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Moving on up - Moving advice thread

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bainidhe_dub:
That is shockingly generous to me. My husband's bank (BoA :() recently settled a lawsuit that they were pick & choosing the order to apply charges to your account, in order to send you into overdraft sooner and collect more fees. So if you had $300 and make charges of $5, $10, $8, and $320, they would apply the $320 charge first and then you'd be in overdraft for the other three, even though you weren't at the time. And the overdraft charges are $35 each.
Plus if you make more than 6 withdrawals from a savings account in a month, more than three times in 12 months, the bank has to turn your savings account into a checking account. We were Not Amused when that happened, especially because the warning notices apparently come in the same postcard format that they use for the overdraft notices that arrive a week and a half later so I just throw them out.

Carl-E:
That last bit is apparantly part of the patriot act.  I just reopened an old savings account and was told the same limits.  I don't know how that's supposed to protect us - probably by preventing people from setting up an account just to distribute funds or something. 

Weird. 

Welu:

--- Quote from: Barmymoo on 05 Jan 2012, 13:31 ---I can't believe you even got given three credit cards when you were 17! Is that legal? I don't think it is here. Because seventeen year olds are liable to spend more than they can afford and then not be able to pay back the minimum payment! I'm so glad I didn't have a credit card when I was 17. I went mad with my debit card when I got that, but thankfully I couldn't spend any money I didn't have on it.

--- End quote ---

When I was 17 I went to my bank asking to get a debit card and they told me, "We don't usually give under 18 debit cards but you can apply for a credit card if you want."

I told them I wanted apply for a debit card and had to wait something like 5 weeks to be turned down.

Barmymoo:
That's outrageous, so obviously just a ploy to make sure they get lots of money out of people. Why would they not give a debit card but would give a credit card other than to deliberately get people into debt?

Jimor:
A good intermediate option is to get a secured credit card with YOUR bank (there are a lot of 3rd party banks that offer secured credit cards to "bad risk" customers, but they are designed to screw you over 5 ways from Sunday). You deposit an amount that acts as your limit on the card, and the deposit will even earn a little interest. This way you get the credit card security and regulations and can build a credit history, but you know you won't get into real debt using it. This assumes you have that much money to put into it in the first place, though. I did this years ago with a $1000 deposit, which eventually grew to $1400 with the interest, then eventually the bank just graduated that to a standard credit card and I was able to cash out the deposit behind it.

It's the only credit card I've ever had, and right now it has a $7000 limit. I had always paid it off monthly, but going back to school and only having a part-time job have combined forces to get me to actually use about half of it on a balance now, but I should be able to pay that off fairly quickly once I do get better employment here soonish.

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