And another thing...

And the bank's reply?

Got a reply to my inquiry about my OD charges. As expected, it was a bit confusing.

Dear Ms. Evel:

We have received your message regarding an Overdraft Interest Fee of $0.01 debited from your account and also the processing time of your withdrawals/purchases versus your deposits. My name is Mary and I am pleased to provide you with the following information.

Firstly, Overdraft interest is applied on the second business day following the 15th of each month and covers the period from the 16th of the previous month up to and including the 15th of the current month. The $0.01 Overdraft interest charged to your account is for when the account was in overdraft on February 5, 2007 for -$5.44 due to your monthly fee of $6. Please confirm with your previous month statement.

Secondly, please be advise Online Banking indicates the effective date of a transaction rather than the actual date the transaction was made.

Transactions made outside regular business hours are not processed until the next business day.

For example: if you make a withdrawal from a bank machine on Saturday, the effective date will be Monday or the next business day. The same is true of a transaction made after 6 p.m.

No matter what date a transaction displays in Online Banking, your deposit account balance will always be up to the minute.

I trust this information will help to address your inquiry.

Thank you for using BANK-messaging Service. Please do not hesitate to contact us again through this message centre or by phone at 1-800-555-5555, if we may be of further assistance.

Sincerely,

Ms. Bank Lady

So it was completely my fault. Although the only time I go into OD is when they apply the $6 monthly fee. (I have checked, it's pretty much every month.)

I know some of you Canucks are cringing, six bucks is a lot for service fees on an account with typically 3 deposits and 5-10 uses of a bank card every month.

I know I should switch banks, but every time I think of it I cringe. I don't know if it is like this where you live, but when you open a checking account here, you have to go through a credit check. That's right. You have to pass a credit check for the bank to hold your money for you. Then you have to have your direct deposits changed and wait for your new card. Yadda Yadda Yadda.

And I guess I would just rather pay 6 dollars and one cent every month so I don't have to go through all that.