{"id":1434,"date":"2014-11-29T09:50:20","date_gmt":"2014-11-29T14:50:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/plinylives.com\/?p=1434"},"modified":"2014-11-29T10:17:24","modified_gmt":"2014-11-29T15:17:24","slug":"question-bank-charges-social-security-funds-legal-can-charges-avoided","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/plinylives.com\/?p=1434","title":{"rendered":"Question: Are bank charges on social security funds legal? How can these charges be avoided?"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><strong>Question<\/strong>: <strong>Are bank charges on social security funds legal? How can these charges be avoided?\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n<h3><strong>Answer<\/strong>:<\/h3>\n<p>This is an excellent question.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ptla.org\/social-security-and-va-electronic-payments\">Here is a link with good information on how you can protect funds from your social security payments from bank fees.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>If you are concerned about a bank charging overdraft or insufficient funds fees on your social security funds here are some options to avoid this problem:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Have your social security funds deposited into a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nclc.org\/images\/pdf\/high_cost_small_loans\/direct-express-2pager.pdf\">Direct Express card<\/a> instead of a bank account.\n<ul>\n<li>Information on the Direct Express card\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.fms.treas.gov\/directexpresscard\/index.html\">Direct Express\u00ae Debit MasterCard\u00ae<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.usdirectexpress.com\/edcfdtclient\/index.html#\">Direct Express enrollment<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Be careful of any other cards. The Direct Express card is a result of a negotiation with the U.S. government. Other cards may have very high fees.<\/li>\n<li>If you do not want to use a Direct Express card and want your social security funds deposited in a bank account you should consider the following:\n<ul>\n<li>Shop around for your bank account and make sure that you understand all of the fees the bank charges. <strong>Avoid accounts with overdraft fees. If you are offered overdraft coverage do not accept or opt for it.\u00a0<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>Common fees that you need to find out about and avoid\n<ul>\n<li>Many banks require a minimum balance or they will charge a fee<\/li>\n<li>Do not use non-network ATM&#8217;s since they might charge fees<\/li>\n<li>Some banks charge fees if you exceed a certain number of ATM withdrawals or balance inquiries<\/li>\n<li>Link your savings and checking accounts since sometimes this can help you to avoid overdraft fees.<\/li>\n<li>Opt out of overdraft coverage and do not use banks that have overdraft fees<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Consider using a <strong>credit union<\/strong>. These tend to have lower fees and lower minimum required balances. <a title=\" How to Find a Credit Union in Your Area\" href=\"http:\/\/www.mycreditunion.gov\/about-credit-unions\/Pages\/How-to-Find-a-Credit-Union-in-Your-Area.aspx\">Click here to find a credit union in your area.<\/a><\/li>\n<li><strong>Keep no more than two months of benefits in your account<\/strong>. Banks are not allowed to charge fees on two months worth of &#8220;protected funds&#8221; such as social security payments. The law requires banks to check to see if an account has &#8220;protected funds&#8221;. You must keep the &#8220;protected funds&#8221; in the account where they were electronically deposited or the bank could charge fees on them.<\/li>\n<li>If you think a bank is illegally taking &#8220;protected funds&#8221; from your account you can use this <a href=\"http:\/\/www.lsc.gov\/find-legal-aid\">link to find legal aid<\/a>\u00a0in your state.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>I would suggest that if you are having problems with your bank it might be best to have your social security funds deposited into a Direct Express card. You can still maintain a bank account for funds from other sources. \u00a0Just make sure to follow the tips on how to make the most of your Direct Express card:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Only take one free withdrawal from an ATM each month. If you need to withdraw more, go to a bank that accepts Mastercard and withdraw (it&#8217;s free). If you make more than one ATM withdrawal per month you will be charged a fee.<\/li>\n<li>You can get a free notification of when your funds are deposited by phone, text or email. A small fee is charged if you want a paper copy.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Useful Links with more information<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.fms.treas.gov\/directexpresscard\/index.html\">http:\/\/www.fms.treas.gov\/directexpresscard\/index.html<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.usdirectexpress.com\/edcfdtclient\/index.html#\">https:\/\/www.usdirectexpress.com\/edcfdtclient\/index.html#<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nclc.org\/images\/pdf\/high_cost_small_loans\/direct-express-2pager.pdf\">http:\/\/www.nclc.org\/images\/pdf\/high_cost_small_loans\/direct-express-2pager.pdf<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.lsc.gov\/find-legal-aid\">http:\/\/www.lsc.gov\/find-legal-aid<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ptla.org\/social-security-and-va-electronic-payments\">http:\/\/www.ptla.org\/social-security-and-va-electronic-payments<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a title=\" How to Find a Credit Union in Your Area\" href=\"http:\/\/www.mycreditunion.gov\/about-credit-unions\/Pages\/How-to-Find-a-Credit-Union-in-Your-Area.aspx\">Click here to find a credit union in your area.<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Question: Are bank charges on social security funds legal? How can these charges be avoided?\u00a0 Answer: This is an excellent question. Here is a link with good information on how you can protect funds from your social security payments from bank fees. If you are concerned about a bank charging overdraft or insufficient funds fees [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[207],"class_list":["post-1434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-information","tag-social-security","czr-hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/plinylives.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/plinylives.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/plinylives.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/plinylives.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/plinylives.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1434"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/plinylives.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1434\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1449,"href":"https:\/\/plinylives.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1434\/revisions\/1449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/plinylives.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/plinylives.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/plinylives.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}