Chief is NOT good with money.
At All.
When he decided to open the shop, I told him that I didn’t want any responsibility with regard to managing the money, paying the bills, doing the taxes.
I was still working at the time and even though I knew how bad he is with money, I just didn’t want that responsibility. Mostly because I didn’t have any idea how to run a business and even though he paid as many vendors as he could in cash.. sometimes he had to use the business account’s debit card. We would check the balance on the phone before we used it and almost EVERY single time, we got hit with a bounce fee. A $35 bounce fee.
The cartoonist forgot to add the loaded gun to your back
This may get confusing :: although I think that’s the bank’s intent :: but I’m going to try and simplify it for you.
We get electronic deposits from the credit / debit / food stamp cards we take.
When the processing company deposits the amount, our bank would put a 24 hour hold on it. So there was always a difference between what was AVAILABLE and what their phone system said was our ACTUAL balance.
The online information would differ from the phone information and both would differ from the ATM information.
He were losing between 300.00 and 400.00 a month in bounce fees so I had no choice but to jump on it.
I reverted back to the old paper and pencil ledger method. Dilligentlyrecording any deposits or withdrawals within minutes of them happening. I only went by MY balance because.. that’s the actual one, right?
Who cares that Wachovia / Wells Fargo has three different computer systems that didn’t interact with each other and were on all different processing times. I had my ledger.. I recorded everything the moment it happened.. what could be more accurate, right?
Wrong.
We were still bouncing things and every time it would happen, Chief would want to hang himself. He would call the customer service number.. stormed the bank managers office at the local branch DEMANDING to know HOW COULD THEY CHARGE FOR BOUNCE FEES BEFORE ANYTHING BOUNCED??
Or my favorite…
Having enough money in the account but getting hit with a bounce fee that resulted IN SOMETHING BOUNCING?
Or another of my favorites…
Having between a 9 and 15 dollar monthly service charge fee that just jumped to 57.00 causing MORE bounce fees..
It was completely ridiculous until it all became clear:
FEDERAL COURT FINDS WELLS FARGO IMPROPERLY ACCESSED OVERDRAFT FEES ORDERS 203 MILLION IN RESTITUTION
… and that’s just in California alone. Now include the OTHER 49 states…
What these slick bastards were doing was processing charges or deposits based on the AMOUNT (highest to lowest) .. not chronologically.
To simplify:
Say I have 200.00 in my account on Monday.
I deposit 100.00 in my account on Tuesday morning and spend 275.00 of it Tuesday afternoon.
On Wednesday, I should have a 25.00 balance.
Because Wachovia / Wells Fargo was processing based on highest to lowest money amount instead of the time the transaction occurred, they would process the 275.00 purchase first, leaving the balance at -75.00 THEN hit me with a bounce fee of 35.00 so now my balance is -110.00 THEN they would process the 100.00 deposit leaving me with a -10.00 balance.
That’s the SIMPLE example.
But when you have the kind of business we have where most of our income is based on electronic deposits with a processing company that takes their fee off the top, we’re talking hundreds of dollars bounced.
On Bank-Overdraft.com there is a form to fill out to be added to another class action suit and I’m going to encourage Chief to fill it out.
If you’re a Wells Fargo or Wachovia customer and had issues with bounce charges, I’d do the same thing.
LIVING ME 101 