[spyderstryder]

For months now I have been using my bank in another state and come to find out that they have been charging me overdraft fees when my account is still in the positive. I did the math today and came up with a positive $100.00 when they are saying I'm at a -$200.00, is there legal actions I can take to get my money back and dig farther into my account to get reimbursed for previous transgressions?

[ebaines]

Before worrying about how to sue, the first thing is you should call the bank and ask for an explanation. Perhaps you had a negative balance for a short period - this can happen if for example a deposit clears on the same day as you make a withdrawal. Depending on which one clears the account first you may get socked for overdraft fees.

[DownUnder]

Ask them to explain in detail why you are in the negative. Perhaps you forget to record a transaction in your book and then mistakely became overdrawn.Are you required to keep a certain amount in the account?

[ScottGem]

If I follow this there is an approximately $300 difference between what you say your balance is and what the bank says. Do you reconcile your statement each time you get it from the bank? Have you compared your figures to the bank statements? With such a small difference, I suspect it is a result of an error you made rather then the bank.

[Fr_Chuck]

I would say that seldom is the bank incorrect. If you have checks written not cleared, and the deposit has not made it, or go in the same day, many banks pay out the checks that night before they make the depoists, making over drafts

Or other issues. Get a full balance sheet over the last months and find out where the difference is, line by line.

[spyderstryder]

Thank you all for your response, I have contacted the bank and what they have told me just doesn't make any sense to me. If I have the money in the bank then there shouldn't be an overdraft fee. The only statement we can get is online and they tell me that the withdrawals are not in order of use. I resolved the problem by just leaving that bank and going to a local one. The only resone we still had that account is to pay back the loan we got from them. Now they only receive the payment amount and that's it. Again thank you all for your help :-)

[ScottGem]

Thanks for letting us know how you resolved this. However, you didn't answer some of our questions. The main one being did you reconcile the account each month. Even if you have gone paperless, there should still be a monthly statement for you to reconcile. You really need to reconcile this statement to make sure your records agree with the banks. Its entirely possible that deposits didn't clear or withdrawals/debits didn't time they way you thought they might causing a shortfall that required an overdraft.

If you don't do this with your new bank account, you can wind up in the same situation.

[spyderstryder]

I'm not sure what you mean by reconcile, I have talked to the bank. Could you please explain what it is you mean by that

[ScottGem]

May I ask how long you have had a checking account? The fact that you have to ask this question tells me that you haven't reconciled your account. Therefore you can't really trust that your figures are correct.

Every month the bank sends you or makes available to you a statement that shows the opening and closing balances and a list of all transactions for the period. You are supposed to check their list against your records and reconcile your balance to theirs. Otherwise you risk being overdrawn.

[DownUnder]

Yes,That's why I say everyone should open their bank statements
Be it on paper or online and reconsile the balance. If you don't a mere dollar or two can cause you to be overdrawn resulting in high over draft fees.