Police and Fire Federal Credit Union

Money Manipulation

Since "updating" their online banking web site Pffcu appears to be engaging in tansaction re-ordering that Increases consumer costs: The CFPB is concerned that overdraft practices employed by some financial institutions increase consumer costs. One such practice is commingling of all checks, bill payments, debit card transactions, and ATM withdrawals each day and processing the largest transactions first. This maximizes the number of transactions that will trigger an overdraft fee.
Essentially the CFPB has a hunch that banks are manipulating the order of your daily transactions to maximize the chances you’ll be charged an overdraft fee. Here’s an example: Say you’re a student with $50 in your account. You make 3 consecutive purchases for $10 each. That leaves you with $20, but you still need to buy a $40 book for class that evening. You decide to swipe your debit card anyway under the assumption you’ll be charged a $35 overdraft fee just once.

The CFPB says some banks will wait until the end of the day to deduct your daily purchases and start with the biggest purchase first. In this case, the $40 book is deducted first leaving the student with $10 then the three $10 transactions are deducted. That allows the bank to collect and overdraft fee two times instead of one. I have had numerous purchases made that according to my bank statement leave me with a positive balance but then a fee is withdrawn for the transaction When I question the credit union they always come back with some explanation as to how the deposit was actually made after the transaction took place but the retailor did not remove the funds from my account until some time later.( Pffcu also did not remove the funds from my available balance). So I made the transaction lacking in funds and a check is deposited before the funds leave my account and you charge me a fee because on paper I had no funds. Oh I get it -- The retailor not collecting the funds immediately should HELP me!! Pure manipulation!!!