My bank hit me up for 5 nsf fees yesterday. They posted them in the order of the largest one first and then in descending order. If they would have been posted in ascending order I would have been only charged for 1 nsf fee. Has anyone else had this problem? I noticed that a law firm in TX is looking for people who's banks have done this to them. They want to bring a class action suit regarding this practice. Anyone want to share their thoughts?
You can join the class action, I guess. But in the meantime, you have to pay the fees. It has happened to me before (long time ago), but this fact is included in my account terms. I just figured it was an expensive lesson, and I won't make that mistake again. If you have been a good customer for a long time, and you rarely bounce checks, or if it was something like a direct deposit that normally is made, but wasn't on time, some banks will waive the fees when asked.
I read an interview with a bank officer somewhere defending the practice of running the largest checks through first as being a "service" to the customer. His argument was that the large checks are usually the most important (mortgage payment, car payments, etc...), so the bank runs those through first so that the most money is in the account when they are run. The fact that this results in more nsf fees for the bank was just a coincidence.... yeah... right. Kirk
I would bet that the branch manager of my bank saw this interview because that is the same line of B.S. that she gave me! She agreed to refund two nsf fees to me and pay for my check order ($23.25). I agreed. But you know what? If they would have cleared the opposite way, I would be paying $33 not $99! Could you imagine if there was a law that passed that said that banks had to post checks in a manner that would make the most checks clear? They would up the nsf fee so they didn't lose all that revenue!
