My Hundred Dollar Pack of Gum
Let me just start off by saying I was a few fries short of a happy meal back in my college days. I stayed up way too late and drank entirely too much. Needless to say clarity of thought was not my ally during those hazy days. That said, I’m sure you’re wondering how on earth someone could wind up paying more than a hundred bucks for a pack of gum. Well, lets follow the bouncing ball on its enchanted path to overdraft charges.
That particular Friday started off innocent enough as I recall. I woke up at noon, took a quick shower, grabbed a bite, and began my day. I then decided to skip my two o’clock Statistics class. I know I shouldn’t have skipped class but probability theory and standard deviations just weren’t doing it for me. In hind sight getting my butt to class would have saved me a lot of money. Anyway, after I made the executive decision to skip class I headed to the gas station. I realized on my way that I didn’t have any cash on me, but that wasn’t a big deal because I had my debit card. I knew my checking account balance was fairly low however. I was thinking my balance was around $20 bucks. This was my first mistake. All I had to do was call and confirm my actual balance, but I was too lazy.
I then proceeded to pumped $15 of gas, which was fine, but it was the next purchase that set in motion a rash of overdraft charges that had never before been seen. I strolled into the convenient store after pumping my gas and paid for a pack of gum. That $1.50 pack of gum, believe it or not, set me over the brink. I would later discover I was hit with a $39.00 overdraft fee, yikes! As it turns out I only had $16 bucks left in my account that day. The gas charge was fine but the gum purchase pushed me past my available balance threshold. Still, I was none-the-wiser at the time as I continued on my merry way.
After the gas station I swung into the liquor store and picked up some beer for the night. This was strike two. I already knew I was dangerously close to my remaining balance but made the purchase anyway figuring I could just transfer the funds over to my account when I got home that afternoon and avoid any fees.
Here is where a little bad luck and incompetence come into play. When I got home I did transferred the funds over just as I promised myself, but transferred them the WRONG way! I wanted to transfer money from my ING account to my Citi account, which was connected to my debit card, but instead accidentally clicked transfer funds from my Citi account to my ING. Strike three! That was $117 in overdraft charges ($39 x 3) that hit me within an hour!
What I should have done
- I should have called to get my balance
- I should have spoke to a customer service representative to at least dispute my accidental transfer request and get $39 waved
- I should have had an overdraft protection plan. Had I been using my ING debit card instead of my Citi I would have saved myself a lot of money. ING doesn’t charge you a flat overdraft fee, provided you fall within your qualified protection line. Here is how it works: If I was extended a $100 protection line, which I was, and made some purchases totaling $26, while only having $16 in my account the $10 bucks would be pulled from my protection line. Then I would have only paid interest (based on the ING Prime rate) on that $10 until my next deposit was made. Pretty sweet deal.
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To this day I haven’t bought another pack of Doublemint gum. It hurts too much.
ScholarshipPoints Code: GUMYUMGUM
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That happen to me once when I bought some strawberries at a local farm market.
Agree, we all make mistakes we have to learn from.
Hopefully you learned to be more cautious and always knowing how much money is in your account.
live and learn
sorry to hear what happened. but now i know what not to do from our mistakes! hope you get through your finance problems.
loved the article
it was helpful thanks
This scared the living crap out of me. Seriously.
This is a cool article to read, I enjoyed it
shows great detail and helps out. good article. hope i keep my balance positive
that’s why your always suppose to check your bank account.
didnt no i could happen
Wow how intresting is that!!!!!!!!
Wow this is very helpful. It hows how little things that you do can turn into something so big.
haha “few fries short of a happy meal”
This was really good to read because I know a lot of people that don’t take care of their money and this just reinforces that people should pay more attention.
OMG.. thanks 4 the story.. now i kno wat NOT 2 do!
huh i didnt know that
i don’t know about that
very funny and at the same time very educating
This has happened to me several times.
Ah, overdrafting. I myself have stacked up about $300 in overdraft fees. Not the happiest moment of my life.
being in touch and also reviewing your account is a musta
so it is important to prevent that
It’s sad, but true. This eventually happens to everyone once in their life. The first time it happened to me, I broke down in tears. I thought I had every cent marked in my check book, but apparently, I miscalculated and bam! I was hit with a HUGE overdraft fee. Thankfully, I have been on top of things since then, but I do understand how sometimes people get so busy that they forget to check, or see how much money they have. My advice would be, do online banking and be wise!