|
 |
Home >> Accounts >> Savings Accounts
My Bank Caused My Overdraft
Unknowingly I exceeded my six transactions per month on my savings account, therefore my bank would not make any more transfers to my checking account to cover some outstanding checks. This caused me to overdraw.
I did not know that there was a transfer limit nor did I receive a letter, and since I had money in my savings account I wasn't worried about my checking account being overdrawn. Can they just stop these transfers without any type of notice to me?
|
|
 We believe that your bank should have given you some form of notice that it was blocking further transfers from your savings account. Usually, banks will remind customers of the transaction limits if they occasionally exceed those limits. Rarely will a bank cancel transfer authority based on a single instance of going beyond the six transfers per month.
You also should have received information about the limits on transfers when you opened your savings account. We will admit that most banks don't emphasize that sort of information when opening accounts (it's generally not "good news" information). However, there should have been information about the limits in the material they gave you. All of that, however, doesn't resolve your problem. We'd suggest that you do two things.
First, resolve to manage your checking account better. You were not overdrawn because the bank stopped transferring money. You were overdrawn because you wrote checks for more money than you had in your checking account. Sure, you had this handy "cushion" in your savings account, but now you know that there are limits on how often you can "go to that well". Try not to rely on "covering" overdrafts from your savings. After all, that erodes your savings.
Secondly, if you want to continue doing business with the same bank, pay them a visit and explain that you weren't aware of the restrictions, and you'd like to be able to have transfer overdraft coverage reinstated. We can't guarantee your request will be approved, but you won't know until you ask.
Published on BankingQuestions.com 1/07/07
|
| |
|
Accounts
Article
Q&A
Podcast
Video
Blog
Discussions
PDF
Powerpoint
