Charged overdraft fees, but I didn't opt in?

[madison86]

The scenario:

March 10th I had $61.98 in my account. Using my debit card, I made three purchases in the amounts of $14.10, $27.36, and $18.99 for used textbooks (through Amazon, where you aren't actually charged until the seller is ready to ship). I did this after forgetting about a $5 lunch from a day earlier (there wasn't a 'payment pending' or 'hold' for some reason, like there usually is for such purchases).

March 11th the $5 lunch is posted. I was immediately charged a courtesy pay fee ($32). After the fee cleared, I still had $24.10 dollars to the good.

That same day the $14.10 payment goes through and afterward there's still $10 in the account.

Another $32 courtesy pay fee is assessed. Only after THIS point is the account overdrawn.

The other two book payments still clear on the 11th and then the 12th, even though the account is overdrawn and even though I never opted 'in'. Overdraft fees are assessed for both. The account now stands at -$132.20.

Because I wasn't declined for any of the books, I didn't know any of this was happening. And trust me, I don't have a problem with getting declined at the window, or in this case, by the bookseller. If I get embarrassed, it's probably because I did something to deserve it.

My plan is to talk to my credit union tomorrow morning and ask what happened. I clearly messed up by forgetting about the lunch, but no matter which way you shake it, unauthorized overdraft coverage fees sent my account spiraling, not a turkey sub. I'm willing to pay the fee for one of the charges because it was my own oversight that ultimately caused me to spend more money than I had, but that feels wrong since I never opted in and should have been declined for the very last charge I tried to make. I *would* have had enough to cover all but the last purchase, if it weren't for the cascading effect of premature, unauthorized overdraft fees.

The question:

Do any of you think I can rightfully dispute at least three of the overdraft fees? If my credit union is unwilling to concede, what options do I have? Who do they answer to about the new rules concerning overdraft coverage?

Sorry if this is posted in the wrong forum. I don't really consider this a numbers problem, but a consumer protection/faulty business practice issue.

[kirklin]

Let me tell you what would have happened if you hadn't been charged the overdraft fee...you would have been charged an NSF (insufficient funds) fee, your checks/charges would have been returned as NSF, and the merchants would have been after you for the payments PLUS they would have tacked on their own "returned" charges, which vary from $35 to $50.

One thing that you have going for you is that you're doing business with a credit union, and I've found that CUs are generally much, much nicer to deal with than banks are. I think that you were in the wrong here...but that the CU might be willing to waive the fees, if you ask nicely and don't come in storming and cursing.

[troyes]

There is probably not much you can do.

Facts you need to know about banks:

You have three transactions, one is high and the other are small amounts. Whatever the day of their transactions, the bank will payout the highest one first so that the other two can access nsf fees for each of them instead of just one.

In addtion, they will include the fees as a balance so that you can also get nsf fees upon those.

As for debit transactions. I work with accounting and actually cards and debits to be exact. Accounting analyst for a business. When a debit gets swiped and you use it as credit, the bank is automatically getting a signal from the card processor (which is the bank of the business you are purchasing from) and they are pulling an authorization code. That authorization code will be the identifier and it is a signal that the sale went through. By the time the merchant transmits the invoice the bank the bank has to pay for that transaction whether there is no funds on the account or if there is funds.

This is why there are individuals that I have dealt with in my company that had multiple authorizations and a valid charge from the same merchant. The settlement will go through from the banks perspective, but if you do not have enough funds to cover the settlement and the authorizations that are left pending then the person seems to be double-charged. At this time, approximately 72 hours from the date of settlement another deparment calls the bank to request those list of authorizations to be released back to the cardholder's account.

In other words. This means that there is not true return of an nsf debit transaction. A check and a debit card are two different transaction forms.