$17,000 In Overdraft Fees - Help

**autoxer** · 04-27-2007, 03:43 AM

Talk to the bank that made all of the charges. Have them explain it & ask them to reduce the charges. If they say they can't reduce them, then ask to talk to their manager/superior. Keep going up until you find someone that is able to help you.
Talk to your daughter. Have her explain why there is 170 Overdrafts... Then teach her how to manage her account.

**Hot dog** · 04-27-2007, 05:04 AM

I can't imagine. I don't envy your situation at all. I hope the bank understands your situation but if you had overdraft protection then they shouldn't be able to charge you right? Your daughter needs to have some serious repercussions for her behavior and hopefully learn from this so that it never happens again.

**sweeps** · 04-27-2007, 05:41 AM

This must have happened over several months, right? Please don't take offense to this, but why haven't you been looking at your monthly statements (or better yet, account activity online)? You could've headed this off very early on.

First step is to cancel overdraft. Overdraft is one of the worst things you can put on an account. For one reason, overdraft opens you up to lots more damage if your debit card gets stolen or your account gets breeched. Instead of just your checking account, the thief has carte blanche on your savings account too. Second, it's a cop out for sound account balancing and budgeting. If you really have an emergency use a credit card or call the bank to transfer funds from savings to checking.

**fairy74** · 04-27-2007, 09:50 AM

I agree with what everyone has said, especially sweeps and for goodness sake get your daughter off any account you are on. She needs to learn how to manage her money before she ruins both her credit and yours, is there any way she can pay this back to you (2nd job, 3 am paper route)...sorry you are having to go through this....

**lmsmith67** · 04-27-2007, 11:20 AM

In my 17 years of working in banking, I've never heard of anyone with $17K in overdraft fees. And, I can't even see where the bank would allow this to continue to that point. However, if this is true, call your branch (the location where you opened your account) and ask to speak with the Manager. Make an appointment, if necessary, to go into the branch and discuss the overdraft with the Manager. He/she may reverse some of the charges, but probably will not reverse them all. You will end up having to pay the bank a considerable amount of money. You'll be very lucky if the bank intends to continue to do business with you. Unfortuantely the bank considers your account to be your responsibility, not theirs. If you do not handle your account responsibly, they do not have to allow you to have one. Good luck!

**disneysteve** · 04-27-2007, 04:12 PM

I agree with everyone else. Unfortunately, this is one of those questions Jeffrey posts on behalf of someone else, so we aren't likely to hear the rest of the story. I always find it frustrating when that happens.

sweeps - I had the same thought as you. 170 overdrafts must have happened over quite some time. Why didn't anyone notice? Just another reason why you should balance your checkbook every month.

**jeffrey** · 04-27-2007, 05:18 PM

Originally posted by disneysteve View Post

I agree with everyone else. Unfortunately, this is one of those questions Jeffrey posts on behalf of someone else, so we aren't likely to hear the rest of the story. I always find it frustrating when that happens.

The answers are important, however, because I do refer the person to this thread for different opinions on their situation. Whether they decide the need to jump in and clarify is up to them, but they do read and hopefully get some good advice to take away.

**scfr** · 04-27-2007, 06:40 PM

$17K is gone ... Sounds like that's not all overdrafts ... My guess would be that your daughter withdrew funds without your permission. Sorry. Hope I'm wrong.

**luvnspnful** · 04-27-2007, 08:10 PM

good grief! what bank would charge $100 a pop for o/d??? sounds like Money Mart to me (I consider them loan sharks for the gainfully employed). were it my daughter, I'd be closing my accounts and relocating.

all I can say is WOW

**lgslgs** · 04-28-2007, 06:14 AM

Originally posted by questions View Post

She did a lot of overdrafting but each time the bank charged the linked account 100.00 or so.

I really do not understand what they did but I lost $17,000.00.

If you do not understand exactly what happened, that's the place to start.

Find out:

How many transactions were involved.

How much of the $17,000 was for the amount of the bounced checks themselves.

How much was fees for bouncing the checks.

How much was additional charges for not fixing the problem as soon as it happened.

My gut feeling is that when you are looking at $17,000 in charges, you are long past the point where this is really just "overdrafts" and that your daughter was writing either numerous or large checks for money she did not have. You need to find out exactly what she thought she was doing, and why she thought it was alright to write fraudulent checks. And what was she spending the money on?

Part of the problem is a problem figuring out how to work with the bank, but I'm afraid the bigger problem is that you had a child that just ripped you off big time, either through gross carelessness or through intent. You need to make sure you understand every bit of what's going on here, no matter how upsetting it might be.

Lynda

**Thrifty Ray** · 04-28-2007, 07:44 AM

The amount missing is suspect of fraud.
Definitely start by sitting down with someone at your bank and asking for an explanation of where the money has gone. Perhaps some NSF fee's, but 17k?, highly unlikely.

It sounds like either the daughters account was pulling from the parents account for purchases (ouch, hope she had fun-), as well as fees...or Fraud is involved.

In any event, parent needs to SHUT er' DOWN immediately so no more money is taken from the account.

Then, parent can try to negotiate a break on the fees or if it is fraud, parent can try to get money back...but the situation is time sensitive- in either case there are restrictions on how long an account holder can holler foul once they've received their statement...If it's been going on a long time, as I suspect, there may be little that parent can do.

**Elgin526** · 04-30-2007, 09:45 AM

I don't have overdraft protection myself, but I thought the whole idea of having it was so that you WOULDN'T be hit with overdraft fees. You bounce a check (or whatever) and the bank auto-transfers the shortage from the linked account. They bank charges a monthly service fee for this arrangement, but otherwise you pay nothing. Why is the bank charging you? And that it took you so long to notice and/or do something about the situation sounds odd. Something doesn't add up here. I'm not saying I don't beleive you, but your explanation needs a bit more info.

Anyway, I agree with the others. You need to talk to your bank, and talk to your daughter. She needs to take responsibilty for her actions, and you need to cut her off from financial help. Let her ruin her own credit, if that's what she wants to do.

**disneysteve** · 04-30-2007, 10:06 AM

Originally posted by Elgin526 View Post

You bounce a check (or whatever) and the bank auto-transfers the shortage from the linked account.

What happens if the linked account doesn't have enough money to cover the transaction? Maybe that is what generated the fees.

**lgslgs** · 04-30-2007, 10:20 AM

Originally posted by Elgin526 View Post

I don't have overdraft protection myself, but I thought the whole idea of having it was so that you WOULDN'T be hit with overdraft fees. You bounce a check (or whatever) and the bank auto-transfers the shortage from the linked account. They bank charges a monthly service fee for this arrangement, but otherwise you pay nothing.

If you check Bank America's site, it appears that overdraft protection protects you from having the check returned to the merchant and being hit with THEIR charges. Their terms DO include a bank charge for each overdraft.

This is fairly typical of overdraft protection. It is designed to keep a problem from snowballing out of control with merchant after merchant, but it is not designed to make writing a check for money you don't have an entirely painless experience. It is NOT a preapproved line of credit.

Lynda

$17,000 In Overdraft Fees - Help