The title pretty much sums it up, I'm retarded and due to my retarded method that requires me to move money from one bank to another each month so I can use up these old checks I've got, I bounced my rent check this month. Just fucking forgot to move the money over.
Anyway, I have the money to cover it, I plan to run down to the landlord's office first thing in the morning to give it to them. What I'm afraid of is a shitton of late fees, returned check fees, what have you. I honestly, truly, can't afford them at this point.
So, I'm curious if anyone else has experience here. What are the chances that I can talk my landlord and my bank into forgiving the fees? Is it possible at all? If I call the bank up and beg, pointing out how long I've been a member and how I've never given them trouble, might they reverse their $39 charge? I've been with the landlord for years, too, but they're more or less dicks who prey on college students, so I'm less optimistic about any compassion from them.
ARGH I'm just so angry at myself. :?
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Your bank is probably not interested in negotiating though.
Now, I pay a few dollars more each month for my bank fee but I have overdraft. The same thing happened again, but it cost me $5 for an overdraft handling fee instead.
Has the check actually come back from the landlord yet, or did the bank just notify you that you were overdrawn? If it hasn't come back from the landlord, it's very possible that getting enough money into the account tomorrow will prevent it from ever being a thing. If the check already came back and made your rent late, there's probably nothing you can do other than hope the landlord cuts you a break.
I would ask the bank to forgive the fine on the grounds that you're a long time customer and it was only an accounting error on your part that caused the problem, not actual irresponsible spending. In my case the bank actually did wipe out the charges, since I was able to transfer enough money into the account to cover the check within hours of finding out that it bounced. If the bank isn't willing to do this for you, I would threaten to switch banks, and if that didn't change their position I would do it.
Pluto was a planet and I'll never forget
Got an e-mail about 4 hours ago saying that there were insufficient funds to cover a recent transaction. Haven't seen the check or heard from my landlord or anything. I went and withdrew enough from my other account to cover my rent payment in cash, plus I put money into the overdrawn account to cover what the check would have been. I guess I can only hope that'll help.
I appreciate the advice, I guess I partially just wanted to vent somewhere. Nothing to do now but wait until morning and see what happens, I suppose.
What will happen is the landlord will deposit the check in their bank, and the bank will say okay, great, +dollars. Then that bank will take a few days to verify the check with the the fed and with whatever bank you are with. A check only bounces after that verification gets returned and the bank of origin says "oh hey that jerk didn't have enough money."
So if you got the money into your own account quickly, it is likely that the landlord will never notice the difference.
Pluto was a planet and I'll never forget
If they mostly rent to students and you're a long-term resident, you might be able to talk your way out of their late fee (usually $75 or so) but you're probably screwed re: the bank. It doesn't hurt to ask, though.
If he got the email from his bank then the check has already bounced since the other bank attempted to verify the funds and they weren't available. In my experience you can usually get banks to remove a single overdraft charge and I would assume the same applies to a bounced check charge though it seems stupid for a bank to charge you for something that doesn't affect them at all since it's not like they're loaning you money like they do with a overdraft. On the landlord side, if it's a person then you can probably talk them out of any charges if you have the money that day though I wouldn't attempt to pay with another check, if it's a company then you may be screwed though the person at the office may have the authority to waive the fee if you've been a good renter.
Since you're only doing this bizarre transfer thing to save checks, you might want to consider setting up an account with TD bank. They have $0 minimum for free checking and their bill pay allows you to send out a bank check automatically by mail for free. If you have to pay by check it is the way to go.
Not necessarily. My landlord got my rent check in the mail last Tuesday and the money was out of my account the following day.
I had to do this a couple months ago. You may just have to eat it.
So I called Bank of America. I was polite, I said I knew it was our fault, I didn't demand anything, but said we'd had an emergency and explained that the funds (and then some) were in our account hours later. I pointed out that this had never happened before, we'd been customers for years, and said I understood if we were stuck with the fees but asked if there was any way they could be waived.
I was really impressed; the lady didn't even hesitate. She pulled up our account and waived the fees right then. She was really nice about it, said she understood emergencies happened, and thanked us for being customers in good standing.
I just think you should at least try calling. You might be stuck with the fees, but you never know, you might get lucky. All you can do is be polite and humble about it. I think banks get a lot of angry calls from people, and if you're nice to someone who's just doing their job, they're a lot more willing to do your a favour in return.
It can be even faster, too, if they go directly to your bank to cash it, rather than theirs (or if you have the same bank). Some credit unions (not sure about banks) in an area typically have arrangements with each other to speed check cashing, too. If either of those is the situation, the check can clear or bounce in as little as a few minutes.
Anyway, as for this bank setup you're using: How important is it to use up those old checks? Banks charge a lot for checks, I know, but you can get those mail order checks MUCH cheaper. I've seen plain checks as low as $7 a box, compared to $25 from my bank.
Is it really worth the hassle (not to mention the potential for expensive mistakes like this one) to keep using them up rather than just destroying what's left and using a setup with less failure points?
Your landlord, however, will be charging you a returned item fee that you will have to pay.
Nope! I learned that today. I felt weird about not using most of the box of checks, but I'm gonna go ahead and throw them in my parents' wood stove.
I ended up paying $25 to the landlord for bouncing the check. I was afraid of the huge late fee that's in my lease, but they were super nice about it. Going to call the bank this afternoon and see if they can help me, but even if they can't I'm only out $60, so all in all, not too expensive a mistake.
I really appreciate all the replies, they made me feel better about what seemed like a doom scenario last night. Problem solved, lesson learned.
Good, I was just about to suggest bringing your landlord physical cash to pay the rent after your check bounced,