Maintaining your family finances can be a difficult task, but a positive relationship with your banker will help. Taking control and responsibility will come back to lend a hand you when you need it.
Take bank charges, for example. Have you noticed that many banks won’t let you actually bounce checks anymore? They have realized that it is in their best interest to cover your checks themselves. How nice of them! Just make sure that you know of their overdraft fee. I know of banks that charge in excess of $30 per overdraft. Obviously, you shouldn’t overdraft your checkbook, but honest mistakes do happen.
Let say you sold your boat, and the buyer wrote you a check for $3000. You know this person through a mutual friend, and trust them to have the money in their account. The next day, you deposit their check into your personal checking account, and use the money for a down payment on the new boat you have been dreaming of. Sounds simple right?
The check you wrote for the down payment has cleared before the $3000 one you deposited. An honest error, but you will now be charged an overdraft fee for every check you wrote that comes through. And they put the big ones through first.
Don’t panic quite yet. It will cost you some dough, but speak with the branch manager and explain your situation. They are able to reduce or eliminate some of the charges, as long as you don’t do this often. You’re out a few bucks, but it could be worse.
This also rings true for your credit card issuing bank as well. If you have a history of good standing with your accounts, your banking institution is more likely to cut you a few breaks ever now and again. After all, you are a valued customer. Take the time to call them and ask them to lower your interest rates. With a clean history, they probably will. And the annual membership fees that can reach $100, they can reduce that too! They won’t unless you call.
Take the initiative and make contact with these financial institutions. Sometimes they seem so big and intimidating that we fail to point things out to them. Make sure you are nice to them (you catch more flies with honey), and simply explain what you think is fair. You’ll be surprised at how much power the person on the other end of the phone has.
Robb Ksiazek is a successful author and publisher for
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