Financial terror

[figmo]

My checking account has a negative balance.

I almost have a deliverable for karisu_sama and her husband, but Virtual PC keeps saying it's "Out of Memory" when I try to install a critical piece of software.

Even when the radio station pays me tomorrow my checking account will still have a negative balance.

I have money in Paypal I need to get to Consonance, but I can't move it because it'd get sucked into the vortex of my checking account if I did so.

I can't collect unemployment because I "earned" money even though I'm not collecting a red cent of it.

I don't have enough money left in my E*Trade account to pay my mortgage and my bills.

I don't know what to do.

Comments

[drewkitty.livejournal.com]

When a bank account goes negative, especially certain banks (Wells Snargo and WaMoops in particular), they charge a Level II Overdraft Fee as much as $5 / day. This can also happen due to automatic deductions or due to a claimed "overpayment" by an employer. Or (worst case) due to financial miscalculations on your part. Writing a check for which you have insufficient funds is technically a felony. EVEN IF you had no intent to do so. This can add on various painful check fees of $10 to $30 or more, repeatedly.

You can get trapped in an endless void where you are negative balance, get a direct deposit that would have cleared the original debt -- but not the surcharges -- and are still negative. Rinse and repeat until you lose several hundred dollars to the bank, they close the account and report you to ChexSystems (losing the ability to get an account elsewhere!) and adding insult to injury, refuse your direct deposit and force your employer to process the next paycheck as a manual refusal which can take a while.

If you actually have a check in hand, you can get it cashed a number of ways without losing the cash to a checking account in crisis. There may be other bills (such as mortgage) which need paying first. You also have leverage to get the bank manager to waive the fees (which they can do) in order to get you to bring your account back up to current.

You're not in this particular bind yet, it appears, but Direct Deposit is one of the first things I suggest that people dispose of when they get into financial hot waters