• Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      You may hear that, but I’m not seeing a lot of people in the grocery lines being told their accounts are unexpectedly empty.

      • maynarkh@feddit.nl
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        4 months ago

        Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a “US bread lines” shill, I’m just saying overdraft fees are criminal and would have killed me as a student.

        • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          That’s why you go with a credit union and not a bank. (When I said ‘bank account,’ it was a general term that people assume includes credit unions most of the time.) The overdraft “fee” on my checking account is “keep some money in your savings account to cover it.”

          I agree, U.S. banks are insanely predatory. But there is a perfectly good alternative that many people simply don’t look into taking. Sometimes being a credit union member requires you to be affiliated with an institution (I got my account while working for a university), that isn’t always necessary.

          • maynarkh@feddit.nl
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            4 months ago

            I guess that’s why I’m not planning to move to the US any time soon. The whole “you’re scammed by default” thing. I don’t want to be an expert on 30 different things just so that I don’t get seriously fucked over every other day.

            I used to live in a country that was similar in some ways, you had to triple check everything because every glorified “small business owner” was scummy, and the regulator was asleep at the wheel. I like my peace and quiet now.

            • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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              4 months ago

              I don’t blame you. There are a lot of reasons I wouldn’t move here if I didn’t already live here, not the least of which being my massive medical debts.

              I was just saying that there is an alternative to that particular problem and I wish more people knew about it and took it. Banks should not be for-profit entities in the first place in my opinion.