Annoyed?? You betcha

I have a rant. I am really annoyed with banking protocol. Yes, I know they are a business~~but~if I were to do what they do, I would be sent to jail. Yesterday is a good example. S2 who recently opened his first checking account with a debit card was at the school bookstore, wallymart, pizza palace, and a few other places around campus getting ready for dorm life and picking up a few things we didn't think about before he left. I get a frantic call at work from him asking me why when he went to the ATM it said he had insufficient funds. I explained if you have 1 apple in your kitchen you can't eat 2. Since I had two checks here that were for him, after work I shot over to the bank to make the deposits and thinking that he probably had an overdraft fee, I was prepared to help him with that because it was his first mistake. He naively thought that if the card kept working that he must have money in the account. After all, credit cards are denied for ISF so he assumed a debit worked the same way. (Yes, when he opened the account I told him the difference but lets not forget he is an 18 year old male with independence in his eyes and most likely was far off in a distant thought when we covered this topic). So, imagine my surprise when I arrived at the bank to find that they had been shelling out money to him for OVER A WEEK at multiple locations racking up a $37.50 overdraft fee each time. No phone call to either of us to let us know this was happening. To say I was pissed doesn't even come close. YES, I KNOW THEY ARE A BUSINESS BUT THIS IS CRAZY. They have earned 19 BILLION , yes BILLION dollars last year from these fees...and it is LEGAL. When I asked the bank manager why they would not even send out a courtesy call to a new customer that was racking up fees over a period of an entire week she told me "most people would rather pay the fees than be embarrassed at the checkout with a denial". No kidding. She really told me that. To say I was furious would be putting it mildly. What ever happened to common courtesy or good business relations?? She deleted a couple of the fees and laughed that she had been through this with her own daughter and YES, banking is a business. At that moment the term loan shark came to mind. She asked me if he had been checking his balance on line and I told her the university just got him hooked up a few hours before he called so he had been without secure internet access..as he wasn't about to go to the library or some random computer station and type in all of his banking numbers! So, I had quite the talk with S2 last night and told him he has to check his balance every day on line...make it a habit and momma bear is not going to keep coming to the rescue. It is time he learns to hunt on his own. But, that doesn't make me any less furious about the way they are doing business.....how can they keep debiting an account that is out of funds?? They have instant computer access to everyones accounts~~if they can print a balance on a receipt then they know what you have or don't have RIGHT? I don't know about you but I would much rather be told at the local pizza place that my $8.00 debit was denied than have to pay $45.50 for that same pizza. GRRRRR