A while back I switched from Yakima Federal, a small credit union which I loved, to US Bank, a large nationwide business of a bank which I thought I could handle.

I hate them.

I signed onto my online account the other day to find it $167 overdrawn! Somehow I had overdrawn my account. I didn't realize this was possible without checks! It wasn't possible at my old bank. When you ran out of money they didn't let you keep spending as they apparently do at US Bank. I called the customer service number to figure out how the hell that happened. She said that I had had outstanding charges and then I took money out of the ATM. Then when the charges went through they overdrew my account. So the lemonade I bought at the mall now cost $35 and the extra $7 I spent at Lane Bryant was now $37! $120 worth of fees later And I was dumping more than half of my paycheck into the bank just to bring the balance up to $0.

I asked the customer service rep. Why they would continue to let me spend money I don't have and she said they figured I knew how much money I had. Um... if I knew why would I incur $120 worth of fees? Just for fun? I asked her at what point they would have started declining me money and she said at about $1000! $1000!!!!! Oh my god!! Unbelievable.

Last night when Shawn and I were out I needed more money so I thought I would see if I could take money out of my account. Knowing full well the balance was zero. Nope. It denied me. No big surprise. But today when I checked my account online I was $1.50 overdrawn! Apparently they charged me $1.50 for the privilege of being told no!

I hate big banks. Too many rules I don't understand. I hate learning shit the hard way.