Bank fees are a part of life for anyone who puts their money in a bank. Unfortunately while it is possible to live without having a bank account, not having one can make life a bit difficult. As much as we hate them, banks make a lot of the things we take for granted possible. Because of banks we don’t have to carry our money with us everywhere which makes us safer.
Because of banks we can get loans for things like homes and vehicles that would require us saving money for years to be able to afford. Yet, while banks do a lot for us, they also can take advantage of us. One of the main things that banks do is charge fees that are not fair. While there is only so much you can do about bank fees, the fact is that you can and should reclaim some of them.
Watch Every Transaction and Keep Records
To reclaim fees from your bank, you need to make sure that you keep track of every single transaction you ever make with your bank. This means that even when you go to the ATM you should keep a record of that transaction because in order to reclaim any fee you have to prove to the bank that they charged it to you in the first place.
Not only will you need these records for proving to the bank they charged you a fee, but this also is handy to have when a bank charges you a fee it never told you about. In most states, banks are legally bound to tell you about every single fee they charge you for and why they charged you. Having a record of this is imperative to reclaiming your bank charges.
Dispute Charges on Transactions
Assuming you keep a record of all your transactions, the next step in reclaiming bank charges is to dispute those charges. Each bank works a little differently in how it handles these disputes, but every single one of them does have a process for resolving any dispute you may have.
They do this because while they want your money, they also understand that if a customer leaves them, they lose that money. While each bank handles disputes a little differently, one thing that you absolutely must avoid is trying to settle the dispute through the mail or through their website.
Talk to Human on Phone
Instead of trying to resolve a dispute through the mail or the bank’s website your are much better off making a phone call. Even better than a phone call, though, is showing up in person. While it may not look like it to you, most people who work at a bank are actually pretty busy.
The last thing they want to do is deal with a dispute. For this reason when someone comes in to make a dispute over a charge, a bank employee is much more likely to simply return the fee as quickly as possible so that they can go back to what they were doing. If a particular employee is being difficult, ask to speak with their manager.
In the end, you will not always be able to get every single bank charge returned but you can get a lot more of them returned if you take action instead of simply waiting for them to pass. This may not seem like much but if you take the amount of fees a bank charges over the span of several years, it winds up being a lot of money that you can get back.
Author Mark Connor is a freelance writer who has written articles that answer many questions like “Why use a PPI Claims Company?” and “What Do Banks do with my money?”. His writing is seen all around the internet and cover topics like relating to finance, budgets, and investments.