Financial institutions are just that – institutions for controlling your finances, and when you want to argue you’ve been unjustly charged a fee (even if it’s only a few dollars) it may seem like it’s not worth your time to battle an entire institution; how can you win?  Well, it turns out the powers-that-be also realized how difficult it would be for consumers to fight unjust or incorrect charges so they took action to mandate customer resolution processes for all major banks.  We’ll show you how to fight unfair or unjust charges in a way that takes the least amount of your time while having the greatest possibility of success.

When you want to argue bank fees, start in the middle

“Starting in the middle” means don’t start arguing with the teller or the first person you get a hold of in customer service, but don’t demand to speak to the banking manager either – you want a junior manager, senior customer service representative or head teller.  These are the people that have the authority to deal with your issue but also are quite fearful of having you go above their heads, so it serves their interest to make sure you’re happy.  Moreover, front-line and junior tellers at a bank may just be working for some extra cash and have very little concern for how having an angry customer go above their head looks, whereas someone that has been at the bank for a while and is starting to develop a career in finance will have a stronger desire to see you satisfied.

But starting in the middle also has the benefit of actually having a secondary person (the branch manager) to go to if your problem isn’t being addressed, and allows you to go to him or her better armed than you were the first time around.  For example, suppose you are arguing about being dinged twice for an ATM withdraw, and upon speaking to the junior manager are told that the fine print in your policy allows them to do these charges if it’s over a certain amount.  When you eventually take your case to the actual branch manager you know your battle is going to start off as a policy battle right from the beginning, so the chances of being dismissed “it’s in your policy” won’t come as easy when the first words out of your mouth are “I know it’s in my policy but that doesn’t make it fair”.

Banks often reduce charges to keep you quiet

In many cases right from the beginning the bank can tell if this case is going to be unduly arduous from their standpoint, and will very often simply waive the charges or remove the fees because it’s not worth their time to argue with you.  There are many provisions in management policy for doing this as it sometimes may simply make the most financial sense to pay you what you claim they owe you, regardless of the justification.