Ideas for revenge on a bank?
 

A couple years ago, with a little less than $200 in my account, I wrote a series of checks and made ATM charges like: $10, $10, $30, $30, then the next day: $200. Of course, they make the actual charges in reverse order and charge me $120 (4x $30) in overdraft charges. I called them and tried to reason with them... $120 to borrow me $80 for one day (I had the money in my savings account) is ridiculous... they wouldn't budge.. I have never been so pissed over the phone. I was making $13 an hour at the time... 9 hours of work for that... horse sh-t

Fast forward to a couple weeks ago, my mom (who uses the same bank) is out of state and goes to a branch of this bank to deposit some money. She has a checking account at a different bank in our home town that has no ATM card, so she frequently writes checks to herself from the local bank to the evil bank. She has done this multiple times and the money was instantly available to her. She deposits $5k and everything seems to be normal, but a couple hours later, checking out at a grocery store, her ATM card is declined. She calls the bank and there is a 10 day (!) hold on her check. They never told her there would be a hold at the bank.. just let her drive off and attempt to go shopping. The next day she goes to the bank to try to work out what the problem is (remember, she is out of state with almost no money), they tell her they CAN'T TELL HER why they are now holding her checks, and they refuse to work with her in any way to get her at least some money. So that day my mom is forced to call her friends and family and ask to borrow money for the trip.


So that's the story of why I hate this bank. I want to get revenge, and OOT seems to always come up with good lines on these types of things.

The optimal prank would:
1. Cost them lots of money
2. Affect the non-grunt workers (if I drop a deuce in the lobby, it will just screw the janitor)
3. Allow me to take full credit for it (like they KNOW it was me, but can't do anything about it)

Re: Ideas for revenge on a bank?
 

You could hold them up. Let me know and I'll come watch, then post a vivid play by play for OOT. Diablo will stop by with Chuck Norris and save the day.

c'est fini

Re: Ideas for revenge on a bank?
 

[ QUOTE ]
A couple years ago, with a little less than $200 in my account, I wrote a series of checks and made ATM charges like: $10, $10, $30, $30, then the next day: $200. Of course, they make the actual charges in reverse order and charge me $120 (4x $30) in overdraft charges. I called them and tried to reason with them... $120 to borrow me $80 for one day (I had the money in my savings account) is ridiculous... they wouldn't budge.. I have never been so pissed over the phone. I was making $13 an hour at the time... 9 hours of work for that... horse sh-t


[/ QUOTE ]

FWIW, all banks do this. The rationale is that the larger checks are generally people's rent, car payments or other essential things so they are most important and should be processed first.

Re: Ideas for revenge on a bank?
 

First of all, it sounds like your family needs to stop screwing around with your account balances. Just keep a buffer of (at least) a few hundred in there at all times, no exceptions and you won't have to worry about overdrafts.

Second, I'd avoid pulling any kind of prank on a national financial institution. These [censored] don't have much of a sense of humor when it comes to their money.

Swede

Re: Ideas for revenge on a bank?
 

I am very interested in this thread.

Re: Ideas for revenge on a bank?
 

Its called overdraft protection. Get a CC through the bank, and it will ususally automatically link. The only way to get back at a bank is to close your account.

Re: Ideas for revenge on a bank?
 

there is a tv show on the BBC called Hustle. it is about british con artists. there is one good one where they screw over a bank.

wait one, and i'll get you the episode.

Re: Ideas for revenge on a bank?
 

[ QUOTE ]
Its called overdraft protection. Get a CC through the bank, and it will ususally automatically link. The only way to get back at a bank is to close your account.

[/ QUOTE ]

no

Re: Ideas for revenge on a bank?
 

do they have fraud protection? you know where i'm going with this

Re: Ideas for revenge on a bank?
 

Do you have free checks or billpay?

Send tons of 1 cent payments to someone else (or another one of your accounts)!

Re: Ideas for revenge on a bank?
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Its called overdraft protection. Get a CC through the bank, and it will ususally automatically link. The only way to get back at a bank is to close your account.

[/ QUOTE ]

no

[/ QUOTE ]

Closing your accounts certainly is one way to do it, but for all but the smallest local banks, retail banking and demand deposits are a very small percentage of their revenues these days. And, as someone else pointed out, you're just as likely to get jobbed like this at another bank. Stop trying to play the float. You're not a currency arbitrageur.

Re: Ideas for revenge on a bank?
 

[ QUOTE ]
there is a tv show on the BBC called Hustle. it is about british con artists. there is one good one where they screw over a bank.

wait one, and i'll get you the episode.

[/ QUOTE ]

hmm, i can't seem to remember which one it was. there's only 2 seasons and it's well worth watching both of them. they are like 6 episodes each.

the one with the bank is where one of the con members is pissed off with the bank over something so they work out a lucrative investment deal with one of the finance people. the banker is extremely excited because they will get large commissions etc. just before the deal is about to go through, they pull the plug on it.

it may be season 2 episode 1, but i'm not sure.

Re: Ideas for revenge on a bank?
 

next time don't be an idiot and make sure you have enough in the bank.

btw you are an idiot.

Re: Ideas for revenge on a bank?
 

[ QUOTE ]
First of all, it sounds like your family needs to stop screwing around with your account balances. Just keep a buffer of (at least) a few hundred in there at all times, no exceptions and you won't have to worry about overdrafts.

[/ QUOTE ]

FWIW, I haven't had an overdraft since then.. and the situation with my mom seemed like it was completely unavoidable (she had done the exact same thing dozens of times before without any problems).

Re: Ideas for revenge on a bank?
 

[ QUOTE ]
Do you have free checks or billpay?

Send tons of 1 cent payments to someone else (or another one of your accounts)!

[/ QUOTE ]

I think there's a limit on the # of checks I can write in a month... I'll check... this would be a great idea.

Re: Ideas for revenge on a bank?
 

ill,

This one's obvious, no?

Re: Ideas for revenge on a bank?
 

[ QUOTE ]
I am very interested in this thread.

[/ QUOTE ]

Looks like Batman just found his Robin. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

Re: Ideas for revenge on a bank?
 

El,

What's the obvious part?

holla

Re: Ideas for revenge on a bank?
 

I guess I should maybe just be civilized and just write them a letter. IMO they could of done a lot more in both situations to keep their customers happy.

Edit: Google turned up a story on someone that filled his safety deposit box with dead fish. Tempting...

Re: Ideas for revenge on a bank?
 

there was a story somewhere where some guy crashed the bank's online servers by paying off his bill in penny incraments. He managed to get the largest statement the bank has ever printed out before. I believe (he did it manually, you'll need someone to script something for you or you might as well not do it at all)

This qualifys under legal, definetelly annoying, costing the bank a few $ for the paper and ink. Won't affect lower level employees, but won't effect upper level people either.

Crovax

Re: Ideas for revenge on a bank?
 

Dude, take their pens and deposit envolopes all the time. Take tons of their free suckers and stuff! Stick it to the man.

Re: Ideas for revenge on a bank?
 

You could try banking at a larger bank. When I opened my account with Washington Mutual a short while ago they told me about check holding for new accounts, but that I could get around it if it were an emergency. I could be wrong, but this sounds like a smalltime rinky-dinky bank that makes its money off of imposing service charges.

Alternatively, you could stop charging more money than you have. It doesn't matter what order they do it in... whatever order they do it in, you still don't have enough in the account to cover it.

Re: Ideas for revenge on a bank?
 

ill- seems to me and a lot of others that you want revenge for something that is your doing. Save your revenge for when its truly deserved.

Swede- you are the voice of reason.

Re: Ideas for revenge on a bank?
 

this just reminds me of the time me and brother went to the bank, and happened to find out they had switched our accounts over to some other type of account when we turned 18. The plan they switched us to was really [censored] (didnt know we were on it for 3 years). He immediatley starts yelling how he wants to switch banks. And just kept saying that. The bank apologized and switched are accounts over, and gave us a 3 months no charges (like 50-100 bucks).

I have also had similiar stuff to you OP with my bank. I got them to give me 50 bucks for misinforming me 3 times about the waiting period on a check. I hate banks, but seriously they aren't people. best thing to do is just switch banks

Re: Ideas for revenge on a bank?
 

OT: Can somebody explain why checks still exist? What's the point? Making payments with signed pieces of paper seems almost primeval.

Re: Ideas for revenge on a bank?
 

Ok I work at a bank and sometimes when a large deposit (5k or more) is from out of town ect. can be held for a certain time frame. Also, to add to that, the bank she went to has an option on if they should place a hold. Normally, for long time customers or others with large balances there will not be a hold, however, there are people that work in whats called "back office" and double check the tellers ect. and can place holds on things of that nature. It may not have been a teller hence why they couldnt tell her why it was held. Also, if you have a savings account you should be able to link that account to your checking for overdraft protection. There will prolly be a fee for them doing the transfer to civer your ass but its much much less. Let me know if I can help you in any way.

Re: Ideas for revenge on a bank?
 

Change banks.

Banks don't listen to reason, but they do listen to emotion. Next time you try to get them to reduce your charges, start crying.

Re: Ideas for revenge on a bank?
 

[ QUOTE ]
OT: Can somebody explain why checks still exist? What's the point? Making payments with signed pieces of paper seems almost primeval.

[/ QUOTE ]

How else am I going to pay my landlord?

Re: Ideas for revenge on a bank?
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
OT: Can somebody explain why checks still exist? What's the point? Making payments with signed pieces of paper seems almost primeval.

[/ QUOTE ]

How else am I going to pay my landlord?

[/ QUOTE ]

drugs, sexual favors, small children.

all acceptable.

Re: Ideas for revenge on a bank?
 

The answer is clear, you need to rob this bank.

They are not people, ergo
 

the solution is to stick it to the prick/bitch who totally blew you off.

Cust serv reps have a huge amount of discretion in these matters; I've gotten answers that ranged from "if you don't like it, blow me" up to and including, "we are so sorry, Mr. xxxx, I am personally going to straighten this out; btw, here is my private ext. should you ever again have any problems" and these responses had no correlation to the size of my balance.

*

Not sure if anyone else asked but I am putting five bucks on Bank Of America.

I want "no-action" if you chose a large commercial bank - Chase, Citicorp, etc.

If you did shame on you; if you allowed your dear sainted mother to do so DOUBLE shame on you.

*

As to your plan for revenge against the PERSON not the institution, I do have a few ideas but I've been up for 24 straight and I'd like to think them thru before posting them.

None involve violence or any other criminal activity but be assured all are vicious and sadistic - and all allow you to take "credit" for the result while taking no blame for the actual act.

BTW
 

In spite of my [obvious] zealousness for the idea of nailing someone to the wall, having re-read your post I'm not sure they had a choice re. the order in which they posted the debits.

These are posted automatically, not manually.

When one transaction posts in a day whereas another takes a week it's usually due to the speed at which it was PRESENTED (by the merchant).

Just wanted to mention that - I'm not backing down; I'm all for putting it to somebody. [img]/images/graemlins/mad.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/mad.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/mad.gif[/img]

Re: BTW
 

Your mom got caught kiting checks. Bummer. She's lucky they don't send her ass to the pokey.

Re: Ideas for revenge on a bank?
 

http://files1.turbosquid.com/Preview...A.jpgLarge.jpg

Re: BTW
 

[ QUOTE ]
Your mom got caught kiting checks. Bummer. She's lucky they don't send her ass to the pokey.

[/ QUOTE ]

It's not kiting if there's money in the account the check is written from. She's doing a very simple transfer from one account to another via check and they decided to hold the check...huge difference dude.

Re: BTW
 

[ QUOTE ]
Send tons of 1 cent payments to someone else (or another one of your accounts)!

[/ QUOTE ]

or, have a bunch of friends write you $.01 checks and stand in line at the bank and cash them. then they'll def know who you are.

Re: Ideas for revenge on a bank?
 

I have a couple of observations about banks. The teller has some discretion in placing holds becasue back when getting a check form Paradise Poker was the normal way to cash out there was one teller that would always place a hold on my account (I would just call the 800 number and get it removed).

When I was in college I wanted to cash a financial aid check, I took it to the bank it was drawn on and they told me to come back the following day, they didn't have enough cash to cash it.

Re: BTW
 

That's why they've strated holding checks, in order to prevent kiting-- basic, simple bank procedure.

Re: Ideas for revenge on a bank?
 

When I was a kid my Mom opened a saving account for me. After a while I stopped using it but had left $1.14 in it. The bastards closed my account and took my money and I still hate them for it.

Re: Ideas for revenge on a bank?
 

lol @ trying to float checks and then thinking it's the bank's fault when it wouldn't work out.

You need to man the [censored] up and take some responsiblity for your own mistakes.