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5 things nobody tells you about being poor

post #1 of 61
5/30/11 at 12:21am
Thread Starter 
http://www.cracked.com/blog/5-things...ut-being-poor/ Some real gems in this one. Makes you wonder just how widespread entitlement is these days. It was posted on someone's fb and greeted by lots of 'likes' and hideous comments. My favorite quotes from the article: "Because having a checking account while poor doesn't just mean you have to be responsible and good at math -- you have to be perfect. Meticulous, flawless record keeping is the difference between surviving and having the bank seize your next paycheck." If you read on, what they refer to as "seizing your paycheck" is actually the bank requiring you to pay for items you purchased by overdrawing your account. "The bank can hit you with a $35 fine for every charge that comes in while you are in minus territory. The bank will not tell you they charged you this money. You will have no idea anything is wrong." They told you they would charge you that money when you opened the account. It it not obvious to everyone that banks charge overdraft fees? It would be so feasible for Chase to make an extra 25 thousand phone calls a day to let everyone know that they've overdrawn their account. Some banks do notify you when this happens, and some will allow you to set up your account so your card will be denied if you don't have the funds - avoiding the fees altogether...but who cares, they're seizing your check! "I worked a shitty service industry job, which meant I got paid by the hour, and didn't get paid unless I showed up" Practically slave labor, if you ask me.
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post #2 of 61
5/30/11 at 1:24am
I think the rub is not so much that the bank won't call you, but that it won't, depending on your service agreement, even decline subsequent transactions. So, if you're using a debit card, rather than going home (or calling the bank yourself to find out what's wrong) after your card fails to pay for your groceries, you might also buy stamps, gas and lunch, each incurring another $35 fee: $140, or seventeen hours of labor at your shitty job.
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post #3 of 61
5/30/11 at 1:49am
The poor are just pissed off. No surprise here. Just looking at those comments make me sick. Immigrants come here just as poor as those fucks are and become small business owners, leaders in companys, etc and raise their kids well and blame no one. The people who are commenting were probably lazy as shit, didnt read the fine print on anything, and want everything to fall into their dirty laps. Sorry you didnt check your checking account balance. Must be the evil banks! Next time remember to wipe your ass as well.
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post #4 of 61
5/30/11 at 2:31am
i believe the law's changed. you can ask the bank to decline your card if you're over.

the thing is ppl generally get credit lines linked to their checking account and the banks charges you every timei you use the credit line, which is not part of the law
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post #5 of 61
5/30/11 at 2:58am
Quote:
Originally Posted by suited View Post
http://www.cracked.com/blog/5-things...ut-being-poor/

Some real gems in this one. Makes you wonder just how widespread entitlement is these days. It was posted on someone's fb and greeted by lots of 'likes' and hideous comments. My favorite quotes from the article:

"Because having a checking account while poor doesn't just mean you have to be responsible and good at math -- you have to be perfect. Meticulous, flawless record keeping is the difference between surviving and having the bank seize your next paycheck."

If you read on, what they refer to as "seizing your paycheck" is actually the bank requiring you to pay for items you purchased by overdrawing your account.

"The bank can hit you with a $35 fine for every charge that comes in while you are in minus territory. The bank will not tell you they charged you this money. You will have no idea anything is wrong."

They told you they would charge you that money when you opened the account. It it not obvious to everyone that banks charge overdraft fees? It would be so feasible for Chase to make an extra 25 thousand phone calls a day to let everyone know that they've overdrawn their account. Some banks do notify you when this happens, and some will allow you to set up your account so your card will be denied if you don't have the funds - avoiding the fees altogether...but who cares, they're seizing your check!

"I worked a shitty service industry job, which meant I got paid by the hour, and didn't get paid unless I showed up"


Practically slave labor, if you ask me.

Actually the bank thing is legit. they make it almost impossible to set your account up to deny charges if you have insufficient funds and if you do they make your account almost useless. And the fees are fucking usurious. Nor do they always tell you, they can and do change their fees pretty much at a whim. And they set it up in such a manner so as to make it as easy as possible to use your card but hard to add funds. e.g. long holds on deposits but instant deduction of charges and fees.

When I closed my Chase account they told me that for 30 days any activity, even if it was unapproved, would go through, causing me to be charged overdraft and insufficient funds fees, and it would reopen my account so I would have to go to the trouble of closing it again and waiting another 30 days. When I asked why they couldn't just proactively deny any charges going forward -because, you know, I'd CLOSED my fucking account they said it was impossible. Which is total BS. Of course they could deny charges, they can shut your account down any time they want. They just hope that enough auto debits sneak through or what have you so they can rob you for a few more fees.

All this after fucking Chase just was bailed out on my dime.
Fuck banks.
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post #6 of 61
5/30/11 at 3:06am
At least these poors are able to open a checking account. I'm too poor for the bank allow me to store my money with them in a checking account. Instead, they "went out on a limb" to allow me to open a savings account with no ATM card.
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post #7 of 61
5/30/11 at 4:06am
yeah dude and then the delays on your online charges for online banking is bullshit too...
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post #8 of 61
5/30/11 at 5:54am
I don't think the point of the article is that Banks are evil per-say, more that their structure is geared up in a way that means that if poor people fall foul (which is easier to do when you are living down to your last penny) they are charged/punished in unfairly heavy ways. They punish heavily for being financially unsavy by imposing very heavy fines. On the people who had too little money in the first place. Who thought that one up? "You have too little money. In fact you've got negative money. You owe me money. This isn't good, so I will ask you to owe me more money. That should sort things out."
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post #9 of 61
5/30/11 at 8:53am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Blackhood View Post
I don't think the point of the article is that Banks are evil per-say, more that their structure is geared up in a way that means that if poor people fall foul (which is easier to do when you are living down to your last penny) they are charged/punished in unfairly heavy ways.

They punish heavily for being financially unsavy by imposing very heavy fines. On the people who had too little money in the first place. Who thought that one up?

"You have too little money. In fact you've got negative money. You owe me money. This isn't good, so I will ask you to owe me more money. That should sort things out."

Eh? It's some some conspiracy by banks to get those damned poor people. It's supposed to discincentivize people against writing checks for more money than they have in their account and the NSF fee was around long before it was "required" of poor people ot have a bank account.

some of the comments are great though:

Quote:
I'm finally in a semblance of getting out after I straight-up lied in an interview for a job I really wanted as a lab tech. I said I had a degree and training I didn't have, got the job, and turned to the almighty god the Internet to learn what I could before starting work. A year later I made my way to lead microbiologist (with only half the degree I said I had, mind you) and finally had something halfway worthwhile on my resume which I then used to get a job at a mine's metallurgy lab for excellent pay and incredible insurance. I make enough to be able to save up for school now, and it's all because I lied. Thanks for the lesson, poverty.

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post #10 of 61
5/30/11 at 9:04am
Thread Starter 
Chase is one of the banks that now lets you set up your account so your card will be denied instead of going into overdraft. I was banking with Chase at the time, and they literally bombarded me with messages letting me know of this upcoming change to my account, and continued to do so until I chose how I wanted the account set up. Most banks also have some sort of overdraft limit. I'm not saying banks aren't unethical from time to time. The article goes way beyond that. "Seizing your check". Yea, how crazy that you're expected to pay for things you buy.
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post #11 of 61
5/30/11 at 9:28am
The most annoying thing on Earth, IMO, is how credit card companies won't lift a fucking finger if something is seriously amiss with your spending pattern (i.e., some hacker in Nigeria obtained your CC number and just bought $20,000 worth of diapers or something, and you're single w/out kids). In fraud situations like this, many banks won't even call or notify you. And they won't decline the transactions. Instead, you'll find out on your monthly bill that you just got assfucked, and the burden is on you to go through a nightmarishly long and Byzantine process to get it all sorted out with your bank, the credit agencies, and so forth. As a victim of identity theft a few years back, I can easily say that it was the most frustrating experience of my life. The solution? My bank now charges me $10 a month for fraud protection. This $120 a year buys me the right to have them block suspicious charges and/or call me if suspicious charges pop up. So glad the bank needs $120 a year to do its fucking job.
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post #12 of 61
5/30/11 at 9:33am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Don Carlos View Post
The most annoying thing on Earth, IMO, is how credit card companies won't lift a fucking finger if something is seriously amiss with your spending pattern (i.e., some hacker in Nigeria obtained your CC number and just bought $20,000 worth of diapers or something, and you're single w/out kids). In fraud situations like this, many banks won't even call or notify you. And they won't decline the transactions. Instead, you'll find out on your monthly bill that you just got assfucked, and the burden is on you to go through a nightmarishly long and Byzantine process to get it all sorted out with your bank, the credit agencies, and so forth.

As a victim of identity theft a few years back, I can easily say that it was the most frustrating experience of my life.

The solution? My bank now charges me $10 a month for fraud protection. This $120 a year buys me the right to have them block suspicious charges and/or call me if suspicious charges pop up. So glad the bank needs $120 a year to do its fucking job.

Really? Both myself and my father have had our banks call us and ask about suspicious charges. His card was being charged in india or something, they called him, cancelled the card, and sent him a new one. When they called me it was actually legit tho.
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post #13 of 61
5/30/11 at 9:33am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Don Carlos View Post
The most annoying thing on Earth, IMO, is how credit card companies won't lift a fucking finger if something is seriously amiss with your spending pattern (i.e., some hacker in Nigeria obtained your CC number and just bought $20,000 worth of diapers or something, and you're single w/out kids). In fraud situations like this, many banks won't even call or notify you. And they won't decline the transactions. Instead, you'll find out on your monthly bill that you just got assfucked, and the burden is on you to go through a nightmarishly long and Byzantine process to get it all sorted out with your bank, the credit agencies, and so forth.

As a victim of identity theft a few years back, I can easily say that it was the most frustrating experience of my life.

The solution? My bank now charges me $10 a month for fraud protection. This $120 a year buys me the right to have them block suspicious charges and/or call me if suspicious charges pop up. So glad the bank needs $120 a year to do its fucking job.

I think the downside to the alternative is the card being declined too often. One of my first jobs was at a cell center for morgan - people would flip out if their card was declined when it was a legit purchase. You'd think they could strike some sort of balance between the two.
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post #14 of 61
5/30/11 at 9:43am
Quote:
Originally Posted by suited View Post
I think the downside to the alternative is the card being declined too often. One of my first jobs was at a cell center for morgan - people would flip out if their card was declined when it was a legit purchase. You'd think they could strike some sort of balance between the two.

I had this problem, a card that was declined wherever I went. I did what they asked and gave them a list of places I routinely travel to (at the time it was a very short list) and they still declined me everywhere I went. I cancelled the card.
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post #15 of 61
5/30/11 at 10:01am
I think the "no credit makes you a credit risk" mentality is bullshit -- the article is right, you're supposed to save up for what you want, not buy it on credit when you don't have the money.

How many of our parents and grandparents grew up (and in some cases wealthy) on the old maxim "Neither a borrower nor a lender be"?
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