Beware! Banks Prowling for prey at Night

If that cheque can bounce, it will bounce!

A very good friend of mine had an experience that he could not believe. He had a cheque to deposit but needed to write a cheque to pay a bill at Sure Pay that same evening for fear of losing his electricity the next morning. For some reason he tried desperately to get to the bank by 3 p.m. to make the deposit, but failed; like he had a vision.

In his mind he reasoned that the account did not have on sufficient funds for what he wanted but surely to deposit the cheque would have been more than enough because the cheque was for more than what he wanted. He continued to reason that if he wrote the cheque and he could get to the bank at 8 a.m. the next morning and make the deposit, all will be fine. So said, so done.

Five days later, he got a call from Sure Pay saying that his cheque had bounced. Bewildered, he went to his bank to find out how that could happen. The teller at the bank in explaining said when Sure Pay deposited that night, their "night staff" would have received it from the payee's banker and at that time, your account would not have had sufficient funds.

"NIGHT STAFF?" Furthermore, he said, the bank is now charging a penalty of $50 per bounced cheque. With regards this charge for not sufficient funds, it is a mechanism for the bank to steal from its customers. As my friend explained, they took out the money as if it was their account, but what is worse, although the clerk argued with him that when he opened the account he would have agreed to all this, the point must be made that previously it was $25-$30 for a bounced cheque and the bank raised it without notifying him.

It means that the bank, not only took his money but increased what they took and surely this cannot be right. I have argued and will probably argue in a court of law very soon, that this practice is nothing more than breaking and entering; highly unethical by legal and moral standards. It should be that if you owe the bank money, just like any business should write you an invoice and give you time to pay so you can budget... but to just go and take the money has the potential of devasting a poor person.

As an addendum, with all the banks employing staff at night, it is unfair to ask for three days to clear a cheque. It should not be more than two days. Fair is Fair. The next pertinent question is, what constitutes a working day if banks are working at night and probably on weekends too?