I did decline it when I had Chase. I had moved and the closest branch was 1 1/2 hour away. The day I was going to go shopping and make a deposit I ended up at the hospital for a few days with a family member. I wasn't worried about it because I'd declined the overdraft. When I went online to pay the bills with my credit card. They were already paid. I called the bank and they told me that they pay "electronic payment requests" as a "favor" to the customer. LOL. The fees cost me more than the bills! The bank I have now tells me that they will not put any transactions through.
I don't have the gas issue with my Paypal debit card, I buy gas on it all the time. But I do know what you're talking about because I had a Visa gift card that initially charged me $75 for $14 worth of gas. I was near tears.
I've heard lots of bad things about that Bluebird card. Personally, I have an intense disdain for banks. I used to have a checking account, many years ago. A bum I used to date stole some of my checks, and forged them out to various places, severely overdrawing my account for $400. Well, by then, I start getting calls from the places who had the checks he wrote, asking that I pay them off, or they were going to notify the police, and I would be left holding the bag for the bad checks. Then, I contact the bank, and they actually have the audacity to tell me that I also owe them $400 for those checks, when they never paid out any money on them. I called the police to report my ex stealing the checks and forging my name, but the bank would not supply the required information to the police. So, ex got away with stealing about, all in all, $800 from me. Then the bank tries to dun me for another $150 in "overdraft charges" I told them to sod off, and refused to pay it. I later declared the debt as part of a bankruptcy. Now, I don't trust banks to have my money sitting there. I use a prepaid debit card, and withdraw my money as soon as it goes in. When I pay my bills, I use a 1 time payment, and let them take it from the card, then take the remaining cash at the ATM. I have an ATM nearby that is part of a credit union, so they only charge $3 to withdraw. Doing this eliminates the problem of unauthorized transactions. I also don't use ATMs in convenience stores or places where they're likely to have a higher fee. I got dinged a few weeks ago using an ATM at the grocery store. I had $600 to withdraw, and the machine charged me $5 for a fee, but then said I couldn't withdraw my money. My regular ATM lets me do that all the time, for $3. I'd like to see somebody try to get the cash from my pocket without me knowing about it. LOL!
I don't think I've written a check in 5 years or more. I've never had a problem with fraud. Wachovia & Bank of America were great. I had my check card stolen while I was with Wachovia and they took care of around $1500 in transactions and fees with no problem. Bank of America called me when someone used my check card number online. Took care of that one for less than a $100 with no problem. I don't really have a problem with banks except their over draft fee/policies. When you are living pay check to pay check keeping on top of everything to avoid accidental overdraft fees is a pain. Every once in a while I'll run into an automatic payment that will go through 1 or 2 days early. So I set up all my scheduled payments on my prepaid (my bank schedules automatic transfers to it if the money is there) or my credit card. I wouldn't use pre-paid exclusively since they are not FDIC insured. The company goes under and getting your money would be next to impossible. Every bank has different policies but once you learn them it isn't as bad as it used to be. Two important things to check on are their overdraft policy and fraud policy. One bank I used a long time a go would post a hold on the funds for what ever you purchased. The next day when the purchase posted the hold would not immediately roll off. So if you had $100 in your checking account and made a $51 purchase you would go into "overdraft" at that moment because your balance would be -$2 at that moment. Of course the next minute your balance would be $15 after they charged you an "overdraft" fee. I don't think banks can do this any longer. With few exceptions transactions post immediately today. Most banks will temporarily return all money from a fraudulent transaction. Once the fraud case is investigated and closed they'll inform whether or not it was deemed fraud. If it is not then you have to pay the money back.
One day my check card started being declined. I knew there was enough money, so I called them. Turns out somebody had used it to buy $400 worth of shoes in Topeka, KS. I've never been to Kansas and it's halfway across the country from where I live. I got it reversed and the card worked again.
Received an email today with this interesting item included: Added Security with FDIC Insurance The funds in your Bluebird Account are now FDIC insured*, providing you with added peace of mind. To learn more about FDIC insurance for Bluebird visit bluebird.com/FDIC.
That's the good thing about major corporations like AmEx; they have departments and funds dedicated to ID theft prevention
I'm glad they are FDIC insured now. I won't worry about transferring money to my bank account as often. I wasn't all that worried before since it was American Express. But I didn't like keeping more than $100 or so. Enough to cover my "fun" bills.
A lot of gas stations preauthorize amounts, but they eventually fall off. And those prepaid cards are specifically made to nickel and dime the poor to death. (Not calling you poor, just the demographic those kinds of cards are targeting are those living paycheck to paycheck) They're intended to be an alternative to bank accounts, which makes no sense to me. Why not just get a bank account? They're essentially free.
Well, there are reasons people can want to avoid banks: nosy spouses, garnishments, etc. Not that I am saying everyone who uses prepaid cards is hiding money, but some do.
Some prepaid cards to nickle and dime you. You have to be careful how you use them. I've used 2 different ones. One I paid a flat fee of $9.95 a month for unlimited transactions and then found the Bluebird and I don't have any fees. I do have a bank account also. Prepaid cards have more uses for any body. Not just those living pay check to pay check. I used it when things were tight to set up recurring charges such as netflix, hulu, and other "fun" bills. If those are declined it's no big deal. But if they accrue overdraft charges that could be costly. Now that things aren't so tight, I keep a little money in there for other things. Like if my son needs gas/food money I just send him some cash and it is there instantly. It saves me a 60 mile trip to get cash and give it to him. I've set my parents and my son up with Bluebird so I can send them money easily. It used to be that you had to have joint checking accounts with everyone in your family at the same bank to accomplish the same thing. Also it's great for those paranoid people like my dad. I thought he'd go through the roof when my mom started turking and wanted to link amazon payments to their checking account. He feels better having amazon payments linked to the Bluebird card that is linked to the checking account.
Why not just budget your money and keep the appropriate amount in your bank account? Overdrafts don't just pop out of nowhere, and recurring bills are predictable because they're, well, recurring, lol.
That was the point. I was budgeting. When your income fluctuates as much as $500 a month it wasn't easy. When the money was there the "fun" bills got paid and my ex husband was happy. When it wasn't then he was just SOL. I really could have cared less. I would have canceled it all and said to hell with it. Now I don't have a husband and don't have that problem.