ALWAYS ENDORSE YOUR CHECKS BEFORE YOU DEPOSIT THEM.
I learned this lesson this week...very expensively. I deposited my tax return in my account via the ATM last week. Since I had just put a bunch of money into the account, I proceeded to spend it. :-D
When I logged into my account yesterday, it said that I was $1700 in the hole. I WTF'd (of course) and called the bank right away. The "nice lady" that answered told me, yes, you forgot to sign the check, no, we don't know where the check is, no, we did not yet notify you of this issue, and yes, you do have to pay the $85 in overdraft fees. Great.
I went down to the bank this morning. By then, I had already hit $135 in overdraft fees, still without having been notified of any issues with the check. I talked to a guy at the bank who looked at my account, and told me that they had been notified that the check was not signed on Friday. The letter (letter!!!) informing me of the same was sent on Tuesday. No, we still won't refund some of the overdraft fees.
It wasn't until the Honey and I pointed out that supposedly they were notified of this issue on FRIDAY, but still didn't freeze my account, thereby allowing another several overdrafts that they agreed to refund some of them. I also threatened to take my 4 accounts away from that bank, which may have helped, but whatever. I am going to end up paying $50 in overdraft fees. Not as bad as $135, but still sucky. All over a fucking signature. Aren't we living in the electronic age where no one needs paper checks anyway? WTF.
