- cross-posted to:
- politics@lemmy.world
- cross-posted to:
- politics@lemmy.world
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I remember when I was living with my head barely above poverty in my 20s. All the banks had $30 overdraft fees (probably equivalent of $50 with inflation) that would be charged for every offense.
So if you weren’t paying perfect attention to your accounts balance and or got hit by an unexpected charge you were completely fucked. Then when my paycheck lands, I’m already $30-90 under the water for no reason. And then I’m that far below for that entire week making it far more likely I’d get hit with that charge again by the end of this week.
The bank even refused to even turn overdraft off and just refuse charges. I spent many periods of months or years paying my bank like $200/mo for no reason other than I couldn’t get out from under these charges.
Fuck banks.
And back then the banks would re-order your transactions to maximize fees. So if you had 180 bucks in your account and you had pending transactions that were 3, 6, 10, 15, 5, and 165, the would change the processing order to 165, 15, 10, 6, 5, 3. That way instead of one overdraft fee you be charged four overdraft fees.
I had a paycheck bounce once. Bank of America retroactively applied a $30 fee to every transaction I had made in the three days since depositing it. My balance went from like $800 to -$2000 instantly.
The first time I overdrafted my account years ago wells fargo hit me with a cascading $35 fee. $35 because I overdrafted, $35 because I didn’t have that $35, $35 because I didn’t have that $35, etc. All said and done it cost me like $150-$200.
Had a friend back in similar age area, they went one evening, “I’m going to the ATM to take out $20 so I have money for tomorrow before the overdraft I’m already going to get breaks my debit card.”
I also had similar overdraft hell story when I was multi-overdrafted rent was entering past due and was on the verge of being homeless waiting for my next paycheck to stay afloat, drove home from work with the engine misfiring nearly dead out of fuel. Went home and scraped a “rare” (like an old quarter or penny, nothing fancy, one of those odd things family gives you) coin jar for enough money to buy a couple gallons of gas and food for my pet.
Wouldn’t wish that dogshit on anyone, it is literally criminal greed that can destroy a person in under a week.
I did that too. Make sure you withdraw the max you can if you know the overdraft is gonna hit. Then you at least have some cash until payday.
Dark days…
The way you get out is cancel your bank account a receive paper checks from your job. Then you take those checks to a service that exchanges it for cash. Yes there is a fee but it beats paying $50/week in Overdraft fees
Then you lose all access to the Visa/MasterCard network which is basically required for most bills.
Or worse, you risk getting robbed of your whole check by your roommates friend.
Life without a bank account was hard then. Probably harder now.
Go to Walmart and buy a visa gift card. They max out at $500 which is plenty. You’d pay for it in cash.
They didn’t exist at the time of my story. But also, I’ve had money swallowed by them since then, and they aren’t reliable for recurring bills. There’s some other weird restrictions and fees on them as well.
So still not a replacement for a bank account. Stop acting like living without one is an easy thing.
It’s not easy. Living in poverty is never easy. However losing $150/mo on fees is detrimental to anyone. You have to pick your poison on these things. I’ve been there and I acknowledge it isn’t easy.
Dems need to filibuster every last bill in the Senate.
Once they grow a fucking spine, maybe. So probably like the year 2059 or so.
Have you not been watching the videos of the floor, confirmation hearings, or investigations? The majority of them have finally started to use their voice. I’m hoping this continues.
Regardless, people need to actually vote in the goddamn primaries and midterms if they want change. An average of ~20% voter turnout in primaries and midterms is exactly why things remain the same.
We need disruption, we get fucking ping pong paddles and pink shirts instead. The Dems are a joke
Republicans despise working-class Americans, it couldn’t be more obvious.
Americans voted to screw over working-class Americans, don’t fucking try to kid yourselves.
Super convenient to pass the buck even when you get what you voted for.
Edit: Sorry, disgruntled Canadian here. But I did mean what I said.
They done admitted several times they stole the fucking thing, he did not win that election.
It’s even worse than that. Americans were too lazy, stupid, and gullible to stop it. So many people just punch whoever the ® candidate is in their ballot, if there’s even an option not to. They don’t even know who they’re voting for or understand the facts about what everyone’s talking about. The average voter doesn’t even know that tariffs against another country are a tax on us all, for example. Never mind the fact that it’s the most basic economic idea of “if the manufacturer pays more then they’ll charge you more.” There ones with opinions usually just swallow whatever bullshit that Fox spoons into their mouths; conservative minds are programmed to accept on faith whatever the guy at the top says as gospel, the obvious religious analogy being part of said training.
Working Americans voted (or not voted) to screw themselves.
Big win for Wells Fargo, they probably asked nicely… To Help them buy the post office
going back to Pony Express?
How do average republican supporters spin this as a good thing?
Cognitive dissonance? Olympic level mental gymnastics. Massive head trauma?
They will never hear about it
I 100% believe this is one of THE reasons there’s so much divide. No one is being told the whole picture, ESPECIALLY Fox News consumers. You have to dig for the whole story
Donald: I love the uneducated!
Don’t they already fuck us over? They get bail-outs and we get bankruptcy for medical bills…
Oh yeah, Republicans want to add medical debt back to credit reports.
