Last month, the wife and I tried a new money-system which included more sharing than before and much less in our own bank accounts. As a result, I misjudged what I had spent. This, coupled with two automatic payments coming through overdrew my account.

I haven’t overdrawn my account in years. But I did, and I quickly noticed in because I log on to my bank fairly often. I technically overdrew it three times, but each of these were for under five dollars. The total damage that Chase assessed? Ninety-Six dollars! You read that correctly. I had overdrawn a total of under ten dollars but they assessed me over ninety. It was outrageous. Especially because I have a credit card at Chase, a joint and a shared savings account, and a joint checking account. There was a LOT of money sitting around in these accounts – in part because we’ve been sitting on Brittany’s student loan and a small summer surplus. But did they take out credit on my card or credit my savings account? Nope. That wasn’t in their interest. Free money is in their interest, so that’s what they went after.

I immediately transferred money from my other accounts to cover this and then sent off an email to Chase. It was strongly worded and I insisted that they refund me these ludicrous fees, and I let them know that if they didn’t I would transfer all my accounts and my wife’s to ING, which I’m often tempted to do anyway.

Days later, and still no response from Chase except that someone would be following up with me shortly. But then, I was on my bank website and noticed extra money in my account; they returned the fees. The entire amount. And all I did was ask… and sort of threaten.

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Martinique Miller lives in Chicago with her partner, Brittany. She writes a personal finance blog with her two sisters, called Thrifty Sisters where they share their success with money.

Photo credit: stock.xchng.