Guess what everyone, it's bank battle time again! I guess they didn't get enough the last time. In this case it's such a blatant money grab the fight probably won't last very long. Here's how it went down:
I got paid and collected rent, until my mortgage comes out next week I have a few thousand sitting around just asking to get picked at.
I got charged $140 in overdraft fees.
Coincidentally, this is the most money I've had in my account for quite awhile (shifted daily spending to credit card). I wouldn't of noticed them except that I was digging through my spending to figure out how much Burning Man cost.
As big a hassle as switching banks is I'm seriously considering it. We'll see how entertaining their customer service is this time, unless hilarity ensues quickly I think this may be the final straw.

I sent them this:
Funny how despite having around $3k in your bank you guys managed to charge me $140 in overdraft fees. Isn't stealing $50 a month in PMA fees enough? Seriously, do you feel any sort of guilt?


Of course these are the kinds of questions they aren't allowed to answer so the odds are I'll get some generic blow off reply. Or maybe they will surprise me and reverse the fees without making me go back and forth with their inhuman customer service for a half dozen emails. It's happened once before but that was before the whole economy collapsing thing really got rolling. Oh yeah, they stopped the PMA fee I mentioned above for awhile. It's from 2 or 3 battles ago, I mention it in each new one because it pisses me off more than any of their other greedy money grabs. For whatever reason in the one prior to this some random customer service drone stopped it for two months, probably to make me go away for awhile.

I've considered that on and off, the problem for me has always been lack of ATMs and the hassle of severing ties with the bank that holds my mortgage and student loans. Right now I like everything about Wells Fargo except that they are evil fucks who are always trying to steal my money. I barely have to do anything but shift money around on occasion, and of course keep an eye out for their leeching. My paycheck is autodeposited, nearly all my bills are autopayed, etc. I've put many hours over the years into getting things set up so that my primary interaction with money is handing over a card for food, entertainment, or consumer goods. I write a check or two to Whutster for rent, I visit an ATM to deposit rent once a month and pull some cash. I hate money and banks so things work pretty well like this. I've only actually been in a bank two times in the past year and that was because they got all uppity when I tried to give my ex the money to buy her out of our house, only one of those was actually my bank, the other was her bank. Her bank (BOA) was a pleasure to deal with, the semi-coherent and possibly illiterate teenage "banker" was first wowed by the amount of money and then quickly turned dickhole and started interrogating me and generally being an asshole. Finally I said something like, "I am trying to deposit a large amount of money into your bank, it's going into the account of someone who is currently my wife, over the past 7 years of our relationship I have done this many times before. Are you going to take my money or would you rather go get your supervisor?"
He told me he was the supervisor and asked me the names of the tellers who had previously taken my money and deposited it in her account. A brief scene ensued involving a short expletive filled rant on my part, a deep reddening of his pimply face, and then my departure from "his bank".

Anyways...

New possible shady behavior from my bank: I mysteriously have a "pending deposit" of $400 which pushes the account my mortgage comes out of over the threshold of what my mortgage payment is. Without it in there I would be unable to pay my mortgage. Here's the thing, I've not deposited $400. I paid $400 to my credit card company recently and it hasn't yet been processed so it appears as if instead of being taken from my account it is instead being added to it. My guess, had I not caught this in time they would of turned it into a withdrawal right before the mortgage comes out and then hit me with some more fees since I'd be a few dollars short without it. Or even worse, let the mortgage payment come out and then accuse me of some kind of crime since it would technically be theft to spend money "accidentally" deposited into my account. Fortunately I had planned on shifting that few dollars over to cover the $400 payment and thus noticed that there was a mysterious extra $400 suddenly in my account. Maybe I'm just getting paranoid and it's only their incompetence at work...

Um... BadHorsie? Is that you?! Holy crap!

And are you being sarcastic there or serious about the federal reserve, because it sounds remarkably like a book I read recently and a sentiment I 100% agree with!