Step 1. The federal government passes a law perfectly defined for me. They changed the previously frustrating and costly routine that allowed my bank to fuck up my life by charging $45 if I bounced a cheque or an automatic withdrawal ran over my balance. The bank calls this NSF for not sufficient funds. I have complained of this practice because it withdrawal $45 from an account with less than $45 in it, giving me a negative valence, when the amount due is often less than giving me a negative balance would have solved.
I live a life on a tight budget and frequently the timing is off. I found a way to pay my most urgent fees that occasionally makes use of this NSF function at a loss. Some months, as many as three NSF fees would be stacked and it meant I was paying almost $150 more than I needed to, but those bills were chatting paid.
The federal government changed the rules and slapped a maximum $10 fee across Canada which would save me hundreds of NSF charged over a year.
The next week, the sneaky back door way I was abusing the NSF charges was patched, and now I can’t do it, so I have to have those funds available. I was saved and screwed in the same week.
My only urgent payments are domain renewals. They are predictable but not consistent. Some months they will be zero and some months they may be $200 or more. My income is fairly stable by comparison so frequently I don’t have cash on hand to cover those payments. I was using the PayPal e-cheque system combined with a weak payment system at the renewals website. It allowed me to bounce payments but still pay the bill. PayPal would reluctantly take the negative value.
It was a loophole if been using for over a decade, and I always paid PayPal back within the month as the domain payments came in. It meant the margins would be lost because of the NSF fees but bills would be paid. It was awkward but functional.
My guess is that other people struggling cat the poverty level may have been abusing it too and when the fees dropped for NSF, the abuse may have hit PayPal harder. They closed the loophole for me. I can no longer pay for a domain with the promise I’ll pay it back later. The e -check loophole is disabled.
I don’t blame them. I was definately using the system for short term loans in a way that it wasn’t designed for and the bank was profiting while PayPal was taking the hit of covering the delay.
It just sucks that it happened now, just when it got $35 cheaper. I have no way to cover expiring domains without reshuffling my entire budget plans. And today, when I first discovered this, I have to cover a payment I don’t have funds to cover and no cheat method to do it with.
It’s amazing how much more poor people have to pay to live than wealthy people in so many subtle ways. The bank that charged me 45 to 150 a month refused to sell me a $5 a month overdraft because my credit is bad from all these NSF charges.
That’s sadly funny.
