Reg D Charges

I was browsing the web today and came across some articles about bank service charges being the new aggravation among people in the current economy.

I then decided to check my bank accounts online and realized that I'd been hit with two $13 charges in my savings account due to excessive Regulation D transfers. How ironic! On top of that, the bank also mistakenly debited my checking account twice for a monthly loan payment.

Regulation D stems from the 1933 Securities Act, and basically puts a limitation on the number of transfers that the owner of an interest-bearing account can make electronically to a non-interest bearing account over the course of a month. It has something to do with how much money a bank must keep in reserve to satisfy the Fed.

The point is, my meager savings account had a total of $74 and change in it the other day, a result of my continuing, futile attempt to put some money away. I decided to temporarily transfer all but $25 of that balance back to checking to ensure upcoming debits would be covered like, oh, my mortgage payment. Unfortunately, the bank had thoughtfully moved some money from the account earlier in the month to cover a shortage, and I had done the same, and boom, though I'd not exceeded the six-transfers-per-month limitation, I had exceeded the bank's self-imposed two free transfers limit. So, two $13 fees later, and my account now has a balance of negative $1.

My husband and I are desperately trying to stay on budget, cover our bills faithfully, and maybe save a little money. I am incredibly diligent about our accounts - I'm not an irresponsible person. We don't have much in the way of debts - mainly a few closed-ended collateral-based loans. We've made our mistakes in the past, like everyone else, and we are simply trying to keep our heads above water. The problem lies in the fact that we, like many people out there today, live paycheck to paycheck. There's never a lot left over to provide a cushion and no matter how hard we try, something usually comes up that depletes anything we've been able to save. In other words, we never seem to get ahead.

That's why these constant little dings niggle me so much. I try like hell to squirrel away $75, and I end up losing $25 of it because of a nuisance rule like this!

Never mind that the bank isn't required to charge a fee after two transfers. Never mind that the bank could, instead of nickel and diming us all to death, just deny any transfers after the monthly limit of six is reached. Never mind that it's my own money and shouldn't I be able to do with it as I damn well please? With rules like these, where is the incentive to even put money in a savings account?

Did I mention this Reg D rule doesn't apply to account holders with substantial balances in their accounts? How nice for those people fortunate enough to have an extra million or so in the bank.

So what to do? The same thing as always - I fight back. I immediately fired off an email to the bank outlining my expectation that they should credit the $26 in charges back to my account since I wasn't aware of their policy, and asking them to immediately credit the checking account for the extra loan payment.

Since I have no cushion, I'll need them to do it asap, before my mortgage payment comes out on Wednesday. Good thing I even had the mortgage money set aside in the account to begin with. Had it been another time of the month, the bank's mistake would have put me $214 in the hole over a weekend, a big problem if I'd needed to rely on cash in my account for an emergency or even basic living expenses like groceries.

Most aggravating for me, though, is the time and energy wasted on all of it - trying to resolve a problem over such a minor amount of money, that unfortunately, can cause such a great hassle to me. This when I try so hard to be careful and do the right thing. Life is too short to worry about it, but the consequences for a regular Joe like me, are to great to ignore.