Don't Bank On It

A few years ago, my bank offered me a line of credit. I didn't want it but the bank teller talked me into accepting it. I haven't used the line of credit at all. Now I receive a letter from my bank telling me that due to the costs of lending in this economic climate, they will starting charging a fee for unused lines of credit.

That means, if I have a line of credit and I don't use it in 365 days, I have to pay the bank an inactivity fee! And the charge is retroactive to 2006!

Whoa. They talk me into taking a line of credit I didn't want and don't need, and now they want to charge me for it? That's just like they talked me into having overdraft protection on an account I never write cheques on. You don't get charged if you don't write cheques, the teller said, You only pay in the month that you need the protection. So I said okay. Now I am seeing a monthly charge of $3 for overdraft protection.

This is the same bank that years ago we had our mortgage with. They were supposed to take payments every second week. But one time, they withdrew two weeks in a row. That made all my cheques that week bounce, for which the bank charged me $25 for each bounced cheque. I complained. But they would not reimburse me. A few months later, they did the same thing. So as soon as our mortgage was up, we switched banks.

I phoned the bank to cancel my line of credit and kill my overdraft protection. I am tired of this bank's unscrupulous practices.

They are quite incredible. Before cancelling my line of credit, the phone rep said, You have a balance. I felt my blood stirring. But I could tell he was reading from a script. He summed up with, You have a balance of zero so we will be paying off your line of credit from your chequing account with a transfer of zero dollars.

I took a deep breath and said with gritted teeth, Okay.

Then I asked him to take out the overdraft protection on my chequing account. He transferred me to another department.

This new phone rep offered to change my overdraft protection to a different kind, one where I get charged only if I use it. I said, That's the one I thought I had until I started seeing the monthly charge. He said, No, but that's what I switched you into now.

Thing is, on the phone, these reps are very helpful, so you can't get too mad at them, especially because you know they didn't make the policies and administer the errors. And I can't quit them because I hold joint accounts at this bank with Mom. But do you think I would seek out this bank if I actually needed credit? Not on your life.