STOP ALLOWING YOUR BANK TO STEAL FROM YOU

I have to get going.I"m late for work, but I want to start this off in hopes that I can somehow reach people. I want to start a revolution - against the banking industry. I want to see people taking their banks to small claims court for excessive fees when they are overdrawn, especially when they're overdrawn because the bank no longer shuts your account down when you are out of money. The bank is inviting you to a loan with an interest rate in 4 figures (that's over 1,000%). I don't know about you, but that's illegal in the state where I live. It's called "usury". It's the reason Jesus freaked out in the temple and went on the rampage against the money changers.

The banking industry has been chastised, but not spanked by the US Government. We should be reporting these fees to the office of the comptroller and we should be taking these banks to small claims court to recover what has been stolen from us. If I make a mistake in my bank book, I might not protest a single fee that brings the mistake to my attention, but when I have a $20 overage that adds up to hundreds of dollars in fees or, as happened to me in '06, a $2 overage that added up to $200 in fees, then this is a bank stealing from low-income people. An estimated 80% of the people they steal from are low-income.

Before you get judgmental and start lecturing me about balancing my checkbook, just attempt to grasp this one concept. I made a small stupid book-keeping error in my check register - or I forgot to register one $2.00 debit taken out by a business that will not allow me to pay them any other way. Because the bank holds transactions for periods they have yet to justify - and because they have a policy of deducting them from high to low - I can be (and was) just $2 in the red (there is no crime in being math impaired). Instead of covering two smaller transactions that came in first and would have been totally covered, the bank policy allowed them to use a larger transaction that had just come in, ignoring the two transactions that they had been holding for no reason that they can justify. The $2 error caused an immediate bounce and instead of one fee, I got hit with three. Then, I got $5 daily overdraft fees on each one until it was paid up. Guess what? Low-income folks can't just rush in and cover something like that - they're in the process of trying to figure out how to scrape up enough to finish paying the water bill before the water is shut off. I had to wait for some online auction sales to happen (not an exact science)and transfer the money from PayPal ASAP. That would have been the money for the water bill, so I was back at square one, trying to raise the water bill again and trying to remember to register every little payment and debit that came out of a bank acct that is increasingly vulnerable to these elements that want permission to dip in and help themselves. The more control you give up, the harder it is to even monitor what is going on in your bank acct, so do not be fast and willing to allow automatic debits.

Let's do something about it once and for all. If the US Govt. won't stop them, then we can. Sue the bastards!!!! Take them to small claims court - for every NSF fee that the statute of limitations will allow you to reclaim. They aren't allowed to send lawyers to court to defend themselves and sending a bank employee leaves the bank vulnerable. Unless they want to hire and specially train people to defend them in small claims court, the bank can't show up in court. They can't use such an employee, because these practices are indefensible in court. The bank has to decide how many of these claims they want showing up in court - opening the banks up to public record, looking really stupid when they lose in court. In most cases, they are going to cut you a check out of court to shut you up. You just have to decide if you want to take the money and run or make a point and show up in court. I think it's kind of pointless and that it's good enough to just get back the money that was stolen from you.Here's a film by someone who did just this and also made his point by documenting the process and the situation.