By Jenn Weinshenker
Let me tell you a story, about National City Bank. On November 4th, 2009, I opened a checking account and a savings account there. I had worked for about seven months on an oil painting and was given $500 for it. It is the only painting I have sold in a year and a half. Im not too proud to admit this; I cant afford to be.
On November 13th, I wrote a check for $22.51. Interestingly enough this triggered an NSF withdrawal. So a $15.00 fee was taken from my $50.00 savings account. I wrote two other checks which have cleared. So I went into the bank today to close out my accounts. They charged me an additional $30.00 fee to close out the checking account and another $30.00 fee to close out the savings account.
When they asked me why I was closing out my accounts, I said, Robbery.
So in a nutshell, it cost me $75.00 to cash a check and write three checks. It would have been a lot cheaper to go to a check cashing station, paid the check cashing fee and buy three money orders.
My advice, dont support these bullshit computer-programmed systems that steal our hard-earned money with legal-ease.
Contact the author at Jweinshenker@ltsaloon.org
2009 Jenn Weinshenker. All Rights Reserved.
I’ve never heard of being charged a fee to close out an account. Ridiculous! We have a bank here that sets up within a grocery store. They have outrageous fees and charge a fee for every DAY you are overdrawn on top of the per check fee. They also use snail mail from way across the country to notify you of an overdraw.
What ever happened to that senator who was working on changing the ATM fees?
@ Ana Grarian:
For real! So it took almost three times longer for the check I deposited (from a bank across the street) to clear than the checks I wrote to local stores.
I mistakenly thought this was a credit union. It reminded me of one I used for many years before moving here. Banks should not be allowed to trade stocks and only offer stocks to their employees. This banking for hire, for huge profits and for ridiculous fees is terrible. I do very little banking. I don’t use cards and I don’t write checks. And I won’t change those practices anytime soon. I go to the bank, live on a budget and get to use every cent of the little I’ve got.
All that being said, I have heard that the bank I am using now is going to start charging monthly fees if you don’t have a minimum balance of I think it is $200. That is why I was shopping around. I think if they do that I’ll just eliminate them altogether.