Taco Bell App Billing Disaster Causes Overdraft Fees

[RedAngie]

And anyone with only $124 in their bank account who eats out so much, even at a cheap place like Taco Bell, isn't playing with a full deck.

Dude, if you only have $200 in the bank, maybe you shouldn't be eating out every day - and if you must, maybe watching the account would be kinda/sorta a good idea.

His balance must have been even lower than that if the $124 in charges gave him a negative balance and triggered overdraft fees. For $210 in fees, I'm guessing 6 transactions each had a $35 overdraft charge. The first 7 transactions went thru. Average of about $9.56 per order. Probably had $70 in his account or a little less when Taco Bell started running the charges.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, maybe the following day was payday. But I'm thinking he has all kinds of hair-brained justifications for his poor money management skills.

I just wish Taco Bell corporate and his bank would have given the same response as the franchisee: "Tough titty."

 

[mnrose]

Back when my bank accounts were "paycheck to paycheck", I tracked things like a hawk to make sure I didn't overdraw the account. I don't have much sympathy for this guy. I have noticed now, when I don't need to track like that anymore, that some debits come through later than I would expect.

 

[tvguy]

I was at Taco Bell a week ago today at lunch time. A construction crew had cut their data line, so no debit or credit purchases. Forget crop failure, or tainted food supply, we appear headed to a time that our society could starve to death if there is a major data system failure, all at a place where you can buy a meal for $3 or $4 but some people don't even carry even that much cash..

 

[Albort]

i took this article as he ate one meal and taco bell charged him 13 times triggering the overdraft?

lesson is... never use ur debit card...

 

[sonnyjane]

i took this article as he ate one meal and taco bell charged him 13 times triggering the overdraft?

lesson is... never use ur debit card...

No. It says that the restaurant did not charge him for his earlier purchases through the month and he didn't notice, then they charged for all of the month at one time.

 

[DisneyOma]

I wonder how many people get messed up by this same kind of obliviousness at WDW? If you use your magic band to charge, they don't take out each individual sale from your account. They do it in bulk amounts (at least they did for mine). I want to say they did a few days' worth at a time, and it didn't show up until a few days afterwards? So a Mon-Wed charge total showed up on Friday? Something like that!

 

[luvsJack]

I took this as a young single guy and I know the college kids are what keeps Taco Bell open because it is cheap. So he may not have much money and can't cook. I bet he doesn't even have checks, most of our students don't and has no idea how to keep a register. In this world of everything immediate, he relied on calling and getting a balance or an onlinr balance being correct.

He will learn.

 

[POOHsie]

If you're going to use a Card to charge everyday purchases like fast food, you should do it with a CC and not a debit card. As OP learned, not all charges instantly show up on your account statement. If OP had used a CC, there wouldn't be the harsh (and credit-killing) penalties he was subject to. But a warning about charging everyday purchases to CC -- pay them off monthly. Don't carry them over from month-to-month. You could get in more costly trouble with high interest charges that accumulate.

Bottom line, to me -- pay cash for fast food. If you don't have the cash budget for it, maybe you really can't afford it. A meal from home would cost 1/3 of a Taco Bell order, and would most likely be more healthy and filling.