How to Avoid Paying Bank Imposed Overdraft Fees

How to avoid paying bank imposed overdraft fees? Have you ever looked at your bank statement and seen red because you’ve been hit with overdraft fees? And after begging and pleading with the customer and service rep, you’ve been told that the charges are still valid. If you're like me and a lot of other people you have. I'm Nick Yaya and I'm here to help you beat the system. It’s a fact that the average branch brings in over a hundred thousand dollars each month by charging his customers overdraft fees. Between the big three banks, that’s Bank of America, Chase/Washington Mutual and Wachovia/Wells Fargo that’s a nearly a billion dollars a month from hardworking Americans like you and me, that’s have your pay check right then. On top of that, these banks just got billions on bail out money from the US tax fair a.k.a you and me which they used to go on a shopping spree to buy off other banks. Now, I may not have a degree on Economics but I can smell a hassle a modern way and if Congress doesn’t realized it either they’re ignorant or they’re in on it, either I won’t count on them bailing out the banks. It’s up to us, the customers, the consumers, the market. It’s time that we bail out on them. Up until now, the only way to secure your money, cash your paycheck, pay your bills, pay your rent and generally survive is to have a bank account. Well, I'm here to tell you I've discovered a better way, a way that you can have all the benefits of having a bank account without the looming threat of overdraft charges and I found it in the most unlikely of places, Wal-Mart. In Wal-Mart? Yes, Wal-Mart. I found that Wal-Mart offers something called a money card. The Wal-Mart money card is just like your checkered debit card. It’s even got the visa logo. You can use it to pay your bills online, get gas or groceries and if the purchase price exceeds what’s on the card, the charge will be denied meaning no overdraft charges. That’s funny. Bank of America told me they didn’t have that capability. Of course, there are few nominal fees such as a one time $3.00 fee that activate the card and a $3.00 fee to recharge it but if you use your paycheck to recharge the card by going to any Wal-Mart cashier or have your paycheck directly deposited to the card, the fees are waived. So you need the check for something like rent, you can get the money at Wal-Mart for just 88 cents. Now, I know what you're thinking. There has got to be a cash. It sounds too good to be true and I thought the same thing. So I took the time and went online and check out the terms and conditions and the schedule of fees and after some careful investigation and weighing of the pros and cons I concluded that this is an excellent alternative to banking with the big three money takers. There are no account servicing fees, no teller fees, and especially no $35.00 overdraft fees like the ones imposed by the banks. Of course, there is this standard stuff like two bucks for an ATM withdrawal but if you used the card to make a purchase at a store that offers cash back there is no fee. Basically, the only fees are 88 cents to pay each bill online a $3.00 monthly fee. Now if you put in a thousand dollar or more over the course of the month, the monthly fee has waived. The bottom line is it’s far less expensive than banking with any of the big three. You need to know that if you swipe the card at the pump to get gas, the station will block out around 75 bucks for about a day. So to avoid, just go inside first and hand the card to your cashier instead. If you used the card for hotel stay or a car rental, they block out a significant portion as well usually around two to three hundred dollars. So I checked with them first before using this card for that type of purchase or just use a credit card. In the interest of full disclosure you should be aware that this card is issued by a bank, GE Money Bank to be exact which is the member of the FDIC and pursued to a license from Visa which is good news because it means that if any fraudulent activity occurs on the card, they’ll back you up just like the big banks do. So go to Wal-Mart website and check out their money card option for your self and if you have friends who don’t have access to the internet maybe because they’re beyond the river, they can go to any public library and used the internet for free. Just be sure to remind them that if they used their card to pay bills online on public computers let they be safe and erase their history before they’re done. And be sure to check out my next episode on how to get those overdraft fees refunded. So for now and the foreseeable future, I'm Nick Yaya, now get out there and beat the system.