Your bank isn’t as transparent as you think it is. Like it or not, it’s a business and its number one priority is making a profit at your expense. You’d better believe it will do this in any way that it can and it’s all technically legal. Well, knowledge is power. Here are some secrets that your bank keeps – and they’ll make you re-evaluate everything.
Your lender won’t always offer you the advertised rates
Banks have an advertised rate that they are supposed to offer to successful applicants. However, lenders are not obligated to offer that rate to everyone. Only a small percentage of applicants are offered the advertised rate. The rest are offered a more expensive deal.
Your bank account costs more than it needs to
Certain bank accounts charge additional fees to provide extra services like free travel insurance. However, unless you use all the add-ons, you’re almost certainly paying too much. This is just one of the ways your bank makes a profit.
The bank takes a little nibble out of every swipe of a card
You’re shopping with your own money, but with each swipe of a credit or debit card, your bank gets a fee. Retailers are usually charged a fee to process transactions made by card and a chunk of that fee smoothly makes its way back to the bank. Who knew?
Want a loan? You’d better have a history of borrowing
When banks review your application for a loan, they look at your financial records. If you haven’t ever taken a loan or a credit card, they don’t see your potential as a borrower and may not want to do business with you. It’s the Catch 22 to end all Catch 22’s. It’s sort of like the bank is telling you that you CAN borrow money, but only if you’ve borrowed money before. Does that make sense from a business perspective? Yes. Does it make it fair? No.
They will run your deposits last
This is a little trick some banks use to get you to pay overdraft fees. For instance, if you deposit money into your account on the same day that you pay bills, the bank will process the money going out first, instead of the other way around.
