A Customer's Look at How Banks Maximize Overdraft Fees
Wesabe's Marc Hedlund blogs about a post from a Wesabe member who describes his recent experience with overdraft fee policies at Wachovia Bank - they so irritated him that he's closed his checking account there. He says: "Wachovia was able to use these three methods (a) to create an "overdraft" where one didn't exist from a cash flow perspective by playing with timing; (b) manipulating the order of posting transactions to make those fees apply to four transactions instead of the two that may have been otherwise been overdrafts, assuming Wachovia's initial calculating based on transaction timing is proper; and (c) turning those four overdraft charges into seven by paying themselves overdraft fees before covering any other transaction, including those that come before there is any overdraft."





