The economy is crumbling and consumers are in trouble. So banks are hitting them with $38 billion a year in deceptive fees.
After living through the Great Financial Crash of 2008, just about everybody recognizes that megabanks screwed the economy hard and were rewarded with big bailouts, which further screwed over, well, everybody, in the name of banker bonuses. But Big Finance has been waging its war on the middle class for decades, and many of its most destructive practices don't actually put the financial system in jeopardy. These tactics work because they are so effectively predatory. Banks gouge consumers and get rich—they don't create risks for the financial system, because they result in pure, risk-free profit, converting hard-earned middle-class wages into quick and easy bonuses.
One of the most pernicious of these predatory practices is the overdraft fee. It's one of the biggest revenue streams for banking behemoths today. In 2009, banks reaped over $38 billion in overdraft fees from their own customers, while posting a total combined profit of just $12.5 billion. Without overdrafts, many banks would have scored massive losses last year, and possibly gone under. Instead, they booked epic bonuses.
It can come as a huge shock to get hit with a rash of overdraft fees. You open a bank statement to find that you are not only broke, but deep in the hole thanks to several $30 or $40 charges. Your first reaction is shame. How could I have let this happen? But looking into the ways that banks conduct their overdrafts, you come to realize that you've simply been scammed.
Internal Revenue Service 1099 forms will be turned on its head and all persons (including corporations) who are in business will now have to give 1099 tax reporting forms for coins and other goods that they sell as well as buy.
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I have been there & done that with a major bank ( Citi ). These companies treat your like vermin & I would suggest that you do your banking elsewhere.
ReplyDeleteIn this day of borderless transactions faster than the speed of sound; you don't need to be stuck with a bank that rewards all your business with all these trumped up, bogus charges.
I found a new bank - they are happy for my business & the last time my wife overdrew our checking account; they called me immediately & gave me 24 hours to make a deposit to cover it.
I will NEVER do business with Citi again nor Prudential Ins. C0. who screwed me out of 12.5K when my mother passed away & I missed one payment
on her life Ins. policy because I didn't know she had a payment booklet.
I'm just an everyday Joe trying my best to get my family thru this - but damnit! I WILL NOT stand for these corporations that treat you as though your just a cow turd.
Just like our elected officals - get rid of 'em all! There are small regional banks out there that welcome your business
Please find one
Close your accounts at banks and open up accounts at credit unions.
ReplyDeleteI'm just an everyday Joe trying my best to get my family thru this - but damnit! I WILL NOT stand for these corporations that treat you as though your just a cow turd.
ReplyDeleteJust like our elected officals - get rid of 'em all! There are small regional banks out there that welcome your business
Not for long ,everyday joe ,"free choice" dreamer.
A few of these local and regional banks are being closed down each and every week like clockwork and their depositors accounts simply seized , transferred over, or sold off as assets to the financial elites own bailed out TBTF banks.
many hundreds of banks are on the governments insolvancy "watch list"just waiting their turn.
So, You will be back with the big TBTF banks soon , willing or not ,to be treated like cow turd once again.
Thats free competition ,and free competition inevitably leads to monopoly.
After all,Its america where you live and there has been a financial coup, led by the big banks not by the small banks so all of the small banks will go to the wall.