Healthy Living Magazine

Institutionalized Extortion

By Lynnbraz @wandering_lotus
Institutionalized ExtortionLast week my Farmer's Insurance agent over-debited my checking account by $180 for my monthly car insurance premium. I called her on a Friday to report the mistake. The following Tuesday Farmer's issued a credit. The credit posted to my PNC bank account on Thursday, six days after the money was erroneously taken from me.
I was livid. I should not have to wait six days to have money mistakenly taken from me returned. But here's the real kicker: in between Farmer's return of my money and PNC's acknowledgement, the money was no where for three days. Farmer's said it didn't have it; PNC said the same thing. If Farmer's didn't have my money and PNC didn't have my money and I didn't have my money, who the hell had it?
ING Direct is another big scammer when it comes to transferring funds. It takes four banking days for ING to release funds to a local bank and then two or three more for the local bank to post the funds. Again, I ask: where is the money in between its release and its posting?
To me this is criminal. Absolute extortion. It should be illegal, as should the $25 monthly service fee Bank of America charges. Banks, bankers are thieves, expensive suit-wearing hoods. They are a mafia.
As we sprint towards the Fall elections, these are the things that matter to me. I'm sick of being ripped off. When I was living in Bali, I noticed how much like Indonesia the US is becoming (and not in a good way). When I think of these banking/financial institution scams, I'm reminded of India. In India I always accept a certain amount of being ripped off. It just goes with the territory. It's pointless to fight. India is so mired in corruption, anything other than acceptance of the way things are is futile.
Is this what the US has become? Is it too late to change?
Labels: BankofAmerica-SUCKS, INGDirect-SUCKS, FarmersInsurance-SUCKS, PNC-sucks
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