Bank charges contribute to the pain of some Americans’ pandemic-induced problems. In 2019, according to the Center for Responsible Lending, large banks collected more than $ 11 billion in overdraft fees from their customers, with 9 percent of customers paying more than 80 percent of the fees. According to Rebecca Borné, a researcher for the non-profit organization that promotes better negative treatment of consumers by financial institutions, customers of large banks paid $ 6 billion in overdrafts for the first nine months of 2020.
The total amount of fines paid by bank customers in 2020 may end up being lower than last year, but because such a large amount of fines are paid by such a small subgroup of customers, the effect of these fees on their finances will be most probably be much worse this year.
Apart from the temporary fraud that some banks have made with their customers around the stimulus checks, banks did not change their overdraft policy during the pandemic, Ms. Borné said. “The cost of expenses, multiple fees per day, increased fees and other practices that manipulate the levies to maximize the fees – those practices hurt those who struggle the most.”
On Christmas Eve, Andrew Shorts, an artist living in Ogden, Utah, tried to pay his electricity bill so he would not lose power and heat. Mr. Shorts, which make murals and graphic design projects for local businesses, were left out of account at Zions Bank, a Salt Lake City-based lender, as a rapid fire of automatic deductions for household bills pushed its $ 150 balance sheet this fall has. in negative area.
When he called Zions two days before Christmas, a representative told him he would probably have to pay the bank what he owed, and pay for the rest. The bank changed its policy after President Trump signed the stimulus bill on Tuesday. A spokesman said Zions would reset all negative balances of up to $ 2,000 for 30 days to get customers their incentive money.
Mr. Shorts described the $ 600 incentive payment as “the equivalent of a pool noodle while my wife, my child, and my now paralyzed business drowned in the open sea.” But he still wants the money. Meanwhile, he scraped together just enough to pay his electricity bill.
On the day Congress passed the latest stimulus legislation last week, Misha Roberts, a 26-year-old student at Ohio State University, was unable to log in to her PNC online account and look for the balance. not. She knew it was negative between $ 1,200 and $ 1,700, thanks to a combination of basic expenses accounts that she could not afford, which were automatically deducted from her account, and overdrafts.