ok. So he didn't pay $38 for coffee. He paid normal price + his banks over draft fees because he didn't understand the following:

A) He can have overdraft turned off and just have his card denied
1) but then he would be embarrassed at the coffee shop

B) He doesn't manage his money closely enough to know how much he has in his account

C) He didn't call his bank and ask them to remove the fee (a lot of the times they will)

Insert cliché Starbucks joke here.

I wouldn't pay $4 for a cup of coffee but, then again, I'm not this dude.

Im not normally one to blame the OP but this was plain irresponsibility. From what I can tell in the article, It's not like he had a previous debit double dip or something. He just didnt balance his checking account and didnt know he was broke.

@Bladefist: He said he would have rather had the embarrassment of having his card denied, rather than get hit by the fees.

But someone has to cue the "he shouldn't be buying a cup of coffee if he has no money in his account" bit.

he didn't pay $38 for a cup of coffe. He paid a fine because he can't do basic math. People if you don't have enough money in you account DONT USE A DEBIT CARD OR WRITE A CHECK!

@diasdiem: I agree completely!

The title of this piece is dishonest.

If you want to drive home another example of banks using fees to drive revenue, go ahead. Don't say that the cop of coffee costs $38.

Also, you already did a similar piece on Wedensday in the sense that you covered the mandatory opt-in program for overdraft fees. [consumerist.com]

And on Monday. [consumerist.com]

@Blinky987: I meant "last Monday."

WaMu just did this to myself and my wife. We are getting rid of the account so next to no money is in there. When we forgot to change over 3 things that go out through direct deposit, they hit us 3 different times instead of just denying the claim.

If the banks charge a hell of a lot less, this would be a really great feature. But 35 bucks everytime?

@Bladefist: I didn't know I didn't have the money! I do not know my bank's deposit or withdrawal policies! I just put money in and take money out. I figure I'm fine until I overdraft, but overdrafting makes me a victim so I can't be to blame!

In a related, non-blaming note, this person should get a line of credit on that checking account. I have mine on my CC, but I rarely use debit anyway. Just don't treat it like a "real" line of credit like that rocket scientist (literal) a few weeks ago.

I had a friend pay $38.00 for cheese curds the same way. That story always cracks me up. And he knew he was getting the overdraft fees, but the tempt of cheese curds was too strong.

How is this worthy of its own post, Consumerist? Seriously? It's like reading an Onion article: "Area Man Charged Overdraft Fees".

i bought a $34 20oz coke once. i was pissed.

This can happen to you even if you no how to do basic math. Mr. Sam rented a tool and the tool rental place put a $500 hold (deposit) on his account. Yes he paid with Visa debit card as we use debit for just about everything because we don't care for credit (or debt). He didn't know about the hold and went about his weekend business and ended up with about 15 overdraft charges totalling more than $500. The bank did refund all the charges once we were aware of the problem (Monday). Mr. Sam wouldn't have cared if he had been declined (really, he has no shame) at some point during the weekend and we could have easily shifted monies around between our many accounts and headed off the major problem. While the bank refunded the charges it still took time and energy to do so.

If the intention of this story was to fuel the fire for our new found hatred of banks, this is pushing it. And, I'm not even blaming Consumerist. I have a major issue with MSNBC's reporting of this situation.

I've always been very aware of my funds at all times. My wife has not. When we first moved in together, we ordered quite a few "$50 pizzas", as I came to call them.

That story is nothing.

I used to park at my work and pay the parking fee (approx $5 per day) with my debit card. Well an automatic debit went through that I forgot about which made me overdrawn. Soon after, all my previous week's parking charges (4 total) went through, each of them netting me another $25 charge. Total of around $125 in fees for the privilege of the bank lend me a grand total of about $30

The one and only time I've been charged an overdraft fee: Just moved and opened a new bank account. I was out at a restaurant a few days later and wanted to treat, but didn't have enough cash on me. There was a convenience store with an ATM next door so I went to see if the deposit I had made in opening the account had cleared. It hadn't, and I was overdraft feed $35 on the $1 the ATM charged to check my balance. That was fun.

@Bladefist: Well despite the fact that they should deny transactions by default, this is no different than a payday loan. This guy was charged an apr of like 255,500% on that cup of coffee. Any overdraft system the banks use should be counted as a loan. And be charged no more than a 30% apr.

But they are basically trying to call this insurance, when it really is a loan.

@Ninja007: They guy could have overdrawn by one cent.

I often joke that I once had a $36 dish of gelato, since it was $6 for the gelato and $30 for the parking ticket, but that doesn't make it true.

I think overdraft fees are a total scam, mind you, but it's a scam I have a hard time having too terribly much sympathy for, given that not spending money you don't have keeps them away. As does, you know, paying cash for something as piddling as a cup of coffee.

@Blinky987: It is perfectly appropriate to say he paid 38 dollars for a cup of coffee. Because that is what he was charged for that purchase.

@pecan 3.14159265: No, he shouldn't be buying a cup of coffee if he does not even have the $2 in his checking account required to buy that cup of coffee.

There's no excuse for not knowing you have less than a few dollars available to spend.

@wickedpixel: OK, I think you win this little contest!

@SadSam: You should be using credit for things like that. You don't care for credit, because you only see it as a loan instead of a shielded debit card. You DO NOT have to hold a balance and pay interest on a credit card.

Alternate headline: "Man buys cup of coffee he can't afford."

You people are so quick to blame to OP. Really, WERE YOU THERE? Chances are, he wasn't thinking "Well, I don't have enough money, but I'll do it anyways." I'm not saying its OK to knowingly overdraft, but yes, shit happens.

I believe there was a story on here about someone who had a hold on their account and believing they had sufficient money in their account, made a purchase that got overdrafted. Not from irresponsibility, but because they honestly believed they had sufficient funds in their account.

@Corporate_guy: It seems to me that, if a fee / charge / whatever is flat, rather than being calculated as a function of the credit extended, it's pretty much meaningless to calculate an effective interest rate. Of course, it does make for good sensationalist journalism.

@Corporate_guy: Show me the line-item receipt where the coffee costs $38.

I went on vacation once and didn't pay much attention to my bank account and ended up getting a bunch of overdraft fees. I was with US Bank at the time, and the way they charged me the overdraft fees meant instead of $80 in fees, I had nearly $250.

You have an available balance and an actual balance. If anything clears while your available balance is negative, they charge you the overdraft fee, regardless of what's actually in your account. This way if you have 8 separate transactions at once and only the last one makes your available balance go negative, when all eight clear you will get overdraft fees on all 8 of them instead of just the 1 that brought your account negative.

Needless to say, I will never go back to US Bank after finding this out!

Another good case for not using debit cards. If he had paid with a credit card, he would have had several weeks to make the payment, and, in the event he couldn't/didn't make the full payment, the interest charges would have been much less than $35.

@Bladefist: No bank I've ever heard of will let you "turn off" overdraft protection.

Woman charged $100 for library book.

PS: The book was 30 years overdue.

PPS: The book contained the secret to everlasting life.

PPPSSS: The 'woman' was actually Hitler in drag.

@LegoMan322:

*sigh* Do you guys not understand the alternative to overdraft? Being sent to collection is the alternative. That is much worse.

@Ninja007: LOL, and there it is.

You do realize that sometimes shit happens, right? And that banks like to submit your transactions out of order for ~convenience~

@Corporate_guy: CC companies will simply cancel your card if you don't maintain a balance, unless you're paying an annual fee for your card.

@SadSam:

I like how you guys expect the bank to magically know Mr. Sam has outstanding items.

Same goes for the guy in the article. Even if he doesn't want overdraft protection, he will still be allowed to buy the coffee. The bank doesn't know his outstanding items. For all the bank knows, this is the only transaction he is doing.

@Corporate_guy: so? Bad math is bad math. I never have this problem because I always know what is in my account. Every time I get paid I pay my bills and then move everything except for $.01 into my savings. I've been doing this for several years and have never had a problem. I do my math.

@nataku83:

Out-f'n-standing!

@Corporate_guy: Not everyone has a credit card. You do realize that if someone has the money, they can use it any way they want, right? Without being worried that it's going to suddenly be "gone" for "a while"?

@crashfrog: And that's a waste of money: Paying a fee for a card you never use.

@crashfrog:

There are many that will. Have fun dealing with collections agencies though. Oh yeah, you will also get reported to the cops for writing bad checks.

@Bladefist: dunno about you, but at my bank (US Bank), I was told that you couldn't disable overdrawing on your account anywhere other than at the branch ATM due to the way their electronic debit system was setup. really the only way to prevent it is to know how much money you really have.

@JohnDeere: Which version of "pissed" -- American or English? If English, it would really explain things.

@Corporate_guy:

Now this is an intelligent idea. Way to think CG, this could probably be investigated by whoever is in charge of banking laws. The classification sure does point to a loan rather than insurance. Way to think, I'm impressed.

I had this happen recently as well.

Mine ends up with me being pissed at not only one but two companies.

To start with I was already pissed at my cable company. My card got caught up in the Heartland fiasco and canceled. I always forget which automatic payments I have linked to the card and which I have linked to EFT. Turns out that cable was one that was linked to the card. Yes, I should of caught it myself when it didn't come out the first month but I didn't so when the second one didn't come out the cable company started sending me nasty letters, calls, etc. My POV is that they should of done that on the first one if an 'automatic' payment doesn't pull, why wouldn't you check at that point? Yes, I know I'm not blame free here but still upset me.

So anyways I went to pay the bill, knowing that I didn't have any money in that account, but I would come the first, so I'll just set the payment for that date like any online payment lets you do. Apparently my cable company doesn't give you that option and at no point do they give you any kind notice that you're on the last screen and the payment is going to process after this point. So I'm clicking next waiting for the point I'll get to choose the date my payment is taken and all the sudden I've submitted payment from an account I know doesn't have any money.

"Well shit", I think. At least I recently set up overdraft protection on that account. It will hit that, I won't have to worry about an overdraft fee. Get up that morning after starting to worry about the whole thing in the back of my head and check my account online. Sure enough, they did charge me overdraft fees. I have no idea why it didn't hit my overdraft line of credit I had just set up but I'm going to find out this afternoon.

@crashfrog: I don't have over-draft protection. I've never had it. Ever.