Tanton letter: Bank practices

When it comes to accidentally overdrawing your checking account, banks are practicing 19th century technology in order to make hundreds of dollars in fees. If you happen to get overdrafted in this 21st century of everything being electronic and everyone having a phone or a computer, when you overdraft your checking account, guess what? The banks send out a letter by snail mail. They don’t call you, they don’t sent you a text or an email — they send a letter that takes at least four days to get to you. In the meantime you are racking up overdraft fees for every transaction at over $30 each. Plus if they return the check you’ll have fees at the place you wrote the check to. How is this right or fair in this 21st century?

Also without our money in their banks they would not have money to invest or loan out. Yet we only get a very small amount of interest 1 or 2 percent where they get 12 to 24 percent from us. It’s our money in their banks and we get squat for letting them use it and pay high fees.

This story was originally published April 21, 2017 at 9:18 PM with the headline "Tanton letter: Bank practices."