Posts Tagged ‘ Banking ’

Overdraft Fee Irony: Bank Causes Overdraft, Then Charges for it

July 29th, 2010. By Hunter West

File this one under “WTF”.

Devon Donovan was just a kid with some cash and a savings account. Cash from hours worked as a lifeguard, when she could have been swimming. Hours working as a babysitter, when she could have been hanging out with her friends. When she was given money for her birthday and at Christmas, she put it away to save towards school trips.

In other words, Devon was a kid who got it right. She didn’t spend wildly. She saved her money. And when she went off to college, she kept what she assumed was a couple of hundred bucks or so in that account to save for a rainy day.

That’s what savings accounts are for.

Instead, a bank unjustly robbed her of her savings and the message was clear: we don’t care about your laudable savings habits, we couldn’t give a flying fig that you’re a kid with the right idea and we couldn’t be bothered to acknowledge such good behavior.

Legally, Citizens Bank was in the clear. But morally, is it right? Is it fair for any bank to do what Citizens Bank did to a citizen who deserved better?

Citizens Bank decided, starting in 2007, that it would begin charging a monthly fee of $5 for balances under $500. The notification, as it turned out, was a small line at the bottom of a statement from November 21^st, 2006 referring to the new policy taking effect on January 8^th of the New Year.

There were also new limits on monthly transactions and fees for what were described as ‘excessive transactions.’

Obviously, Devon did not see the innocuous notification on her bank statement. Besides, she Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Banking, Citizens Bank, Overdraft fees
Posted in Consumer Fraud, Emerging Issues | 4 Comments »