My parents opened an account for me with a bank when I was ~6 years old in 1988 that was swallowed up by Wells Fargo in the early naughts, which I maintained until about 6 years ago. At around the time I withdrew all my money and moved it to a local CU, I was going through financial hardships, and frequently would have less than a hundred dollars to my name. I never had any problems with them until then, when they would seem to hold up smaller debits as pending, even if a deposit was made which was also held as pending, until a larger debit was made and they were able to shift the order of transactions to maximize overdraft fees.
For example, $50 balance, $25 debit, $20 debit, $100 deposit, $80 debit resulting in a logical balance of $25 would be shifted to clear as a $50 balance, $80 debit (+$30 fee), $25 debit (+$30 fee), $20 debit (+$30 fee), $100 deposit leaving a balance of -$65 and a daily fee until I could find more cash to deposit and not use my debit card.
These transactions could happen over multiple business days, which made zero sense. Even now that I have a more stable job and a comfortable pillow of cash to fall back on, my CU seems to want to dictate where that money should go, instead of me shifting it around. Just this week, I went into a branch to withdraw some cash where the teller asked if I wanted to shift some savings into a money market account, which I agreed to, but said I didn't have much time that day to discuss it. Before I could go next door and get lunch, he had moved the money and zeroed out the account, which (despite being a saving account, is where my debit purchases get withdrawn from), managed to get me two overdraft fees when I bought lunch.
I'm seriously considering purchasing another mattress to store my money. In this day and age, there is no such thing as a bank. They are all financial institutions.
For example, $50 balance, $25 debit, $20 debit, $100 deposit, $80 debit resulting in a logical balance of $25 would be shifted to clear as a $50 balance, $80 debit (+$30 fee), $25 debit (+$30 fee), $20 debit (+$30 fee), $100 deposit leaving a balance of -$65 and a daily fee until I could find more cash to deposit and not use my debit card.
These transactions could happen over multiple business days, which made zero sense. Even now that I have a more stable job and a comfortable pillow of cash to fall back on, my CU seems to want to dictate where that money should go, instead of me shifting it around. Just this week, I went into a branch to withdraw some cash where the teller asked if I wanted to shift some savings into a money market account, which I agreed to, but said I didn't have much time that day to discuss it. Before I could go next door and get lunch, he had moved the money and zeroed out the account, which (despite being a saving account, is where my debit purchases get withdrawn from), managed to get me two overdraft fees when I bought lunch.
I'm seriously considering purchasing another mattress to store my money. In this day and age, there is no such thing as a bank. They are all financial institutions.