Do not get me started on bank fees. Do not.

Banks are bad. They will screw you any way they can.

Don't spend that $10. When yahoo catches their mistake, they can charge it back to you without notice.

Without going into much detail, much of which was told me by a bank employee, banks are FEE HAPPY. They have dozens of ways engineered to catch you and charge you fees.

For example, when enacting a day's debits and credits, almost all banks will start with your biggest debit, then go on to the little debits (so that the little debits will all bounce if the big debit overdrew you), THEN they'll post the credit (which might have kept you from overdrawing in the first place.) Standard policy, and they do this quite purposefully.

But I said I wouldn't go into much detail.

Corporations suck.

IF you can find a nice teller, s/he MIGHT be able to reverse the NSF fees.

I am very careful to keep a couple hundred in 'padding' in the checking account at all times for weird things like the DreamHost billing screwup (even if it takes away from what little savings I have, and my little savings is smaller than it was a year ago). I wasn't hit in the DH debacle because, when I renewed my service in December, I decided to save that extra dollar per month by paying for 2 years in advance, using the money from an extra writing assignment I'd gotten. I agonized slightly over that decision, but now it turned out better than I expected. And now, thanks to their trying to recover their PR from the Big Billing Blowup, I can cancel and get a full refund from DH if I want (which I really don't).

But then, I was NOT on AutoPay with them (although lots of people who weren't still got dinged). The only entity I give that privilege to is the Mail-Order Pharmacy affiliated with my Medical Plan. And that only becomes a question when I give them a new prescription - like I have just this week. I'm watching their website and my bank's twice daily because they could conceivably put the new drug(s) in different categories (formulary/non-formulary/generic/brand-name) costs for which could range from $10 to over $100 for three months. (Of course, I can complain if they overcharge, and did have to once and they did fix it, but it still was $57 dollars out of my account for over a week) So, right now, I am checking both the pharamacy's and my bank's websites at least twice daily (only one medication pending right now... everything else went through the way I wanted) and it's a hassle. But worth it for the big savings and faster service on genuine necessities (I am doing this for my health).

After the holidays, Mrs. Doohickie realized she had overdrawn the checking account. Before anything bounced, though, she made a cash deposit to cover it. The next day, the overdraft fees started anyway. She went to the branch and showed them the receipt and after a little investigation they realized that the money was inadvertently put into our son's checking account. B of A moved the money back and recredited all the fees.

We have our mortgage with Wells Fargo and every time I pay the house payment in person they invite me to open a checking account. They've been great to work with so far, but I tell them that until B of A pisses me off (we've had them since '84), I can't see moving the checking account. The example above reinforces why I like B of A. Yeah, they messed up, but they fixed it right away, no problem.