Overdraft Bank Fee Complaints – How to Lodge Them

Seeing an overdraft bank fee show up on your bank statement can be a rude awakening. Life these days is already pretty expensive, even for those who try to live frugally and within their means. But having your own bank, whom you were led to believe you should be able to trust, charge you overdraft bank fees is pretty unsettling.

You are not alone. In fact, banks make billions of dollars per year in overdraft fees in the United States alone. Bank fees have become big business. And, as government regulations reign banks in on their often reckless (and some say abusive) practices around credit card issuance, banks are going to be looking even harder than ever for ways to recoup those lost profits by charging – you guessed it – more bank fees.

A Brief History of Overdraft Fees

So why are all of these bank fees being charged?

The overdraft fee crisis in its current form is a relatively recent banking phenomenon, going back only 5 to 10 years. There are two primary causes of the current overdraft fee situation: overdraft protection programs and the invention of the debit card. These two banking instruments actually work hand-in-hand to squeeze more money out of bank customers each year by way of overdraft fees.

Overdraft protection programs work like this: if you overdraw your account by making a charge that is larger than your current balance will cover, your bank will cover the charge for you. Sounds great, right? However, they immediately turn around and charge you a huge fee – often $30 or more – for helping you out. (Some friend, eh?).

Meanwhile, debit cards make it even easier for overdrafts to happen. That is because most banks will never deny a pending debit charge, even when your balance is too low to cover the charge. Instead, banks will just honor the charge and happily collect that hefty overdraft fee.

What does this mean to you? It means you could go out for a full day of shopping on Saturday, not realizing that a big check you had written three months ago and forgotten about had finally been cashed on Friday, putting your account into the red. As you shop, you make three, four, or even five charges against your debit card. And, guess what? Each charge results in an overdraft fee charge to your account. Painful!

How to Lodge Overdraft Bank Fee Complaints

If you have bank fee complaints, here is how to lodge them to the right personnel within your bank:

1. First, open up your bank statement, or print it out from your computer if you check your statements online. Get out a highlighter pen and find the transaction(s) that led to your overdraft. Highlight all of the details, such as merchant name, date, and amount.
2. Build your argument for why you are lodging an overdraft bank fee complaint. Be sure you can answer the question clearly: why should you not have to pay this particular fee?
3. When you contact your bank, be sure to be super-polite. Nobody wants to talk to an angry customer. If you get angry, the bank representative will likely just tell you that the fees are “policy” and try to get off the phone with you. But, if you are polite, things are much more likely to go in your favor.
4. If you don’t get the fee reversed during your call, try writing a letter. Sometimes, that will get a better response. Be sure to include photocopies of your bank statement.

Whether or not your complaint results in the successful refund of your overdraft fee, you should also consider switching banks. Some banks never charge overdraft fees, even if you make charges to your account or write checks that result in an overdrawn account. These banks are out there and waiting for more customers who are sick and tired of paying bank fees.