A brief rant about my sheer stupidity

I fucking hate banks now. I have a car loan through one bank that I'm making monthly payments of $209.87 on. I wrote the check out last week and dated it for July 2nd, hoping the funds wouldn't be taken out until then. At that time I had $1.84 left in my checking account. I go to deposit $205 yesterday and find I'm $240 in the hole because the dumbasses took the money out Wednesday. Does anyone know of anything, besides putting a stop payment on the check, that I can do?

 

Re: A brief rant about banks

Wait until July 2 to mail checks dated July 2.

And wait until you have $209.87 in the account before you write checks for $209.87.

 

Re: A brief rant about banks

EnglishGroceryBagger is unfamiliar with the ways of American grocery bagging. That is: Wait till the very last possible moment before kiting a check.

 

Re: A brief rant about banks

A lessen that took me years to understand. Can't tell you how many checks I wrote while anticipating free-lance checks.

 

Re: A brief rant about banks

If it's any consolation, my credit union won't let me write checks against funds I don't have, either.

 

Re: A brief rant about banks

As I learned the hard way in my earlier days, there's no such thing as a floating check.  :-\

Make sure the money's there in the account. I make it a point to send bills after I get verification of a payroll deposit each week. Call the bank or billing company and ask if you can get an extension or work out a later billing date.

 

Re: A brief rant about banks

I thought checks couldn't be authorized until the date written on them? And the only reason I sent my check in early is because I went out of town and didn't know when I'd be back. And, if I waited until after July 2nd I'd have had to pay $224.87 instead of $209.87.

 

Re: A brief rant about banks

I'm not even sure it's legal to post-date a check.

 

Re: A brief rant about banks

There's no such thing as postdating a check. Once they have it, they can cash it, regardless of the date.

And sometimes you just have to suck it up and pay the late fee. It's way better than cashing a check.

And I think the vast majority of people learn this lesson the hard way.

 

Re: A brief rant about banks

A brief rant about idiots:

Why are some people so stupid that they send their car payment in, knowing that they don't have funds in the bank at the time to cover it... and then blame someone else (this time, banks) for their stupidity?

 

Re: A brief rant about banks

You couldn't have mailed the check from out of town?

 

Re: A brief rant about banks

Pay-by-phone? My car loan company has that, as do quite a few companies where you can have a one-time automatic transfer out of your checking account on the due date and are only billed a nominal fee (between two and seven bucks).