Little Rishi

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Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Getting another bank fee waived

While talking to my father recently, I found out that he ended up paying $85 in "Statement Rehandling Fee" to Provident Bank. Reason? Apparently, the bank had been sending monthly statements to my father but they had been returning back to the bank as non-deliverable. For almost two years, they been deducting $5 per month from my father's account. Since my father doesn't use Provident Bank much, he didn't notice the fee until he went to the branch in April 2009. My father told me that he thought that he had informed Provident Bank about updating his address when he moved but apparently, the bank was still sending statements to the old address. To avoid further charges, he went to the bank and closed his account.

When my father told me about it, I went with him to the Provident Bank branch near our house. Fortunately, my wife also has a account at that bank and we have used that branch a few times to deposit/withdraw money. I met with the one of the representatives there and told him about the situation. He looked at the system and found that my father had indeed provided them with his updated address but for some reasons, the statements were still getting send to the old address. However, he mentioned that since the account is closed, the bank may not credit $85 back. In addition, he mentioned that in case of any amount discrepancy, we are supposed to notify the bank within 60 days. Before we could say anything, he himself said that since we were not getting the statements, it wasn't our fault that we didn't notify the bank within 60 days. He put in the request for opening the account, and crediting the $85 in fees.

After about 2-3 weeks, my dad's account was opened but no amount was credited to our account. We went to the branch again and met that person. Fortunately, he remembered us. He took our info again and told us that he will talk to his branch manager. A couple of days later, we checked the account and lo and behold - $85 was there in the account!

Lesson learnt:

It pays to talk to the bank to see if the charges can be waived. As mentioned in one of my previous posts, if the fee was due to an infrequent mistake, chances are they will waive the fee.

Labels: bank, bank bonuses, Bank fees, frugal, saving tips, savings

posted by Little Rishi @ Tuesday, May 12, 2009 0 comments

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Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Getting discount on air travel

Pentagon Federal Credit Union is paying 5% cash back on your first $4000 of airfare purchases per month to its Visa Platinum Rewards card holder. The offer came at the right time for us as we are planning to take a trip to visit our family over the summer. The offer is valid for purchases made by July 31, 2009.

*** Airfare purchases must be made between May 1, 2009 and July 31, 2009 to qualify for 5% cash back promotion, thereafter such purchases receive 1.25% cash back. Earn up to $200 cash back per month on airfare purchases. Fuel purchases for airplanes and boats receive 1.25% cash back.

I have had the card for quite some time and am pleased with it, since it gives 5% cash back on gas purchases, 2% cash back on supermarket purchases, and 1.25% on all other purchases, while carrying no annual fee. After getting the Schwab Visa card, which gives 2% on all transactions, we've limited the use of Penfed's Visa card to primarily for gas-related purchases but I like the fact that Penfed automatically credits the cash back each month, reducing the outstanding balance.

For more info on Penfed's credit card, see:

Penfed Visa Platinum Rewards card

Labels: credit card, frugal, saving tips, savings

posted by Little Rishi @ Wednesday, May 06, 2009 0 comments

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Tuesday, May 5, 2009

How to get bank fees waived?

Recently, I had initiated a bank-to-bank ACH transfer from my Digital Federal Credit Union (DCU) to Presidential Bank account. The money was supposed to be withdrawn from my checking account at DCU. However, while initiating the transfer online from Presidential Bank's Web site, I mistakingly selected Savings account at DCU. Result? When Presidential Bank tried to withdraw the money, it did it from Savings account at DCU where I didn't have sufficient funds. As a result, the transaction got rejected and DCU charged me a $30 non-sufficient fee (NSF).

To make matters worse, Presidential Bank automatically tried to go through the transaction again the next day, and again, the transaction got rejected due to insufficent funds. I learnt the hard way that if a ACH-transfer transaction is rejected for the first time, the bank automatically processes that transaction again the next day. However, the result in my case was that DCU hit me with another $30 fee since I still didn't have sufficient funds in that account. So the net result of these two transactions was that I got hit with $60 fee by DCU. Fortunately, Presidential Bank didn't charge any fee for rejected transfer but it did suspend my DCU-Savings account for future transfers. I removed the suspended account from list of approved bank accounts for transfer and hopefully, will be able to add it back at a latter date.

I called a DCU rep and told her about my error. Initially, she mentioned that DCU only refunds such fees in case of error on DCU's part. I told her that it wasn't DCU's fault, and it was I who had entered the account info incorrectly. I politely asked her again if she could waive it. Fortunately, she told me to hold on while she talks to her manager. In a few minutes, she came back and told me that based on my history with the credit union, they have decided to waive both $30 charges but it's only for this time only. I thanked her for waiving the fee.

Lessons learnt were:

1. Be careful before initiating bank-to-bank ACH transfers to ensure all information is correct, and there are sufficient funds in the account.

2. In case a bank has imposed a fee, it always pays to call them and see if they can waive the fee. The thing I have learnt over the years is that you need to be polite rather than demanding when speaking with customer service reps. These reps already have had enough of disgruntled and angry customers, and they appreciate if someone talks to them politely.

Banks aren't required to waive such fees because that's part of the way they make money, and especially so since it was mistake on customer's part. However, in most cases, if you have had a good history with a bank, and hadn't had such issues regularly, banks will waive the fee. But you need to careful not to have NSF or other such transactions frequently.

3. Visit the bank's branch and talk to a service rep. In many cases, service reps at the branch will be willingly to waive the charges. If a branch is not located nearby, then it's better to call and speak to a rep; avoid emailing unless that's the only available option. With emails, it gets much easier for banks to send a standard reply, explaining why the fee can't be waived. However, it's still worth a try, if it's not possible to visit a branch or contact the bank via phone.

In my case, since DCU branches are not located in my state, I had to call them. The entire conversation with the DCU rep took less than 10 minutes but it was nice to have $60 credited back to my account.

Labels: bank, Bank fees, frugal, personal finance, saving tips, savings

posted by Little Rishi @ Tuesday, May 05, 2009 4 comments

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