok, that was a mouthful. But let’s do a little ‘splaining and it’ll all make sense.

First, there were the clients who said that their SunTrust HELOC accounts had been frozen or decreased with no justification or warning—sad, but unfortunately not the first time a company has been accused of treating its clients improperly (when will these companies learn?) Also not surprising is that these clients have taken to the courts in an attempt to tell SunTrust that they are just not gonna take this lying down. 

Now comes news that SunTrust faces a lawsuit, not from clients but from employees, saying the company violated ERISA laws by breaching its fiduciary duty to people involved in the company’s investment plans, profit sharing retirement plans or SunTrust Banks stock.  Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: SunTrust
Posted in Financial | No Comments »

Zicam, Hydroxycut, Ephedra: Separated at Birth, now need Babysitter

September 16th, 2009. By Kristine B

What do Zicam, Ephedra and Hydroxycut have in common?—and no, you can’t look at side-by-side pictures for this one. If you’ve been following the news, turns out they have a lot more in common than you’d think. All three…

• were marketed as “natural” products that people turned to in a time of need
• weren’t required to test their safety before being marketed
• caused nationwide recalls when reports of serious side effects started rolling in

and…

• were assumed to be safe because they were marketed as “natural”

And while each of these has been yanked from the market, those of their ilk that are still on the market now need some babysitting (i.e., tighter regulation and increased safety testing).

The bottom line is that people think “natural” equals “safe.” Unfortunately, that’s just not always true. Something can be natural and still harmful—Poison Ivy, anyone? And the food industry is renowned for giving new meaning to “natural”. Check out the Jelly Belly site and you’ll see the superfruit mix is: Naturally Sweetened, High in Antioxidant Vitamin C, Made with Real Fruit Juices and Purees, and have Colors from Natural Sources. Great—but I won’t be getting my USRDA of vitamin C from ’em. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Ephedra, Hydroxycut, Zicam
Posted in Defective Products, Drugs/Medical | 1 Comment »