Guest Author - Cassandra George Sturges
I believe that the reason the American banks need a bailout is due to a spiritual karmic debt of exploiting the people who are ignorant about managing their money and/or financially struggling. Why would a bank charge a $25-$37 insufficient fund check fee to an account that obviously does not have the money? However, if you are a wealthy person the bank will pay you interest on the money that you have saved in your banking accounts or money markets.
As a capitalistic society no one really cares about the people who have money but can’t manage it properly or the people who have very little money. These are the people who are exploited and pay more fees for products and services than any other portion of people in society.
I used to have my paychecks direct deposited for years. Every two weeks on pay day, $400 to $600 in insufficient fund fees were taken directly from my checking account for three years. Every two weeks on Friday, I would pay all of my bills. After paying my bills, I would have approximately $200 left for groceries, so I would purposely seek an advance from my checking account expecting to pay only one insufficient fund fee for $37. However, after 3 years of paying thousands of dollars in insufficient fund fees, I demanded that a bank teller explain to my why I was losing so much money each pay period.
The bank teller said to me, “Ma’am, the first thing you need to understand is that we are here to take your money or make money off your money. You fall into the first category. We pay your bills in the order of which it is going to benefit us and yield us the highest profit.” He then proceeded to show me how my bills were not paid in the order of which I paid them. Many were paid much later in the following week. He went on to show me banking fees that I would have known about if I had read the small print on the bottom of my contract which states that whenever I check my account balance at my bank’s branch a $1 fee would be assessed at the ATM and a $2 fee would be assessed for talking to a bank teller over the phone.
He chastised me for trusting the bank to keep my money safe and suggested that I take a remedial course in managing my finances. I have learned an invaluable less that ignorance is expensive. It’s not the bank’s fault that I didn’t read the small print or keep up with the various fees attached to whether or not I use debit or credit at the checkout line.
I am not surprised that there is a financial crisis in the banking system that is currently designed to take advantage of people who are financially challenged to increase their profit. The reason that so few people are speaking out about the enormous bank fees is because it is embarrassing and downright humiliating to admit to others that we do not know how to manage our money properly.
When we go to the bank and our checking account is a negative one hundred dollars because we accidently miscalculated the money that we thought was left over —we don’t tell anyone or complain about how we were mistreated by our bank. Instead, we act like a woman who was date raped after too many drinks. We chalk it up to being our fault because we were too careless, too trusting and not sharp enough managing our resources.
The banking institution depends on the shame and ignorance of everyday people to earn billions of dollars a year in fees and high interest rates loans for those with poor credit. And as long as we are too embarrassed to talk about how we have been financially raped by our banks—their policies are not going to change soon. Is it possible for banks to still be able to make a profit and take into consideration the well-being of their clients?
I still do not understand the logic of taking insufficient fees from a person’s checking account that already lacks funding. The banking industry is only receiving the direct consequences of how it has treated the masses of silent people who trusted them to do the right thing with their money despite their ignorance in balancing their checking accounts. This comes down to the old biblical question, “are we our brother’s keeper?” Or is it true that what goes around comes back around?
