Complaint Review: First Convenience Bank - Dallas Texas

I can't tell you how many people I see on a daily basis, like yourself, that live in the negative. It's sad to think people can not keep up with their finances, then blame their bank because of their own negligence. I can't even believe anyone would ever put themselves in a situation where they would be paying thousands of dollars of bank fees to their bank. That's probably the worst financial practice anyone could do, besides maybe holding a balance on their credit card. Every rip off report I've read on 1st Convenience Bank is the same, fees fees fees. I see it every day in person too. Everyone's just clueless as to how this could happen. Here's a little guidance on 1stCB or any bank you bank with: When you swipe your debit or credit card, whatever business you used your credit card at can hold out that money for a certain amount of time and in turn wouldnt post to your account immediately. So if you have 6 transactions in one day, not all those transactions are going affect your balance. Gas stations legally can hold out anywhere from $1 to $75 on any transaction and have up to 3 months to collect their money. So if you have $100 in your account and make 7 transactions and one of those transactions puts you in the negative while 4 more are still pending, you're going to get overdraft fees for 5 transactions. Every bank does this, not just 1stCB. Keep up with your finances and quit blaming banks. 1st Convenience Bank is not out to get anyone. All fees that concern account holders are discussed when opening accounts so customers are informed on the topic. You are going to get charged $34.97 per transaction that's posted in the negative and after 5 business days of being in the negative you'll be assessed $2.95 per day you stay in the negative. Re-read your disclosures and funds availability policy. 1stCB doesnt hold out every transactions for 72 hours, that's completely ridiculous. And they most certainly do not have a button to press that takes customers money. Own up to your own mistakes and quit blaming banks. Hope this helped.

The bank is ripping you off, you're ripping yourself off. "...borrower is servant (SLAVE) to the lender." -Proverbs 22:7 "Children do what feels good, adults devise a plan and follow it." - Dave Ramsey I would strongly recommend you find a church or other organization that teaches Financial Peace University. You need to have a plan and keep up with your spending and earnings. If you don't have your bank obviously does and so does VISA.

The bank is ripping you off, you're ripping yourself off. "...borrower is servant (SLAVE) to the lender." -Proverbs 22:7 "Children do what feels good, adults devise a plan and follow it." - Dave Ramsey I would strongly recommend you find a church or other organization that teaches Financial Peace University. You need to have a plan and keep up with your spending and earnings. If you don't have your bank obviously does and so does VISA.

Michelle, You clearly need to take control of this situation. You are averaging around nine overdraft fees per month and this is ruining you financially and it will continue to do so until you make some changes. I want to help by offering some suggestions and advice. Take this in the spirit it is intended. You didn't provide many details as to how the overdrafts occured, so I will offer a few general tips at the bottom of my post. First of all, I am always hesitant to suggest this but under these circumstances I recommend looking into some kind of prepaid credit card. Many of them allow for direct deposit and you can simply have your employer redirect your pay to this card. You'll still have to repay the bank somehow but at least your paycheck won't be automatically eaten up by overdraft fees. Wal-Mart has one of these cards. It costs $3 to get one and there is a $3 monthly fee. As far as I know, having your paychecks loaded through direct deposit is free. The downside is that I think there is a fee every time you want to withdraw cash from your balance but that will be far less than the fees you are already paying. Alternatively, you can always try other banks and see if you can open an account. The worst that can happen is that they say no. Here's the catch... if your new bank and this one ever merge, they will raid your account to pay back the amount you overdrafted and you won't get any notice. Be cautious here. As for your problems with the bank, realize that banks don't control when merchants submit their charges. When you authorize a transaction, a hold is placed against your account. The bank receives batches of transactions from the ACH it's not uncommon for them to receive two or three batches a day. Most banks process all of your transactions from largest to smallest and there is nothing wrong with doing it that way. As long as you stay within your available balance, it doesn't matter how the transactions are processed. In the event that you go with another bank, here are a few tips to prevent this situation from happening again: Do not depend on phone or online banking for learning your account balance. These systems are not intended to be used for this and are not accurate enough for proper record keeping. Keep your own check register and ledger and use it properly. Never spend more money than you have available and assume that you'll make a deposit later to cover your purchases. Be aware of your bank's deposit policies and funds availability policies. Don't use your check card for multiple small purchases unless you are very aware of your balance and have your check register handy. It's easy to forget those transactions until it is too late. Best of luck to you. p.s. Out of curiosity, how many children do you have? At one point you mention multiple kids and later you mention a single child.

It doesn't matter how the bank orders the transactions (almost all order them from largest to smallest) or how long it takes for debits to post to the account. If you keep an accurate record of your account activity, you would never overdraft and there would be no fees. I have to say that the amount of fees you say you're paying is mind boggling. It's like someone hitting themselves on the head with a hammer, over and over. This pain is entirely self-inflicted. The fees you complain about are common to all banks. I can assure you that people who keep accurate check registers do not pay them. The key to avoiding fees is to never overdraft in the first place. One of the keys to this is not to use online banking to determine how much money you have. Online banking is for reconciling transactions, not a substitute for keeping your own check register. The online banking display has no way of knowing what checks/debits are outstanding and haven't hit your account, but your check register does. See the following site for some tips on how to keep an accurate register : http://www.wikihow.com/Balance-a-Checkbook